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Guardians of Democracy: An oral history of the 2020 election
This oral history and corresponding policy paper attempts to capture their experiences and offer a path forward for healing the election community and protecting our democracy.
Featured News and Publications
Playbook shares best practices to combat information manipulation
Topologies and Tribulations of Gettr
Content-Oblivious Trust and Safety Techniques: Results from a Survey of Online Service Providers
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Digital Street Conflict
Online Misinformation about Vaccines
An Investigation into Domestic Nigerian Social Media Financial Scams
Virality Project (US): Marketing meets Misinformation
Plandemic was one step in a larger process to raise the profile of its subject. SIO had begun to observe an increasing number of posts about Plandemic’s subject, Judy Mikovits, beginning on April 16. For two and a half weeks, we observed a series of cross-platform moments in which Judy Mikovits – a scientist whose work was retracted by journal editors – was recast as an expert whistleblower exposing a vast government cover-up.
Launching the SIO Virality Project
Poland Presidential Election 2020: Disinformation Strikes the Military
Coordinated behavior across 18 pro-Saif Gaddafi Facebook Pages
Stanford Internet Observatory launches attribution.news with First Draft
Poland Presidential Election 2020: The Pandemic Sows Chaos
Analysis of April 2020 Twitter takedowns linked to Saudia Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Honduras, Serbia, and Indonesia
On March 11, 2020 Twitter shared with the Stanford Internet Observatory accounts and tweets associated with five distinct takedowns. These include:
Virality Project (China): Coronavirus Conspiracy Claims
As scientists continue to study how the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in Wuhan, China, and around the world, the infection’s early pathways have proven fertile ground for speculation and conspiracy theories. Although COVID-19’s earliest origins may remain uncertain, the story of one volley in the ongoing U.S.-China blame game shows that misinformation about the disease can be traced to specific speculations, distortions, and amplifications.
Blurring the lines of media authenticity: Prigozhin-linked group funding Libyan broadcast media
The Stanford Internet Observatory has been investigating new facets to the manipulation of the local media environment in Libya: Russian actors who are known to have previously created and sponsored online news media fronts and associated Facebook pages, now appear to be expanding into similar activities in broadcast media.
Virality Project (China): Pandemics & Propaganda
The perception of China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has been a significant challenge for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over the past two months. The CCP has been attempting to control the narrative and deflect blame since the start of the outbreak, both domestically and abroad.
Polish Presidential Election 2020: Two Months Out
For a broader look at the upcoming Polish election, its stakes and major figures, see our scene-setter.
Poland: Presidential Election 2020 Scene-Setter
This is the third of a series of pieces the Observatory intends to publish on societies and elections at risk from online disinformation. Our goal is to draw the attention of the media, tech platforms and other academics to these risks and to provide a basic background that could be useful to those who wish to study the information environment in these areas.
Taiwan Election: Disinformation as a Partisan Issue
On January 11, 2020, Taiwan held its 15th presidential and 10th Legislative Yuan election. Taiwanese citizens soundly re-elected Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate, Tsai Ing-wen, who won 57.1% of the vote over her opponents, Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Han Kuo-yu (who took 38.61%), and the People’s First Party candidate James Soong (4.26%). The DPP also maintained its majority in the Legislative Yuan, though with a slight decrease of a few seats. Voter turnout was high, with almost 74% of eligible voters casting ballots, up from 66% in 2016.
Taiwan Election: One Day Out
There is only one day left before Taiwan heads to the polls, and researchers, election integrity teams at tech platforms, and press are following the dynamics closely. On January 1st, Taiwan entered into its ten day polling black-out period, a time during which there is a strict ban on agencies and individuals sharing, or citing, any public survey related to a candidate or the election overall.
Analyzing a Twitter Takedown Originating in Saudi Arabia
On December 20, 2019 Twitter announced the removal of 88,000 accounts managed by Smaat, a digital marketing company based in Saudi Arabia, and attributed thousands of these accounts to involvement in “a significant state-backed information operation”. On December 17 Twitter shared with the Stanford Internet Observatory 32,054,257 tweets from 5,929 randomly sampled accounts. In this report we provide a first analysis of the data.
Taiwan Election: Three Weeks Out
Last Friday, December 13, 2019, Facebook announced it had removed 118 fan pages, 99 groups, and 51 accounts supporting Taiwan’s KMT presidential candidate, Han Kuo-yu. Our team at SIO had been observing several of the Groups removed, including one that was prominently featured in media coverage of the takedown: 2020韓國瑜總統後援會（總會）[“2020 Han Kuo-yu presidential support group (General group)”].
Bing’s Top Search Results Contain an Alarming Amount of Disinformation
Bing’s importance in the information landscape of the U.S. shouldn’t be overlooked. While its share of the search market in the U.S. might be dwarfed by that of Google, it has steadily increased over the past ten years.
Taiwan Election: The Final Countdown
This post is an update to our Presidential Election 2020 Scene Setter published August 26, 2019.
New White Paper on GRU Online Operations Puts Spotlight on Pseudo-Think Tanks and Personas
Today the Stanford Internet Observatory published a white paper on GRU online influence operations from 2014 to 2019.
Evidence of Russia-Linked Influence Operations in Africa
Russia’s global strategy for reasserting itself as a geopolitical superpower has led to an increased presence in Africa, where it has broadened efforts to shape the continent’s politics and pursue new economic opportunities to allay the effects of sanctions.
Libya: Presidential and Parliamentary Elections Scene Setter
Political context
Libya has seen continuing violence for several years, with rebel General Khalifa Haftar, head of the Libyan National Army (LNA) forces, controlling large swaths of the country and aiming to take control of Tripoli.
Kosovo Blue Lives Takedown
In the course of assisting reporter Judd Legum of Popular Information on an investigation into a Ukraine-based network of Facebook Pages (recently taken down), SIO researchers uncovered a similar network that appeared to be operating from Kosovo. This network, consisting of approximately 9 pages with 312,000 followers, focused predominantly on “Blue Lives Matter” content – an American social movement that expresses support for police officers.