The Cyber Policy Center is a joint initiative of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Stanford Law School.
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Publications
New Report Provides Inside Look and Lessons from Monitoring COVID-19 Anti-Vaccine Narratives
The Virality Project final report finds recycled anti-vaccine narratives and viral content driven by recurring actors.
Publications
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Filter results ClosePlaying Both Sides: Russian State-Backed Media Coverage of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement
Memes, Magnets and Microchips: Narrative dynamics around COVID-19 vaccines
The final report of the Virality Project.
In-House Vs. Outsourced Trolls: How Digital Mercenaries Shape State Influence Strategies
In Bed with Embeds: How a Network Tied to IRA Operations Created Fake “Man on the Street” Content Embedded in News Articles (TAKEDOWN)
One Topic, Two Networks: Evaluating Two Chinese Influence Operations on Twitter Related to Xinjiang (TAKEDOWN)
Middle East Influence Operations: Observations Across Social Media Takedowns
Researchers Shelby Grossman, Renee DiResta and Josh A. Goldstein examine Middle East influence operations across social media, including how regimes incorporated social media activities into their own domestic and foreign policy toolkits. The full paper can be found at the Project on Middle East Political Science website.
POMEPS Studies 43: Digital Activism and Authoritarian Adaptation in the Middle East
The Project on Middle East Political Science partnered with Stanford University’s Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law and its Global Digital Policy Incubator for an innovative two week online seminar to explore the issues surrounding digital activism and authoritarianism. This workshop was built upon more than a decade of our collaboration on issues related to the internet and politics in the Middle East, beginning in 2011 with a series of workshops in the “Blogs and Bullets” project supported by the United States Institute for Peace and the PeaceTech Lab. This new collaboration brought together more than a dozen scholars and practitioners with deep experience in digital policy and activism, some focused on the Middle East and others offering a global and comparative perspective. POMEPS STUDIES 43 collects essays from that workshop, shaped by two weeks of public and private discussion.
My Heart Loves the Army: An Investigation into a Jordanian Disinformation Campaign on Facebook, TikTok and Twitter (TAKEDOWN)
One Face, Many Names: An Investigation into Fake NGOs and Media Outlets Linked to Harouna Douamba on and off Facebook (TAKEDOWN)
The Long Fuse: Misinformation and the 2020 Election
On January 6, 2021, an armed mob stormed the US Capitol to prevent the certification of what they claimed was a “fraudulent election.” Many Americans were shocked, but they needn’t have been. The January 6 insurrection was the culmination of months of online mis- and disinformation directed toward eroding American faith in the 2020 election.
Fronts & Friends: An Investigation into Two Twitter Networks Linked to Russian Actors (TAKEDOWN)
Contours and Controversies of Parler
Stoking Conflicts by Keystroke: An Operation Run by IRA-Linked Individuals Targeting Libya, Sudan, and Syria (TAKEDOWN)
An Investigation into a Female-Focused Online Campaign in Iran and Afghanistan targeting Afghans (TAKEDOWN)
Telling China’s Story: The Chinese Communist Party’s Campaign to Shape Global Narratives
Cheburashka, Soros, Hillary’s Fly: Dispatches from the June 2020 Twitter Inauthentic Activity Takedown (TAKEDOWN)
Sockpuppets Spin COVID Yarns: An Analysis of PRC-Attributed June 2020 Twitter takedown (TAKEDOWN)
Pandemics & propaganda: how Chinese state media creates and propagates CCP coronavirus narratives
To gain insight into how Chinese state media is communicating about the coronavirus pandemic to the outside world, we analyzed a collection of posts from their English-language presence on Facebook. We observed three recurring behaviors: sharing positive stories and promoting the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) pandemic response, rewriting recent history in a manner favorable to the CCP as the coronavirus pandemic evolved, and using targeted ads to spread preferred messages.
Blame it on Iran, Qatar, and Turkey: An analysis of a Twitter and Facebook operation linked to Egypt, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia (TAKEDOWN)
“The World is Swimming in a Sea of Rumors”: Influence Operations Associated with El Fagr Newspaper (Egypt) (TAKEDOWN)
On April 2, 2020 Twitter announced the takedown of a collection of data sets attributed to state influence operations in several countries. One of those datasets was attributed to actors within Egypt – specifically, accounts linked to the El Fagr newspaper. El Fagr has previously been named in coordinated inauthentic activity takedowns on Facebook and Instagram, which took down a network related to their pro-Egyptian government activity in October 2019.
Analysis of Twitter Takedown of State-Backed Operation Attributed to Saudi Arabian Digital Marketing Firm Smaat (TAKEDOWN)
Potemkin Pages & Personas: Assessing GRU Online Operations, 2014-2019
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.