Geoshawk, a disinfo dispatch: No.31

Germany forms counter-Russian disinfo unit, Europol takes down online terrorist comms/propaganda network, Nobel Prize Laureate in Iranian prison for propaganda, & Binance asks X to address fake news

Hey, I’m Alan, & welcome to Geoshawk. Geoshawk curates news & research on influence operations (IO), covering tech, election integrity, miscellaneous global stories, USA, MENA, Russia, Caucasus, & Central Asia.

I hope you enjoy Geoshawk!

---

Tech Watch:

• Exclusive: Leading chatbots are spreading Russian propaganda (Axios, 18 June)

• Gen Z Fears a Military Draft Because of TikTok Misinformation (Rollingstone, 18 June)

• Testing new ways to offer viewers more context and information on videos (Youtube, 17 June)

• Binance co-founder says fake crypto news on Elon Musk’s X led to users losing a significant amount of money (India Today, 17 June)

• Voice assistants, AI chatbots still can’t say who won 2020 election (Washingtonpost, 16 June)

Election Integrity:

• Deluge of ‘pink slime’ websites threaten to drown out truth with fake news in US election (Guardian, 20 June)

• Misinformation might sway elections — but not in the way that you think (Nature, 18 June)

Miscellaneous News & Research:

• Two-thirds of advertisers bought ads on misinformation sites, researchers find (Marketingbrew, 20 June)

• Major takedown of critical online infrastructure to disrupt terrorist communications and propaganda (Europol, 14 June)

• UW disinformation researchers will continue work amid reports of Stanford group crisis (Geekwire, 14 June)

  • The Stanford Internet Observatory is facing “funding challenges.” (The Verge, 18 June)

Regions:

• USA

  • U.S. Navy Using Social Media To Counter Houthi Disinformation (Forbes, 20 June)

  • The Biden admin has no firm plan to call out domestic disinformation in the 2024 election (NBC News, 19 June)

  • There’s No Dodge Button for Disinformation (Foreign Policy, 18 June)

  • Russia Covertly Spreads Disinformation in Latin America (Dialogo Americas, 17 June)

  • Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic (Reuters, 14 June)

  • America’s election year battle over who polices online disinformation (Financial Times, 13 June)

  • Dark money news outlets outpacing local daily newspapers (Axios, 11 June)

• MENA

  • Iran Slaps 1-Year Prison Term On Nobel Prize Laureate For "Propaganda" (NDTV, 18 June)

• RUSSIA

  • Russia targets Americans traveling to Paris Olympics with fake CIA video (CBS, 19 June)

  • Germany Forms Unit to Thwart Alleged Russian Disinformation (Bloomberg, 18 June)

• CAUCASUS

  • Russian Intelligence Chief: Too Early to Discuss US Bases in Armenia (Caucasus Watch, 19 June)

  • French Prominent Figures Call on Emmanuel Macron to Send Troops to Armenia (Caucasus Watch, 18 June)

  • Intersecting influence campaigns converge on Armenian opposition (Intelligence Online, 18 June)

  • Belarus secretly supplied weapons to Azerbaijan before war with Armenia (Online.ua, 16 June)

• CENTRAL ASIA

  • Kazakh critic of Astana government clings to life following apparent hit job (Eurasianet, 19 June)

  • Petition against ‘LGBT Propaganda’ in Kazakhstan: Opinions and Comments (The Times of Central Asia, 18 June)