Geoshawk, a disinfo dispatch: No.34

EU charges X for not complying w/ EU's DSA, TikTok content farms use AI voiceovers to mass produce political misinfo, House Republican Judiciary Cmte takes aim at GARM, & Disinfolab EU election report

Hey, I’m Alan, & welcome to Geoshawk. Geoshawk curates news & research on influence operations, with sections on tech, election integrity, miscellaneous news/research, & regional focuses on the USA, MENA, Russia, the Caucasus, & Central Asia.

I hope you enjoy Geoshawk!

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Tech Watch:

• EU charges Elon Musk’s X for letting disinfo run wild (Politico, 12 July)

• TikTok Content Farms Use AI Voiceovers to Mass-Produce Political Misinformation (Newsguard, 11 July)

• Political ads on social media rife with misinformation and scams, new research finds (AP, 10 July)

• Youth, TikTok, and the Far-Right: A Growing Concern Across Europe (OCCRP, 9 July)

Election Integrity:

• Disinformation networks ‘flooded’ X before EU elections, report says (Guardian, 12 July)

• 75% of US respondents believe misinformation has made election results inherently less trustworthy (Audacy, 10 July)

• How we kept our community safe during the 2024 European Parliament elections (Tiktok, 9 July)

Miscellaneous News & Research:

• Garm’s Harm: How the world’s biggest brands seek to control online speech (U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, 10 July)

• Fight Against Misinformation Suffers Defeat on Multiple Fronts (Bloomberg, 8 July)

• As sunscreen misinformation spreads online, dermatologists face real-life impact of online trends (CBS, 6 July)

Regions:

• USA

  • Trump, Project 2025 and Spreading Abortion Misinformation (Bloomberg, 11 July)

  • ‘Elections Project’ will fight political misinformation with digital identity verification (Statescoop, 10 July)

  • Justice Department Leads Efforts Among Federal, International, and Private Sector Partners to Disrupt Covert Russian Government-Operated Social Media Bot Farm (Justice.gov, 9 July)

• MENA

  • How Israel tried to use AI to covertly sway Americans about Gaza (NPR, 9 July)

  • Iran encourages Gaza war protests in US to stoke outrage and distrust, intelligence chief says (AP, 9 July)

  • Shadow campaign: Global influence op targets Qatar in wartime (France24, 8 July)

• RUSSIA

  • Yet more evidence of Russia’s boundless impunity to spread misinformation in the EU (Disinfolab, 11 July)

    • Russian disinformation network’s infrastructure is spread across Europe, report says (Recorded Future, 11 July)

  • How Disinformation From a Russian AI Spam Farm Ended up on Top of Google Search Results (WIRED, 9 July)

  • Ukraine deploys AI in Fight Against Putin's Disinformation (Newsweek, 9 July)

  • Russia steps up disinformation campaigns against French elections, Paris Olympics (RFI, 8 July)

  • Moldova, Romania, Ukraine Sign Agreement To Combat Russian Disinformation (RFERL, 6 July)

• CAUCASUS

  • Russia Warns of Revolutionary Scenario in Georgia (Caucasuswatch, 10 July)

  • Turkey revokes radio station's license for discussing 'Armenian genocide' (VOANews, 4 July)

• CENTRAL ASIA

  • Dark comedy exposes absurd reality of Kazakh state media (VOANews, 8 July)