Geoshawk, a disinfo dispatch: No.36

Tiktok lite leaves 1 billion users w/fewer protections, malign actors use crypto to spread MDM, Zuckerberg says open source AI is the way forward, & disinfo against DNC convention

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!

*Note: I will in the near future add more regions, namely Asia and the rest of Africa.

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Tech Watch:

• Elon Musk Wants People on X to Police Election Posts. It’s Not Working Well. (NYT, 25 July)

• X's AI chatbot 'Grok' spread misinformation about Minnesota's ballots. Does the tech giant care? (Star Tribune, 25 July)

• Open Source AI Is the Path Forward (Meta, 23 July)

  • ^ Mark Zuckerberg ^

• TikTok Lite Leaves up to 1 Billion Users With Fewer Protections (Wired, 23 July)

• A week of nonstop breaking political news stumps AI chatbots (Washington Post, 22 July)

Election Integrity:

• Senate Intel chair warns confluence of factors make election threats worse (Cyberscoop, 25 July)

• US election security official warns of ‘significant misinformation’ following Trump assassination attempt, Biden exit (Recorded Future, 25 July)

• A Volatile Election Is Intensifying Conspiracy Theories Online (NYT, 24 July)

• The anticipated disinformation target (Axios, 23 July)

  • ^ DNC Convention ^

Miscellaneous News & Research:

• 5 charts that show the state of global democracy in 2024 (World Economic Forum, 26 July)

• National Poll Finds Spanish Speakers Concerned About the Spread of Misinformation and Their Readiness to Prepare for and Participate in Elections (Free Press, 25 July)

• [REPORT PREVIEW] Malign Interference and Crypto: How Crypto Transaction Tracing Can Expose and Disrupt Malign Influence Efforts (Chainanalysis, 24 July)

• Our twin crises of despair and misinformation (Brookings Institute, 22 July)

• From the Sphere to false cyberattack claims, misinformation runs rampant amid CrowdStrike outage (Techcrunch, 19 July)

Regions:

• USA

  • Kamala Harris Deepfake Removed By TikTok After Going Viral (Newsweek, 24 July)

  • Trump allies crush misinformation research despite Supreme Court loss (Washington Post, 24 July)

  • California’s news industry is shrinking while misinformation spreads. Here’s what the numbers tell us (LA Times, 24 July)

  • How 2024 Battleground States Are Preparing for AI Election Threats (Cipher Brief, 23 July)

  • Fox defeats defamation lawsuit by former Biden anti-disinformation official (Reuters, 23 July)

  • As Harris moves to secure the Democratic nomination, misinformation follows soon after online (CNN, 22 July)

  • In raging summer, sunscreen misinformation scorches US (Medicalxpress, 21 July)

  • As the RNC ends, swing states’ efforts to fight misinformation ramp up ahead of the election (CNN, 20 July)

• MENA

  • Iran Arrests Father of Slain Protester on 'Propaganda' Charges (Iran Wire, 25 July)

  • Fake video of threat to Olympic Games appears to be from Russia, researchers say (NBC News, 23 July)

• RUSSIA

  • Russia’s new punching bag: Kamala Harris (Politico, 23 July)

  • Russia Using Disinformation To Undermine Moldova's Upcoming Elections, Officials Tell U.S. Panels (RFERL, 23 July)

  • Popular Ukrainian Telegram channels hacked to spread Russian propaganda (Recorded Future, 22 July)

  • Poland calls on EU to stress ties with US to counter Russian ‘disinformation (Euractiv, 20 July)

  • Propaganda Fails to Catch Up with Russia’s Generation Z (Wilson Center, 19 July)

• CAUCASUS

  • Disinformation poses threat to both national and global security - Azerbaijani official (Trend, 21 July)

  • False information, disinformation, manipulation of facts, and false narratives are all things we have faced for many years - President Ilham Aliyev addresses 2nd Shusha Gobal Media Forum (Inform, 21 July)

    • Azerbaijan facing strong disinformation campaign regarding COP29: Official (Azer News, 21 July)

• CENTRAL ASIA

  • All quiet on the CA front!