Geoshawk, a disinfo dispatch: No.49

Georgian authorities raid homes of American MDM researchers, corporate reputation risks of fake news grow, China's Spamouflage disinfo campaign continues, & 20 more key headlines from this past week!

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. Other regions are also featured.

I hope you enjoy Geoshawk!

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Tech Watch:

• Watchdog says TikTok approved ads with election misinformation, violating its own political ad ban (Fortune, 17 October)

Global Miscellaneous News & Research:

• Miscellaneous News & Research:

  • SmartNews Misinformation Study Findings (Smart News, October)

  • Fake news headlines are going viral. Here's what to know. (CBS News, 23 October)

  • AI is already making it easier to spread election lies (Axios, 22 October)

    • Digital Yard Signs: Analysis of an AI Bot Political Influence Campaign on X (Clemson University)

  • 'Garbage in, garbage out': AI fails to debunk disinformation, study finds (VOA News, 21 October)

  • The Reputation Risks of Sharing Fake News (Harvard Business School, 17 October)

• Other regions:

  • Singapore blocks 10 foreign-linked websites in crackdown on potential hostile disinformation (The Straits Times, 23 October)

  • Report: China’s Spamouflage disinformation campaign testing techniques on Sen. Marco Rubio (Recorded Future, 21 October)

  • The Disinformation Warning Coming From the Edge of Europe (WIRED, 19 October)

Regions:

• USA

  • Russia leveraged hurricane disinformation to deepen U.S. divisions (Axios, 24 October)

  • Election officials are fighting a tsunami of voting conspiracy theories (AP News, 23 October)

  • A Philly Republican election official called out Elon Musk for ballot-harvesting disinformation on X (Philadelphia Inquirer, 23 October)

  • A fake image of The Atlantic shared by Elon Musk draws condemnation from the magazine (NBC News, 23 October)

  • Efforts by Russia, Iran and China to sway US voters may escalate, new Microsoft report says (AP News, 23 October)

  • U.S. Fears Russia Might Be Planning Post-Election Chaos (NYT, 22 October)

  • Russia is behind viral disinformation targeting Walz, intelligence official says (AP News, 22 October)

  • Michigan Secretary of State warns of bad actors seeking to "hack voters' minds" on election misinformation (CBS News, 20 October)

  • Oregon closes election phone line due to out-of-state misinformation (The Hill, 17 October)

• Middle East

  • The Weaponization of Medical Misinformation and the War in Gaza (Jurist News, 21 October)

• Caucasus

  • Georgian authorities raid homes of disinformation researchers ahead of elections (Recorded Future, 24 October)

    • Georgian investigators search US tech company offices, homes of nonprofit workers, local media report (Reuters, 24 October)

  • Azerbaijan throws climate journalists in jail ahead of Cop29 (Coda Story, 18 October)

• Russia

  • Russian developers (but not all) were suspended from working on Linux. The creator of the operating system Linus Torvalds didn't explain much, but said "I'm a Finn" - and called for learning history (Meduza, 24 October)

  • ‘Wake-Up Call’: Moldova Narrowly Votes for EU Accession Amid Alleged Widespread Russian Interference (Moscow Times, 21 October)

    • Battle for Moldova’s future: Gendered disinformation is Russia’s secret weapon (Politico, 18 October)

• Central Asia

  • All quiet here!