Geoshawk Issue No. 21

US pushing grant to video gamers to counter Russian disinfo, Sweden braces for politically charged Eurovision, 16 MEPs engage with a Russian propaganda outlet, & info wars in South Caucasus

Guten Morgen / Hallo! (I’m learning German - bear with me)

Here are 22 headlines from this week in Disinformation, Tech, & Election Integrity:

GLOBAL HIGHLIGHTS:

• Brazil Goes After Elon Musk for Disinformation (Bloomberg, 9 April)

• Meta Downplays AI Disinformation Threat in Big Election Year (Bloomberg, 9 April)

ELECTION INTEGRITY:

• Election Workers Are Already Burned Out—and on High Alert (Wired, 11 April)

• Civil society groups press platforms to step up election integrity work (Cyberscoop, 9 April)

• New bipartisan ads aim to fight AI election misinformation (Axios, 8 April)

USA:

• Biden admin pushing grant to help eSports players in Ukraine fight 'disinformation' (wset, 10 April)

• How Russia's disinformation campaign seeps into US views (VOA, 11 April)

• Elon Musk says West attempts to influence X, not Russia (almayadeen, 9 April)

• Russian trolls target U.S. support for Ukraine, Kremlin documents show (WaPo, 8 April)

• Top GOPers’ extraordinary comments on their party and Russian propaganda (WaPo, 8 April)

• Inside Pentagon’s Shaky Efforts to Combat Russian Disinformation (Bloomberg, 5 April)

RUSSIA:

• RUSSIANS CREATE A NEW PROPAGANDA NETWORK IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES (IMI, 11 April)

• ‘I hope Ukraine will lose’: What MEPs told Russian propaganda channel (Politico, 11 April)

• We must brace for more Russian meddling (Politico.eu, 12 April)

• Russian Disinformation Raising Foggy Anti-Western Sentiment in North Macedonia (truthmeter, 11 April)

MENA:

• Combating disinformation: Responsible AI and opportunities for the Israeli ecosystem (calcalistech, 7 April)

• We are not the arena to solve a Middle East conflict’: Sweden braced for a politically charged Eurovision (Guardian, 7 April)

• Turkish presidency affirms unwavering support for Palestine amidst disinformation campaigns (ilkha, 9 April)

CAUCASUS:

• Armenian Defence Ministry: Azerbaijan is once again spreading disinformation (news.am, 9 April)

• Azerbaijan detains two persons disseminating misinformation allegedly escalation of tension on border with Armenia (news.az, 8 April)

• Information wars in the Caucasus (Intelligenceonline, 11 April)

CENTRAL ASIA:

• All quiet on the CA info front! (keep an eye, though - Russia is steadily ramping up info ops in Kazakhstan)