Geoshawk Issue No.22
US & Italy agree to coordinate efforts to FIMI, Russian disinfo swings and hits in Slovakia, Georgians protest foreign agents law, & Soros Foundation bows out of Kyrgyzstan
Hey! I’m Alan, and welcome to Geoshawk. Geoshawk curates research & top weekly news headlines on Mis/Disinformation (influence ops), tech, & election integrity.
I hope you are enjoying Geoshawk!
“Within seven hours of Iranian drones being launched towards Israel, 34 false, misleading, or AI generated images and videos claiming to show the ongoing conflict received over 37 million views on X.” - Institute for Strategic Dialogue (Disinfodocket)
GLOBAL HIGHLIGHTS:
How people view AI, disinformation and elections — in charts (Politico, 16 April)
Don’t Believe What They’re Telling You About Misinformation (Thenewyorker, 15 April)
ELECTION INTEGRITY:
Lessons from Taiwan’s Resistance to an Election Disinformation Wave (GIJN, 15 April)
Spotting the deepfakes in this year of elections: how AI detection tools work and where they fail (Reutersinstitute, 15 April)
Exclusive: Tech Companies Are Failing to Keep Elections Safe, Rights Groups Say (TIME, 16 April)
USA:
Raskin: Greene ‘recycling direct Russian propaganda’ (Thehill, 18 April)
US, Italy agree to coordinate efforts to counter spread of misinformation by foreign governments (Foxnews, 18 April)
RUSSIA:
Russia Just Helped Swing a European Election (Foreignpolicy, 17 April)
EU Elections: Pro-Russian Propaganda Exploits Meta's Failure to Moderate Political Ads (infosecurity, 17 April)
How Telegram became the hub of Russian propaganda (codastory, 17 April)
Russian disinformation efforts around US elections ‘kicked into gear over the last 45 days’: Microsoft (TheRecord by Recorded Future, 17 April)
Big, bold and unchecked: Russian influence operation thrives on Facebook (Politico, 17 April)
MENA:
Iran and Israel Use Media and Propaganda to Try to Shape Post-Attack Reality (Stimson, 17 April)
As Iran attacked Israel, old and faked videos and images got millions of views on X (NPR, 16 April)
"We love our Indian brothers and sisters": Israeli Embassy on claims of Indian YouTuber denied entry into its nightclubs (Economic Times, 16 April)
CAUCASUS:
In Azerbaijan, independent media face growing repression of press freedom (IJNet, 16 April)
Parliament Speaker claims “assault of disinformation” against public amid backlash over controversial bill on transparency (Agenda, 16 April)
How Georgia's Ruling Party Is Using Laws On 'Foreign Agents' And 'Gay Propaganda' To Maintain Its Grip On Power (RFERL, 18 April)
CENTRAL ASIA:
Pro-Russian Voice of Europe back online from Kazakhstan (Euractiv, 16 April)
Kyrgyzstan: The sun sets on the Soros Foundation in Bishkek (Eurasianet, 17 April)
Kyrgyzstan battles suspicion about vaccines as measles cases rise (timesca, 13 April)