EDDE Selection

  1. The disinformation landscape across Europe (EU Disinfo Lab) You will find here country factsheets that highlight the disinformation landscape across EU Member States. From the most emblematic disinformation cases and recurrent narratives, to the community actors and the policy initiatives, you should grasp the essentials of the disinformation landscape in those countries in a short read. We’re launching this new format with guides covering the disinformation landscape of France, Germany, Italy and Spain. We will update this list with new documents regularly. 2. Who follows Volodymyr Zelenskyy? (Digitips) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the virtual meeting of G7 leaders [...]

  1. Who Should You Believe When Chatbots Go Wild? (Wired) Microsoft and others ask us to ignore their glitchy bots’ pleas for personhood. But we need better explanations—and guardrails. 2. Global Security and the Cyber Workforce Challenge (Diplomatic Courier) Cybercrime is poised to have a huge 2023, with threats from both state and non-state actors proliferating. We need to fix the cybersecurity workforce shortage-and make smart use of cybersecurity automation-to meet this growing threat, writes Sean Costigan. 3. The impact of social media on the Russia-Ukraine war (Cybernews) With millions of people worldwide using tech platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and [...]

  1. Social media "sorrys" do matter (Blog by Lauren Hug) The healing power of apology. Social media spats are all too familiar these days. This post was inspired by one prominent spat and at least two more garnered attention while I was writing it. So rather than focus on the spat-du-jour (and create instantly outdated content), let’s look at the well-known pattern … 2. How AI chatbots could change online search (The Economist) They will supply tailor-made answers and create new markets 3. 10 Social Media Design Tips to Stand Out on the Feed (Hootsuite) If your social posts are [...]

  1. Digital Diplomacy in the Time of the Coronavirus Pandemic: Lessons and Recommendations (Article by Corneliu Bjola and Michaela Coplen) This chapter analyzes the digital interventions of various ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs) in five broad areas which MFAs have prioritized during the pandemic: crisis management, international collaboration, foreign policy continuity, countering disinformation, and digital innovation. The pandemic has posed new questions for diplomats in each of these areas. After outlining broader themes of research in global trends of diplomatic adaptation during COVID-19, each of the areas above will be discussed in turn, drawing on illustrative examples and summarizing key [...]

  1. Mapping the free expression landscape across the globe (Index on Censorship) The Index Index is a pilot project that uses innovative machine learning techniques to map the free expression landscape across the globe to gain a clearer country-by-country view of the state of free expression across academic, digital and media/press freedoms. Working with experts in machine learning and journalism from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), Index on Censorship has launched this pilot project to allow everyone to scour the globe to see where free expression is adequately protected or most at risk based on data compiled from leading and [...]

  1. EVENT: Will AI take over diplomatic reporting? (Diplo Foundation) Reports are the lifeblood of diplomacy. Every day, thousands of reports, also known as diplomatic cables, are produced by diplomats around the world. With the advent of AI, and in particular the release of ChatGPT, we have to ask ourselves: Will AI take over diplomatic reporting? Tuesday, 7th February, 14:00 UTC (09:00 EDT | 15:00 CET | 19:30 IST) 2. EVENT: Youth and Digital Transformation: Challenges to media literacy and active citizenship The webinar will explore issues related to media literacy and active citizenship, including the importance of formal education, [...]

  1. Trends in AI from Red and Blue Team Perspectives: Synthetic Data in a Data-Driven Society vs Sentiment Analysis (NATO StratComm CoE) In today’s world, much of what we do, from exercising to texting, is measured and tracked. This data is constantly harvested by data brokers and social media to create behavioral profiles, later used by artificial intelligence (AI) powered services. The overwhelming abundance of data has ushered in an age of analytics, and the rise of AI has enabled big-data decision making. However, the training of AI models is often challenging due to a supervised training strategy that requires [...]

  1. Exposure to the Russian Internet Research Agency foreign influence campaign on Twitter in the 2016 US election and its relationship to attitudes and voting behavior (Article by Gregry Eady, Tom Paskhalis, Jan Zilinsky, Richard Bonneau, Jonathan Nagler & Joshua A. Tucker) There is widespread concern that foreign actors are using social media to interfere in elections worldwide. Yet data have been unavailable to investigate links between exposure to foreign influence campaigns and political behavior. Using longitudinal survey data from US respondents linked to their Twitter feeds, we quantify the relationship between exposure to the Russian foreign influence campaign and [...]

  1. War And Propaganda (RFE/RL) Following Russian setbacks in its bloody bid to subjugate Ukraine, is the propaganda changing? And why is Putin avoiding holding one of his big image-making exercises, the annual press conference? Ian Garner, an author and expert on Russian war propaganda, joins host Steve Gutterman to discuss. 2. 2022 at the DFRLab: a year in review (DFRLab) The DFRLab covered an extraordinary amount of ground over the last twelve months, publishing more than 200 investigations, case studies, and monitoring reports, as well as hosting our signature events 360/Open Summit and 360 Stratcom. And behind the scenes, [...]

Looking back: 1. These are The Economist’s best books of 2022 (The Economist) Their subjects include financial scandals, a witness to the Holocaust and cell theory. 2. Year in Search (Google) See what Google Trends reveal about the questions we shared, the people who inspired us, and the moments that captured the world’s attention each year. 3. Reuters 2022 Year in Review (Reuters) As 2022 draws to a close, explore Reuters' round-up of news stories that dominated the year 4. The best films of 2022 (The Economist) As well as Hollywood blockbusters, this year’s list includes French, Indian, Iranian, Irish and [...]