1. Want to get rich? Apply today and join the Illuminati! (EU DisinfoLab)
In the first part, we identify a network of websites and Facebook groups and pages, which share the same tracker IDs (e.g. Facebook Pixel ID, among others) and are therefore connected. In the second part, we identify nine Telegram channels and groups with hundreds and sometimes thousands of subscribers and members, which try to lure users into joining the Illuminati by offering them payments.
2. How Big Tech discriminates on misinformation (Politico)
We’ll look at how: In Eastern European countries, Russian state media and disinformation are still all over Facebook; The White House is set to deliver an executive order on a new transatlantic data transfer system later this month; Congress has virtually no chance of passing digital legislation ahead of November elections.
3. Volodymyr Zelensky on War, Technology, and the Future of Ukraine (Wired)
In this wide-ranging interview, which has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity, Zelensky called on Big Tech to do more to pull out of Russia, praised Elon Musk’s Starlink, and explained why modern leaders have to appeal to the distracted social media generation. “We just live in another time, no longer the time of postmen,” he said.
4. Emerging Tech, Digital Diplomacy, and Ukraine with Ilan Manor (On AiR: IR in the age of AI)
Chris and Medlir explore with Young Diogenes the question of whether AI will be our artist of the future, while Medlir talks to Ilan Manor about public digital diplomacy and the use of digital tools in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
5. Fighting Big Lies (Diplomatic Courier)
Authoritarian states are unleashing a new kind of information warfare against the world’s democracies—disinformation. To defend against such threats, we should be treating big lies for what they are: deliberate attacks on our societies, writes former minister for Europe Noëlle Lenoir.
6. China, meet Fourth Estate (The Economist)
China is working hard to shape public opinion in Africa, but its more lasting impact could be on the infrastructure of media itself.
This study considers the digital diplomacy of India toward South Asia. Based on the agenda-building perspective, the study examines the following: (i) the agendas the Indian government builds on social media and (ii) the rank-order of these agendas with the agendas of its South Asian followers.
8. Soviet public diplomacy (Article by Anna A. Velikaya)
The research gives an overview of Soviet public diplomacy, and the expectations Soviet people have had for it. In this article we examine how Soviet public diplomacy has contributed to promoting the country’s policy priorities worldwide since the 1920s.
9. New Zealand’s public diplomacy in the Pacific: a reset, or more of the same? (Article by Simon Mark)
New Zealand’s Pacific Reset, a significant shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy towards the Pacific Islands region, was launched in 2018 by the government of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. This article argues that whilst the Pacific Reset seeks to reflect the ethos of the New Public Diplomacy, in practice, New Zealand’s Pacific public diplomacy is a mixed bag. In a contested and crowded strategic and public diplomacy environment, putting into practice a New Public Diplomacy demands a greater focus on listening.
10. Who won the Depp-Heard trial? Content creators that went all-in. (The Washington Post)
The trial offered a potential glimpse into the future of media, where content creators serve as the personalities breaking news to an increasing number of viewers — and, in turn, define the online narrative around major events. Those creators can also bring in major personal profit in the process. In this new landscape, every big news event becomes an opportunity to amass followers, money and clout. And the Depp-Heard trial showed how the creator-driven news ecosystem can influence public opinion based on platform incentives.
11. Digital disinformation is destroying society but we can fight back (The Economist)
New laws can improve the integrity of information on the web, says Samuel Woolley, author of “The Reality Game”.
12. China’s public diplomacy on Twitter and Facebook (BBC Monitoring)
China has a growing and active global network of diplomatic accounts on Twitter and Facebook which it uses to convey key strategic messages. BBC Monitoring has conducted an extensive study of the nearly 400 accounts in four key languages to understand the thematic focus, level of engagement and volume of output. Our study, conducted in conjunction with CASM Technology, has found clear patterns across language, location and type as well as profiling some of the key accounts and narratives used by China’s representatives abroad.