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Chilling Legislation: Tracking the Impact of “Fake News” Laws on Press Freedom Internationally

Gabrielle Lim, Samantha Bradshaw

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2023), 20 pp.

"The proliferation of misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information (MDM) poses serious challenges to democracy, public safety, and national security. Conversely, these very worries could be used as a front for unjustified ends. There is a global trend toward legislation that may risk infringi ... more

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Combatiendo la manipulación de información: Un manual para las elecciones

Daniel Arnaudo, Samantha Bradshaw et al.

National Democratic Institute (NDI); International Republican Institute (IRI); Stanford Internet Observatory (2021), 65 pp.

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Combating Information Manipulation: A Playbook for Elections and Beyond
Key Guidance

Daniel Arnaudo, Samantha Bradshaw, Hui Hui Ooi, Kaleigh Schwalbe, Amy Studdart, Vera Zakem, Amanda Zink

National Democratic Institute (NDI); International Republican Institute (IRI); Stanford Internet Observatory (2021), 59 pp.

"The playbook approach consists of how to (1) identify ongoing information manipulation campaigns; (2) develop real-time and short-term responses; and (3) build long-term resilience to information manipulation. While we outline three distinct steps in this playbook, the process for combating informa ... more

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The Gender Dimensions of Foreign Influence Operations

Samantha Bradshaw, Amélie Henle

International Journal of Communication, volume 15 (2021), pp. 4596-4618

"Drawing on a qualitative analysis of 7,506 tweets by state-sponsored accounts from Russia’s GRU and the Internet Research Agency (IRA), Iran, and Venezuela, this article examines the gender dimensions of foreign influence operations. By examining the political communication of feminism and women� ... more

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The Road Ahead: Mapping Civil Society Responses to Disinformation

Samantha Bradshaw, Lisa-Maria Neudert

Washington, DC: National Endowment for Democracy (NED) (2021), 27 pp.

"Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) bring a wide range of skill sets to the problem of digital disinformation. Some organizations focus on digital media literacy and education; others engage in advocacy and policy work. Another segment has developed expertise in fact-checking and verification. Other ... organizations have developed refined technical skills for extracting and analyzing data from social media platforms. This research yielded several clear observations about the state of CSO responses to disinformation and, in turn, suggests several recommendations for paths forward. • Prioritize Skill Diffusion and Knowledge Transfer. Civil society organizations seeking funding for counter-disinformation initiatives should emphasize the importance of skill diffusion and knowledge-transfer initiatives. The siloed nature of disinformation research points to a growing need to blend technical expertise with deep cultural and political knowledge. • CSO researchers lack sufficient access to social media data. Survey respondents identified insufficient access to data as a challenge. Sometimes data are not made available to CSOs; in other instances, data are made available in formats that are not workable for meaningful research purposes. Unequal access to the data that private companies do provide can exacerbate regional inequities, and the nature of data sharing by social media platforms can unduly shape the space for inquiry by civil society and other researchers. Funders, platforms, and other key actors should develop approaches that provide more consistent, inclusive data access to CSOs. • Duplicative programming hampers innovation. CSOs drawing on similar tools, approaches, and techniques to meet similar goals pointed to three main factors preventing more specialized, innovative initiatives: lack of coordination, lack of specific expertise, and lack of flexible funding. Community building and collaboration among relevant organizations deserve more investment, as do initiatives that partner larger, established organizations with smaller or growing ones, or pool efforts, skill sets, and expertise to encourage diverse research by design rather than by coincidence. • Relationships with tech platforms vary across regions. Surveyed CSOs often held simultaneously skeptical and positive opinions about their relationships with social media companies. Some receive preferential access to data and even funding for their work (raising concerns about independence), while others report a lack of responsiveness from company representatives. In the Global South and Eastern Europe, many CSOs expressed concern that platforms failed to meaningfully engage with them on issues of critical concern. • More flexible funding and more diverse research are both necessary. To encourage greater platform accountability across varied geographic contexts, CSOs and their funders should draw on the perspectives of specific, under-analyzed communities." (Executive summary, page 3-4) more

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Industrialized Disinformation: 2020 Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation
Quick Overview

Samantha Bradshaw, Hannah Bailey, Philip N. Howard

Oxford: Oxford Internet Institute University of Oxford (2020), 23 pp.

"Our 2020 report highlights the recent trends of computational propaganda across 81 countries and the evolving tools, capacities, strategies, and resources used to manipulate public opinion around the globe. We identify three key trends in this year’s inventory of disinformation activity: 1. Cyber ... more

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Challenging Truth and Trust: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation
Top Insights

Samantha Bradshaw, Philip N. Howard

Oxford: Oxford Internet Institute University of Oxford (2018), 25 pp.

"Our key findings are: 1. We have found evidence of formally organized social media manipulation campaigns in 48 countries, up from 28 countries last year. In each country there is at least one political party or government agency using social media to manipulate public opinion domestically; 2. Much ... more

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Online Supplement to Working Paper 2018.1. Challenging Truth and Trust: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation

Samantha Bradshaw, Philip N. Howard

Oxford: Oxford Internet Institute University of Oxford; Computational Propaganda Research Project (2018), 81 pp.

"These are the background case notes complied for MEMO 2018.1: Challenging Truth and Trust: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation. For details on the methods behind this content analysis please see the methodology section of the report. This document contains data from over 500 s ... more

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Troops, Trolls and Troublemakers: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation

Samantha Bradshaw, Philip N. Howard

Oxford: Computational Propaganda Research Project (2017), 36 pp.

"Cyber troops are government, military or political party teams committed to manipulating public opinion over social media. In this working paper, we report on specific organizations created, often with public money, to help define and manage what is in the best interest of the public. We compare su ... more

Chilling Legislation: Tracking the Impact of “Fake News” Laws on Press Freedom Internationally

Combatiendo la manipulación de información: Un manual para las elecciones

Combating Information Manipulation: A Playbook for Elections and Beyond Key Guidance

The Gender Dimensions of Foreign Influence Operations

The Road Ahead: Mapping Civil Society Responses to Disinformation

Industrialized Disinformation: 2020 Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation Quick Overview

Challenging Truth and Trust: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation Top Insights

Online Supplement to Working Paper 2018.1. Challenging Truth and Trust: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation

Troops, Trolls and Troublemakers: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation

Combating Information Manipulation: A Playbook for Elections and Beyond
Key Guidance

Industrialized Disinformation: 2020 Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation
Quick Overview

Challenging Truth and Trust: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation
Top Insights