mediadev library

Owning the Conversation: Assessing Responses to Russian and Chinese Information Operations Around COVID-19

Vera Zakem, Edward Lucas, James Lamond

Washington, DC: Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) (2022), 32 pp.

"Russia and China have created and amplified disinformation and propaganda about COVID-19 worldwide to sow distrust and confusion and to reduce social cohesion among targeted audiences. The United States government, the European Union, and multinational organizations have developed a series of inter ... ventions in response. These include exposing disinformation, providing credible and authoritative public health information, imposing sanctions, investing in democratic resilience measures, setting up COVID-19 disinformation task forces, addressing disinformation through regulatory measures, countering emerging threat narratives from Russia and China, and addressing the vulnerabilities in the information and media environment. Digital platforms, including Twitter, Meta, YouTube, and TikTok, have stepped up to counter COVID-19 disinformation and misinformation via policy procedures, takedowns of inauthentic content, addition of new product features, and partner with civil society and multinational organizations to provide credible and reliable information to global audiences. In addition, digital platforms are addressing COVID-19-related disinformation and misinformation stemming from a variety of state and non-state actors, including China and Russia. Several of these initiatives have proven to be effective, including cross-sectoral collaboration to facilitate identification of the threat; enforcement actions between civil society, governments, and digital platforms; and investment in resilience mechanisms, including media literacy and online games to address disinformation. Despite some meaningful progress, gaps in countering COVID-19 disinformation and propaganda stemming from Russia and China and unintentional misinformation spread by everyday citizens still exist. Closing these gaps will require gaining a deeper understanding of how adversaries think; aligning and refining transatlantic regulatory approaches; building coordination and whole-of- society information-sharing mechanisms; expanding the use of sanctions to counter disinformation; localizing and contextualizing programs and technological solutions; strengthening societal resilience through media, digital literacy, and by addressing digital authoritarianism; and building and rebuilding trust in democratic institutions." (Executive summary) more

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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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Post-Mortem: Russian and Chinese Covid-19 Information Operations

Edward Lucas, Ben Dubow, James Lamond, Jake Morris, Corina Rebegea, Vera Zakem

Washington, DC: Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) (2021), 72 pp.

"Russia recycled previous narratives and exacerbated tensions in Western society while attempting some propaganda about Russian scientific prowess. Russia’s approach evolved little; it recycled previous narratives, spreading a broad range of COVID-19 disinformation. Evidence supports the theory th ... more

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Countering Disinformation: A Guide to Promoting Information Integrity
Key Guidance

Daniel Arnaudo, Bret Barrowman, Julia Brothers, Lisa Reppell, Victoria Scott, Amy Studdart, Kip Wainscott, Vera Zakem

Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS); USAID (2020), [345 pp.]

"This resource combines the collective wisdom of organizations on the front lines of combatting disinformation globally. This living project provides an outline of what’s being done to address the challenge in key areas and provides a searchable database of the organizations around the world engag ... more

Owning the Conversation: Assessing Responses to Russian and Chinese Information Operations Around COVID-19

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

Post-Mortem: Russian and Chinese Covid-19 Information Operations

Countering Disinformation: A Guide to Promoting Information Integrity Key Guidance

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

Countering Disinformation: A Guide to Promoting Information Integrity
Key Guidance