Internet Research Agency

  • Allegations of Russian Interference in Elections Raise Concerns Over Electoral Integrity 2025-12-17 23:27 Misbar Germany has accused the Russian government of a cyberattack on air traffic control, as well as attempts to interfere in German elections, and has summoned Russian Ambassador to Berlin Sergei Nechayev over allegations of Russian “hybrid attacks.” Germany …
  • Disrupter Of The Year: GAIM 2025-12-15 20:14 MediaPost It has been seven years since the editors of MediaPost awarded a media "Disrupter of the Year," and the last time we bestowed it, it was awarded to Russia's Russia's Internet Research Agency for the ingenious way it disrupted the 2016 U.S …
  • The war on disinformation is a losing battle 2025-12-09 12:29 The Verge As he called the House Judiciary Committee into session on a cold and snowy February day in Washington, DC, Chairman Jim Jordan was ready to take a victory lap. American free speech had been critically threatened, and now it was saved — in large part …
  • From Darknet to Disinfo: How a ‘Bulletproof’ Russian Host Evades EU Sanctions 2025-12-04 21:38 Vsquare The Russian server hosting company Aéza is known for its involvement in the pro-Kremlin Doppelganger disinformation campaign, which spread propaganda through look-alike clones of major news outlets. In November, the company was sanctioned by the United …
  • The Hybrid Threat Imperative: Deterring Russia Before it is Too Late 2025-12-04 03:46 CEPA Executive Summary Hybrid warfare is not episodic, but a permanent feature of Russia’s strategy, rooted in Soviet “active measures” and enhanced by modern tools like artificial intelligence–enabled information manipulation and cyber operations. It exploits …
  • Slopocalypse Now 2025-12-01 11:42 Artforum Ani, X AI’s artificial intelligence companion, 2025. ON MY PHONE I have a clip of Ani, “a 22 year old beautiful blonde” anime girlfriend who engages users on Elon Musk’s Grok in flirtatious conversation, dressing in outfits that get skimpier as the “ …
  • X’s new location feature raises questions about the origin of some MAGA accounts 2025-11-25 13:49 El País A new update on X that makes it possible to see users’ locations has cast doubt on whether some of the most prominent Make America Great Again (MAGA) accounts on the platform are actually being operated from inside the United States. Since the platform …
  • Twitter’s Foreign Influence Problem Is Nothing New 2025-11-24 21:23 Mother Jones Elon Musk, X's owner, smiles at Mohammed bin Salman during the Saudi leader's November state visit.Evan Vucci/AP Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. Late last week, …
  • Social media’s reckoning may have arrived — thanks to Elon Musk 2025-11-24 15:08 Salon In 2014, Buzzfeed News reported on the Internet Research Agency, a “troll farm” based in Russia that waged an organized propaganda campaign across social media. According to internal emails, operatives were instructed to run multiple Facebook, Twitter and …
  • The Marketplace of Ideas Isn’t Working 2025-11-24 15:05 TIME Magazine On a sweltering August afternoon in 1918, on the fourth floor of a hat factory on east 93rd Street in Manhattan, a young Russian immigrant named Hyman Rosansky tossed anti-war flyers out the window to the street below. The flyers urged workers to stage a …
  • Hybrid warfare in the Information Age: The cybersecurity implications of a distorted information ecosystem 2025-11-23 16:49 Business Day The rapid digitalization of modern societies has intensified the scale, speed and impact of information disorder, creating new vulnerabilities that adversaries exploit across political, social and security domains. Misinformation, disinformation and …
  • The ‘Dead Internet Theory’ and the Rise of Synthetic Politics 2025-11-20 01:36 The Good Men Project - California   By Mimi Mihăilescu, The Loop The Dead Internet Theory, once dismissed as ‘paranoid fantasy’, now offers a disturbingly useful framework for understanding digital politics. Mimi Mihăilescu argues that the theory’s growing credibility masks deeper …
  • Some of the largest online propaganda campaigns are using 'AI slop,' researchers say 2025-11-19 11:50 NBC News Many of the largest and most widely established state-sponsored online propaganda campaigns have embraced using artificial intelligence, a new report finds — and they’re often bad at it. The report, by the social media analytics company Graphika, analyzed …
  • After 15 years, HackPrinceton completes mission 2025-11-18 12:24 The Daily Princetonian - New Jersey On Saturday afternoon, HackPrinceton completed the mission it has pursued for 15 years: It hacked Princeton. HackPrinceton President Syber A. Tack ’29 claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that “HackPrinceton is proud to have succeeded in its …
  • Online, Russia Invents Ukrainians Who Cheer On Its Occupation 2025-11-15 00:50 The Moscow Times On Russian social media, they sound like ordinary residents of occupied Ukrainian towns praising Moscow’s “reconstruction” efforts, commending Russian soldiers for their bravery in battle and railing against the so-called “neo-Nazi” regime in Kyiv. …
  • Are We Ready? | AI, Espionage, and Influence, With Jessica Brandt 2025-11-13 16:42 Council on Foreign Relations LINDSAY: The world has turned dangerous. Is the United States prepared to meet the new challenges it might face? In this special series from The President's Inbox, we're bringing you conversations with Washington insiders to assess whether the …
  • The geopolitical costs of AI  2025-11-07 09:04 Geopolitical Intelligence Services What began as a scientific breakthrough has now become a complex security threat. Geoffrey Hinton, often called the “godfather of AI,” is a pioneering computer scientist whose work on neural networks laid the foundation for modern artificial intelligence. …
  • Playing dirty used to be the west’s preserve. Now we’re letting Moscow beat us at our own game 2025-11-04 05:13 The Guardian We in the west used to play dirty – and during the cold war, we were good at it. Nowadays, we leave grey-zone tactics and hybrid warfare to Russia, which is winning the disinformation war. Europe’s pride in playing by the rules might just be democracy’s …
  • Foreign adversaries are weaponizing the intelligence revolution 2025-10-27 05:54 New York Post Russia launched a covert offensive in 2016 that took direct aim at American society. The operation affected millions through an ambush few citizens saw coming. No weapons of mass destruction were deployed. There were no fatalities. The soldiers didn’t …
  • How deepfakes and cloned voices are distorting Europe's elections 2025-10-24 21:49 Modern Ghana Europe's busy election schedule in 2025 and 2026 is being targeted by AI-generated manipulation on social media. But this time around, Europe's political landscape is transforming. The fight for voters' hearts is no longer waged on the streets …
  • Manipulation Of Social Reality 2025-10-23 07:12 Omaha Daily Record - Nebraska To stand shoulder to shoulder with my countrymen against the injustices of the world, were thoughts of a little boy who was raised to put his hand over his heart for the flag; that the differences of liberals and conservatives would be put aside for the …
  • What Nathan Did Next: A Kremlin-Backed Forum on How to Subvert Western Democracy 2025-10-17 18:07 Byline Times Support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system Packed with exclusive investigations, analysis, and features When police stopped Nathan Gill at Manchester Airport on 13 September 2021, they did so under Schedule 3 of the …
  • Flights frozen across Europe in suspected Russian cyber strike 2025-10-10 18:57 Madhyamam In September 2025, several European airports suffered cyberattacks impacting the check-in system. These included London Heathrow, Dublin, Berlin Brandenburg, and Brussels. This caused thousands of travellers to be delayed or to miss their flights. Several …
  • Maxime Audinet: “One of the biggest strengths of Russian propaganda is its ability to adapt. It adapts to the targeted public.” 2025-10-07 19:42 Reporters Without Borders RSF: Who are the influence "contractors” and “entrepreneurs" that are significant players in the propaganda world, according to your research?  There are "influence entrepreneurs", both Russian and African, who decide to sell influence …
  • Russian Motivations Behind the “Hanoi Convention” Against Cybercrime 2025-10-07 16:07 Just Security Later this month, governments from around the world will be invited to sign a new international treaty: On Oct. 25, in Hanoi, Vietnam, the “United Nations Convention against Cybercrime; Strengthening International Cooperation for Combating Certain Crimes …
  • Algorithm Nation 2025-10-02 13:39 The New York Review of Books In 2019 Alex Stamos, the former chief of information security at Facebook, founded the Stanford Internet Observatory, a research center focused on foreign influence operations and other abuses of social media. Stamos had left Facebook in frustration over …
  • Russia accused of election interference in Moldova 2025-09-23 01:16 Straight Arrow News Russia is accused, once again, of interfering in a foreign election — this time, in Moldova. Several news outlets reported on a plan, allegedly created by the Kremlin, to weaken the position of Moldovan President Maia Sandu and her political party, the …
  • The GoLaxy papers: Inside China’s AI persona army 2025-09-19 16:42 The Record On a jet-lagged April morning earlier this year, Brett Goldstein’s phone buzzed with a message from a trusted colleague asking him to check out a link he’d just found. Goldstein, a former government technologist and now a special adviser at Vanderbilt …
  • Moscow's interest in this autumn's Czech and Moldova elections 2025-09-18 13:42 EUobserver In the coming weeks, both Moldova and the Czech Republic will hold elections. In Moldova, authorities estimate the Kremlin will spend €100m — €31 per registered voter — to influence the outcome.  In the Czech Republic, Kremlin-linked outlets are pumping …
  • Russia Targets Africa with Retooled Information Operations 2025-09-10 04:01 Africa Defense Forum As Russian involvement in Africa has shifted from the private Wagner Group mercenary force to government control under the Africa Corps, information operations also have evolved. Wagner widened influence campaigns and information operations in Africa as …
  • Russiagate Redux 2025-09-05 03:58 Quillette Eight months into Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, Portuguese president Marco Rebelo de Sousa remarked that the president of the United States was “objectively” acting as a “Russian asset.” That comment brought back the ghosts of the “ …
  • Jude Law is perfect as a petulant Putin in The Wizard of the Kremlin 2025-08-31 15:28 The Times Somebody, quick, give Jude Law an award. No, not an Oscar, but the George Cross for acts of heroism in circumstances of extreme danger. For, here, he has dared to play a thin-skinned, grudge-bearing and clearly very lethal Vladimir Putin in a sprawling …
  • ‘The Wizard of the Kremlin’ Review: Paul Dano Is Putin’s Kingmaker in an Olivier Assayas Movie that Won’t Start a Revolution 2025-08-31 14:52 IndieWire Paul Dano becomes embroiled in the cold heart of the new Russia in Olivier Assayas‘ mellow recounting of three decades of the post-USSR empire’s history in “The Wizard of the Kremlin.” A respectable if minor-register effort from the sometimes-detached …
  • We Failed The Misinformation Fight. Now What? 2025-08-26 21:35 NOEMA Credits Zeve Sanderson is the executive director of NYU’s Center for Social Media & Politics, and a research affiliate at the NYU Center on Technology Policy. Scott Babwah Brennen is the director of the Center on Technology Policy at NYU and a …
  • Hybrid Threats and the Evolution of Russian Sabotage 2025-08-26 08:44 E-International Relations Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Europe has witnessed a sharp increase in suspected Russian sabotage attempts (Richterova et al. 2024a). These destructive attacks, primarily leveraged against NATO member states, reveal important …
  • Putin On The Blitz 2025-08-25 21:56 The Oklahoma Observer On Aug. 15, President Donald Trump rolled out an actual red carpet to welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin – accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague – as they met in Alaska, ostensibly to discuss Ukraine. Trump’s “ …
  • Wagner Out, Africa Corps In: Russia’s Golden Mask in Mali 2025-08-23 23:28 McGill International Review Wagner may have left the stage, but Russia still runs the show. When the mercenary group withdrew from Mali on June 6, 2025, its exit was more cosmetic than strategic. Within days, Russia’s state-backed Africa Corps stepped in. What looked like a change in …
  • Could Putin Take the Baltics? 2025-08-06 08:07 Small Wars Journal If I wanted, in two days I could have Russian troops not only in Kiev, but also in Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Warsaw, and Bucharest. -Russian President Vladimir Putin, September 2014 Introduction Lawrence Freedman quotes this statement from Putin, taken from …
  • Pro-Russia network targets Armenian PM with disinfo campaign 2025-08-06 07:36 The New Arab On May 30, multiple media platforms published the news that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had bought a luxurious villa overlooking Marseille for 3.1 million euros ($3.6 million).  The articles claimed that, in order to purchase the property, …
  • Thiessen: Trump refuses to be restrained by isolationists 2025-07-29 16:32 Southeast Missourian Not very restrained! The restrainers also did not want Trump to bomb Iran’s nuclear program, warning Trump not to listen to the “neocons” and “warmongers” (as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard put it). Trump ignored their warnings and gave …
  • Big Tech Testimony, Twitter Files Corroborate DNI Tulsi Gabbard Memo on Trump-Russia Hoax 2025-07-24 17:19 News Busters - Virginia Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard just dropped a memo that shatters the foundation of the Russiagate conspiracy theory and vindicates what Twitter, Facebook, and Google had told Congress years ago—there was no widespread, coordinated Russian …
  • When autocrats cooperate against democracy 2025-07-24 09:13 D+C Development and Cooperation As different as the autocratic rulers of countries like Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela or Zimbabwe may be in terms of orientation and ideology, they stick together to shore up their power, enrich themselves and expand their influence. They …
  • Disinformation as a Strategic Weapon: A Review of Active Measures by Thomas Rid 2025-07-18 09:51 Small Wars Journal Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare. By Thomas Rid. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 120 Broadway, New York 10271. 2020. ISBN: 978-1250787408. 514 pp. $12.10 (Amazon). In Active Measures, Thomas Rid delivers a meticulously …
  • Doxing: When Private Data Becomes a Russian Weapon 2025-07-09 13:29 Vsquare Kateryna’s husband, Oleksiy (names changed), volunteered for the Ukrainian army in the first days of the war. Kateryna still has the memory of him leaving home in a uniform he had never worn before, with a backpack borrowed from a friend.They talk for the …
  • faceboo mmay hides the income from specific governments and extremist groups 2025-07-06 10:41 The FINANCIAL According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025, over half of under-35-year-olds in the United States now say that social media/video networks are their main source for accessing news, followed by TV and online news sites. Among the 12 …
  • Amplifying doubt: How Russian trolls leveraged pandemic uncertainty for strategic gain 2025-07-01 22:10 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Social media trolling thrives in uncertainty, and Russian state-aligned trolls[1] have demonstrated increasing sophistication in leveraging moments of crisis to advance their strategic objectives (Benkler et al. 2018; Starbird et al. 2023). Rather than …
  • Sino-Russian Convergence in Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference: A Global Threat to the US and Its Allies    2025-06-30 10:17 CEPA The use of AI-driven propaganda and deepfake technologies has significantly escalated the scale and sophistication of disinformation, posing unprecedented challenges from Russia and China for Western intelligence and democratic institutions.  Executive …
  • Practical issues in cyber-related sanctions as OFAC designations highlight renewed focus on digital currency 2025-06-30 09:21 Global Investigations Review Overview of the Cyber-Related Sanctions Programme The United States has been at the forefront of establishing a cyber-focused economic sanctions regime,[2] which is primarily administered by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets …
  • Can AI help Russia Decisively Improve its Information War Against the West? 2025-06-27 14:45 Royal United Services Institute After the 2008 war with Georgia, Russian authorities concluded they were lagging their western rivals in information-war capabilities, especially propaganda. There is genuine concern in Russia about the potential for regime destabilisation implicit in this …
  • Book Review | Putin’s Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia’s Collapse into Mercenary Chaos 2025-06-23 06:15 Small Wars Journal Putin’s Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia’s Collapse into Mercenary Chaos. By Candace Rondeaux. New York: PublicAffairs, 2025. 480 Pages. ISBN-13: ‎978-1541703063. Published in 2025, Putin’s Sledgehammer, by Candace Rondeaux, is one of the most …