disinformation

  • 2 mins

Ukraine, Russia alert apps hacked with fake nuclear alerts

Hackers broke into emergency warning apps in both Ukraine and Russia overnight from November 1 to 2, sending false alerts about nuclear threats to smartphones in both countries. The attacks happened just as a local truce in the Kherson region…

Zelenskyy’s office softens claim Yandex strikes cut bots

Disinformation researchers and fact-checkers say they have found no evidence that Ukrainian drone strikes on data centers run by Russian tech company Yandex reduced pro-Kremlin bot activity online. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office has since said his remarks were about…

Analysts say Yandex outage didn’t silence Russian bot farms

Ukrainian drones struck three data centers run by Yandex between Oct. 8 and Oct. 11, and automated traffic from the company's network fell to almost nothing. Social media users quickly concluded that Russian troll farms had gone quiet, and on…

  • 3 mins

Zelenskyy says Yandex strikes cut bots; researchers doubt claims

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that social media became less hostile after Ukrainian drones hit data centers run by Russian tech giant Yandex. Technology researchers say the data behind the claim measures something else. Speaking by video link…

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UK PM Burnham says Russia interfered in Brexit vote

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said it is "clear" that Russia interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum. He also warned that similar Russian activity is under way in France and Germany. The BBC said this is the first time…

Iran, China deploy autonomous AI agents to run influence campaigns

Iran, China, and private Israeli companies have begun deploying autonomous artificial intelligence agents to run social media influence campaigns with minimal human oversight, according to a New York Times investigation published Friday. The operations mark one of the first known…

Anthropic says it disrupted UAE-linked AI influence op targeting UN Sudan critics

Anthropic said it detected and disrupted an influence operation it linked "with high confidence" to UAE government officials, in which a single operator used the company's Claude chatbot to target the Muslim Brotherhood and United Nations experts critical of Abu…

Meta, TikTok agree to EU fact-checking plan after Ceuta migrant crisis

Meta and TikTok have agreed with the European Union to establish a dedicated fact-checking mechanism in response to the deadly migrant surge into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta last month, where disinformation spread on social media is believed to…

UK Attorney General orders department off X over disinformation

Richard Hermer, the Attorney General for England and Wales, has directed his department to stop posting on X, becoming the first cabinet minister to order a government department off the platform owned by Elon Musk. The Attorney General's Office ceased…