Election Interference
Russia’s interference in the 2016 US election is just the tip of the iceberg. Fair elections with credible, honored results are a cornerstone of democratic ideals. Around the world, those elections are under threat from rival states and international networks of ideologically motivated radicals. We focus on cross-border, coordinated disinformation campaigns aimed at influencing voters or casting doubt on the electoral process.
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Explore course modules, handouts, teaching tools and syllabi about dis- and misinformation.
Latest News on Election Interference
SAN FRANCISCO — The day after the New Hampshire primary last month, Facebook’s security team removed a network of fake accounts that originated in Iran, which had posted divisive partisan messages about the U.S. election inside private Facebook groups.Hours later, the social network learned the campaign of Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York […]
By Kevin Roose, Sheera Frenkel, and Nicole Perlroth
Google’s threat analysis group, which counters targeted and government-backed hacking against the company and its users, sent account holders almost 40,000 warnings in 2019, with government officials, journalists, dissidents, and geopolitical rivals being the most targeted, team members said on Thursday.The number of warnings declined almost 25 percent from 2018, in part because of new […]
By Dan Goodin
Abstract—Actors engaged in election disinformation are using online advertising platforms to spread political messages. In response to this threat, online advertising networks have started making political advertising on their platforms more transparent in order to enable third parties to detect malicious advertisers. We present a set of methodologies and perform a security analysis of Facebook’s […]
By Laura Edelson, Tobias Lauinger, and Damon McCoy
Russia’s trolling specialists have evolved their disinformation and agitation techniques to become subtler and tougher to track, according to new research unveiled on Thursday. A cache of Instagram posts captured by researchers showed that the Russians were “better at impersonating candidates” and that influence-mongers “have moved away from creating their own fake advocacy groups to […]
By Philip Ewing
The Justice Department signaled Monday that it could back away from plans to put a Russian company on trial next month on a criminal charge that it bankrolled online and offline troll activity during the 2016 U.S. presidential race. During a court hearing in Washington, a prosecutor questioned whether the firm linked to an ally […]
By Josh Gerstein
SAN FRANCISCO — The day after the New Hampshire primary last month, Facebook’s security team removed a network of fake accounts that originated in Iran, which had posted divisive partisan messages about the U.S. election inside private Facebook groups.Hours later, the social network learned the campaign of Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York […]
By Kevin Roose, Sheera Frenkel, and Nicole PerlrothGoogle’s threat analysis group, which counters targeted and government-backed hacking against the company and its users, sent account holders almost 40,000 warnings in 2019, with government officials, journalists, dissidents, and geopolitical rivals being the most targeted, team members said on Thursday.The number of warnings declined almost 25 percent from 2018, in part because of new […]
By Dan Goodin Abstract—Actors engaged in election disinformation are using online advertising platforms to spread political messages. In response to this threat, online advertising networks have started making political advertising on their platforms more transparent in order to enable third parties to detect malicious advertisers. We present a set of methodologies and perform a security analysis of Facebook’s […]
By Laura Edelson, Tobias Lauinger, and Damon McCoyRussia’s trolling specialists have evolved their disinformation and agitation techniques to become subtler and tougher to track, according to new research unveiled on Thursday. A cache of Instagram posts captured by researchers showed that the Russians were “better at impersonating candidates” and that influence-mongers “have moved away from creating their own fake advocacy groups to […]
By Philip EwingThe Justice Department signaled Monday that it could back away from plans to put a Russian company on trial next month on a criminal charge that it bankrolled online and offline troll activity during the 2016 U.S. presidential race. During a court hearing in Washington, a prosecutor questioned whether the firm linked to an ally […]
By Josh Gerstein