Disinfo Docket 4 August

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Highlights

1. Drones, disinformation and guns-for-hire are reshaping conflict in Africa: new book tracks the trends (The Conversation, 3 August)
2. Why Hannah Ferguson and Maria Ressa are sounding the alarm about social media disinformation (ABC, 2 August)
3. Not Your Child’s Friend: The Rising Risk of AI Relationships (Command Line, 1 August)
4. UK academics studying topics sensitive to China face harassment, survey finds (Guardian, 4 August)

1. Academia & Research

1. Slopaganda: The interaction between propaganda and generative AI (ArXiv, 2025)

2. Platforms & Technology

1. Google is killing millions of web links to save a few bucks (Washington Post, 1 August)
2. REVEALED: How the Trump admin is covertly reconfiguring online algorithms (Weaponised Spaces, 1 August)
3. Social media ads promoting small boat crossings to UK to be banned (Guardian, 2 August)
4. Some Gaza and Ukraine posts blocked under new age checks (BBC, 1 August)
5. Dubai unveils first AI-generated 'Emirati family' (The National, 31 July)
6. Gen Z grew up on YouTube. They say a ban is a blow to culture and community (ABC, 2 August)

3. Russia & Ukraine

1. Putin Widens Effort to Control Russia’s Internet (NYT, 3 August)

4. Asia & Australasia

1. Chinese national charged with reckless foreign interference by Australian Federal Police (The Australian, 4 August)
2. Australian defence force ads on TikTok and in video games drive 15-year high recruitment numbers (Guardian, 3 August)
3. North Korean hackers target open-source repositories in new espionage campaign (The Record, 31 July)
4. India dismisses Fake News claiming govt reviewing list of US goods exempted from tariffs (Mint, 3 August)