DisinfoDocket 16 February

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Highlights

1. OpenAI accuses DeepSeek of “free-riding” on American R&D (Rest of World, 13 February)
2. Chatham House appoints Professor Marc Weller as the new Director of the Global Governance and Security Centre (Chatham House, 16 February)
3. The United States withdraws from Hybrid CoE (Hybrid CoE, 10 February)
4. WhatsApp's DSA Designation Showcases Power Contest Over Tech In Europe (Tech Policy Press, 13 February)

1. Academia & Research

1. Swarms of AI bots can sway people's beliefs, threatening democracy (Phys, 12 February)
2. The CLEF-2026 CheckThat! Lab: Advancing Multilingual Fact-Checking (arXiv, 10 February)

2. Platforms & Technology

1. We will do battle with AI chatbots as we did with Grok, says Starmer (BBC, 15 February)
2. When National Security Becomes a Shield for Evading AI Accountability (Tech Policy Press, 16 February)

3. Russia & Ukraine

1. Putin’s ‘Temple of War’ was just the beginning. Russia is building churches, mosques, and even underground chapels to convince the nation that the invasion of Ukraine is sacred. (Meduza, 13 February)
2. Diplomacy alone won’t end Russia’s war (ASPI, 16 February)

WATCH - Ukraine war: Why is a teenager accused of burying his father 'eight times'? (France24, 11 February)