FreeFriday - 7 October 2022

FreeFriday is a curation of recent influence operations-related headlines from around the world.

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Highlights:

1. Taking down coordinated inauthentic behavior from Russia and China (updated Domain list, 6 October, pg 26) (Meta, September)
2. Election Misinformation Thrives on Major Social Media Platforms (Tech Policy Press, 2 October)
3. Beijing's Global Media Influence 2022 (Freedom House, 2022)
4. Role of alternative social media in the news and information environment (Pew Research Center, 6 October)

1. Academia & Research

1. Addressing ethical gaps in ‘Technology for Good’: Foregrounding care and capabilities (Big Data & Society, 1 August)
2. What to make of the Brazilian election news: Global Journalism Seminar with Natalia Viana, co-founder & co-director, Agência Pública (Reuters Institute, October)
3. In COVID-19 Health Messaging, Loss Framing Increases Anxiety with Little-to-No Concomitant Benefits: Experimental Evidence from 84 Countries (Springer, 26 September)

In public health messaging, negative framing triggers anxiety - not better outcomes (Harvard Kennedy School, 4 October)

2. Platforms & Technology

1. Spotify acquires Dublin firm Kinzen to identify harmful content (Irish Examiner, 5 October)
2. Rights holders got Google to remove 6 billion links from Search over 10 years (ArsTechnica, 4 October)
3. Most people on Twitter don’t live in political echo chambers — but mostly because they don’t care enough to bother building one (Nieman Lab, 5 October)
4. Nigeria regulator seeks $70M penalty in lawsuit against Meta (AP, 5 October)
5. Facebook will shut down Bulletin, its newsletter service, by early 2023 (Nieman Lab, 4 October)
6. Birdwatch launches the ability for users to add context to Tweets (@Birdwatch, 6 October)
7. Supreme Court poised to rewrite how social media confronts disinformation (CyberScoop, 6 October)
8. Disinformation in Spanish is prolific on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube despite vows to act (Guardian, 6 October)
9. Twitter rolls out edit button to paid subscribers in U.S. (Reuters, 6 October)

3. Russia & Ukraine

1. Russia finding new ways to spread propaganda videos (Independent, 5 October)
2. A Look Into Russia’s Propaganda about the Nord Stream Explosions (GMF, 6 October)
3. Nord Stream 1&2 sabotage - disinformation a la MH17? (EUvsDisinfo, 5 October)
4. Fear itself: How nuclear threats play into the Kremlin's information war over Ukraine (CVC, 6 October)
5. No way back (EUvsDisinfo, 6 October)
6. Anna Politkovskaya in memoriam - now more relevant than ever (EUvsDisinfo, 7 October)
7. How Russia is trying to sell its war with Ukraine through RT (The Hill, 4 October)
8. Russian-speaking hackers knock US state government websites offline (CNN, 5 October)

4. Asia & Australasia

1. TikTok sibling Douyin cuts off Cantonese live streams in China because of ‘unrecognisable language’ (South China Morning Post, 5 October)
2. Taiwan, looking to Ukraine, pursues internet backup (Washington Post, 6 October)

5. Middle East & Africa

1. The battle of narratives on Iran is being fought on social media (CNN, 5 October)
2. As Iran throttles its internet, activists fight to get online (TechCrunch, 5 October)

6. Americas & Europe

1. Why is the Army punishing a general for calling out MAGA lies? (Washington Post, 5 October)

7. Elections & Democracy

1. US faces election worker shortage ahead of midterms due to rise in threats (The Hill, 2 October)
2. There's an Election Misinformation Blind Spot Nobody's Talking About (CNET, 5 October)
3. Political spam is out of control. Now Gmail is about to make it worse. (Washington Post, 5 October)
4. Malicious Cyber Activity Against Election Infrastructure Unlikely to Disrupt or Prevent Voting (FBI & CISA, 4 October)
5. FBI warns of disinformation threats before 2022 midterm elections (Bleeping Computer, 6 October)
6. A majority of GOP nominees — 299 in all — deny the 2020 election results (Washington Post, 6 October)

8. Science & Health

1. How the covid pop-up window is wreaking havoc on daily life in China (MIT, 4 October)
2. Instagram peddles body image fantasy to new mothers (Times, 5 October)
3. China’s internet watchdog vows another crackdown against Covid-19 rumours amid anger over pandemic policies (SCMP, 6 October)

9. Climate, Energy & Food

1. Green groups ask social media companies to do more to address climate disinformation (The Hill, 5 October)
2. How to respond to climate crisis deniers (Independent, 6 October)
3. The old men and the CPAC: conservatives regaled with tired tales of climate misinformation (Guardian, 6 October)

10. Tools, Legislation & Countermeasures

1. 9 tips to debunk false claims made by friends and family (Washington Post, 5 October)
2. News Distribution Ethics Recommendations, 2022 (Markkula Center, 2022)
3. Simple Tips for Verifying if a Tweet Screenshot Is Real or Fake (GIJN, 4 October)
4. Tackling disinformation - how can we combat the lies that go viral? (World Economic Forum, 30 September)
5. New debunking site RumorGuard might be the winning tool in those frustrating Facebook fights (Mashable, 6 October)

11. Extremism, Violence & Harassment

1. Understanding online hate attacks in different languages with AI (LSE, 6 October)
2. Maldives: the legacy of Islamic State (Lowy Institute, 7 October)

12. Events

1. Data at the End of the World: A Book Talk with Brian Michael Murphy (Berkman Klein Center, 11 October)
2. The Microeconomics of Disinformation (Stanford Cyber Policy Center, 11 October)
3. Predict22: The Intelligence Summit (Recorded Future, November) (Singapore 1-2 November, Tokyo, 8-9 November and London 22 November)
4. Russian Information Warfare: A Conversation with Dr. Bilyana Lilly (CEIP, 17 October)

13. Opportunities

1. Associate / Full Professor (Communication) - Race, Media, and Communication (UMass Amherst)
2. Become a CISAC Fellow (Stanford CISAC)