Is Brazil's ban of social media platform X legal or political?

Site failed to comply with court order to block accounts linked to disinformation.

Social media giant X has been banned in Brazil.

It is the latest development in a months-long dispute between a Supreme Court judge and tech billionaire Elon Musk over censorship and disinformation.

European MPs accused of taking Russian money to spread disinformation • France 24 English

EU leaders are sounding the alarm over potential Russian interference in the upcoming European Parliamentary elections. They're warning that the Kremlin is using disinformation in its attempts to sow divisions between European citizens. But they also warn of dangers coming from within EU institutions as several MEPs have been accused of acting as Russian agents

Fact check: How deepfakes spread disinformation in Russia's war against Ukraine

Deepfake videos make it hard to distinguish fact from fiction, especially in a war that is also unfolding online and is full of mis- and disinformation. Experts have worried for years that fakes like deepfakes will play a major role in disinformation and propaganda campaigns. Though they have not had a major impact in the war so far, they are quickly becoming more advanced and confusing people on both sides of the conflict.

How Russia disinformation operations are targeting Africa

A large social network that promotes anti-Western and pro-Kremlin ideas in French-speaking Africa has been discovered. Called Russosphère (Russian Sphere), it posts typically accuse France of modern-day “colonialism”, praises President Vladimir Putin, and calls the Ukrainian army “Nazis" and "Satanists."

Russia vs Ukraine: The fog of propaganda and disinformation

 

Four months into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we analyse the spread of disinformation and the ongoing propaganda war.

On this special edition of The Listening Post, a timeline of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a chronology of our reports – from the build-up, to the invasion, right through the messaging and the media’s news coverage, from around the world.

Will Putin be able to keep up the disinformation?

 

The internet has added a new facet to the art of 21st century war. Hybrid warfare involving cyber attacks, trolling and social media disinformation has proved an effective way of galvanizing support and even tipping the public mood.

Hate speech and misinformation in Ethiopia’s war

 

As the conflict in Ethiopia escalates, so too does the information war. And, Poland’s most watched news channel endures in the face of challenges.

As Ethiopia stares down the barrel of all-out civil war, a government-imposed communications blackout is allowing hatred and disinformation to thrive.

Coronavirus: EU accuses China and Russia of running disinformation campaigns

Russia and China have been accused by Brussels of running disinformation campaigns inside the European Union, as the bloc set out a plan to tackle an 'infodemic' of false facts about the coronavirus. While the charge against Russia has been levelled on many occasions, this is the first time the European commission has publicly named China as a source of disinformation

How contagious? Conspiracies, lies & the coronavirus ‘infodemic’

Whether it’s false cures or conspiracy theories, disinformation is going viral – so much so, that the United Nations says we’re fighting two enemies: the scourge of Covid-19 and an “infodemic.” Who’s behind the spread of fake Corona news and who can stop it? Can social media be compelled to take responsibility? And how is the crisis being instrumentalized for political purposes? France24 and DW join up for „The Debate."

'It will disappear': the disinformation Trump spread about the coronavirus – timeline

 @TeeMcSee

 Email

Tue 14 Apr 2020 08.00 BST

The president was personally warned about the growing crisis beginning in mid-January – but continued to give false assurances to the American public

8 January

CDC issues alert

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issues an alert advising that it “is closely monitoring a reported cluster of pneumonia of unknown etiology (PUE) with possible epidemiologic links to a large wholesale fish and live animal market in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China”.

18 January

Trump receives briefing

Health secretary Alex Azar calls Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and briefs him on the coronavirus threat, but “Trump spent much of the conversation wanting to talk about vaping”, the AP reported.

21 January

First confirmed US case

A man in his 30s who had traveled to China is hospitalized in Everett, Washington, near Seattle. He tests positive for Covid–19.

22 January

Trump: ‘We have it totally under control’

While attending the Davos conference in Switzerland, Trump makes his first public comment about coronavirus. “We have it totally under control,” he tells the US cable channel CNBC. “It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

27 January

White House aide raises alarm

Joe Grogan, the head of the White House Domestic Policy Council, tells acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and others in a meeting that the fight against coronavirus would dominate public life for months and “the administration needed to take the virus seriously or it could cost the president his re-election”, according to a Washington Post report.

29 January

Aide warns of ‘full-blown Covid-19 pandemic’

Economic adviser Peter Navarro warns the National Security Council in a memo that coronavirus could kill half a million Americans and deliver a $5.7tn hit to the economy, Axios reports.

30 January

Azar warns Trump again

As the World Health Organization declares a global health emergency, Azar, the health secretary, again warns Trump about the looming threat. Taking Azar’s call aboard Air Force One en route to a campaign rally, Trump dismisses him as “alarmist”, the New York Times reported.

Trump: ‘Only 5 people in US’

Rachel Maddow Asks The Media To Stop Airing Trump's Coronavirus Press Briefing's Live

Maddow: If Trump is going to keep lying like he has been every day on stuff this important, we should, all of us, stop broadcasting it. Honestly, it's going to cost lives. pic.twitter.com/tMvyrE3YTK

— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) March 21, 2020

Report: Russian intelligence services may be sponsoring neo-Nazi paramilitaries in the U.S.

David Neiwert Daily Kos

We’ve known for some time that Russia’s authoritarian regime has played a key role in spreading far-right white-nationalist ideology around the globe. We’ve also known for some time that Russian intelligence interfered in the 2016 U.S. election, mainly through disinformation campaigns.

The inevitable next step is apparently here: American intelligence officials, according to The New York Times, now believe that neo-Nazi paramilitary operations such as The Base and its Northwest-based training operations, used to plan and train for terrorist acts in the United States, including possibly during the coming election season, are being underwritten and overseen by Russian intelligence services.

The Times’ report cites seven unnamed intelligence officials who briefed the paper’s reporters on Russia’s updated tactics in interfering with the 2020 election. One of the new tactics appears to involve activating neo-Nazi terrorists, radicalized online and organized through the internet.

The FBI is currently investigating Russian intelligence ties to The Base, which began operating a paramilitary training camp in eastern Washington state last year. Several members of The Base were arrested in January just prior to a planned right-wing gun rally in Richmond, Virginia, where they reportedly intended to wreak violent havoc.

The Guardian revealed in January that the founder of The Base was a man named Rinaldo Nazzaro, originally from New Jersey, who now makes his home in Russia and appears to have at least peripheral connections to Russian intelligence. From there, he’s been able to organize The Base under the nom de plume “Norman Spear,” though he has apparently made several trips to the U.S. to secure the rural Washington property.

From a foreign-intelligence perspective, these kinds of operations are primarily intended to sow chaos and fear—to which a common human response is to embrace authoritarianism and its surety. Such responses become acute in the event of real terrorist violence.

“One of Russia’s goals is weakening institutions and the weaponization of race is a way they can do that,” Laura Rosenberger, the director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, told the Times. “A divided America is a weaker America. When we are unable to solve our challenges together, Russia is more able to flex its power around the world.”

Russian intelligence operatives have been forced to adapt their tactics because social media companies are now on the lookout for the ad-fueled disinformation efforts that cropped up in 2016, according to the report. Instead, they’re now manipulating spaces that are more difficult to monitor and to mask their operations, including message boards like 4chan, private Facebook groups, and closed chat rooms.

The story cites FBI agent David Porter’s remarks at a recent election security conference: “We see Russia is willing to conduct more brazen and disruptive influence operations because of how it perceives its conflict with the West … To put it simply, in this space, Russia wants to watch us tear ourselves apart.”