In the Media

Graphika has been featured by news outlets all over the world. Here is a selection of coverage:

December 10, 2021

The ViVi Warriors, the Conspiracy Group that Promotes from Italy the Offensive on the Internet Against Vaccines

EL PAÍS

In partnership with Meta, network research firm Graphika made an extensive report on Viral_Vendetta. "We have observed what appears to be a growing populist movement that combines existing conspiracy theories with anti-authoritarian narratives and misinformation about health," says the text, which estimates that the organization has some 20,000 followers across Europe.

Read the Full Story Here

December 2, 2021

Activist Movements Drive Misinformation Mayhem

Axios

The movement [“V_V”], which was identified in conjunction with the risk intelligence firm Graphika, sought to bully people who hold pro-vaccination views, including health officials, into deleting their posts or making them private.

Read the Full Story Here

May 18, 2021

How Cultish Social Media Accounts Fuel Trading in Penny Stocks

Financial Times

Analysis from social media intelligence group Graphika, commissioned by the FT,points to the likely use of fake accounts by Delarge to boost posts. In particular, it identified at least two clusters of hundreds of accounts — including some using stock photos — that had only been recently created before they suddenly began to follow Delarge at the same time in early February.

Read the Full Story Here

May 17, 2021

Chinese Businessman with Links to Steve Bannon is Driving Force for a Sprawling Disinformation Network, Researchers Say

The Washington Post

A sprawling online network tied to Chinese businessman Guo Wengui has become a potent platform for disinformation in the United States, attacking the safety of coronavirus vaccines, promoting false election-fraud claims and spreading baseless QAnon conspiracies, according to research published Monday by the network analysis company Graphika.

Read the Full Story Here

March 30, 2021

Got Science? Ep. 106 "The Science of Disinformation on Social Media"

Union of Concerned Scientists

Erin McAweeney, Graphika social media analyst pulls back the curtain on how disinformation spreads across Facebook and Twitter on episode 106 of the Got Science? podcast from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Read the Full Story Here

March 9, 2021

The 10 Most Innovative Security Companies of 2021

Fast Company

Researchers at the social network analysis company Graphika made a name for themselves in 2020 by reporting suspected Russian operations targeting conservative voters before the U.S. presidential election, flagging Chinese state efforts targeting Taiwan, and discovering global misinformation around COVID-19. Working with competing companies—including Facebook, Google, and Twitter—helps Graphika spot deceptive activities that aren’t limited to just one site and get posts taken down, rooting out online disinformation. For more on why Graphika is a 2021 Most Innovative Company, click here. 

Read the Full Story Here

March 9, 2021

The World's Most Innovative Companies

Fast Company

Social network analysis company Graphika has made a name for itself spotting targeted disinformation across the internet. In 2020, its researchers reported suspected Russian operations targeting right-wing U.S. voters before the presidential election. The New York-based company also flagged Chinese state efforts targeting Taiwan, global misinformation around the coronavirus pandemic, and a massive Kremlin-tied operation that published thousands of posts across numerous platforms.

Read the Full Story Here

March 8, 2021

What Went Right in the 2020 Election

The New York Times

Some foreign governments, including Russia and Iran, tried to disrupt our elections again, but it mostly didn’t work. The same U.S. institutions and digital defenses that failed four years earlier largely held strong this time. “The progress that was made between 2016 and 2020 was remarkable,” said Camille François, chief innovation officer at Graphika, a firm that analyzes manipulation of social networks.

Read the Full Story Here

January 31, 2021

Unwelcome On Facebook, Twitter, QAnon Followers Flock To Fringe Sites

NPR

Graphika found that among a dense network of 14,000 QAnon-promoting Twitter accounts it has been tracking, 60% are now inactive. That splintering makes it harder for harmful, even violent ideas to gain traction — and less likely that unsuspecting Twitter users will stumble across them.

Read the Full Story Here

January 29, 2021

Inside a Pro-Huawei Influence Campaign

The New York Times

First, at least 14 Twitter accounts posing as telecommunications experts, writers and academics shared articles by Mr. Vermulst and many others attacking draft Belgium legislation that would limit “high risk” vendors like Huawei from building the country’s 5G system, according to Graphika, a research firm that studies misinformation and fake social media accounts.

Read the Full Story Here

How Russian Trolls Weaponized Social Media

Interview: John Kelly, Ph.D, CEO of Graphika on Andrea Mitchell Reports

U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: Foreign Influence on Social Media

Attack on Democracy

Camille Francois (Graphika) on Quest Means Business

House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Hearing: Online Imposters and Disinformation

Agents of Chaos: A Conversation with Director Alex Gibney and Camille Francois

Viral (P)articles: A Network Mapping Approach to Infodemiology (WHO Global Infodemiology Conference)

House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Hearing: Hijacking our Heroes

How QAnon Went Global

Exposing Government Botnets That Spread Propaganda: Interview with Camille Francois, Chief Innovation Officer at Graphika

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How Candidates Utilized Social Media for the 2022 Elections

(Rappler, May 7, 2022)

Former Phillipines senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Vice President Leni Robredo are going head-to-head for the presidency. Graphika provided data and visualizations that indicated that the pro-Robredo cluster (21.4%) is bigger than the pro-Marcos (7.62%) and pro-Duterte (9.16%) clusters combined.

Read the Full Story Here

The ViVi Warriors, the Conspiracy Group that Promotes from Italy the Offensive on the Internet Against Vaccines

(EL PAÍS, December 10, 2021)

In partnership with Meta, network research firm Graphika made an extensive report on Viral_Vendetta. "We have observed what appears to be a growing populist movement that combines existing conspiracy theories with anti-authoritarian narratives and misinformation about health," says the text, which estimates that the organization has some 20,000 followers across Europe.

Read the Full Story Here

Activist Movements Drive Misinformation Mayhem

(Axios, December 2, 2021)

The movement [“V_V”], which was identified in conjunction with the risk intelligence firm Graphika, sought to bully people who hold pro-vaccination views, including health officials, into deleting their posts or making them private.

Read the Full Story Here

Facebook Takes Down China-based Network Spreading False COVID-19 Claims

(NPR, December 1, 2021)

According to a report from the research firm Graphika, the group largely coordinates on the messaging app Telegram, but "appears to primarily target Facebook, where its members display the group's double V symbol in their profile pictures and swarm the comments sections of posts advocating for COVID-19 vaccines with hundreds of abusive messages." Graphika said the group has also defaced health facilities and attempted to disrupt public vaccination programs.

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Facebook Hits Anti-Vaccine Campaign Harassing Doctors

(Yahoo News, December 1, 2021)

A report by social network analysis firm Graphika offered additional information on "V_V," which it says touts itself as engaged in guerilla "psychological warfare" that targets vaccine supporters.

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COVID-19 Deaths And Hospitalizations Continue To Rise In The U.S.

(NPR, August 30, 2021)

Now, Erin McAweeney of the social media research firm Graphika says, there are lots of microinfluencers out there who put out messages to sow seeds of distrust and doubt.

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How a Fake Network Pushes Pro-China Propaganda 

(BBC News, August 5, 2021)

Commenting on the new study Ira Hubert, a senior investigative analyst at Graphika, said: "The report shows that on US platforms, there was no 'honeymoon' in the first months of the Biden administration.

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Disinformation for Hire, a Shadow Industry, Is Quietly Booming

(New York Times, July 25, 2021)

Back-alley firms meddle in elections and promote falsehoods on behalf of clients who can claim deniability, escalating our era of unreality.

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The Life Cycle Of A COVID-19 Vaccine Lie 

(NPR, July 20, 2021)

With the help of the internet research firm Graphika, NPR analyzed the rise of one persistent set of lies about COVID-19 vaccines: that they can affect female fertility. Despite a mountain of scientific evidence showing the vaccines are safe and effective, the false information persists.

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What Is the Great Reset - and How Did It Get Hijacked by Conspiracy Theories?

(BBC, June 23, 2021)

Melanie Smith, head of analysis at Graphika, who researches online movements and disinformation, says the rumours are typical of an "anti-establishment conspiracy theory".

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Anti-Vaccine Activists Use A Federal Database To Spread Fear About COVID Vaccines

(NPR, June 14, 2021)

"There's very little control over what can be accessed and what can be manipulated," says Melanie Smith, director of analysis at Graphika, a company that tracks vaccine misinformation online. She says that she sees VAERS data being shared across a wide variety of anti-vaccine social media channels. "I would say almost every mis- and disinformation story that we cover is accompanied by some set of VAERS data."

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Russian Accounts Still Active on Pro-Trump Sites -Researchers

(Reuters, June 7, 2021)

A group believed to be Russian has remained active on internet services favored by far-right Americans, showing efforts to interfere in U.S. politics continue after the election, according to reports from social media research firm Graphika and nonprofit Advance Democracy Inc.

Read the Full Story Here

How Cultish Social Media Accounts Fuel Trading in Penny Stocks

(Financial Times, May 18, 2021)

Analysis from social media intelligence group Graphika, commissioned by the FT,points to the likely use of fake accounts by Delarge to boost posts. In particular, it identified at least two clusters of hundreds of accounts — including some using stock photos — that had only been recently created before they suddenly began to follow Delarge at the same time in early February.

Read the Full Story Here

Chinese Businessman with Links to Steve Bannon is Driving Force for a Sprawling Disinformation Network, Researchers Say

(The Washington Post, May 17, 2021)

A sprawling online network tied to Chinese businessman Guo Wengui has become a potent platform for disinformation in the United States, attacking the safety of coronavirus vaccines, promoting false election-fraud claims and spreading baseless QAnon conspiracies, according to research published Monday by the network analysis company Graphika.

Read the Full Story Here

Rising Star | Camille Francois Battles Disinformation to Protect Elections, Consumers

(SC Magazine, May 3, 2021)

Camille Francois isn’t a rising star in the traditional sense. She didn’t break onto the scene in 2020. Graphika, where she is the chief innovation officer, was well-known in online disinformation circles before the Senate Intelligence Committee tapped the firm for research in 2018 to investigate Russian election meddling. And Graphika wasn’t her first high-profile role. Francois had already been principal researcher at Jigsaw, Google’s public interest technology division.

Read the Full Story Here

Got Science? Ep. 106 "The Science of Disinformation on Social Media"

(Union of Concerned Scientists, March 30, 2021)

Erin McAweeney, Graphika social media analyst pulls back the curtain on how disinformation spreads across Facebook and Twitter on episode 106 of the Got Science? podcast from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Read the Full Story Here

Beijing Is Getting Better at Disinformation on Global Social Media

(The Diplomat, March 29, 2021)

A February 21 report by the cybersecurity firm Graphika was its fourth focused on a network of accounts it has termed Spamouflage. Despite repeated takedowns by Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube following reports from Graphika or independent detection by the social media platforms themselves (sometimes just hours after the questionable accounts posted content), the networks and specific fake personas have continued to revive themselves.

Read the Full Story Here

The 10 Most Innovative Security Companies of 2021

(Fast Company, March 9, 2021)

Researchers at the social network analysis company Graphika made a name for themselves in 2020 by reporting suspected Russian operations targeting conservative voters before the U.S. presidential election, flagging Chinese state efforts targeting Taiwan, and discovering global misinformation around COVID-19. Working with competing companies—including Facebook, Google, and Twitter—helps Graphika spot deceptive activities that aren’t limited to just one site and get posts taken down, rooting out online disinformation. For more on why Graphika is a 2021 Most Innovative Company, click here. 

Read the Full Story Here

The World's Most Innovative Companies

(Fast Company, March 9, 2021)

Social network analysis company Graphika has made a name for itself spotting targeted disinformation across the internet. In 2020, its researchers reported suspected Russian operations targeting right-wing U.S. voters before the presidential election. The New York-based company also flagged Chinese state efforts targeting Taiwan, global misinformation around the coronavirus pandemic, and a massive Kremlin-tied operation that published thousands of posts across numerous platforms.

Read the Full Story Here

What Went Right in the 2020 Election

(The New York Times, March 8, 2021)

Some foreign governments, including Russia and Iran, tried to disrupt our elections again, but it mostly didn’t work. The same U.S. institutions and digital defenses that failed four years earlier largely held strong this time. “The progress that was made between 2016 and 2020 was remarkable,” said Camille François, chief innovation officer at Graphika, a firm that analyzes manipulation of social networks.

Read the Full Story Here

Unwelcome On Facebook, Twitter, QAnon Followers Flock To Fringe Sites

(NPR, January 31, 2021)

Graphika found that among a dense network of 14,000 QAnon-promoting Twitter accounts it has been tracking, 60% are now inactive. That splintering makes it harder for harmful, even violent ideas to gain traction — and less likely that unsuspecting Twitter users will stumble across them.

Read the Full Story Here

QAnon and Pro-Trump Online Forums Are Struggling and Fracturing in Aftermath of the U.S. Capitol Siege

(The Washington Post, January 29, 2021)

A report evaluating Twitter’s Jan. 11 enforcement action against QAnon accounts, released by network analysis firm Graphika on Friday, underscores the power mainstream social media sites have to squelch hateful, violent and conspiratorial conversation when they choose to. Graphika found that more than 60 percent of a densely clustered network of nearly 14,000 QAnon accounts are now inactive.

Read the Full Story Here

Inside a Pro-Huawei Influence Campaign

(The New York Times, January 29, 2021)

First, at least 14 Twitter accounts posing as telecommunications experts, writers and academics shared articles by Mr. Vermulst and many others attacking draft Belgium legislation that would limit “high risk” vendors like Huawei from building the country’s 5G system, according to Graphika, a research firm that studies misinformation and fake social media accounts.

Read the Full Story Here

Why Social Media Hasn’t Been Able to Shut Down Vaccine Misinformation

(POLITICO, December 22, 2020)

Melanie Smith, head of analysis at Graphika, a social media analytics firm that tracks misinformation, said the fringe QAnon movement has gained influence with anti-vaccine communities online, boosting momentum and pushing unfounded claims about Covid vaccines into the mainstream.

Read the Full Story Here

QAnon Believers Spread False Claims About COVID-19 Vaccine Touted by Trump

(Yahoo!, December 15, 2020)

Ahead of the U.S. vaccine rollout on Monday, Melanie Smith, head of analysis at the social media research firm Graphika, told Yahoo News that much of current QAnon conversation around covid vaccines seemed to be driven by scientists and doctors, including former employees of the pharmaceutical companies involved in developing the vaccines.

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How QAnon Rode the Pandemic to New Heights — and Fueled the Viral Anti-Mask Phenomenon

(NBC News, October 13, 2020)

Erin McAweeney, a senior research analyst at Graphika, a New York-based social media analysis company, discovered that some alternative health, religious and anti-vaccination communities appeared to become singularly focused on COVID-19 health misinformation right as the pandemic was beginning to ramp up in the United States.

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House Intelligence Committee to Hold Virtual Open Hearing on Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories Online

(U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, October 13, 2020)

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) convened a virtual unclassified hearing entitled, “Misinformation, Conspiracy Theories, and ‘Infodemics’: Stopping the Spread Online.” Melanie Smith, Graphika's Head of Analysis, provided expert testimony.

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'It's Like a Parasite' How a Dangerous Virtual Cult Is Going Global

(CNN Business, October 7, 2020)

Graphika, which analyzes social media networks and how they evolve, told CNN that it had migrated to mainstream platforms quickly after starting out at the fringe on Gab, 4chan and 8chan, unfiltered websites that are popular with extremist groups. QAnon followings now populate all the main platforms: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Reddit. 

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As QAnon Grew, Facebook and Twitter Missed Years of Warning Signs About the Conspiracy Theory’s Violent Nature

(The Washington Post, October 3, 2020)

Researchers at Graphika, a network analysis firm that works with Facebook and other social media companies, found that QAnon and Trump’s online support overlapped to such an extent in 2018 that the two online communities were almost inextricable for the purposes of mapping relationships among accounts. Camille François, the company’s chief innovation officer, called the resulting network maps of interactions “a hairball” of overlapping accounts.

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Facebook Says Russian Network Was Behind Fake Leftwing News

(Financial Times, September 25, 2020)

Facebook on Tuesday said it pulled a small network of roughly a dozen accounts linked to Russia's Internet Research Agency.

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Facebook Takedown Exposed Wider Russian Ops Network, Study Says

(BNN Bloomberg, September 25, 2020)

Graphika found that many of the same accounts shut down by Facebook lived elsewhere online and that, within those platforms, the same assets cross-posted one another. “For example, Facebook and Twitter accounts from the cluster of assets that focused on the Middle East shared links to Medium articles that were posted by the operation,” Graphika said in its report. 

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Facebook Takes Down Accounts It Says Were Run from China and Posting About 2020 Election

(CNN, September 24, 2020)

Graphika, a social media analytics company commissioned by Facebook to study the network of accounts, wrote in its report Tuesday, "In 2019-2020, the operation began running accounts that posed as Americans and posted a small amount of content about the US presidential election. Different assets supported President Donald Trump and his rival Joe Biden; one short-lived group supported former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. The operation did not single out either candidate for preferential treatment. Many of the accounts in this phase of the operation were barely active."

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Facebook Removes Russian Networks Tied to Intelligence Services that Interfered in the U.S. in 2016

(The Washington Post, September 24, 2020)

Graphika, another outside research group that studied one of the Russian networks, said one of the campaigns aimed at Americans focused on courting Black voters and criticizing Democratic nominee Joe Biden — in efforts that included Facebook and other online services including Twitter, Medium, Tumblr and WordPress.

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China Failed Miserably at Election Interference on Facebook, Again

(VICE, September 23, 2020)

“It is possible that the intention was to further polarize America’s political landscape by affirming each side’s view of the other, but in that case, it is strange that the operation paid no attention to more progressive groups and candidates, such as senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren,” Graphika, a social media monitoring group, said in a report analyzing the campaign.

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Facebook Removes Chinese Accounts Posting About Foreign Policy, 2020 Election

(NPR, September 22, 2020)

An investigation by the research firm Graphika, commissioned by Facebook, said the recurrent "theme" of the network was maritime security, "especially the achievements of the Chinese Navy." The topic was so dominant, Graphika named the operation "Naval Gazing. Graphika found the network began running accounts posing as Americans and posting about the election in April 2019.

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Russians Again Targeting Americans With Disinformation, Facebook and Twitter Say

(The New York Times, September 1, 2020)

“The Russians are trying harder to hide; they are increasingly putting up more and more layers of obfuscation,” said Ben Nimmo, whose firm, Graphika, worked with Facebook to release a report on the fake site. “But they are still getting caught.”

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Chinese Network of Fake Accounts Targets Trump with English-Language Videos

(The Washington Post, August 12, 2020)

The researchers, from the network analysis firm Graphika, said it was the first direct reference to Biden from the Chinese network. They also found persistent sloppiness in the videos overall, such as odd translations and a poor grasp of spoken English. An apparently automated voice, for example, said “us” for “U.S.” One video had words appear on-screen in English and Chinese saying the confusing phrase, “Cast A Chestnut In The Fire Will Burn Themselves With Fire.”

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How to Productionize Machine Learning Models

(Built in NYC, July 16, 2020)

“New model architectures are created almost daily, but often the purported gains of such approaches fail to outweigh the technical debt,” Machine Learning Research Engineer Alex Ruch said. Ruch works at Graphika, which uses AI to map online social landscapes.

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Facebook Removes Disinformation Networks Tied to Roger Stone and Jair Bolsonaro

(NBC News, July 8, 2020)

It appears to have largely been built to boost online perception of Stone himself, according to a report by the social media analytics firm Graphika.“Much of the network’s content focused on Roger Stone, praising his political acumen, defending him against criminal charges, and demanding that he be pardoned after he was found guilty of those charges in November 2019,” Graphika found.

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Facebook Says It Dismantles Russian Intelligence Operation Targeting Ukraine

(Reuters, June 16, 2020)

Researchers at social media analytics firm Graphika, who reviewed the accounts before they were suspended by Facebook, said most of the activity dated back to 2016 and 2017, although some accounts were active as recently as this year. The network failed to gather more than a few thousand followers but was able to get articles published in some local media outlets, said Ben Nimmo, Graphika’s head of investigations.

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Russian Disinformation Operation Relied on Forgeries, Fake Posts on 300 Platforms, New Report Says

(The Washington Post, June 16, 2020)

Russian operatives used online forgeries, fake blog posts and more than 300 social media platforms to undermine opponents and spin disinformation about perceived enemies throughout the world, including in the United States, according to a new report published Tuesday.

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The Russian Disinfo Operation You Never Heard About

(WIRED, June 16, 2020)

Dubbed Secondary Infektion, the campaign came on the radar of researchers last year. Today, the social media analysis firm Graphika is publishing the first comprehensive review of the group's activity, which seems to have begun all the way back in January 2014. 

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Russia’s Secondary Infektion Trolls Hit West With Thousands of Fake Leaks and Fake News Stories

(Daily Beast, June 16, 2020)

Since 2014, a different and more shadowy disinformation crew linked to the Russian government has been spreading forgeries and disinformation across social media. In a report released Tuesday, the social media tracking firm Graphika has uncovered the online trail of Secondary Infektion stretching across half a dozen years, two continents, and thousands of fake articles. 

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2,500 Posts, 300 Platforms, 6 Years: A Huge But Mysterious Pro-Russia Disinformation Campaign Is Exposed

(Forbes, June 16, 2020)

Some disinformation groups go for low volume, high impact. Others go for the opposite. The latter is the case with Russian-linked operators who, in late 2019, infamously leaked documents on trade discussions between the U.S. and the UK, according to a new report from researchers at Graphika. 

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With the Coronavirus, Usually Distinct Conspiracy Groups Turn to a Shared Interest

(TechCrunch, April 21, 2020)

In new research led by its cyber intelligence analyst Melanie Smith, the social analytics AI company Graphika compared snapshots of the coronavirus conversation on Twitter in January, February and March, creating a bird’s eye view of misinformation about the virus from its earliest online mentions.

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A Pro-Iranian Operation Has Spread Coronavirus Disinformation Across Facebook and Twitter

(The Verge, April 15, 2020)

The International Union of Virtual Media (IUVM) “is a prolific operator” that hosts and creates pro-Iran and pro-Palestinian video reports, news articles, and memes. According to Graphika, this content is linked out over social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. In recent weeks, the disinformation operation has pivoted toward blaming the US for creating the coronavirus and critiquing its sanctions against Iran, alleging that they have hurt the nation’s ability to combat the disease.

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Iran-Linked Group Caught Spreading COVID-19 ‘Disinformation’ On Facebook And Instagram

(Forbes, April 15, 2020)

On Instagram, Graphika found IUVM created a western persona, @chriistophercarlos3, which appeared to be a personal account, but posted much the same content as appeared on Facebook and other IUVM-linked sources. That included a cartoon depicting Trump as a virus cell and other disinformation tracked on iuvmarchive.com. The Instagram account is no longer accessible.

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Coronavirus Conspiracies Like that Bogus 5G Claim Are Racing Across the Internet

(TechCrunch, April 15, 2020)

In previous research on 5G-related conspiracies, social analytics company Graphika found that the majority of the online conversation around 5G focused on its health effects. Accounts sharing those kinds of conspiracies overlapped with accounts pushing anti-vaccine, flat Earth and chemtrail misinformation.

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Here's the Latest Info Operation to Blame the U.S. for Coronavirus

(Cyberscoop, April 15, 2020)

The Iranian propaganda group known as the International Union of Virtual Media, or IUVM, is behind a series of headlines and animated cartoons reporting, for instance, that COVID-19 is part of “a biological war led by Trump to strike at China’s economy,” according to a report published Wednesday by Graphika.

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Facebook Removes 'Foreign Interference' Operations from Iran and Russia

(BBC, February 14, 2020)

The Russian network used dozens of fake personas to post pro-Kremlin and anti-Western messages on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and news websites. It focused primarily on Ukraine, but some of Russia's neighbouring countries, such as Moldova, the Baltic states and Turkey, were also targeted. A few accounts also focused on Germany and the UK, but "left little trace of online activity", according to Graphika, a social media analytics firm.

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Russian Intelligence Agency Outsources to Africa to Boost US Racial Tensions

(TechCrunch (Japan), February 14, 2020)

Camille Francois, Chief Innovation Officer for Graphika, said that Russia-based activities used Ghana-based NGOs as a kind of agent, and at least some of the staff involved were involved in the original work. She points out that they are likely to be unaware of its purpose.

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The Latest in Facebook's Dragnet: Propaganda from Russian Military Intelligence

(Cyberscoop, February 12, 2020)

The GRU was behind much of the effort, according to Graphika’s analysis. The intelligence agency authored long articles on blogging platforms which often criticized lawmakers who argued for stronger relationships with the West. Then, after cloaking the identity of the author, they would post the article on Facebook and try to create divisive material.

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He Combs the Web for Russian Bots. That Makes Him a Target.

(The New York Times, February 9, 2020)

Last year, Mr. Nimmo became the head of investigations for the social-media monitoring company Graphika. “He was there well before this was a trendy thing to do,” said Alex Stamos, who is conducting similar disinformation research work at Stanford University and was previously Facebook’s chief security officer. Both Graphika and the Digital Forensic Research Lab have received funding from Facebook.

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Facebook Discovers Fakes That Show Evolution of Disinformation

(The New York Times, December 20, 2019)

The Atlantic Council’s lab and another company, Graphika, which also studies disinformation, released a joint report analyzing the Facebook takedown. 

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POLITICO Playbook PM: Congress is ready to open the checkbook

(Politico, December 17, 2019)

“The ‘known Russian operation,’ as Graphika called it, involved doctored visuals and sought to cover its tracks using single-use accounts on discussion forums and other crowdsourced websites, as well as on the news aggregation site Reddit.

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Text-Based Deepfakes, Model Hacking Among Top AI Threats

(The Wall Street Journal, December 3, 2019)

Deepfake videos—manipulated using AI to look realistic—are certainly a concern, said Camille François, chief innovation officer at social-media analytics firm Graphika Inc., speaking Tuesday at the WSJ Pro Cybersecurity Executive Forum in New York. But Ms. François said a bigger threat comes from fabricated news articles, websites or other text content created by AI, which she called “read-fakes.

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Questions Raised Over Source of Labour’s ‘NHS for Sale’ Dossier

(Financial Times, December 2, 2019)

Graphika, a company that has analysed the document leak alongside the Washington-based Atlantic Council think-tank, published a report on Monday, seen by the Financial Times, suggesting the incident could point to potential foreign interference in the upcoming UK election. 
 

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‘Kardashian Jokes and Then a Really Racist Tweet’: How Russian Social Media Trolls Suckered in Americans

(SC Magazine, November 14, 2019)

Camille Francois remembers the day she learned that the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was granting her the extraordinary opportunity to research the extent of Russia’s influence operations during 2016 presidential election campaign.

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The Technology 202: Disinformation campaigns targeting veterans are in the spotlight on Capitol Hill today

(The Washington Post, November 13, 2019)

“These operations are surgically precise, targeting influential people and organizations in the veteran community,” Vlad Barash, science director at the research firm Graphika, will tell members of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee at a hearing about online scams impacting veterans, according to prepared testimony. 

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TIME 100 Next 2019: Camille Francois

(TIME, November 13, 2019)

Camille François was one of those brilliant researchers who ultimately helped us uncover a vast assault on our democracy. She and her colleagues at Graphika utilize innovative tools to track and combat online disinformation. Her work for the committee showed how Russia and other adversaries continue to manipulate our social-media feeds and divide us as a nation. 

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Close Election in Kentucky Was Ripe for Twitter, and an Omen for 2020

(The New York Times, November 10, 2019)

Graphika, a company that specializes in analyzing social media, agreed with the conclusion that much of the activity around the Kentucky vote was domestic and not likely to have been pushed by any foreign power. Graphika said the tweets about electoral fraud appeared to land in what it calls a “Trump core” — a large number of highly interconnected social media accounts, many run by real people, that are typically reactive and loud and can keep a conversation going for days at a time.

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A Veteran, a Scientist and Representatives from Facebook and Twitter Are All Set to Testify.

(Nextgov, November 6, 2019)

The witnesses for the Nov. 13 hearing—entitled “Hijacking our Heroes: Exploiting Veterans through Disinformation on Social Media"—will include Facebook’s Head of Security Policy Nathaniel Gleicher, Twitter’s Public Policy Manager Kevin Kane, Graphika’s Science Director Vladimir Barash and Vietnam Veterans of America’s Chief Investigator and Associate Director of Policy and Government Affairs Kristofer Goldsmith.

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Camille Francois (Graphika) on Quest Means Business

(CNN International, October 24, 2019)

Chief Innovation Officer, Camille Francois visits Quest Means Business to discuss Graphika's latest findings as FB reveals efforts by Russia to sway 2020 elections.

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Russian Operatives Sacrifice Followers to Stay Under Cover on Facebook

(Reuters, October 24, 2019)

Those efforts included sharing memes and screenshots of other users' social media posts instead of producing original content in English, likely to avoid making language errors typical of non-native speakers, according to a report here by social media analytics firm Graphika. This technique “gave each asset less of a discernible personality and therefore may have reduced the (campaign’s) ability to build audiences,” Graphika said.

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Facebook: Russian Trolls Are Back. And They're Here to Meddle with 2020

(CNN, October 22, 2019)

Although the accounts posed as Americans from all sides of the political spectrum, many were united in their opposition to the candidacy of former Vice President Joe Biden, according to Graphika, a social media investigations company that Facebook asked to analyze the accounts.

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Facebook Finds New Disinformation Campaigns and Braces for 2020 Torrent

(The New York Times, October 21, 2019)

One of the campaigns focused more on the 2020 election. In that campaign, 50 accounts linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency — a Kremlin-backed professional troll farm — targeted candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, according to an analysis from Graphika, a social media research firm. Roughly half of those accounts claimed to be based in swing states. 

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Facebook Discloses Operations by Russia and Iran to Meddle in 2020 Election

(The Guardian, October 21, 2019)

The accounts adopted various political identities, such as pro-Donald Trump, anti-police violence, pro-Bernie Sanders, LGBTQ, feminist, pro-police and pro-Confederate, according to Graphika’s analysis. Most posts were not explicitly related to electoral politics, Graphika said, but were focused on general political commentary for “persona development and branding”

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Facebook Takedowns Show New Russian Activity Targeted Biden, Praised Trump

(The Washington Post, October 21, 2019)

The network appeared still to be in an audience-building phase when it was removed by Facebook: 246,000 accounts followed one or more of the inauthentic Russian accounts, which had collectively made just fewer than 75,000 posts, according to a report from Graphika, a social media analysis firm that examined the operation for Facebook. Only one account, which addressed environmental themes, had more than 20,000 followers.

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How One Tweet Turned Pro-China Trolls Against the NBA

(The Wall Street Journal, October 16, 2019)

The Houston Rockets general manager’s account was flooded with comments from pro-Chinese-government accounts that mentioned him more than 16,000 times, according to an analysis by Ben Nimmo, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab and head of investigations at Graphika Inc., a social-media analytics firm.

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The Troll Hunter Who Could Stop Russia from Hacking the 2020 Presidential Election

(Marie Claire, October 7, 2019)

Camille François’s colleagues like to say she’s the most optimistic person looking at the darkest corners of the Internet. François is chief innovation officer at Graphika, a New York–based company that uses artificial intelligence and other technologies to map out social-media interactions.

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Experts: Russian Influence Efforts Constitute "Informational Warfare," Span Beyond Election

(CBS News, October 5, 2019)

Panelists from organizations like RAND, Graphika and the Alliance for Securing Democracy urged lawmakers that Russia's attacks on the democratic process are far greater than a single election, pointing to disinformation campaigns that seek to weaken western institutions as well as target world industries.

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Troll Watch: Impeachment Inquiry Unleashes U.S.-Driven Disinformation

(NPR Politics, October 5, 2019)

"That is real power. It's not about fake news. It's about gaining power in the 21st century, whether it's doing this internally so that your team wins an election or during this on the world stage so that your enemies' alliances come apart at the seams without you having to fire a shot." That's John Kelly, founder and CEO of Graphika, a top social media analysis firm.

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Exclusive: Bumbling social media scheme hit Hong Kong protestors

(AXIOS, September 26, 2019)

Researchers at Graphika uncovered an amateurish social media campaign targeting the Hong Kong protests that spanned across hundreds of accounts on several mainstream Western platforms.

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Graphika's Testimony to U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology Hearing on Online Imposters and Disinformation

(U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, September 26, 2019)

Camille Francois, Chief Innovation Officer provided Graphika's testimony ​​​​​​to the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology Hearing on Online Imposters and Disinformation.

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At Least 70 Countries Have Had Disinformation Campaigns, Study Finds

(The New York Times, September 26, 2019)

Ben Nimmo, director of investigations at Graphika, a company that specializes in analyzing social media, said the growing use of internet disinformation is concerning for the 2020 United States election. A mix of domestic and foreign groups, operating autonomously or with loose ties to a government, are building from the methods used by Russia in the last presidential election, making it difficult for the platforms to police, he said.

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Why Crafty Internet Trolls in the Philippines May Be Coming to a Website Near You

(The Washington Post, July 26, 2019)

“This is what disinformation will look like in the U.S. in 2020,” said Camille François, chief innovation officer at the New York-based social network analysis company Graphika. Political manipulation, she said, does not need to come from an ill-intentioned enemy state. It can originate with those who have cut their teeth in the competitive worlds of advertising, media and marketing. 

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It’s Not Just the Russians Anymore as Iranians and Others Turn up Disinformation Efforts Ahead of 2020 Vote

(The Washington Post, July 25, 2019)

“The Iranian operations were a wake-up call to remind us that the Russians were not the only ones doing information operations,” said Camille François, chief innovation officer for Graphika, a network analysis firm based in New York that studies online disinformation.

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35 Innovators Under 35 Visionaries - Camille Francois

(MIT Technology Review, June 25, 2019)

Their innovations are leading the way to smarter AI, better brain treatments, and a safer internet. Camille Francois uses data science to detect disinformation and organized harassment campaigns.

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Bird-Killing, Cancer-Causing 5G Is the Internet's New Favourite Conspiracy Theory

(Wired, June 12, 2019)

“It is much easier for people to find that kind of information and find it compelling, and more importantly, find a community around it that makes them feel like they belong to a group of people that have figured out the truth,” says John Kelly, CEO of Graphika.

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INSIDER SPOTLIGHT Explorers of the Cybersocial Terrain: How Graphika Is Making Sense of Social Media

(Built in NYC, June 7, 2019)

Our rapidly growing team was featured on Built In NYC's Insider Spotlight. Showcasing a day in the life of three unique employees, this in-depth piece gives curious readers and job seekers the chance to explore what it's like to work at Graphika. 

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Your 5G Phone Won’t Hurt You. But Russia Wants You to Think Otherwise

(The New York Times, May 12, 2019)

“RT successfully feeds the conspiracy-oriented ecosystem,” said John Kelly, chief executive of Graphika, a network analytics firm. “This effort is having a real impact. It’s bearing fruit.”

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How Russian Trolls Are Using American Businesses as Their Weapons

(Inc., May 1, 2019)

A co-author of a recent report on Russian propaganda tactics for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Kelly has become one of the world's foremost experts on the subject.

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Fake Account Network Massively Pro-Duterte – Report

(Rappler, April 29, 2019)

While Facebook conducts its own investigations, they also rely on outside help from the intelligence community, journalists and other technical experts. In the Gabunada case, US-based Graphika was tasked with an independent analysis of the takedown to provide more details and share insights.

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When It Comes to Social Media Manipulation, We’re Our Own Worst Enemy

(The Washington Post, April 29, 2019)

In a new opinion essay for the Washington Post, Graphika's CEO, Dr. John Kelly advocates for online authenticity as a foundation for preventing foreign and domestic political manipulation.

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Did Twitter Keep Tabs on Journalists' Political Leanings?

(Gizmodo, April 29, 2019)

Gizmodo spoke extensively with one of that study’s co-authors, Camille Francois, who confirmed Graphika’s work had not examined the follow relationships between journalists of varying political appetites on Twitter. She could not recall any public academic study that had.

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How Russian Trolls Weaponized Social Media

(MSNBC, April 14, 2019)

A Russian troll farm in St Petersburg latched onto wedge issues in America—race, immigration, gun control—and spread disinformation around them online to sow discord in America. The goal was to get Americans off their computers and onto the streets.

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U.S. Disrupted Russian Trolls on Day of November Election

(The Moscow Times, February 27, 2019)

A report, by an Oxford University team working with analytical firm Graphika, said Russian trolls urged African-Americans to boycott the 2016 election or to follow wrong voting procedures, while also encouraging right-wing voters to be more confrontational.

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There’s a Way to Know if Russia Threw the Election to Trump

(The Washington Post, January 18, 2019)

John Kelly of the data-analysis firm Graphika insists that the Russians were sophisticated enough to tailor their messages to key groups — such as African Americans, who were bombarded with social media posts designed to demotivate them from voting.

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It's Past Time for a National Data Privacy Law

(Forbes, January 18, 2019)

According to Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and Graphika, which prepared a new report, “this strategy is not an invention for politics and foreign intrigue, it is consistent with techniques used in digital marketing.”

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How the Russians Attacked America's Democracy

(USA Today, December 19, 2018)

A Russian company with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin used the biggest names in American technology to spread disinformation, poison the electorate and enrage voters.

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Russia Rejects Reports Alleging Extensive US Election Meddling

(Voice of America, December 18, 2018)

The size and scope of Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was far more extensive and thorough than previously understood, according to two newly released reports.

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Codebook - News Recap

(Axios, December 18, 2018)

In the United States, Russia's social media disinformation campaigns are often seen as an election-tampering issue. There's a good chance we'll spend 2019 talking about propaganda as something we have to prepare for before the 2020 election.

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Russian Disinformation Campaign Included 'Pro-Jill Stein Sentiments'

(The Hill, December 18, 2018)

Russia's online disinformation campaign included messaging that supported 2016 Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein, according to a new report prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee.

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New Senate Reports Are an Indictment of the White House's Inaction ...

(Slate, December 18, 2018)

The Senate Intelligence Committee has just released two new reports on Russian disinformation, revealing in unusually rich detail the scope of Russia’s interference not only in the 2016 U.S. presidential election but also in our day-to-day democratic dialogue since.

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Russian Trolls Used ‘Digital Marketing Best Practices’ to Sow Discord, Senate Reports Find

(AdWeek, December 18, 2018)

The Russian troll farm responsible for running disinformation campaigns intended to influence the 2016 presidential election reached more people on Instagram than on Facebook, and Russian-government-linked accounts are still spreading disinformation on both of the platforms at even higher rates than before the 2016 presidential election.

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Senate-commissioned reports show scale of Russian misinformation campaign

(Axios, December 17, 2018)

Two outside research groups used data obtained from Silicon Valley giants by the Senate Intelligence Committee to paint a sweeping picture of Russia’s online disinformation efforts both before and after the 2016 presidential election in reports released Monday.

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Voter Suppression and Racial Targeting: In Facebook’s and Twitter’s Words

(The New York Times, December 17, 2018)

A report submitted to a Senate committee about Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election says that social media companies made misleading or evasive claims about whether the efforts tried to discourage voting or targeted African-Americans on their platforms.

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How Russian Trolls Boosted Conservative News Outlets in the United States

(MotherJones, December 17, 2018)

Russian internet trolls helped expand the reach of conservative media outlets as part of a Kremlin campaign to influence US politics and sow social discord, according to a new report commissioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

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Russian 2016 Influence Operation Targeted African-Americans on Social Media

(The New York Times, December 17, 2018)

The Russian influence campaign on social media in the 2016 election made an extraordinary effort to target African-Americans, used an array of tactics to try to suppress turnout among Democratic voters and unleashed a blizzard of activity on Instagram that rivaled or exceeded its posts on Facebook

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Russian Interference in the Election Was Worse than We Thought

(Los Angeles Times, December 17, 2018)

Two studies released by the Senate Intelligence Committee provide shocking specifics about the scope and sophistication of the effort by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian business linked to the Kremlin, to spread manipulative content online.

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Massive Scale of Russian Election Trolling Revealed in Draft Senate Report

(ARS Technica, December 17, 2018)

A report prepared for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) concludes that the activities of Russia's Internet Research Agency (IRA) leading up to and following the 2016 US presidential election were crafted to specifically help the Republican Party and Donald Trump.

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How Russia Hacked US Politics With Instagram Marketing

(Foreign Policy, December 17, 2018)

In June 2017, some eight months after the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, Kremlin operatives running a digital interference campaign in American politics scored a viral success with a post on Instagram.

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Key Takeaways from New Reports on Russian Disinformation

(Fox Business, December 17, 2018)

Russians seeking to influence U.S. elections through social media had their eyes on Instagram and the black community. These were among the findings in two reports released Monday by the Senate intelligence committee.

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Russian operatives were promoting sex toys on Instagram to sow discord in the US

(Quartz, December 17, 2018)

Two reports produced by independent researchers for the US Senate Intelligence Committee show that Instagram was a much more significant tool in the hands of Russian operatives trying to influence US politics than previously thought—and was at times potentially more powerful than Facebook.

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Silicon Valley May Have Done 'Bare Minimum' to Help Russia Investigation

(CNN, December 17, 2018)

The Senate Intelligence Committee has been advised that social media companies might have provided the "bare minimum" amount of data to aid the panel's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, according to a person familiar with a report commissioned by the committee.

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We Made It Easy for the Russians

(Esquire, December 17, 2018)

A new report states very plainly that the Russian government designed this sweeping program specifically to help the Trump campaign, and that it was based on a thoroughgoing analysis of how easily Americans can be duped when it comes to electing a president.

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How Russia Exploited Racial Tensions in America During the 2016 Elections

(Vox, December 17, 2018)

More than two years after the 2016 elections, media outlets and academics are still discovering the extent of Russian disinformation campaigns aimed at American voters.

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Russia Disinformation Report Calls out Big Tech

(Seeking Alpha, December 17, 2018)

A new report prepared for the Senate highlights the "belated and uncoordinated response" of tech companies to the Russian disinformation campaign during the 2016 election.

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10 Things You Need to Know Today

(The Week, December 17, 2018)

The study by Oxford University's Computational Propaganda Project and network analysis firm Graphika found that Russians working at the Internet Research Agency separated Americans into key interest groups and targeted them with messages.

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Here's How Russian Trolls Turned Social Media Into a Weapon

(Gizmodo, December 17, 2018)

Two new independent studies commissioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee were made public, providing the most in-depth look at online Russian interference in the 2016 election to date.

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Yes, Russian Trolls Helped Elect Trump

(The New York Times, December 17, 2018)

Russian propaganda had about 187 million engagements on Instagram, reaching at least 20 million users, and 76.5 million engagements on Facebook, reaching 126 million people. Approximately 1.4 million people engaged with tweets associated with the Internet Research Agency.

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How Russia Harvested American Rage to Reshape U.S. Politics

(The New York Times, October 9, 2018)

John Kelly, Ph.D, Graphika’s founder and CEO contributed analysis and expertise for this New York Times piece revealing the consistent nature of Russian social media manipulation strategy across different social network platforms.

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Here’s Proof that Russian-Backed Accounts Pushed the Nike Boycott

(Wired, September 27, 2018)

Graphika’s John Kelly, Ph.D contributed expert opinion about ongoing Russian disinformation campaigns that helped to amplify the anti-Nike sentiment during the boycott of the brand following the announcement of Colin Kaepernick as the face of a major Nike advertising campaign.

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Interview: John Kelly, Ph.D, CEO of Graphika on Andrea Mitchell Reports

(MSNBC, August 2, 2018)

After delivering his testimony on Russian foreign influence on social media to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, Graphika CEO and founder, John Kelly, Ph.D visited Andrea Mitchell Reports (MSNBC) in Washington, D.C. on August 2nd, 2018.

Watch the Full Interview Here

U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: Foreign Influence on Social Media

(C-SPAN, August 1, 2018)

Graphika Founder and CEO, John Kelly, Ph.D was invited to provide his expert testimony on foreign interference in the U.S. presidential election before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Watch the broadcast here.

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A Global Guide to State-Sponsored Trolling

(Bloomberg, July 19, 2018)

Graphika founder and CEO, John Kelly, Ph.D contributed analysis and expert perspective for this piece from Bloomberg exploring the global rise of government sponsored interference in elections by means of online manipulation and disinformation.

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How an Ex-YouTube Insider Investigated its Secret Algorithm

(The Guardian, February 2, 2018)

Graphika discovered over 513,000 Twitter accounts tweeted links to one or more YouTube-recommended videos that were boosted by vigorous social media campaigns leading up to the 2016 election, involving thousands of accounts controlled by political operatives, including a large number of bots.

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This Former Google Exec Talked to the Social Media Trolls the Russians Paid to Influence Elections — Here’s What She Learned

(CNBC, January 19, 2018)

Camille François, Graphika’s Chief Innovation Officer, shared first hand accounts of the stories of real troll farm workers and her own experience co-authoring a landmark report on Russian electoral influence operations for the Senate Select Intelligence Committee.

Watch the Full Interview Here

The Insanity of NBA All-Star Voting

(ESPN, February 16, 2017)

Graphika sifted through more than 5 million tweets on behalf of ESPN, revealing a number of interesting findings about NBA All-Star voting, including 10 hyperactive bot accounts voting for Kawhi Leonard about 1,000 times per day.

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