This briefing brings together the observations of a coalition of organisation who monitored the 2019 European Parliamentary Elections to identify distortion, disruption or interference campaigns and the technology companies response to them. You can read more about ISD's work monitoring the 2019 EU Elections in our interim report, published 24th May 2019.
The rise of coordinated attacks on the foundations of liberal democracy continue unabated across Europe. In the United Kingdom, fringe groups and ideologues continue to challenge the government and the tech sector as they promote xenophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and extremism. By doing so, they continue to inflame community tensions and create division and polarisation between citizens.
Through the Youth Civil Activism Network (YouthCAN) programme our teams have been working with young people who consider themselves civically engaged, and therefore, “activists,” and are interested in preventing and countering violent extremism in their communities. As part of this programming, and with the support of the United States Embassy in Belgium, YouthCAN teams in 2018-2019 played a central role in resourcing and supporting 57 young activists from 14 countries across Western and Eastern Europe.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) has uncovered a range of digital influence campaigns targeting the European Parliamentary elections through a mix of social media mapping, undercover online reporting and media monitoring. This interim briefing paper addresses who is behind these malign influence operations and analyses the techniques they use. It also assesses the record of the tech companies in addressing these threats to electoral integrity. A full post-election analysis will be published in the coming weeks and experts at ISD can be made available for comment on the election results.
The advent of new communication technologies and their ubiquity has many benefits for information sharing at a global level. However, these new technologies have also created new challenges which our societies are now faced with: the spread of disinformation, manipulation and online hate. This report assesses the Sens Critique pilot programme which took place in Paris last year.
A combination of social media analysis, network mapping and investigative reporting carried out by ISD’s Digital Research Unit found that far-right conspiracy and misinformation networks used a suite of new and existing platforms to mobilise and coordinate election-related activities online and offline in the lead up to the Bavarian State elections in Germany in 2018.
This briefing paper highlights Al Qaeda content available on YouTube and Facebook and exposes the continued persistence of gaps in the companies’ ability to identify and remove content, which they have committed to doing.
This briefing paper highlights Al Qaeda content available on YouTube and Facebook and exposes the continued persistence of gaps in the companies’ ability to identify and remove content, which they have committed to doing.
This report presents the findings of a project that investigated foreign attempts to influence the 2018 Swedish elections online.
This report presents the findings from our Young Digital Leaders project which was designed to equip young people aged between 13-16 years old in Italy, Romania and Sweden with the skills they need to be safe, powerful and effective online citizens in the 21st century
