European Union: Sanctioned Russian media entities and individuals’ content accessible on Telegram
Report co-author: Saman Nazari, Alliance4Europe This report is the fifth in a series looking at major online platforms’ enforcement of…
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Analyses & Investigations
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Fool me once: Russian Influence Operation Doppelganger continues on X and Facebook – French chapter
In order to reach its objectives, the influence operation attempts to make use of domestic news or context, often trying to frame the tweets in the context of larger French political debates.
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European Union: Sanctioned Russian media entities and individuals’ content accessible on Facebook and other Meta services
Despite these legal provisions, as of late July 2024, several Meta services—including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp— still make content produced by sanctioned Russian state-controlled media and sanctioned media personalities accessible to European audiences.
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European Union: Sanctioned Russian media entities and individuals’ content accessible on YouTube and Google products
Despite EU sanctions, some Russian state-controlled media remains accessible to EU audiences on Google services.
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European Union: Sanctioned Russian media entities and individuals’ content accessible on X (Twitter)
Despite these legal provisions, as of early June 2024, in the week before the European elections, X accounts linked to EU-sanctioned Russian state-controlled media and media personalities remained accessible to EU-based audiences.
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Use of information panels on YouTube videos containing misinformation – a ’quick check’ study
This quick check study suggests that the information panels applied by YouTube are highly unlikely to have the desired effect of connecting users to authoritative information on topics prone to disinformation.
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Who’s Behind The (Mis)Leading Report?
Reputable news sources demonstrate transparency in all aspects of their operation. They disclose their sources of funding, identify staff who produce their content and clearly indicate their sources of information. If they commit errors, they openly acknowledge and correct these errors. Our investigation shows Leading Report exhibits none of these characteristics. The two individuals who run the website and its X/Twitter account appear to hold no relevant credentials in health, medicine or journalism.
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Authorities undertaking climate action targeted by viral “Climate lockdowns” narrative on social media
The increasing number of measures to limit greenhouse gas pollution that can be expected in the future will certainly present opportunities for future weaponization and misrepresentation. Writers, editors, and journalists should be aware of these manipulation tactics when discussing the aftermath of COVID-19 restrictions or future climate policies, knowing that some actors are trawling for any evidence to boost the manufactured ‘climate lockdown’ outrage.
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Misinformation superspreaders are thriving on Musk-owned Twitter
A study of accounts that have repeatedly published popular tweets linking to known misinformation shows that their collective popularity has significantly grown (on average, +42% interactions per tweet) since Elon Musk took effective control of the platform on 27 October 2022. These results appear to run afoul of Twitter’s commitments as a signatory of the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation.
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Germany-based network of websites and Facebook accounts amplify clickbait content to monetize web traffic via Google AdSense and e-commerce
The pages appear to build their audience by promoting clickbait content—including misinformation and conspiracy theories—generated within the network, while concealing the fact that they are part of the same network.