Influence Campaigns and Disinformation

Tech companies face intense scrutiny; viral FaceApp raises data privacy concerns; Huawei invests in Italy as pushback builds in the United States and UK; Indonesia announces a new digital tax; and users unknowingly download malicious fake app.

This week: House Speaker Pelosi takes on Facebook; a new global pact on AI; tech industry stakeholders criticize UK security agency proposal; U.S.-Huawei legal saga continues; and, Google issues new privacy standards for its extensions. 

In light of recent attempts by Russia to influence western democratic elections, the EU has developed a strategy to combat the spread of fake news ahead of its 2019 European parliamentary elections. 

This week: Problems for UK-U.S. intelligence sharing relationship; Singapore passes misinformation law; NSA hacking tools used by the Chinese; EU competition authority set to investigate Apple; and, the United States prepares to combat Russian interference in 2020 elections. 

Elections in Israel are historically contentious, but this election cycle the country faces a new challenge - foreign influence operations. 

This week: Russia unplugs itself from the internet; a new AI might be cause for concern; Trump's big AI plan is here; and Moldova becomes the latest arena for stopping disinformation. 

Online misinformation is a problem for democracies worldwide, but we should worry about how misinformation will change democracies in the developing world.

Presidential elections take place in Nigeria on February 16 (unless they are delayed). While there are dozens of candidates, only two stand a chance of winning the election. One is Muhammadu Buhari, incumbent president and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the other is Atiku Abubakar, a former vice-president and the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). In the past, elections have been the occasion of violence, though it does not tend to occur during voting. Violence is more common during the candidate selection process (now concluded and especially for lower-level elected officials) and when the results of the presidential election are announced. Civil society is acutely aware of the potential for violence around these elections, and its leaders are sounding the alarm bells about the use of hyperbolic rhetoric and personal attacks on the two leading candidates by their respective camps. Clement Nwankwo is the executive director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Center and chairman of the Situation Room, an umbrella organization of more than seventy civil society groups. He is a shrewd observer of Nigerian politics and not given to hyperbole. He said to Bloomberg that “tension is being fanned and escalated, so that you get the sense the different sides of the political divide are digging-in in an uncompromising manner…that is the kind of situation that leads to violence.” He noted that both Buhari and Atiku Abubakar failed to attend a presidential debate organized by civic groups. For example, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, now a supporter of Atiku Abubakar, claims that the Buhari camp is “working round the clock in cahoots with security and election officials” to rig the elections and spark “violence of unimaginable proportion.” Sometimes there is humor. According to Bloomberg, the Buhari camp responded by saying that Obasanjo needed “a good doctor,” and hoped he would “get well soon.” (The irony is that Buhari's lengthy stays in London hospitals have proven to be a major issue for his campaign.) For its part, the PDP is saying that Amina Zakari, the head of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s collation center, is a relative of Buhari, and her appointment is clear evidence that the APC intends to rig the vote count. (Apparently, she is a Buhari relative by marriage.) In turn, Buhari’s information minister, Lai Mohammed, is saying that the PDP “is orchestrating wide spread violence with a view to truncating the elections, thus triggering a constitutional crisis.” He also said the PDP is using armed bandits, Islamist militants, and mercenaries as part of the plot, according to Bloomberg. There is nothing new about hyperbolic rhetoric around Nigerian elections. However, at present, both major parties are accusing the other of rigging the elections and planning to incite violence. Both parties appear to be laying the groundwork for declaring the election results fraudulent if they lose. Nigerian civil society organizations deserve the support of international NGOs and international election observer missions as they seek to hold the political class accountable. Nwankwo’s concern is well-placed.   

The need to review potentially harmful digital content in real time is greater than ever. Here’s why India’s legions of content moderators are ready for the task.

France is taking an innovative step to curb disinformation on Facebook. It might prove to be a model for regulators elsewhere.