Russia’s War on Ukraine: Three Years, Three Hundred and Two False Claims; NewsGuard's Reality Check, February 21, 2025

Eva Maitland and Madeline Roache, NEWSGUARD, NewsGuard's Reality Check; Russia’s War on Ukraine: Three Years, Three Hundred and Two False Claims

"As the war in Ukraine approaches the three-year anniversary of the Russian invasion that launched the conflict, NewsGuard has now identified and debunked 302 false claims relating to the war, nearly all of them originating as Russian propaganda.

These 302 claims appear in NewsGuard’s Misinformation Fingerprints proprietary database of viral false narratives that NewsGuard analysts have identified and debunked. NewsGuard analysts have identified 551 websites spreading these false claims...

AI IN ACTION: HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SUPERCHARGES PRO-KREMLIN PROPAGANDA

In 2022, NewsGuard debunked just one AI-generated falsehood emanating from Russia. In the second year of the war, NewsGuard debunked five AI-generated false claims, and there were 16 in the third. Indeed, as AI tools became more readily available, the easy access to AI image, audio, video and text generators has enabled Russia and its allies to reach more people, in more languages, with more convincing false claims...

HOME-GROWN, FOREIGN-TRAINED: THE AMERICAN PROPAGANDIST BEHIND 14 FALSE CLAIMS ABOUT ZELENSKY

The driving force behind these false corruption claims that have amassed so many millions of views appears to be John Mark Dougan, a Florida deputy sheriff turned Kremlin propagandist. Dougan is part of a Russian influence operation dubbed by Microsoft as Storm-1516. It appears to be an offshoot of the Internet Research Agency, a disbanded Russian troll farm.

NewsGuard has debunked 37 false narratives linked to Dougan and Storm-1516 targeting Ukraine, the U.S. 2024 election, the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the German 2025 election."

Rapid spread of election disinformation stokes alarm; The Hill, November 5, 2024

MIRANDA NAZZARO , The Hill; Rapid spread of election disinformation stokes alarm

"The long-lasting falsehoods over the 2020 election have made voters and election watchers more attuned to the potential for disinformation, though experts said recent technology advances are making it more difficult for users to discern fake content.

“We are seeing new formats, new modalities of manipulation of some sort including … this use of generative AI [artificial intelligence], the use of these mock news websites to preach more fringe stories and, most importantly perhaps, the fact that now these campaigns span the entire media ecosystem online,” said Emilio Ferrara, professor of computer science and communication at the University of Southern California

“And they are not just limited to perhaps one mainstream platform like we [saw] in 2020 or even in 2016,” said Ferrara, who co-authored a study that discovered a multiplatform network amplifying “conservative narratives” and former President Trump’s 2024 campaign.

False content has emerged online throughout this election cycle, often in the form of AI-generated deepfakes. The images have sparked a flurry of warnings from lawmakers and strategists about attempts to influence the race’s outcome or sow chaos and distrust in the electoral process."