YouTube representatives told Insider that the company is looking into bringing in external researchers to study how its suggestion algorithm works.

A spiritualist trend for Grabovoi numbers has swept TikTok, but the inventor of the method has a troubling history in Russia.

Facebook is the primary source of vaccination misinformation and CEO Mark Zuckerberg knows it, says White House chief of staff Ron Klain.

Google specifically prohibits content that spreads medical misinformation on its video-sharing platform.

Moscow has used disinformation tactics since the Soviet era to sow division and doubt in the west. Social media is now powering those tools.

Psaki expressed doubt that Trump's social media usage would change if he were to eventually regain access to his accounts.

Insider traced the route of a video comparing US and Russian military recruitment ads from pro-Kremlin networks to Cruz's Twitter feed.

Facebook integrity chief Guy Rosen said concerns about dictators using fake accounts to bolster support were lower priority, The Guardian reported.

Dorsey's poll was simply a question mark, with the option of voting "yes or no," mimicking the short answers lawmakers had demanded of him.

US officials say the increase in migrants arriving at the border is a response to rumors and "disinformation" spread by smugglers and bigger foes.

US intelligence officials believe this effort to undermine the Pfizer vaccine is a way to bolster the status of Russia's vaccine.

Congress has to grapple with the military's traditional roles and with the emerging challenges of hybrid warfare, Rep. Ruben Gallego told Insider.

In total from July 1 to December 31 last year, the company said it removed more than 89.1 million videos, with 11.7 million removed in the US.

Democrats say they want to examine traditional media's role in promoting "disinformation and extremism."

GOP Sen. Ron Johnson suggested that Nancy Pelosi bore responsibility for the Capitol riot. Johnson claimed that Trump’s impeachment was being used to “deflect” blame from Pelosi. Johnson did not cite any evidence, saying only that he was “suspicious.” Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories. Republican Sen. […]

The website of controversial social media platform Parler was back online Sunday, following a nearly week-long outage after it was booted from Amazon Web Services and kicked off Apple and Google’s app stores. The website popped back up on Sunday with a message from CEO John Matze, asking “Hello, world. […]

As Twitter and Facebook suspended users seen as supporting rioters, including President Trump’s accounts, far-right conversations shifted to Parler and other outlets. Some talked of violent revolution, but others on the network sought to blame Trump’s political enemies for Wednesday’s chaos. “There might have been some people, the ones that […]

TikTok is stamping down on vaccine misinformation, introducing a new content screen for videos that might be harmful, and clarifying its rules worldwide. The announcements came on the same day when the UK government warned of a “new age of accountability” for social media. Social-media platforms operating in the UK […]

Facebook told workers to ignore fraudulent ads and hacked accounts as long as the company “gets paid,” BuzzFeed News reported Thursday. BuzzFeed News’ investigation revealed how Facebook consistently prioritised making money over protecting users from scams, hackers, and disinformation. Ahead of the US elections in November, Facebook even told its […]

It’s been a month since major news organisations projected Joe Biden to win the 2020 election. But 83% of Republicans polled by Gallup in the days afterward indicated they didn’t believe the reports. In the poll, taken from November 9 to 15, 99% of Democrats, 64% of independents, and 17% […]

A US Postal Service employee whose claims of electoral fraud were circulated by Project Veritas, a right-wing activist group specializing in disinformation, has recanted, The Washington Post reported. Richard Hopkins, a USPS employee in Pennsylvania, admitted to investigators that he lied when claiming his boss had ordered him to collect […]

At least half of the most popular US Facebook posts in the week since Election Day have sown misinformation or doubt about the result, data shows. Business Insider analysed data pulled from CrowdTangle, a tool developed by Facebook to monitor posts that go viral. Top-performing topics include Trump saying he […]

YouTube said videos making unverified and misleading claims that a candidate has won the presidential election do not violate the platform’s guidelines. One America News (OAN), a right-wing news network, has reached more than 370,000 views on a video inaccurately claiming Trump won the election. The video, which also spreads […]

Eric Trump, President Donald Trump’s second-eldest son, shared a video on Twitter on Wednesday that purported to show an anonymous man burning 80 ballots cast for his father. The video, first posted by a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, is a fake. The version of the video Eric Trump […]

Armed militias didn’t intimidate voters, the postal service didn’t collapse under the weight of millions of absentee ballots, and despite long lines people were able to vote. Given the circumstances – a once-in-a-century pandemic, a bitterly-divided electorate, and months of social unrest – it’s tempting to call this “success.” But […]

The US’s top cybersecurity agency publicly debunked President Donald Trump’s claims that the results of the 2020 election result in a few battleground states are fraudulent. In a series of tweets Wednesday, the president claimed that mystery ballots in favour of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden were appearing out of […]

President Donald Trump tweeted early Wednesday morning baselessly claiming “they are trying to STEAL the Election.” Twitter immediately flagged the post as “disputed” and possibly “misleading.” The 2020 presidential election was undecided as of Wednesday morning. Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories. President Donald Trump once again made an […]

Fox News opinion host Sean Hannity has pushed another baseless claim that Rep. Ilhan Omar engaged in voter fraud on Election Day. Omar’s tweet about same-day voter registration was taken out of context by the Fox News host, who alleged that Omar was encouraging unregistered voters to vote. Under Minnesota […]

Amazon contributes money to the National Vaccine Information Centre (NVIC), a top source of vaccine misinformation in the US, through its AmazonSmile program. The company appears to have given more than $US40,000 to the group, Popular Information reported. The NVIC is “one of the most prominent organisations that has been […]

Google said a disinformation campaign linked to Iran tried to send 25,000 emails to Gmail accounts. Only 10% of the emails sent to Gmail accounts made it past Google’s spam filter, the company said. This came after the head of US national intelligence announced Wednesday that an Iranian campaign was […]

Facebook is pausing efforts to redirect people to fact-checks about QAnon after a “glitch” accidentally redirected users who weren’t looking for the conspiracy theory, the company said Wednesday. Facebook said its “redirect initiative” would “direct people to resources that can help inform them of the realities of QAnon and its […]

The FBI said in a letter to a top Republican lawmaker Tuesday that it has “nothing to add” to recent comments that President Donald Trump’s spy chief made about a laptop and emails purportedly belonging to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. The existence of the laptop and its […]

Former spooks told Business Insider that Rudy Giuliani’s role in coordinating a widely discredited New York Post story and President Donald Trump’s willingness to seize on it highlights how vulnerable they are to being duped by Russian intelligence. Federal authorities are currently investigating whether purported emails in the story featuring […]

Twitter is changing how it deals with tweets containing hacked materials after its decision to block users from sharing a contested New York Post story about Joe and Hunter Biden prompted uproar. Twitter’s head of policy Vijaya Gadde said on Thursday that the platform “will no longer remove hacked content […]

US intelligence agencies cautioned the White House last year that Russian intelligence was using President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to funnel disinformation to him,The Washington Post reported. The national security advisor Robert O’Brien was said to have warned the president afterward to approach any information Giuliani conveyed to […]

Facebook has been unable, or in some cases, unwilling to enforce its own policies prohibiting certain types of content, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. The Journal reported hundreds of posts to Facebook that the company later confirmed violated its policies, but the platform still […]

Twitter barred users from sharing two controversial New York Post articles about Hunter Biden because they violated its policies against sharing personal information and hacked materials, the company said Wednesday evening. “We don’t want to incentivise hacking by allowing Twitter to be used as distribution for possibly illegally obtained materials,” […]

Trumpworld flew into a frenzy on Wednesday after the New York Post published a report purporting to show a “smoking-gun email” featuring Hunter Biden communicating with a Ukrainian official about meeting with his father, Joe Biden, when he was vice president. The Post’s story had several red flags that raised […]

Twitter has suspended fake accounts that claimed to be Black Trump supporters for violating its policies against platform manipulation and spam, The Washington Post reported Tuesday and the company confirmed to Business Insider. But researchers told The Washington Post that the accounts generated more than 265,000 retweets and mentions before […]

Largely right-wing campaigns are spreading misinformation regarding democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris online, per a report in MIT Technology Review. Spanish-language Facebook and WhatsApp group users have reported seeing messages like “Biden = Socialism” and that Kamala Harris supports abortions “minutes before birth,” both […]

Former CIA Director John Brennan told Insider that the biggest threat to the November election is President Donald Trump himself. He said the “dishonesty” and disinformation that come out of the White House and Trump campaign are just as dangerous as foreign interference in the election. Brennan has earned a […]

President Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis has exposed the gravity of the pandemic and the ‘infodemic’ that Americans are fighting against. A history of inconsistencies in communication from the Trump administration is once again acting as an obstacle for the American public to be able to trust the White House’s updates. At […]

Insider held a wide-ranging interview with the former special counsel Robert Mueller’s lead prosecutor, Andrew Weissmann, following the release of his book, “Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation.” Weissmann discussed the most challenging aspects of working for Mueller; how prosecuting Enron executives and New York mobsters made him uniquely […]

Twitter removed around 130 fake accounts based in Iran that tried to “disrupt the public conversation” during Tuesday’s US presidential debate, the company announced Wednesday. Twitter said the FBI alerted it to the accounts, which ultimately “had very low engagement and did not make an impact on the public conversation.” […]

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe declassified a dubious claim from Russian intelligence sources alleging that former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton “approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal” against then-Republican candidate Donald Trump and his ties to Russia. Ratcliffe said in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee […]

Facebook issued a warning Thursday of potential “hack-and-leak operations” by the Russian government ahead of the 2020 US election. “Hack-and-leak – where a bad actor steals sensitive information, sometimes manipulates it, and then strategically releases it to influence public debate – is one of the threats we’re particularly focused on […]

Facebook said in a blog post Tuesday that it had removed two coordinated disinformation campaigns, one from China and another from the Philippines. The network focused mostly on regional political issues and “gained almost no following” in the US, according to Facebook. “The operation’s success in audience building was mixed,”Graphika, […]

The US Treasury Department designated a top Ukrainian government official on Thursday for sanctions for “attempting to influence the US electoral process.” The official, Andrii Derkach, “has been an active Russian agent for over a decade, maintaining close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services,” the department said in a press […]

Summary List Placement PayPal has terminated multiple accounts linked to a recently uncovered Russian influence operation that is said to have paid US and British writers for content aimed at influencing progressives and sowing discord in the West, Business Insider has learned. On Tuesday, Facebook announced it was suspending a […]

Facebook is making a plan for how to respond if President Donald Trump uses the platform to try to delegitimize the results of the 2020 election, The New York Times reported. Executives have discussed implementing a “kill switch” to shut down political advertising after Election Day to curb the spread […]

Google deleted more than 2,500 accounts with ties to China on its YouTube video platform between April and June, per a report from The Guardian. The accounts were removed in an effort to combat the intentional spread of misinformation on the platform and as part of Google’s “ongoing investigation into […]

As the coronavirus pandemic has spread around the world, with millions infected and thousands dead, billionaire Microsoft cofounder and philanthropist Bill Gates has pledged a quarter billion dollars to combat the disease through his foundation. Gates criticised social media giants on Tuesday for enabling the spread of coronavirus misinformation and […]

Facebook removed disinformation accounts it says were linked to Roger Stone, the longtime friend of President Trump. The accounts involved posted about “candidates in the 2016 primaries and general election, and the Roger Stone trial,” Facebook said. Facebook also removed networks that originated in Canada, Ecuador, Brazil, and Ukraine. Visit […]

Twitter disclosed three major state-backed networks pushing propaganda for China, Russia, and Turkey. The Chinese network was by far the largest, comprising some 170,000 accounts. Twitter found a “core” network of 23,750 accounts tweeting pro-government material, and this was in turn spread by 150,000 “amplifier” accounts. Visit Business Insider’s homepage […]

Experts say Americans are being manipulated on social media by fake posts about unrest across the nation. A former chief information officer of the White House says groups use fake photos and videos to manipulate Americans into emotional responses. Researchers say social media following the death of George Floyd is […]

The office of former President Barack Obama excoriated a Republican-led congressional investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and purported Ukrainian election interference as giving “credence to a Russian disinformation campaign,” according to a March letter obtained by BuzzFeed News. The letter said the investigation, led by GOP Sens. Ron […]

The coronavirus outbreak has upended everyday life in the US and turned the country into a breeding ground for fake news and disinformation as citizens increasingly distrust their leaders and each other. A professor at NYU who published a report on disinformation and the 2020 election told Insider he’s seen […]

Foreign intelligence agents are using online platforms and videoconferencing apps to spy on Americans, TIME reported. Chinese spies, in particular, have exploited the coronavirus pandemic to get information about American companies as they take their operations digital and offices across the US shut down amid stay-at-home orders. The app Zoom […]

The coronavirus outbreak has pushed social-media platforms even closer to the centre of America’s information ecosystem. These platforms are straining under a new flood of misinformation, and the public must practice extreme caution when sharing information about this crisis online, write Megan Lamberth and Chris Estep of the Centre for […]

As COVID-19 continues to spread, major social networks like Facebook and Instagram are targeting disinformation. Instagram is bringing its moderation standards in line with its parent company Facebook, the company announced on Tuesday morning. “We’ll remove COVID-19 accounts from account recommendations, and we are working to remove some COVID-19 related […]

Google has debuted an educational website on coronavirus in the United States, designed to provide accurate information on education, prevention, and local resources. Concerns around disinformation have swirled around the pandemic, as platforms like Fox News and Whatsapp have been identified as spreading false and misleading information. Visit Business Insider’s […]

Facebook will launch a new “coronavirus information centre” that will sit at the top of people’s News Feeds, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Wednesday. The centre will promote official information about the spread of COVID-19 and government advice on measures like social distancing. The information centre will appear at the top […]

Russia is aggressively exploiting the confusion and panic in Western countries over the coronavirus pandemic, a new report by the European Union’s foreign policy analysis service has found. The report has not been made public, but was described to Business Insider by an intelligence official based in Belgium who tracks […]

Officials in Newark, New Jersey, have threatened to criminally prosecute people who spread misinformation about the novel coronavirus. The announcement has prompted questions over free speech rights and whether such threats could suppress accurate information and vital warnings. Newark’s Department of Public Safety noted that the state has laws around […]

NATO increased activity along its eastern flank after Russia’s 2014 incursion in Ukraine, bringing NATO military personnel into closer proximity to Russia. Those NATO troops have also experienced the kind of disinformation and influence operations that many of Russia’s neighbours are familiar with. Reports of those encounters appear to have […]

The Democratic National Committee is fighting to halt the spread of disinformation about Democratic candidates ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Politico reported. In its fight against fake news, the party is using software to identify trending stories before they go viral, and asking third-party fact checkers to rebut them. […]

Google stopped short of calling out China after disabling 210 YouTube channels linked to a coordinated disinformation campaign about the protests in Hong Kong. Twitter and Facebook also banned accounts on their platforms this week, but they clearly linked the perpetrators to the Chinese state. Google’s apparent reticence could ignite […]

The Chinese government has been running a covert social media propaganda campaign to try and undermine the Hong Kong protests. Facebook and Twitter said on Monday that they had detected an organised campaign that originated from inside China. Mass protests in Hong Kong have been ongoing for weeks over human […]

Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump‘s personal attorney and frequent surrogate, tweeted out a doctored video on Thursday night of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appearing to slur her speech. The former mayor of New York City, later deleted the tweet, but refused to apologise for promoting what he described as a […]

Russia influence on the 2016 presidential election spanned beyond Facebook and Twitter, according to new reports provided to the Senate intelligence committee. The research concluded that the disinformation campaign reached several social media platforms previously unnamed, including Instagram,Vine, and Pinterest. Business Insider has compiled all the social media platforms named […]

A pair of new reports released by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday revealed new details about Russia’s ongoing and pervasive influence operations across social-media platforms. One report found that Russia continues to have “active and ongoing interference operations” on several platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It also found […]

US government agencies and social media companies are taking a proactive role in combatting Russian disinformation and cyberattacks ahead of the November midterms. But a string of recent revelations indicates that, if anything, Russia and other foreign actors are using more sophisticated methods to poke at the weak links in […]

Alex Stamos, Facebook’s former security boss, told the MIT Technology Review that propaganda and disinformation are a problem that will never be eliminated. Stamos led Facebook’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and has warned that it’s too late to save the 2018 midterms from the same […]

The US Department of Justice announced on Friday that it had charged a Russian woman with conspiring to interfere in the 2018 US midterm elections. The woman, Elena Khusyaynova, is accused of playing a central financial role in a social-media influence operation known as “Project Lakhta” that prosecutors say “continues […]

The special counsel Robert Mueller’s office on Tuesday filed a motion to scale back evidence sharing in its case against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities charged in the Russia investigation. Mueller cited the risk of revealing the identities of “uncharged co-conspirators” to Russian intelligence. The motion confirms that […]

Leaked documents reviewed by The Daily Beast show the lengths a notorious Russian troll farm, the Internet Research Agency, went to in order to stoke conflict and spread disinformation during and after the 2016 US election. In addition to operating on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, the IRA conducted a substantial […]

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment Friday of 13 Russian nationals and three organisations paints a stark picture of Russia’s election interference. The indictment threw a wrench into President Donald Trump’s claims that the Russia investigation is a “hoax” and a “witch hunt” with no justifiable basis. The charges will also […]

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office announced Friday that California resident Richard Pinedo pleaded guilty on February 12 to one count of identity fraud in connection with the Russia probe. According to the statement of offence, Pinedo created fake bank accounts using stolen identities to help users circumvent the security protocols […]

President Donald Trump tweeted about reports that a Russian with ties to the Kremlin sold purported dirt on Trump to US officials seeking to recover stolen cyberweapons. He also alluded to the abrupt exits of two former White House aides following reports detailing domestic abuse allegations against them. “I hope […]

The "Paradise Papers" show that the Kremlin...

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Before they capitalised on Facebook to promote...

Russian operatives worked to capitalise on...

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US President Donald Trump and Russian President...