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What if Bin Laden Was Killed in the Era of Generative AI?
By leveraging machine learning to produce AI-generated content, adversaries can weaponize synthetic media, making fact and fiction nearly indistinguishable. The death—or not—of combatant leaders is prime example of the magnitude of the challenge this emerging reality poses.
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Memes and Conflict: Study Shows Surge of Imagery and Fakes Can Precede International and Political Violence
The widespread use of social media during times of political trouble and violence has made it harder to prevent conflict and build peace.
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The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram: Inside a Global Online Hate Network
White supremacists from around the world used Telegram to spread hateful content promoting murder and destruction in a community they called Terrorgram. ProPublica and FRONTLINE identified 35 crimes linked to Terrorgram, including bomb plots, stabbings, and shootings. After several arrests of alleged Terrorgram members and reforms by Telegram, experts expect that extremists will find a new platform for their hate.
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How a Global Online Network of White Supremacists Groomed a Teen to Kill
Neo-Nazi influencers on the social media platform Telegram created a network of chats and channels where they stoked racist, antisemitic and homophobic hate. The influencers, known as the Terrorgram Collective, targeted a teen in Slovakia and groomed him for three years to kill.
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Trump Is Giving Russian Cyber Ops a Free Pass – and Putting Western Democracy on the Line
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth last weekend announced that the U.S. will halt all offensive cyber operations –and planning for such operations –against Russia. The Kremlin has long sought to sow chaos in the United States and other democracies by using “information confrontation.” That job just got a lot easier.
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As Facebook Abandons Fact-Checking, It’s Also Offering Bonuses for Viral Content
Meta decided to stop working with U.S. fact-checkers at the same time as it’s revamping a program to pay bonuses to creators with high engagement numbers, potentially pouring accelerant on the kind of false posts the company once policed.
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Trump Inviting Influencers to White House Press Briefings Is Likely to Usher in a New Era of Fake News
The steady rise in prominence of partisan influencers using increasingly dangerous language is only likely to lead to the American public having less faith in the institutions that are critical to a functioning democracy –the press included.
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In Times of Crisis, States Have Few Tools to Fight Misinformation
While officials in Southern California fought fire and falsehoods, Meta —the parent company of Facebook and Instagram —announced it would eliminate its fact-checking program in the name of free expression. As social media companies are pushing back against efforts to crack down on falsehoods, questions are asked about what, if anything, state governments can do to stop the spread of harmful lies and rumors that proliferate on social media.
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Fighting Deepfakes: What’s Next After legislation?
Deepfake technology is weaponizing artificial intelligence in a way that disproportionately targets women, especially those working public roles, compromising their dignity, safety, and ability to participate in public life.
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Climate Misinformation Is Rife on Social Media – and Poised to Get Worse
The decision by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to end its fact-checking program and otherwise reduce content moderation would open the floodgates to more climate misinformation on Meta’s apps, including misleading or out-of-context claims during disasters. Crowd-sourced debunking is no match for organized disinformation campaigns in the midst of information vacuums during a crisis. The conditions for the rapid and unchecked spread of misleading, and outright false, content could get worse with Meta’s content moderation policy and algorithmic changes.
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The World's Top Global Risk Is Misinformation and Disinformation: World Economic Forum
Mis- and disinformation have once again been named the top global risk of the immediate term in the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risks Report 2025. Disinformation is deeply insidious, destructive and rapidly evolving. It often comes hand-in-hand with its less malicious but equally destructive cousin, misinformation.
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The Dynamics That Polarize Us on Social Media Are About to Get Worse
Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced Facebook, Instagram and Threads, instead of relying on independent third-party factcheckers, will now emulate Elon Musk’s X in using “community notes.”But research shows that political polarization prevents community fact-checking from even occurring – and, what is worse, community-notes systems are vulnerable to manipulation by well organized groups, and foreign governments, with political agendas.
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What Meta’s Move to Community Moderation Could Mean for Misinformation
Achieving the right balance between protecting free speech and ensuring the integrity of information is a complex challenge. Meta’s shift from professional factchecking to crowdsourced community moderation risks undermining this balance by amplifying the spread of disinformation and hateful speech. Free expression without proper safeguards can enable the unchecked proliferation of harmful content, including conspiracy theories, hate speech and medical misinformation.
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Meta to Move Content Moderators to Texas as Part of Plan to End Fact-Checking Program
The tech giant’s decision to end the program comes as CEO Mark Zuckerberg seeks to mend ties with the incoming Trump administration.
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Cartels Turn to Social Media to Lure Americans into Human Smuggling as Texas Enforces Stricter Laws
Thousands of people have been arrested under Texas’ human smuggling law. Now they face at least a decade in prison under sentencing guidelines that took effect this year.
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The long view
Political Violence Offers Extremist “Trigger Events” for Recruiting Supporters
Extremists are exploiting political violence by using online platforms to recruit new people to their causes and amplify the use of violence for political goals. High-profile incidents of political violence are useful trigger events for justifying extremist ideologies and calls for retaliation.
Fake survey Answers from AI Could Quietly Sway Election Predictions
Public opinion polls and other surveys rely on data to understand human behavior. New research reveals that artificial intelligence can now corrupt public opinion surveys at scale—passing every quality check, mimicking real humans, and manipulating results without leaving a trace.