Democratic Processes

🗞️ Great 150-page report by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung on #AI-Generated #Disinformation in Europe and Africa: Use Cases, Solutions and Transnational Learning, authored by Karen Allen, Africa expert & Christopher N. director of the cyberintelligence institute, Frankfurt 🇩🇪 🔹It analyses how the mechanisms, actors and impacts of AI-driven disinformation evolve across Europe & Africa & proposes strategies for mitigation and transnational cooperation. 🇪🇺- 🌍 Why focus on Europe and Africa? 🔹Because the African dimension is underexplored as most global discourse around AI & disinfo centers on Western democracies. The study aims at bridging a knowledge gap. And the dual-regional focus reflects the globalized nature of disinformation threats. 🤳🏻 Because they are 2️⃣ contrasting digital Ecosystems: Europe a more advanced digital infrastructure, established regulatory frameworks and stronger institutional capacity to respond to disinfo. Africa rapidly digitizing, but still facing infrastructure gaps, less media regulation, and higher vulnerability to foreign influence campaigns due to limited digital literacy and institutional resilience. 🛡️ Because both continents are targets of foreign disinformation campaigns as Russia and China test and adapt tactics across regions. And Africa is sometimes a testing ground for disinformation techniques that are later exported to European contexts. 🗳️ Because elections are common vulnerability & major concern and AI tools are used to manipulate public opinion, polarize societies, and discredit democratic institutions on both continents. 🤝🏻Because the comparative lens helps identify gaps in regulatory and technological responses and Europe and Africa have the opportunity to collaborate more closely through development aid, capacity-building, and cybersecurity partnerships. The report analyses the effects of Generative Artificial Intelligence on the spread of Disinformation : deepfakes, synthetic text, manipulated images.. 🔹It highlights differences and similarities of AI-generated disinformation in both continent 🔹it shows the impact of AI Disinformation on electoral processes as tailored content designed to manipulate voter perceptions and behaviors pose significant threats to electoral integrity. 🔹it looks at the emerging trends across both regions 🔹it identifies the key players behind AI Disinformation involved in disseminating AI-generated disinformation in both geographies 🇷🇺 Chapter 14 focuses on Russia’s use of genAI Disinformation in Europe and Africa, and the following one proposes case Studies of these Russian Actors 🔹Russia is highlighted as a prominent player among all State and non-State actors 👀 Enjoy the read & let’s increase collaboration between nations to develop effective strategies & frameworks to combat the spread of AI-generated disinformation!

"Disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining electoral integrity are expected to play an ever larger role in elections due to the increased availability of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools that can produce high-quality synthetic text, audio, images and videos and their potential for targeted personalization. As these campaigns become more sophisticated and manipulative, the foreseeable consequence is further erosion of trust in institutions and heightened disintegration of civic integrity, jeopardizing a host of human rights, including electoral rights and the right to freedom of thought. → These developments are occurring at a time when the companies that create the fabric of digital society should be investing heavily in, but instead are dismantling, the “integrity” or “trust and safety” teams that counter these threats. Policy makers must hold AI companies liable for the harms caused or facilitated by their products that could have been reasonably foreseen. They should act quickly to ban using AI to impersonate real people or organizations, and require the use of watermarking or other provenance tools to allow people to differentiate between AI-generated and authentic content." By David Evan Harris and Aaron Shull of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

Authoritarian regimes — Russia, China, Iran — have dramatically escalated hybrid warfare over the past decade. Every drone incursion, ransomware attack, and effort to manipulate information shares a unified purpose: eroding public trust in democratic institutions, dividing liberal societies, and weakening the international order. And it's working. In a new report "No Time to Lose: Liberal Democracies Can Win the Cognitive and Hybrid War Against Authoritarians" Sasha Havlicek, David Salvo, and Dr. Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven lay out why democratic governments' current response, largely reactive and fragmented across siloed ministries, is insufficient to the scale of the threat. Democracies have moved from ignoring the challenge to naming it. But naming it isn't enough. We must leverage democracies advantages to retake the strategic advantage. The authors offer three core recommendations: 👉 Establish a counter-hybrid doctrine — one that signals a genuine willingness to respond asymmetrically, develop offensive capabilities, and map adversaries' vulnerabilities, not just defend against them. 👉 Reorganize government to address hybrid threats holistically — appointing lead agencies, creating cross-domain intelligence coordination, and building informal "coalitions of the willing" outside traditional NATO/EU channels when necessary. 👉 Put strategic communications front and center — trumpeting defensive successes, making the human costs of hybrid attacks legible to citizens, and empowering trusted non-governmental voices (mayors, faith leaders, influencers) to build societal resilience. In 2026, the cognitive domain is the decisive battleground. Democracies have the tools to compete — but only if they treat this as the strategic challenge it is. Link to the full report (a quick 10 minute read) in comments and check out the briefer video below that I generated in NotebookLM. #DisinformationResearch #HybridWarfare #InformationIntegrity #FIMI #DemocraticResilience #StrategicCommunications

This year, through conversations with journalists, activists, creators, policy-designers and technologists about #deepfakes and #generativeAI, we've gained profound insights at WITNESS. In my latest piece for the Council on Foreign Relations, I share learnings based on our work with communities defending democracy at the frontlines, and I outline ways to safeguard #2024elections worldwide. 💡Bonus track 💡 ➡ Examples of how, with appropriate disclosure, generative AI can be used positively in the context of #elections. [Full text on link] The effects of synthetic media on #democracy are a mix of new, old, and borrowed challenges: 🆕 Inconvenient truths can be denied as deepfaked. The burden of proof, or perhaps more accurately, the “burden of truth” has shifted onto those circulating authentic content and holding the powerful to account. 🧓 AI deepens existing vulnerabilities, bringing a serious threat to principles of inclusivity and fairness that lie at the heart of democratic values. Non-consensual sexual deepfakes can have an additional chilling effect, eroding the diversity and representativeness that are essential for a healthy democracy. ♻ Much as with social media, where we failed to incorporate the voices of the global majority, we have borrowed previous mistakes. This highlights a crucial gap: the urgent need for a global perspective in AI governance, one that learns from the failures of social media in addressing cultural and political nuances across different societies. As two billion people around the world go to voting stations next year in fifty countries, there is a crucial question: how can we build resilience into our democracy in an era of audiovisual manipulation? A roadmap: 1️⃣ We must ensure that new AI regulations and companies’ policies are steeped in human rights law and principles, such as those enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the coming years, one of the most important areas in socio-technical expertise will be the ability to translate human rights protections into AI policies and legislation. 2️⃣ We should really ask, is it technological progress if it is not inclusive, if it reproduces a disadvantage? Technological advancement that leaves people behind is not true progress; it is an illusion of progress that perpetuates inequality and systems of oppression. In the current wave of excitement around generative AI, the voices of those protecting human rights at the frontlines have rarely been more vital. 3️⃣ The only way to align democratic values with technology goals is by both placing responsibility and establishing accountability across the whole information and AI ecosystem. Thanks to Kat Duffy and Kyle Fendorf for publishing the piece. https://lnkd.in/ewp8Sper #UDHR75 #UDHR

This week, I had the privilege of testifying before Congress on how combating financial crime is critical to safeguarding our elections and democracy. Foreign actors are exploiting vulnerabilities in our financial systems—using shell companies, crowdfunding platforms, and cryptocurrencies to fund election interference. These tactics aren’t just undermining democracy; they’re part of a broader epidemic of financial crime that cost Americans $12.5 billion in fraud losses last year alone and launders an estimated $2 trillion globally each year. Here’s what’s needed to close the gaps:  ✔️ Expand 314(b) protections: Include crowdfunding sites, FinTech platforms, and crypto exchanges, paired with safe harbor to encourage information sharing.  ✔️ Incentivize collaboration: Offer tax breaks or grants for financial institutions and tech companies that actively participate in sharing intelligence.  ✔️ Close regulatory gaps: Mandate AML and KYC compliance across emerging payment systems.  ✔️ Leverage advanced technology: Use AI to detect fraud while adopting privacy-preserving tools like fully homomorphic encryption. Solving financial crime doesn’t just protect consumers—it disrupts election interference and strengthens our democracy. Together, we can safeguard both our financial systems and electoral integrity. https://lnkd.in/eNxeQk6U 5OH Consulting LLC Christine O'Neill

Disrupting #FIMI: moving from reactive defence to strategic action The NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence’s #report, Counter-FIMI: The Case for Disrupting Hostile Actors, offers a timely assessment of how democracies can respond to Foreign #Information #Manipulation and #Interference. Key #takeaways: • Disruption should be part of the counter-FIMI toolkit, alongside situational awareness, societal resilience, communication and cooperation. • Evidence remains limited. Fact-checking, media literacy, pre-bunking and inoculation are comparatively well studied; the impact of most other interventions is still uncertain. • Tactical disruption including content moderation, deplatforming, algorithmic de-prioritisation and demonetisation can reduce the short-term spread of harmful content. • Strategic disruption such as sanctions, regulation and law enforcement targets the actors behind FIMI, raises operational costs and may strengthen deterrence. • Disruption rarely delivers a complete shutdown. Its more realistic value may be to slow operations, increase costs, force adaptation and make alternative targets more attractive. • Context is decisive. Attribution, proportionality, escalation risks, domestic political effects, legal constraints and freedom-of-expression concerns must be assessed before action. • No single actor can respond effectively alone. Governments, platforms, media, researchers and civil society need a coordinated, whole-of-society approach. • The foreign–domestic divide is often misleading. Foreign influence gains impact through interaction with domestic actors, narratives and information ecosystems. • The report’s PERSISTENCE framework helps decision-makers assess political, economic, regulatory, socio-cultural, technological and strategic factors before selecting an intervention. The central message: counter-FIMI should not focus only on removing content. It should combine evidence, cooperation and contextual judgement to protect information integrity while managing democratic and strategic risks. https://lnkd.in/eWFJUSfh

Cyber resilience in the age of AI is about making clear choices, what must not fail, where digital trust comes from, and how the state continues to function when something inevitably goes wrong. The real target is often not the system itself, but public trust. Cyber attacks, impersonation, disruption and information operations are increasingly used to make the state look slower, weaker or less reliable than it is. Every country thus needs to define its “Minimum Viable State” - the functions that must continue under sustained attack: identity, key registries, emergency services, financial settlement, critical infrastructure and constitutional continuity. Digital trust cannot be reinvented system by system. It has to be treated as national infrastructure: identity, signatures, authoritative registers, secure data exchange, audit logs and protected hosting. Transparency is not a weakness. In a democracy, telling the truth first is one of the most important defensive capabilities. Trust survives when failures are acknowledged quickly, explained clearly and investigated independently. The goal is not invulnerability. No digital state will prevent every incident. The goal is to make incidents non-decisive - so that services may have minor disruptions, but the state does not break, and citizens still trust that the system will hold.

Disinformation is a "wicked problem"—complex, multi-faceted, and challenging to counter without risking unintended consequences. Tackling it with a “do no harm” policy approach requires nuanced, adaptable strategies that respect freedom of expression and reinforce the foundations of democratic governance. In my mid-career Master’s in Public Policy at Princeton School of Public and International Affairs I've encountered this excellent Carnegie Endowment for International Peace policy guide. It offers actionable, balanced approaches based on evidence and case studies that can truly boost policy approaches to counter disinformation. 💡 Key strategies include: Empowering Local Journalism: When local news sources disappear, disinformation spreads like wildfire. Strengthening local journalism revives civic trust, keeps communities informed, and builds a first line of defense against disinformation. #DemocracyDiesInDarkness Building Media Literacy: Teaching critical media skills across communities and schools equips individuals to spot manipulation and build resilience against false information. Prioritizing Transparency with Fact-Checking: Going beyond labels, fact-checking that promotes transparency enables audiences to make informed choices, fostering trust without policing beliefs. Adjusting Algorithms & Limiting Microtargeting: Creating healthier online spaces by limiting microtargeted ads and rethinking algorithms reduces echo chambers while respecting autonomy. Counter-Messaging with Local Voices: Developing counter-messaging strategies that engage trusted community voices enables us to challenge false narratives effectively and authentically. These approaches are essential for defending open dialogue, strengthening governance, and supporting sustainable development. It's all hands on deck! https://lnkd.in/egKKmAqh 🌐 #Disinformation #DoNoHarm #LocalJournalism #FreedomOfExpression #PublicPolicy #CivicTrust cc Melissa Fleming Charlotte Scaddan Rosemary Kalapurakal Alice Harding Shackelford Roberto Valent Allegra Baiocchi (she/her/ella) Danilo Mora Carmen Lucia Morales Liliana Liliana Garavito George Gray Molina Marcos Neto Kersten Jauer

Critical Thinking to Safeguard Democracies. Addressing Deepfakes and AI powered Cyber Threats. As we think about Deepfakes and other AI powered risks, I continuously emphasise the need to think beyond scams and cyber attacks - as important as these are. AI with all its societal benefits and promise has also made it easier than ever to spread misinformation, tarnish images of public personalities, sow discord, and undermine trust in major institutions. As India - the world's largest democracy enters general election time, Microsoft has warned that other nations will look to leverage AI to disrupt and influence the outcomes. There was a test run of these capabilities performed during elections in Taiwan. While the reference articles talks about a specific country, the reality is we could see a lot of these activities take place across the world including here in Australia. I recently did a knowledge session as part of an international collaboration between 7 Rules Cyber and Khaitan Legal Associates to provide actionable advice and guidance on several AI-related threats, including deepfakes. I've a shared a link to the full discussion in comments. The role of human critical thinking will become more important than ever before. We can empower critical thinking through evolving our security awareness training beyond the same old generic content. We also need to equip citizens with the skills to critically evaluate online content, especially during elections. Encouraging fact-checking, source verification, and healthy skepticism towards sensational claims. Some additional tips: Check the source: Where did the information originate? Is it a reputable news source or a random social media account? Look for inconsistencies: Does the person in the video or audio sound slightly off? Does their body language seem unnatural? Are there any lighting or background inconsistencies? Consider the timing: Is the information being released to coincide with a specific event or agenda? Beware of emotional manipulation: Deepfakes often trigger strong emotions like fear or anger. Take a step back and assess the situation with a cool head. Don't share blindly: Fact-check information before sharing it on social media. Sharing misleading content can amplify its reach. I highly encourage you to check out the YouTube Link in comments for a deeper dive on this issue. Links to articles from NDTV and Guardian are also provided in comments as references. #cybersecurity