Graphika

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Graphika is an American social network analysis company known for tracking online disinformation. [1] [2] It was established in 2013. [3]

Contents

History

Graphika was founded in 2013 by John Kelly, a computational social scientist with a PhD from Columbia University. [3] It is based in New York. [4]

Graphika has identified disinformation campaigns by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll farm, targeting voters in the 2016 and 2020 United States presidential elections and the 2022 elections. [5] [6] [7] It has also uncovered Chinese-linked disinformation campaigns, such as a network of fake social media accounts promoting misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines in 2020 [8] and deepfake news anchors promoting pro-China propaganda in 2023. [9]

In 2023, Graphika identified an influence operation targeting voters in the 2024 Taiwanese presidential election. [10] In 2024, it traced the creation of deepfake pornographic images of Taylor Swift back to a 4chan community. [11]

Operation

Graphika says it relies on artificial intelligence to analyze online communities and identify coordinated operations. [12]

Graphika works with companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter. [1] [3] It has stated that it provides intelligence to the companies it works with, so that they can make their own strategic decisions. [3]

Related Research Articles

Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic deceptions and media manipulation tactics to advance political, military, or commercial goals. Disinformation is implemented through attacks that "weaponize multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value judgements—to exploit and amplify culture wars and other identity-driven controversies."

<i>The Epoch Times</i> Far-right media company affiliated with Falun Gong

The Epoch Times is a far-right international multi-language newspaper and media company affiliated with the Falun Gong new religious movement. The newspaper, based in New York City, is part of the Epoch Media Group, which also operates New Tang Dynasty (NTD) Television. The Epoch Times has websites in 35 countries but is blocked in mainland China.

Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. Misinformation can exist without specific malicious intent; disinformation is distinct in that it is deliberately deceptive and propagated. Misinformation can include inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or false information as well as selective or half-truths.

State-sponsored Internet propaganda is Internet manipulation and propaganda that is sponsored by a state.

Fake news websites are websites on the Internet that deliberately publish fake news—hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation purporting to be real news—often using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect. Unlike news satire, fake news websites deliberately seek to be perceived as legitimate and taken at face value, often for financial or political gain. Such sites have promoted political falsehoods in India, Germany, Indonesia and the Philippines, Sweden, Mexico, Myanmar, and the United States. Many sites originate in, or are promoted by, Russia, or North Macedonia among others. Some media analysts have seen them as a threat to democracy. In 2016, the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a resolution warning that the Russian government was using "pseudo-news agencies" and Internet trolls as disinformation propaganda to weaken confidence in democratic values.

The Gateway Pundit (TGP) is an American far-right fake news website. The website is known for publishing falsehoods, hoaxes, and conspiracy theories.

Internet manipulation is the co-optation of online digital technologies, including algorithms, social bots, and automated scripts, for commercial, social, military, or political purposes. Internet and social media manipulation are the prime vehicles for spreading disinformation due to the importance of digital platforms for media consumption and everyday communication. When employed for political purposes, internet manipulation may be used to steer public opinion, polarise citizens, circulate conspiracy theories, and silence political dissidents. Internet manipulation can also be done for profit, for instance, to harm corporate or political adversaries and improve brand reputation. Internet manipulation is sometimes also used to describe the selective enforcement of Internet censorship or selective violations of net neutrality.

Deepfakes are synthetic media that have been digitally manipulated to replace one person's likeness convincingly with that of another. It can also refer to computer-generated images of human subjects that do not exist in real life. While the act of creating fake content is not new, deepfakes leverage tools and techniques from machine learning and artificial intelligence, including facial recognition algorithms and artificial neural networks such as variational autoencoders (VAEs) and generative adversarial networks (GANs). In turn the field of image forensics develops techniques to detect manipulated images.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian interference in the 2020 United States elections</span>

Russian interference in the 2020 United States elections was a matter of concern at the highest level of national security within the United States government, in addition to the computer and social media industries. In 2020, the RAND Corporation was one of the first to release research describing Russia's playbook for interfering in U.S. elections, developed machine-learning tools to detect the interference, and tested strategies to counter Russian interference. In February and August 2020, United States Intelligence Community (USIC) experts warned members of Congress that Russia was interfering in the 2020 presidential election in then-President Donald Trump's favor. USIC analysis released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in March 2021 found that proxies of Russian intelligence promoted and laundered misleading or unsubstantiated narratives about Joe Biden "to US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, including some close to former President Trump and his administration." The New York Times reported in May 2021 that federal investigators in Brooklyn began a criminal investigation late in the Trump administration into possible efforts by several current and former Ukrainian officials to spread unsubstantiated allegations about corruption by Joe Biden, including whether they had used Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani as a channel.

Yonder, formerly named New Knowledge, was a company from Austin, Texas, that specialized in information integrity. It is most widely known for supporting the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. The company was also involved in a disinformation operation during the 2017 US Senate special election in Alabama, though the company denied any political motivation behind its research. More recently, Yonder's CEO and researchers have provided expert commentary to the New York Times, Fast Company, and Axios about 5G and COVID-19 misinformation.

Deepfake pornography, or simply fake pornography, is a type of synthetic porn that is created via altering already-existing pornographic material by applying deepfake technology to the faces of the actors. The use of deepfake porn has sparked controversy because it involves the making and sharing of realistic videos featuring non-consenting individuals, typically female celebrities, and is sometimes used for revenge porn. Efforts are being made to combat these ethical concerns through legislation and technology-based solutions.

Peace Data or PeaceData is a fake news website run by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian outlet connected to the country's government, which publishes in English and Arabic.

Disinformation attacks are strategic deception campaigns involving media manipulation and internet manipulation, to disseminate misleading information, aiming to confuse, paralyze, and polarize an audience. Disinformation can be considered an attack when it occurs as an adversarial narrative campaign that weaponizes multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value-laden judgements—to exploit and amplify identity-driven controversies. Disinformation attacks use media manipulation to target broadcast media like state-sponsored TV channels and radios. Due to the increasing use of internet manipulation on social media, they can be considered a cyber threat. Digital tools such as bots, algorithms, and AI technology, along with human agents including influencers, spread and amplify disinformation to micro-target populations on online platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Google, Facebook, and YouTube.

The Trusted News Initiative (TNI) is an international alliance of news media, social media and technology corporations which claim to be working to identify and combat purported disinformation about national elections, the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 vaccines. TNI was founded by Jessica Cecil, a leadership figure at the BBC who also serves as the initiative's director.

Foreign rivals of the United States, mainly Russia and China, have attempted to weaken American race relations as a geopolitical strategy. This manipulation is primarily done through misinformation posted on social media, targeting mainly African-Americans and Asian-Americans. Russia's social media campaign was thought to have affected the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The practice can be traced back to propaganda efforts of the Soviet Union's Comintern in the 1920s.

In late January 2024, sexually explicit AI-generated deepfake images of American musician Taylor Swift were proliferated on social media platforms 4chan and X. The images led Microsoft to enhance Microsoft Designer's text-to-image model to prevent future abuse. Several artificial images of Swift of a sexual or violent nature were quickly spread, with one post reported to have been seen over 47 million times before its eventual removal. These images prompted responses from anti sexual assault advocacy groups, US politicians, Swift's fans, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, among others, and it has been suggested that Swift's influence could result in new legislation regarding the creation of deepfake pornography.

As artificial intelligence (AI) has become more mainstream, there is growing concern about how this will influence elections. Potential targets of AI include election processes, election offices, election officials and election vendors.

References

  1. 1 2 Melendez, Steven (March 9, 2021). "How Graphika fights misinformation by tracking it across social media". Fast Company . Archived from the original on July 3, 2023. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
  2. ↑ "TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2023: Graphika". Time . 2023-06-21. Archived from the original on 2023-12-09. Retrieved 2024-02-10.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Murphy, Margi (April 24, 2023). "These Online Detectives Have Raised $300 Million to Keep Lies From Triggering the Next Bank Run". Bloomberg News . Archived from the original on 24 April 2023. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  4. ↑ "China's deepfake anchors spread disinformation on social media, Graphika says". Radio Free Asia . Archived from the original on 2024-01-16. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  5. ↑ Timberg, Craig; Romm, Tony (2018-12-17). "New report on Russian disinformation, prepared for the Senate, shows the operation's scale and sweep". The Washington Post . ISSN   0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2024-03-10. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  6. ↑ Wong, Julia Carrie (2019-10-21). "Facebook discloses operations by Russia and Iran to meddle in 2020 election". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2024-01-23. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  7. ↑ Sabin, Sam (November 4, 2022). "Russian-linked disinformation is targeting far-right voters: Report". Axios . Archived from the original on September 27, 2023. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  8. ↑ "Chinese Spam Network Aims to Discredit U.S. COVID Vaccine". PBS Frontline . Archived from the original on 2024-01-16. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  9. ↑ "Deepfake 'news anchors' in pro-China footage: research". France 24 . 2023-02-08. Archived from the original on 2024-03-12. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  10. ↑ Bond, Shannon (December 13, 2023). "Fake social media accounts are targeting Taiwan's presidential election". NPR . Archived from the original on February 29, 2024. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  11. ↑ Belanger, Ashley (2024-02-05). "4chan daily challenge sparked deluge of explicit AI Taylor Swift images". Ars Technica . Archived from the original on 2024-02-09. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  12. ↑ Smalley, Suzanne (2022-10-21). "Is a more collaborative approach the answer to fighting global disinformation?". CyberScoop. Archived from the original on 2023-12-07. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
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