Digital Forensic Research Lab

An examination of China’s online and offline channels for the dissemination of “discourse power” and the mechanisms of oversight on which such communications rely.

A look at West Africa’s information environment, with particular emphasis on local and international disinformation campaigns targeting the region and beyond.

The CCP has embarked on a concerted strategy to gain control over the global digital and information environment. Its goal: create an alternative global order with China at its heart.

An overview of China’s discourse power activities in the Global South, including the regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. It outlines the processes through which China leverages its diplomatic, media, and political positions in these regions to gain influence, and assesses the impacts of these activities for democratic resilience worldwide.

In the weeks and months leading up to Russia invading Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Kremlin and pro-Kremlin media employed false and misleading narratives to justify military action against Ukraine, mask the Kremlin’s operational planning, and deny any responsibility for the coming war. Dive into a full accounting of the road to war.

From the very start of the war, the Kremlin emphasized demoralizing Ukrainian audiences and destroying their will to fight. Building on daily monitoring of the Kremlin media ecosystem, this report analyzes Russia’s attempts to undermine Ukraine by targeting local, regional, and global audiences since February 2022.

A joint report that reveals how the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) has significant investments in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where indigenous peoples have been subjected to what international legislators, legal scholars, and advocates have determined to be a genocide.

This report by the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) provides an overview and analysis of the shifts observed in domestic extremist movements since the 2021 Capitol attack.

A joint report from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab and Europe Center on the policy measures government and private sector can take against foreign information manipulation.

A 16-month monitoring report that analyzes the information environment in Venezuela, exploring the Maduro regime’s tactics when promoting influence operations in the country and abroad.

A technical analysis of how various online actors, both foreign and domestic, attempted to manipulate public opinion and influence the recent Georgian parliamentary election results.

A joint research project from the Digital Forensic Research Lab and the Associate Press on information environments during the first six months of COVID-19.

A series of reports on countering Chinese disinformation campaigns around the globe from the Digital Forensic Research Lab and Asia Security Initiative, housed in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.

A Russian-based information operation used fake accounts, forged documents, and dozens of online platforms to spread stories.

This report offers a record of serial violations of international norms and a basis for holding the perpetrators accountable for their atrocities.

The DFRLab’s report captures the final months of the breaking of Aleppo using innovative open source methodologies and geolocation analysis.

Using digital forensic research and open source investigation methods, Distract Deceive Destroy presents the reality of Russia’s Syrian campaign.

Drawing upon open source information, Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin’s War in Ukraine provides irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine.