Subject: Fwd: Case studies for Tomorrow's Launch
From: "Ken Wollack" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2017 16:25:16 -0400

One write up from our disinformation event today.  It focuses on Ukraine.

Best,

Ken

Kenneth Wollack
President
National Democratic Institute
455 Massachusetts Ave., NW, 8th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
202-728-5500 (Tel)
888-875-2887 (Fax)
email: [email-masked]
website: www.ndi.org

In Russia’s shadow, the decades-old nightmare of hackers stopping the gears
of modern society has become a reality in Ukraine, Andy Greenberg writes
for Wired <https://www.wired.com/story/russian-hackers-attack-ukraine>…..

Ukraine is the most advanced case of concern
<http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/2017/06/19/computational-propaganda-in-ukraine-caught-between-external-threats-and-internal-challenges/>
over Russia’s use of information warfare, where the Kremlin’s goal is “to
confuse and engender apathy,” a Washington forum
<https://www.ndi.org/disinfoweek-computational-propaganda-worldwide-dc-briefing>
heard today…..Russia was ahead of the game in recognizing and
operationalizing this terrain, and the Kremlin developed its information
warfare capacity in order to undermine a vibrant, pro-democratic domestic
blogosphere before going transnational, said researcher Philip N. Howard
<http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/the-team/research/philip-n-howard/>  from
the Oxford
Internet Institute <https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/>’s Computational Propaganda
Lab <http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/>. Civil society groups in Ukraine
<http://www.ned.org/region/central-and-eastern-europe/ukraine-2016/>are
struggling to respond to the threat although many have been very creative,
developing their own bots, for example, he told a meeting at the National
Democratic Institute <https://www.ndi.org/>.

Social media tools and techniques for shaping public opinion have been
“metastasizing”, said NDI President Ken Wollack. He called for more data
and analysis, a greater sense of urgency from policy-makers, and more
collaboration between government, civil society and the private sector,
adding that NDI has maintained a presence in Silicon Valley since 2013….RTWT
<http://www.demdigest.org/russias-test-lab-cyberwar-social-media-democratize-propaganda/>
.

Michael Allen

Special Assistant, Government Relations and Public Affairs

Editor, Democracy Digest

National Endowment for Democracy

1025 F Street, N.W., Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20004

[email-masked] I 202-378-9606 <(202)%20378-9607>

www.ned.org I Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/National.Endowment.for.Democracy/> I Twitter
<https://twitter.com/nedemocracy> I YouTube
<https://www.youtube.com/user/nedontheweb>

www.demdigest.net I Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/demdigest>

*From:* Ken Wollack [mailto:[email-masked]]
*Sent:* Monday, June 19, 2017 12:55 PM
*To:* [email-masked]
*Subject:* Case studies for Tomorrow's Launch

Given the discussion at the last Board meeting, I thought you would want to
have more information on tomorrow's event at 8:30 am at the NDI offices
here in Washington.

The nine case studies that will be launch at the NDI event with Oxford
Internet Institute's Project on Algorithms, Computational Propaganda, and
Digital Politics
<https://www.ndi.org/disinfoweek-computational-propaganda-worldwide-dc-briefing>
can be found here <http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/>.  The full executive
summary can be found here
<http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2017/06/Casestudies-ExecutiveSummary.pdf>,
the US case study here
<http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2017/06/Comprop-USA.pdf>,
and the Russia case study here
<http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2017/06/Comprop-Russia.pdf>.

For those that are more inclined to video, Phil Howard, who, along with Sam
Woolley, will be presenting some of the data from the case studies
tomorrow, gave his inaugural lecture at Oxford on June 15th, with the
title:  Is Social Media Killing Democracy? Computational Propaganda,
Algorithms, Automation and Public Life
<https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/videos/is-social-media-killing-democracy-computational-propaganda-algorithms-automation-and-public-life/>.
  It is an Oxford inaugural lecture, replete with a beadle escorting Phil
in white tie --- rather than a TED talk, and doesn't get into bots and the
US elections until almost 20 minutes in, but useful as well.   Abstract of
the Talk:

* The design and implementation of social media platforms has put several
advanced democracies into a kind of democratic deficit. First, social
algorithms allow fake news stories from untrustworthy sources to spread
like wildfire over networks of family and friends. Second, social media
algorithms provide very real structure to what political scientists often
call “elective affinity” or “selective exposure”. We prefer to strengthen
our ties to the people and organizations we already know and like. Third,
technology companies, including Facebook and Twitter, have been given a
moral pass on the normative obligations for democratic discourse that we
hold journalists and civil society groups to. *

With best regards,

Ken

​Kenneth Wollack

President
National Democratic Institute
455 Massachusetts Ave., NW, 8th Floor
Washington, DC 20001

202-728-5500 <(202)%20728-5500> (Tel)
888-875-2887 <(888)%20875-2887> (Fax)
email: [email-masked]
website: www.ndi.or