Dr. Wilson will discuss the role of Russian coordinated disinformation operations online both around the world and in particular those targeted at the United States. Over the last decade, the growth of social media has gone hand in hand with increasing offensive operations on those platforms originating from within Russia. These operations have experimented with a variety of approaches designed to spread false information, sway close elections, destroy confidence in news media, and increase polarization by exploiting existing political fault lines such as race and regionalism. Dr. Wilson will present what we know about the characteristics and goals of past operations such as those during the 2016 American presidential elections, what we might expect from future operations, and present new data from the Digital Society Project further detailing the nature of these operations around the world.
