• Priority Area Multidisciplinary Investigations on Disinformation in Europe
• Year 2024, 2025
• Country Netherlands, Poland
• Project Status Ongoing

The project ANTI-DOX addresses Russian disinformation targeting European citizens aiding Ukraine. This disinformation, spread via social media channels, doxes individuals, framing them as extremists to undermine European support for Ukraine and endanger their safety.

The project’s primary goal is to expose and mitigate the effects of this disinformation campaign. It will achieve this by reaching its two central objectives, each focused on one stage of the “disinformation-life cycle”: (1) mapping and analysing the doxing networks ; (2) showcase the harms resulting from being doxed and promote countermeasures.

Led by the think-and-do tank International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT), the project is multidisciplinary, integrating its researchers with fact-checkers and journalists from Fundacja Reporterów (FR), a leading hub of independent investigative journalists. Their mixed-method approach includes investigating the online doxing operation, analysing its discourse and network, and assessing the offline harms through interviews with targeted individuals. Drawing on this, ICCT and FR will produce research and investigative outputs to inform and alert the public and policymakers, and will engage stakeholders in workshops and individual briefings organised across Europe. Specifically, the project engages three main target audiences:

(1) fact-checkers and the broader disinformation-tracking community;

(2) European decision-makers;

(3) the general public.

The added value of this project is in offering novel insight into and strengthening the evidence base regarding disinformation in Europe. It enhances European citizens’ safety by exposing and mitigating such disinformation campaigns supported by malign state actors – namely Russia. By mapping the doxing operation’s scale and analyzing its impact, the project contributes to a deeper understanding of disinformation dynamics and supports the development of robust policy responses.