• Priority Area Multidisciplinary Investigations on Disinformation in Europe
• Year 2023, 2024
• Country United Kingdom
• Project Status Ongoing

This collaboration between the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) and CASM will explore pro-Kremlin ecosystems in three EU countries: France, Germany, and Italy. Its previous research into ‘hybrid threats’ has shown that pro-Kremlin messaging has infiltrated a wide array of European online communities, helped by backlashes to COVID-19 measures. These clandestine campaigns undermine trust, exacerbate divisions, and foment backlash against vulnerable communities. Exposing these tactics is vital.

The project focuses on conspiracist and extremist (C&E) narratives and communities as conduits for pro-Kremlin messages within France, Germany, and Italy. It will analyse trends in key C&E narratives and actors following the Ukraine invasion, assessing how they involve both coordinated and organic activity, to understand pro-Kremlin tactics, techniques, and protocols (TTPs).

Project’s methods combine ISD’s disinformation expertise and CASM’s technical proficiency, including Beam technology for analysing the flow of narratives and actors across multiple online spaces. Beam allows subject matter experts to flexibly deploy natural language processing and network analytics to investigate online threats at scale. Initial seed material of content and actors linked to harmful online activity will be expanded, using Beam, into an architecture focused on detecting a wider array of related accounts, narratives and communities. It will trace sharing of content, accounts, narratives, and behaviours across diverse communities and languages, to visualise the spread and potential coordination of messaging. Target groups are fact-checking, educational, and media organisations building resilience against false and misleading information within Europe.

Knowledge-sharing activities based on findings will help these organisations address vulnerabilities and Kremlin tactics, strengthening defences against pro-Kremlin disinformation in Europe.