May 14, 2019 Citizen Lab annouces fining Endless Mayfly is an Iran-aligned network of inauthentic personas and social media accounts that spreads falsehoods and amplifies narratives critical of Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Israel and privately and publicly engage journalists, political dissidents, and activists.
*Sources
An Iranian Disinformation Operation Impersonated Dozens Of Media Outlets To Spread Fake Articles
BuzzFeed News
The Telltale Signs of a Fake Atlantic Article
The Atlantic
How Pro-Iran Hackers Spoofed FP and the News Media
Foreign Policy
How to Spot Iran's Fake-News Disinformation Campaign - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/...irans...disinformation.../589438/ May 15, 2019
The disinformation project put out 160 articles that targeted 20 .There is a very small chance that you came across what appeared to be an Atlantic article about the war in Yemen in September 2017. The author, according to the byline, was Aria Bendix, a regular global-news writer. Every link in the story went to other Atlantic stories. It even included the module shilling lowbrow content slurry that used to appear on Atlantic articles, at the bottom of the page.... looking at a counterfeit story, produced as part of a global disinformation campaign that was recently unearthed by researchers at Citizen Lab, at the University of Toronto. But that’s what it was, one of many such inauthentic articles created by an ongoing campaign called Endless Mayfly, which Citizen Lab describes as “an Iran-aligned network of inauthentic websites and online personas used to spread false and divisive information primarily targeting Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Israel” in a new report published Tuesday. The disinformation project put out 160 articles that targeted 20 legitimate news organizations, including The Atlantic, The Guardian, and The Globe and Mail. ... pushed by a network of Twitter bots.
An Iranian Disinformation Operation Impersonated Dozens Of Media Outlets To Spread Fake Articles
BuzzFeed News
The Telltale Signs of a Fake Atlantic Article
The Atlantic
How Pro-Iran Hackers Spoofed FP and the News Media
Foreign Policy
How to Spot Iran's Fake-News Disinformation Campaign - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/...irans...disinformation.../589438/ May 15, 2019
The disinformation project put out 160 articles that targeted 20 .There is a very small chance that you came across what appeared to be an Atlantic article about the war in Yemen in September 2017. The author, according to the byline, was Aria Bendix, a regular global-news writer. Every link in the story went to other Atlantic stories. It even included the module shilling lowbrow content slurry that used to appear on Atlantic articles, at the bottom of the page.... looking at a counterfeit story, produced as part of a global disinformation campaign that was recently unearthed by researchers at Citizen Lab, at the University of Toronto. But that’s what it was, one of many such inauthentic articles created by an ongoing campaign called Endless Mayfly, which Citizen Lab describes as “an Iran-aligned network of inauthentic websites and online personas used to spread false and divisive information primarily targeting Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Israel” in a new report published Tuesday. The disinformation project put out 160 articles that targeted 20 legitimate news organizations, including The Atlantic, The Guardian, and The Globe and Mail. ... pushed by a network of Twitter bots.
Directly, it seems highly unlikely. But on three occasions, legitimate news organizations—Reuters, Le Soir, and Haaretz—picked up a fake story and ran with it. In the Reuters case, this led to a burst of attention from other sites before a retraction was published.
An Iranian Disinformation Operation Impersonated Media Outlets To ...
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/iran-disinformation-campaign May 14, 2019
An Iranian Disinformation Operation Impersonated Dozens Of Media ... that the network is tied to actors in Iran after analyzing domains, articles, ...Since early 2016, the operation published 135 fabricated articles on websites designed to mimic outlets such as the Guardian, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, the Independent, the Atlantic, and Politico. In one example, a fake article claiming that six Arab nations called on FIFA to strip Qatar of its role as host of the 2022 World Cup was covered by Reuters, which caused other outlets to spread the disinformation. Reuters retracted its story once it realized the information originated on a website that had impersonated a real Swiss news outlet, but some of the false stories from other outlets remain online.... It remains unknown who led and executed the disinformation operation, which Citizen Lab dubbed “Endless Mayfly.” example, BuzzFeed News investigated a false article from a site that impersonated the Guardian and found that it had quickly gained traction in Russian media... Russian disinformation isn’t the only game in
Citizen Lab began researching what became Endless Mayfly in April 2017 after an article hosted on the spoofed domain independent.co.ukuk was posted to Reddit. ...copied the design of the real Independent, a UK news outlet. Over time, the researchers tracked 11 fake Twitter personas used in the operation. “The personas created by Endless Mayfly were typically thin, with limited depth beyond a Twitter bio and a history of tweeting on a narrow band of topics. Personas included fake students, journalists, and activists,” the report says. fake articles on spoofed websites were often deleted after they gained traction on social media. 2017 it shifted away from creating spoofed domains of legitimate media outlets to host false articles. Instead, it used fake Twitter personas to publish articles on websites that allow members of the public to post content, such as Medium and BuzzFeed. placed a false story in the Community section of buzzfeed.com. falsely claimed that six Arab nations had told FIFA they object to Qatar hosting the 2022 World Cup. The post was removed when BuzzFeed News learned of its existence after receiving an advance copy of the Citizen Lab report. ... lab had found information linking Endless Mayfly to Iran during its investigation, but important new evidence came in in August 2018. That month Facebook and cybersecurity firm FireEye announced they had identified a network of social media accounts and websites that were part of an Iranian information operation.... had also been used to help amplify Endless Mayfly content, ... citing “state-sponsored activity” and “coordinated manipulation.”
Fake news network of sites with names like 'Bloomberq' linked to Iran ...
https://www.businessinsider.com/fake-news-network-of-sites-with-names-like-bloomb...
Researchers at the Citizen Lab research group uncovered a vast disinformation network which they say is being backed by Iran. The network — dubbed Endless ...
Iran linked to internet disinformation, fake news: Canadian report ...
https://globalnews.ca/news/5274153/iran-disinformation-fake-news/
The campaign is another indication of how online disinformation is being tested by countries well beyond Russia,
Report: Iran-linked disinformation effort had personal touch - AP News
https://www.apnews.com/88fb755cfa0448c99d4b753d3ae5d4d9
Report: Iran-linked disinformation effort had personal touch ... at seeding anti-Saudi, anti-Israel and anti-American stories across the internet.
Special Report: How Iran spreads disinformation around the world ...
https://www.reuters.com/...iran.../special-report-how-iran-spreads-disinformation-arou...
Nov 30, 2018 - Reuters could not determine whether the Iranian government is ... from an Iranian state TV network article published earlier the same day.
How Pro-Iran Hackers Spoofed FP and the News Media – Foreign Policy
https://foreignpolicy.com/.../how-pro-iran-hackers-spoofed-fp-and-the-news-media/
But that article was a forgery, an impersonation created by an Iran-linked disinformation network aimed at discrediting Tehran's rivals in an ...
Burned After Reading: Endless Mayfly's Ephemeral ... - Citizen Lab
https://citizenlab.ca/.../burned-after-reading-endless-mayflys-ephemeral-disinformatio...
By Gabrielle Lim, Etienne Maynier, John Scott-Railton, Alberto Fittarelli, Ned Moran, and Ron Deibert May 14, 2019
Key Findings
Endless Mayfly is an Iran-aligned network of inauthentic personas and social media accounts that spreads falsehoods and amplifies narratives critical of Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Israel.
Endless Mayfly publishes divisive content on websites that impersonate legitimate media outlets. Inauthentic personas are then used to amplify the content into social media conversations. In some cases, these personas also privately and publicly engage journalists, political dissidents, and activists.
Once Endless Mayfly content achieves social media traction, it is deleted and the links are redirected to the domain being impersonated. This technique creates an appearance of legitimacy, while obscuring the origin of the false narrative. We call this technique “ephemeral disinformation”.
Our investigation identifies cases where Endless Mayfly content led to incorrect media reporting and caused confusion among journalists, and accusations of intentional wrongdoing. Even in cases where stories were later debunked, confusion remained about the intentions and origins behind the stories.
Despite extensive exposure of Endless Mayfly’s activity by established news outlets and research organizations, the network is still active, albeit with some shifts in tactics.
Summary
On November 5, 2018, Ali Al-Ahmed, a Washington-based expert in terrorism in the Gulf states and a vocal critic of Saudi Arabia, received a direct message on Twitter from “Mona A. Rahman” (@Mona_ARahman). After engaging in some polite conversation in Arabic with Al-Ahmed, “Mona” shared what appeared to be an article from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center (see Figure 1). The article contained a purported quote from former Mossad director Tamir Pardo, alleging that former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman had been dismissed by Netanyahu for being a Russian agent. These allegations, if true, might reasonably be expected to strain relations between Russia and Israel.
An Iranian Disinformation Operation Impersonated Media Outlets To ...
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/iran-disinformation-campaign May 14, 2019
An Iranian Disinformation Operation Impersonated Dozens Of Media ... that the network is tied to actors in Iran after analyzing domains, articles, ...Since early 2016, the operation published 135 fabricated articles on websites designed to mimic outlets such as the Guardian, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, the Independent, the Atlantic, and Politico. In one example, a fake article claiming that six Arab nations called on FIFA to strip Qatar of its role as host of the 2022 World Cup was covered by Reuters, which caused other outlets to spread the disinformation. Reuters retracted its story once it realized the information originated on a website that had impersonated a real Swiss news outlet, but some of the false stories from other outlets remain online.... It remains unknown who led and executed the disinformation operation, which Citizen Lab dubbed “Endless Mayfly.” example, BuzzFeed News investigated a false article from a site that impersonated the Guardian and found that it had quickly gained traction in Russian media... Russian disinformation isn’t the only game in
Citizen Lab began researching what became Endless Mayfly in April 2017 after an article hosted on the spoofed domain independent.co.ukuk was posted to Reddit. ...copied the design of the real Independent, a UK news outlet. Over time, the researchers tracked 11 fake Twitter personas used in the operation. “The personas created by Endless Mayfly were typically thin, with limited depth beyond a Twitter bio and a history of tweeting on a narrow band of topics. Personas included fake students, journalists, and activists,” the report says. fake articles on spoofed websites were often deleted after they gained traction on social media. 2017 it shifted away from creating spoofed domains of legitimate media outlets to host false articles. Instead, it used fake Twitter personas to publish articles on websites that allow members of the public to post content, such as Medium and BuzzFeed. placed a false story in the Community section of buzzfeed.com. falsely claimed that six Arab nations had told FIFA they object to Qatar hosting the 2022 World Cup. The post was removed when BuzzFeed News learned of its existence after receiving an advance copy of the Citizen Lab report. ... lab had found information linking Endless Mayfly to Iran during its investigation, but important new evidence came in in August 2018. That month Facebook and cybersecurity firm FireEye announced they had identified a network of social media accounts and websites that were part of an Iranian information operation.... had also been used to help amplify Endless Mayfly content, ... citing “state-sponsored activity” and “coordinated manipulation.”
Fake news network of sites with names like 'Bloomberq' linked to Iran ...
https://www.businessinsider.com/fake-news-network-of-sites-with-names-like-bloomb...
Researchers at the Citizen Lab research group uncovered a vast disinformation network which they say is being backed by Iran. The network — dubbed Endless ...
Iran linked to internet disinformation, fake news: Canadian report ...
https://globalnews.ca/news/5274153/iran-disinformation-fake-news/
The campaign is another indication of how online disinformation is being tested by countries well beyond Russia,
Report: Iran-linked disinformation effort had personal touch - AP News
https://www.apnews.com/88fb755cfa0448c99d4b753d3ae5d4d9
Report: Iran-linked disinformation effort had personal touch ... at seeding anti-Saudi, anti-Israel and anti-American stories across the internet.
Special Report: How Iran spreads disinformation around the world ...
https://www.reuters.com/...iran.../special-report-how-iran-spreads-disinformation-arou...
Nov 30, 2018 - Reuters could not determine whether the Iranian government is ... from an Iranian state TV network article published earlier the same day.
How Pro-Iran Hackers Spoofed FP and the News Media – Foreign Policy
https://foreignpolicy.com/.../how-pro-iran-hackers-spoofed-fp-and-the-news-media/
But that article was a forgery, an impersonation created by an Iran-linked disinformation network aimed at discrediting Tehran's rivals in an ...
Burned After Reading: Endless Mayfly's Ephemeral ... - Citizen Lab
https://citizenlab.ca/.../burned-after-reading-endless-mayflys-ephemeral-disinformatio...
By Gabrielle Lim, Etienne Maynier, John Scott-Railton, Alberto Fittarelli, Ned Moran, and Ron Deibert May 14, 2019
Key Findings
Endless Mayfly is an Iran-aligned network of inauthentic personas and social media accounts that spreads falsehoods and amplifies narratives critical of Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Israel.
Endless Mayfly publishes divisive content on websites that impersonate legitimate media outlets. Inauthentic personas are then used to amplify the content into social media conversations. In some cases, these personas also privately and publicly engage journalists, political dissidents, and activists.
Once Endless Mayfly content achieves social media traction, it is deleted and the links are redirected to the domain being impersonated. This technique creates an appearance of legitimacy, while obscuring the origin of the false narrative. We call this technique “ephemeral disinformation”.
Our investigation identifies cases where Endless Mayfly content led to incorrect media reporting and caused confusion among journalists, and accusations of intentional wrongdoing. Even in cases where stories were later debunked, confusion remained about the intentions and origins behind the stories.
Despite extensive exposure of Endless Mayfly’s activity by established news outlets and research organizations, the network is still active, albeit with some shifts in tactics.
Summary
On November 5, 2018, Ali Al-Ahmed, a Washington-based expert in terrorism in the Gulf states and a vocal critic of Saudi Arabia, received a direct message on Twitter from “Mona A. Rahman” (@Mona_ARahman). After engaging in some polite conversation in Arabic with Al-Ahmed, “Mona” shared what appeared to be an article from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center (see Figure 1). The article contained a purported quote from former Mossad director Tamir Pardo, alleging that former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman had been dismissed by Netanyahu for being a Russian agent. These allegations, if true, might reasonably be expected to strain relations between Russia and Israel.
No comments:
Post a Comment