Russia's Information War Is Being Waged on Social Media Platforms

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March 15, 2022

Dear Reader, Russian sources are attempting to spread a variety of misleading or false stories about its invasion of Ukraine, much like the disinformation campaigns it waged surrounding the 2016 U.S. election. But this time, social media platforms and governments have become more adept at combatting information warfare. In this week's lead story, I spoke with misinformation researcher Laura Edelson about what has changed since 2016—and what else tech companies can do to reduce the spread of misinformation.

Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, Technology

Policy Russia's Information War Is Being Waged on Social Media Platforms But tech companies and governments are fighting back By Sophie Bushwick

Defense 'Limited' Tactical Nuclear Weapons Would Be Catastrophic Russia's invasion of Ukraine shows the limits of nuclear deterrence By Nina Tannenwald

Artificial Intelligence Are You Better Than a Machine at Spotting a Deepfake? New research shows that detecting digital fakes generated by machine learning might be a job best done with humans still in the loop.  By Sarah Vitak | 11:50

Animals New Augmented Reality Models Bring Ice Age Animals to Virtual Life Researchers want their models to inspire more accurate reconstructions of extinct animals such as mammoths and saber-toothed cats By Sam Jones

Space Exploration Russia's War in Ukraine Threatens Joint Missions to Mars, Venus and the Moon Interplanetary voyages are among several space science collaborations delayed or doomed by the ongoing conflict By Leonard David

History How Much Medieval Literature Has Been Lost? An ecological model suggests islands are better at preserving literature as well as species By Sophie Bushwick

Energy Radioactive Material Is Basically Everywhere and That's a Problem The RadSecure program aims to remove dangerous substances from medical facilities and other industries By Sarah Scoles

Policy Science News Briefs from around the World: April 2022 In case you missed it By Joanna Thompson

Fossil Fuels Europe Races to Break Energy Ties with Russia A European Union proposal aims to end Russian gas and oil imports by 2030 by ramping up renewables and increasing energy efficiency By Sara Schonhardt,E&E News

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Volume 326, Issue 4

QUOTE OF THE DAY "The latest major leak happened on March 10th, when Distributed Denial of Secrets published more than 800GB of leaked data from Roskomnadzor: the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media, or Russia's primary censorship agency." Corin Faife, The Verge

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FROM THE ARCHIVE How the U.S. Could Retaliate against Russia's Information War Obama promised a response to hacking and other election interference, but what are his options? By Larry Greenemeier | December 2016

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