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Commentary
America May Not Be Ready for the Looming Tsunami of Deepfakes
Images and videos have been falsified since the first photographs were taken. But deepfakes are fundamentally different. Their realism, and the scale and ease with which they can be produced, make them incredibly potent disinformation tools.
Nov 10, 2022
Essay
How to Avoid Extremism on Social Media
Extremist groups have been trolling the internet for decades, and they have learned to temper their words and disguise their intentions. A new scorecard can help users—or parents, or advertisers, or the social media companies themselves—understand when they might be interacting with extremist content.
May 3, 2022

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Commentary
The AI Conspiracy Theories Are Coming
Artificial intelligence is a technology ready-made for conspiratorial thinking. The time to counter conspiracy theories about AI is now—before they take hold in the minds of the public.
Jun 22, 2023
Blog
Reconstructing Ukraine, Wildfires, Telehealth: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on reconstructing Ukraine, what to do about wildfires, virtual mental health care services, and more.
Jun 16, 2023
Commentary
How Can Platforms Deal with Toxic Content? Look to Wall Street
Social media has a content problem. It's not the content itself, although the list of toxic material is long. The problem is the sheer volume of content. Instead of trusting in self-regulation, the United States could use its regulation of Wall Street after 2008 as a roadmap for regulating tech.
May 26, 2023
Report
The Metaverse and Homeland Security: Opportunities and Risks of Persistent Virtual Environments
This Perspective provides an initial review of the metaverse concept and its relevance to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The authors map department objectives to key metaverse characteristics and identify areas for proactive efforts.
May 22, 2023
Commentary
Public Health's Failure to Communicate with Communities of Color
Misinformation thrived during the pandemic, exacerbating health inequities. To meet its core mission, the public health field needs to engage more actively, particularly in communities it has historically failed to equitably protect.
May 17, 2023
Report
Comparing Taliban Social Media Usage by Language: Who's Speaking and What's Being Said
Focusing on the economy, relationships with other militant groups and neighboring countries, and women's status in Afghan society, the authors examined whether Taliban social media messaging across various regional languages was similar or different.
Apr 25, 2023
Commentary
The Ukrainian Army Is Leveraging Online Influencers. Can the U.S. Military?
Much has been said about Ukraine's astounding success in the information battlefield. How might the U.S. military emulate Ukraine's success to not only help win wars, but also to address its flagging campaign to recruit new members?
Mar 1, 2023
Announcement
Ray Block Joins RAND as Inaugural Michael D. Rich Chair for Countering Truth Decay
Ray Block, a respected academic in the field of political science and African American studies, will join the RAND Corporation as its inaugural Michael D. Rich Chair for Countering Truth Decay effective February 27.
Feb 22, 2023
Report
The U.S. Air Force Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Values on Social Media: A Proof-of-Concept Examination of How Air Force–Affiliated Accounts Represent the Service Online
This report presents a proof-of-concept to assess the online behavior of U.S. Air Force (USAF)-affiliated users over social media, specifically in regard to USAF diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
Feb 22, 2023
Commentary
Elon Musk May Have a Point About Bots on Twitter
Twitter has a deep bench of engineers working for the company. They have access to trillions of data points on their over 300 million monthly active users. Why has a company this size struggled to clean up its platform?
Sep 23, 2022
Announcement
Fake RAND Report on 'Weakening Germany'
A supposedly leaked RAND report about a bizarre U.S. conspiracy to “weaken Germany” is fake. Genuine RAND research, analysis, and commentary on the war in Ukraine may be found at rand.org.
Sep 14, 2022
Journal Article
Information Warfare: Methods to Counter Disinformation
We consider the nature of disinformation and its use in the hybrid warfare domain, before examining the problem through frames of planning approach, truth theory, systems thinking, and military strategy.
Sep 8, 2022
Blog
Back to School, Vaccinating Kids, Space Security: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on the well-being of America's educators, the effort to vaccinate kids and teens, security in outer space, and more.
Sep 2, 2022
Commentary
Facebook Misinformation Is Bad Enough. The Metaverse Will Be Worse
Virtual reality environments such as the metaverse will enable psychological and emotional manipulation of users at a level unimaginable in today's media. We must not wait until these technologies are fully realized to consider appropriate guardrails for them. We can reap the benefits of the metaverse while minimizing its potential for great harm.
Aug 22, 2022
Research Brief
A U.S. National Strategy Is Needed to Counter Violent Extremism
Users in the United States are overwhelmingly responsible for racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism (REMVE) discourse online. Strategies that focus on organizations or individuals likely will not work to counter REMVE because the movement is diffuse and leaderless.
Aug 22, 2022
Report
An Exploratory Examination of Agent-Based Modeling for the Study of Social Movements
The authors of this report explore the use of agent-based modeling as a method for studying the effects of information and communications technologies on the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of social movements over time.
Aug 16, 2022
Report
The Threat of Deepfakes
Various AI technologies are ripe for use in disinformation campaigns. Deepfake videos represent an obvious threat, but voice cloning, deepfake images, and generative text also merit concern. And websites now offer access to deepfake services.
Jul 6, 2022
Report
Map of Online Violent Extremist Rhetoric Can Inform Counter-Efforts
An analysis of White identity terrorism and racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism discourse on social media finds that this content is largely created and fueled by users in the United States. A national strategy to counter these threats is needed.
Jun 7, 2022
Report
Russia's Information Warfare with the West
Popular portrayals of the Russian disinformation machine imply an organized and well-resourced operation, but evidence suggests that it is neither. Nonetheless, Russian social media activity can be harmful to U.S. interests and is likely to evolve.
Jun 7, 2022

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Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Gopal Trital

Ph.D. Student, Pardee RAND Graduate School, and Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND

Gopal Trital (he/him) is a Ph.D. student in the Technology Applications and Implications stream at the Pardee RAND Graduate School and an assistant policy researcher at RAND. He has a joint M.A. in international development, development economics, and global development policy from Palacky…
Weilong Kong

Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND

Weilong (David) Kong is an assistant policy researcher at RAND and a Ph.D. candidate at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Prior to joining Pardee RAND, he was a senior public administrative analyst at the Luskin Center for Innovation at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he…

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