DFR Lab

DFR Lab
Founder	Atlantic Council
Interests	Fake news, “countering disinformation”, social media, Syria
Membership	•  Nika Aleksejeva •  Lukas Andriukaitis •  Nyka Aukstuolis •  Luiza Bandeira •  Donara Barojan •  Graham Brookie •  Emerson Brooking •  Eto Buziashvili •  Andy Carvin •  Kait Demchuk •  Kanishk Karan •  Ayushman Kaul •  Zarine Kharazian •  Ben Nimmo •  Roman Osadchuk •  Anna Pellgatta •  Esteban Ponce de Leon •  Iain Robertson •  Michael Sheldon •  Nick Yap

The Digital Forensic Research Lab, (the DFR Lab) is a project of the Atlantic Council. It is mentioned in Integrity Initiative Leaks 3, 7 and possibly others.

"It was not considered necessary to conduct due diligence on DFRLab, a project of the Atlantic Council."

Staff

It has had at least two members of staff in common with the Integrity Initiative/Institute for Statecraft group.

Activities

In 2017 the DFR Lab claimed that twitter account Ian56789 bore "all the hallmarks of a Russian troll", after which the account was suspended. The account owner was however a "UK citizen tired of UK government warmongering".

The Grayzone reported in December 2019 that Ben Nimmo and the DFRLab prompted Facebook and Twitter to delete hundreds of accounts.

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Ben Nimmo	“Nimmo’s track record is simply appalling. In this report for the Atlantic Council website, he falsely identified British pensioner @Ian56789 as a “Russian troll farm”, which led to Ian being named as such by the British government, and to perhaps the most surreal Sky News interview of all time. Perhaps still more remarkably, Nimmo searches for use of the phrase “cui bono?” in reference to the Skripal and fake Douma chemical weapons attacks. Nimmo characterises use of the phrase cui bono as evidence of pro-Assad and pro-Kremlin bots and trolls – he really does. Most people would think to consider cui bono indicates a smattering more commonsense than Nimmo himself displays.”	Craig Murray Ben Nimmo	28 August 2018
Zinc Network	“Bringing together organisations including Zinc Network, the Institute for Statecraft, Aktis Strategy, Bellingcat, DFR Lab, the Media Diversity Institute, Toro Risk Solutions and Ecorys, our Consortium combines recognised market leaders in understanding, monitoring, and countering Kremlin-backed disinformation... This ecosystem of credible voices will continue to grow, exposing the actors and networks behind Kremlin-backed disinformation, reducing unwitting multipliers of disinformation, and building resilience amongst key target audiences across Europe. We will mobilise a Network Hub based in London, led by an experienced Project Director, consisting of an agile team with core competencies augmented by a wider pool of vetted experts. Our approach is highly localised, based around regional clusters of actors who can collaborate to effectively undermine the disinformation ecosystem in their respective areas and engage audiences most vulnerable to disinformation... It is a highly complex project involving coordination of many independent actors, and thus risk must be carefully managed and risk profiles constantly adapted, serving as the basis for all activity. The approach we propose is based on the identification, monitoring and management of risks as they materialise, allowing members to continue taking smart risks as they increase the scale and impact of their activities.”

 

Known members

6 of the 26 of the members already have pages here:

Member	Description
Lukas Andriukaitis	Integrity Initiative forensic researcher
Graham Brookie	"Former U.S. government advisor on homeland security and counterterrorism" connected to the Integrity Initiative/Institute for Statecraft complex
Andy Carvin
Jeff Moss	Founder of the Black Hat & DEF CON computer Hacker conferences
Ben Nimmo	"Nimmo is a former spokesperson for NATO, who has essentially dedicated his career to fear-mongering about Russia."
Richard Stengel	Senio US Propagandist "Having once been almost a First Amendment absolutist, I have really moved my position on it, because I just think for practical reasons..."

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