A handful of President Joe Biden's most important federal agencies are stepping up efforts to monitor and counteract "disinformation" on social media platforms, even in the face of criticism that the administration is attempting to silence conservative or opposing viewpoints.

Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created an internal board dedicated to combating misinformation and disinformation. Despite scrapping it after facing criticism, new reporting indicates that the agency is still pursuing the constitutionally dubious project.

The DHS announced the Disinformation Governance Board in April specifically to address Russian disinformation and false information spread by border traffickers. Nina Jankowicz, a Wilson Center fellow and "disinformation expert," was put in charge.

As the midterm elections approach in the US, the wave of false claims surrounding the vote is a reminder of how hard it is to combat fake news. Does Finland have the answer?

A few hours after Vladimir Putin called up 300,000 military reservists in September, a video showing long queues of cars at the Finnish-Russian border started circulating on social media.

The Finnish Border Guard was quick to point out it was fake.

In June 2022, unsubstantiated allegations that U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert had worked previously as an escort and had two abortions were widely circulated on social media. When Boebert addressed these claims, labeling them as fake news, many social media users responded by sharing a photograph that supposedly showed the congresswoman with two nearly naked men.

A Texas jury on Aug. 4 ordered Alex Jones, founder and host of the Infowars radio show and webcast, to pay $4.1 million to the parents of a boy killed in the Sandy Hook mass shooting, marking the first time he has been held financially liable for spreading the false claim that the shooting was a hoax.

Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones complained about his lawyers on his InfoWars show following an order from a judge to pay one of the Sandy Hook families $4.1 million in damages.

Sandy Hook parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose six-year-old son Jesse Lewis was killed in the school shooting, had initially asked the jury to order Jones to pay up to $150 million in damages.

Right-wing talk show host Alex Jones will have to pay the parents of a Sandy Hook shooting victim a little more than $4 million in compensatory damages, a jury decided Thursday, capping a stunning and dramatic case that showcased for the public the real-world harm inflicted by viral conspiracy theories.

The award from the jury was far less than what the plaintiffs, Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, had asked for. At the start of the trial, attorneys for Lewis and Heslin asked the jury to award their clients $150 million in compensatory damages.

Right-wing talk show host Alex Jones will have to pay the parents of a Sandy Hook shooting victim a little more than $4 million in compensatory damages, a jury decided Thursday, capping a stunning and dramatic case that showcased for the public the real-world harm inflicted by viral conspiracy theories.

The award from the jury was far less than what the plaintiffs, Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, had asked for. At the start of the trial, attorneys for Lewis and Heslin asked the jury to award their clients $150 million in compensatory damages.

A forged letter from Sen. Marco Rubio, false news sites criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan trip, and fake social media accounts are all part of a complex pro-China information operation revealed by the cybersecurity firm Mandiant on Thursday.

Mandiant said it found 72 suspected false news sites targeting audiences in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia with messages critical of America and boosting China.

To Western audiences, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has unfolded as a series of brutal attacks punctuated by strategic blunders. But on Russian television, those same events were spun as positive developments, an interpretation aided by a rapid jumble of opinion and falsehoods.

Much of Russian news media is tightly controlled by the Kremlin, with state-run television working as a mouthpiece for the government. Critical reporting about the war has been criminalized.