Beyond Disinformation

Manchester members of the “(Mis)Translating Deceit” project team established the “Beyond Disinformation” research network together with our colleagues at the University of Toronto and the University of Melbourne. The project “Beyond Disinformation: Assessing Digital Communications Strategies of Hybrid Neo-Authoritarian Empires” received funding from the three universities involved. It aims to bring together faculty members, postdoctoral researchers, and PhD students from Manchester, Melbourne, and Toronto (MMT) for virtual and in-person research cluster events. The project is headed by Stephen Hutchings (University of Manchester), Dara Conduit (University of Melbourne), and Kenzie Burchell (University of Toronto).

More specifically, addressing major new international developments including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s embrace of foreign interference, the project aims to improve our understanding of the digital political communication strategies of emerging "hybrid neo-authoritarian empires", examining their impact on domestic, global, and diasporic audiences. We extend our transnational, methodological, and interdisciplinary expertise in collaboration with Melbourne and Toronto to explore two new crucial avenues: 1) emerging translingual digital governance techniques and technologies of neo-authoritarian empires; 2) transnational networks of nonstate actors and diaspora media audiences participating in the construction of repressive informational orders, a permanent consolidation of hybrid war globally. Through intensive scholarly exchanges, we are developing pioneering toolsets for comparatively studying Russia’s and China’s global activities with concerted focus on the European, MENA and Australasia regions.

Targeted at Early Career Researchers across all three institutions, the project involves several PhD workshop events and staff exchange visits, culminating in co-authored journal articles and a major new grant application aimed at further consolidation of our transnational partnership in this vital area of global policy challenges.

Deepening our collaboration with the University of Toronto in disinformation research, Vera Tolz and Kenzie Burchell (University of Toronto) are leading another collaborative project “Beyond Disinformation: The Strategic Techniques and Transnational Contours of Evolving Narrative and Diasporic Information Orders” (September 2024-September 2025). A larger project team includes Drs Jennifer Ross and Sherry Yu from the University of Toronto, Dr Dariya Orlova from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine, and postgraduate researchers from Manchester and Toronto.

The project is funded jointly through the Knowledge Synthesis grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and UK Research and Innovation’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (UKRI-AHRC).

The main aim of this project is critically to review the existing scholarship on how new technologies facilitate the emergence of new authoritarian techniques that seek to impose dominant "great power" narratives for the purpose of reinvigorating a militarized imperialism as the global status quo. To different degrees these techniques are used by actors affiliated not only with dictatorships, but also with democracies. The main project output – a report to be shared with academic and non-academic audiences – evaluates the findings of the existing research and the gaps which need to be filled. In our critical survey of the existing publications, we pay particular attention to the research on how the authoritarian techniques are used to suppress cultural diversity and marginalize local histories and diasporic voices. The report suggests the ways this research can be taken forward. Within the ‘Beyond Disinformation’ project, the participating PhD students are offered an opportunity to develop their research skills and to establish a forum for discussing their own research projects and sharing their findings. The ‘Beyond Disinformation’ project findings are shared with the following stakeholders outside academia: the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; the Canadian Journalists of Colour Network; IBM Research Europe; the Interactive Advertising Bureau (Europe’s digital advertising industry’s professional association), as well as individual journalists with whom team members have professional contacts.

The project team argues that when the right to participate in the crafting, circulation and negotiation of worldviews is precluded, we lose the value of evolving voices, cultures and histories in conversation with one another. These forms of subnational, transnational and diasporic engagement are urgently necessary for negotiating a transnational democratic foundation for collectively attending to the permacrisis that accompanies increasing technological disruption and the widening chasm of geopolitical conflict.

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PhD Student and Postdoctoral Researcher Training Initiative

The joint University of Manchester/Toronto/Melbourne funded project ‘Beyond Disinformation: Assessing Digital Communications Strategies of Hybrid Neo-Authoritarian Empires’ (see Affiliated Projects) provided funds allowing 4 of our PhD students and 2 of our postdoctoral researchers to undertake digital forensic methods training workshops run by the highly regarded Bellingcat Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Investigative Journalism Group, and by the University of Manchester’s Methods@Manchester Summer School. The training, of considerable value to the participants’ current research and future career prospects, took place in May and June 2025. Each of them reflects briefly on their experiences below:

ALEX VORONOVICI (MD Postdoctoral Researcher)

Overall, this was an interesting and intense set of workshops, led by Bellingcat researchers. There were some things that I already more or less knew before, but I haven't used them regularly, and it was good to get a reminder about such possibilities - for instance, on advanced search options on search engines and social media. I plan to use them more often than before.

There were interesting and useful workshops on image verification, geolocation, chronolocation, digital footprint tracking and so on. These are all quite useful in checking (social) media reports and information, fact-checking and so on. Researchwise these are very useful tools for projects which try to trace networks of people (for instance, of certain ideology and so on), information movement (across platforms), identifying specific people. Showing the possibilities for searching and gathering information across various platforms was probably one of the most interesting parts of the workshops.

I think that the suggested tools are especially useful for deep-dive research on specific rather narrow issues. It is especially useful for cases when one tries to research something hidden, clandestine, that requires revealing, uncovering, if that's needed.

EKATERINA KAMENSKAYA (MD-Affiliated PhD Student)

In May, I took part in the Bellingcat Open-Source Investigation Workshops. Bellingcat is a global group of researchers and citizen journalists who use digital information to investigate and expose wrongdoing. This structured, practice-oriented training covered the key methods and principles of digital investigations. The 16-hour course began with an overview of open-source investigations, creative search techniques, and digital security. The main part of the course focused on verifying and analysing user-generated content, as well as on social media and individual-focused research.

The organisers paid particular attention to digital tools such as mapping, geolocation, and chronolocation. The emphasis on practical application, supported by concrete examples and demonstrations, greatly enhanced the value of the course.

MAKSIM MARKELOV (MD Associate Member and Postdoctoral Researcher)

In this four-day Bellingcat online workshop, held from May 13 to 16, 2025, on open-source intelligence (OSINT), I gained deeper knowledge and further developed my skills in both fundamental and advanced methods of social media and individual-focused research. In particular, I had hands-on experience in advanced geolocation, verification of digital content, digital footprint analysis, and ethical investigative practices. The workshop enhanced my capacity to conduct online investigations using publicly available data—skills directly applicable to academic research on disinformation, digital extremism, and state-aligned influence campaigns.

WEIZHOU WANG (YEAR 1 PhD Student; MD Associate Member)

The Digital Methods course at Manchester has been highly beneficial to my research in several ways. First, I learned a range of text mining methods and the technical skills required to implement them. Specifically, I gained a clearer understanding of how word embedding works and the scenarios in which it can be effectively applied. This has inspired more ideas for incorporating word embedding into my own research. For example, I realized that word vectors trained on different corpora cannot be directly compared; instead, their vector spaces must first be aligned before meaningful comparisons can be made.

Second, the session on research ethics prompted me to reflect more deeply on ethical considerations in my current research. Since I intend to collect and analyze user comments, I realized the importance of anonymizing this data to protect privacy and address potential ethical concerns.

Third, I developed practical skills in data visualization using R Studio. This has improved my ability to clearly and effectively present complex data, which will be crucial when presenting my research findings.

In addition, the course offered a valuable opportunity to connect with other scholars working in the field of computational social science. I had the chance to engage in productive conversations with several researchers who also participated in this course. Together with Yiqing and Ekaterina, we exchanged ideas about our respective projects and discussed potential directions for future research collaboration.

Overall, the course provided both conceptual insights and practical tools that will significantly contribute to the development and execution of my doctoral research.

YIQING CHEN (Year 1 PhD Student and MD Associate Member)

I recently attended the Methods@Manchester digital technology-related Summer School. It was an intensive but incredibly rewarding week that really expanded both my technical toolkit and critical thinking.

The sessions covered extensive topics, ranging from sensor technology and text mining with R to data visualisation using Tableau, and the ethical dimensions of data collection and presentation. I especially enjoyed the hands-on components, like using Python to program a basic computer board to sense movement and display patterns, which is an unexpectedly fun way to explore how Apple Watch engineers might work! I also got a first taste of R for text mining, which helped me understand how it compares to Python (though I’ll likely stick with Python for my own research).

The course on AI and critical thinking reminded me how important it is to maintain our own judgment even when using powerful tools, and the ethics session helped me reflect more deeply on potential risks and assumptions in our research. It was eye-opening to realise how many ethical questions I had yet to consider.

Outside of class, I had the chance to meet participants from a wide range of backgrounds - students, staff, and even people from other universities. These exchanges led to some really interesting conversations, including one with Dr. Anne Clayson, who shared concerns that academics sometimes stop learning after reaching a certain level, which made me reflect on the importance of lifelong learning. I even joked that I should bring her along next time! I also met Natalie and built connection with her!

I am sincerely grateful for the generous funding support, without which I would not have had the chance to attend this course. It truly broadened my perspective and helped me explore how digital tools can enrich our research in the humanities and social sciences.

Overall, this summer school not only introduced me to new tools and methods but also gave me a broader view of how digital methods intersect with critical inquiry. It was also a great networking opportunity. I am very grateful to the sponsors for making this experience possible!

EMMA TARASENKO (Year 2 PhD Student and MD Associate Member)

During the Bellingcat workshop, I gained a broad and detailed understanding of the range of tools available for analysing the RuNet, with a particular focus on practical applications. The session covered resources and techniques for scraping key Russophone platforms such as VKontakte and Telegram, with touch on the visual recognition (OSINT, PimEyes). A substantial portion of the workshop was dedicated to hands-on exercises using test datasets and statistical analysis, alongside practical tasks in search and identification within the RuNet. Overall, the workshop provided a comprehensive, practice-oriented introduction to scraping and analysing the RuNet, combining theoretical insight with applied skills.