CheckFirst

👀 Join @sciencefeedback.bsky.social and @disinfo.eu on Thursday, 11 December to find out more about the first results of the #SIMODS consortium!

More about the SIMODS project 🔗 checkfirst.network/project/simo...

𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍:
📍 Room 3E2, European Parliament, Brussels
📆 December 9th (13:00-15:00)

This panel (moderated by @aa.disinfo.eu from @disinfo.eu) is part of the European Parliament conference "Election Integrity and Foreign Interference in Romania, Moldova, and Poland: Is There A Better Way to Shield Our Democracy?". ⤵️

Tomorrow at 14:15 (Brussels time), Shivika Sharma, our senior manager specialising in digital threats and policy, will join a panel exploring policy, regulation and institutional response regarding disinformation in electoral context. ⤵️

Check First helps Armenian CSOs and journalists to protect election integrity - CheckFirst In partnership with the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA), the Swedish agency for peace, security and development, we spent a week in Yerevan, Armenia, helping Armenian civil society organisations and journalists strengthen their defences against foreign manipulation.

We thank again the FBA for this opportunity, and we will continue supporting CSOs and journalists as they pursue investigations into attempts to disrupt the elections!

checkfirst.network/check-first...

Oppi - Professional OSINT Training Platform Train journalists and analysts to identify disinformation campaigns with interactive scenarios and advanced OSINT tools.

During our workshops, participants were introduced to a range of #OSINT techniques and took part in a simulated investigation exercise using our oppi.tech platform.

A group of trainees huddled at a table with laptops and water bottles, discussing and reviewing material during a workshop with Hervé Letoqueux, Check First's COO.

🇦🇲 In partnership with the @fbafolke.bsky.social, the Swedish agency for peace, security and development, we spent a week in Yerevan, #Armenia, helping Armenian civil society organisations and journalists strengthen their defences against #foreignmanipulation.

Check the #SofiaIIF2025 programme to add this session to your calendar: sofia-info-integrity.eu/siif-2025/

Oppi - Professional OSINT Training Platform Train journalists and analysts to identify disinformation campaigns with interactive scenarios and advanced OSINT tools.

👋 We are pleased to announce that our COO @herve.checkfirst.network will be attending @sofiainfoforum.bsky.social this week. Don't miss his demonstration tomorrow at 6 PM (EET), when he will present our @radar.checkfirst.network framework and Oppi.tech, our FIMI training platform!

➡️ "Les Dessous de l'infox" by @rfi.bsky.social. Speaking to Sophie Malibeaux, Guillaume presented our framework @RADAR.checkfirst.network and explained how it can help to implement the #DSA.
🔈 www.rfi.fr/fr/podcasts...

À la rencontre de l'écosystème anti-désinfo Un épisode du podcast Propagations. Écouter, partager, s'abonner gratuitement depuis Podmust.

➡️ "Propagations" by @opsci.bsky.social. In this episode, @guillaumeled.it asked Hervé about his experience as a pioneer of the French #OSINT community.
🔈 podmu.st/5ytsq

🎙️ Want to listen to something interesting while doing the dishes or using public transport? During our #Disinfo2025 trip to Ljubljana, Hervé and Guillaume were interviewed by two French-speaking podcasts:

📺 Tonight at 6:30 PM (GMT+1), Hervé will be speaking on TV5MONDE's news program "Le 64'". Alongside the journalist and Albert-Londres Prize winner Elena Volochine and the researcher @davidcolon.bsky.social, he will be discussing Russian disinformation and ways to tackle it.

Parlez-vous français ? Recently, our CEO @g.checkfirst.network and our COO @herve.checkfirst.network were invited to share their experiences on several French-speaking programs.

#Disinfo2025: our key takeaways from the EU DisinfoLab's annual conference - CheckFirst While threats against the community fighting against disinformation are on the rise, solidarity prevails. Civil society organisations, policymakers, platforms representatives and regulators gathered in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on October 15 and 16 for two days of discussions centered around many aspects of disinformation.

🔗 Read our new blogpost to find out more about what we learnt in Ljubljana: checkfirst.network/disinfo2025...

At the sessions we attended, civil society organisations, policymakers, platform representatives, and regulators demonstrated the power of solidarity during these challenging times.

As always, we thank EU DisinfoLab for the opportunity, and we are excited to attend next year’s conference!

The conference was the perfect occasion to showcase our framework @RADAR.checkfirst.network to the community. Our tagging system is part of the many initiatives designed to respond collectively to disinformation campaigns.

#Disinfo2025 conference, before the overture panel.

👋 On October 15 and 16, we attended #Disinfo2025, the @disinfo.eu's annual conference. This year, over 600 participants gathered in Ljubljana, Slovenia, for two days of discussions centered around many aspects of #disinformation.

Indeed! The official Check First newsletter - CheckFirst Subscribe to our newsletter and get a monthly recap of the latest news from CheckFirst straight in your inbox

Don't miss our news and updates by subscribing to our monthly newsletter "Indeed!" 🔗 checkfirst.network/newsletter/

Shivika Sharma, Senior Manager, Digital Threats and Policy at Check First. She'll be speaking at #Disinfo2025 during a panel on 16 October.

Next week, we'll be heading to Ljubljana to attend @disinfo.eu's #Disinfo2025!

Shivika Sharma, our senior manager specialising in digital threats and policy, will present @radar.checkfirst.network during the “Turning data into evidence” roundtable on 16 October.

🚨 How do platforms combat disinformation? For the first time, we have data that provides a concrete answer to this question. Along with @checkfirst.network, @newtral.es, Slovak Governance Institute oraz Foundation for the Open University of Catalonia Pravda participates in the #SIMODS project.
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What our first measurement says about disinformation on major platforms in Europe - Science Feedback Science Feedback and partners have released a first measurement of Structural Indicators across six Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) in four EU member states (France, Spain, Poland, Slovakia). Belo...

🚨 New report out: the first cross-platform, cross-country baseline on misinformation in Europe

Based on large scale data analysis: ~2.6M posts (24B views) collected on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X & YouTube

science.feedback.org/first-measurement-disinformation-major-platforms-europe

It’s today!

📢 On 18 Sept, we explore how AI-driven Russian propaganda campaigns target media.

📚Insights on tactics to target fact-checkers, media, and global audiences.
🎙Featuring @allxbo.bsky.social from @reset.tech and @g.checkfirst.network from @checkfirst.network

🔗Register: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

RADAR | LinkedIn RADAR | 2 followers on LinkedIn. RADAR: Structured DSA framework categorizing violations with observable indicators for systematic risk assessment | RADAR is a structured framework created by CheckFirst that breaks down Digital Services Act into categories, infringements, and observable indicators. It helps stakeholders systematically identify, assess, and address potential DSA infringements.

❗Please note that all future updates on RADAR will be made on RADAR’s official website (radar.checkfirst.network), Bluesky account (@radar.checkfirst.network) and LinkedIn page (www.linkedin.com/showcase/ra...).

RADAR Tools & Integrations - API, WordPress, Google Docs & AI Access RADAR framework through REST API, WordPress plugin, Google Docs add-on, and AI assistant. Official and community tools for Digital Services Act compliance assessment.

⚒️ This summer, we also worked on easy-to-use tools to help you implement our tagging system in your reports: a Google Docs addon, a Wordpress plugin and a #ChatGPT assistant. All of these tools are powered by RADAR’s new API.
🔗 radar.checkfirst.network/tools

RADAR 1.8: Identify, assess and address potential DSA infringements - CheckFirst CheckFirst is excited to announce the release of the latest version of RADAR (Regulatory Assessment for Digital Services Act), a practical framework designed to help stakeholders simplify and standardise the Digital Services Act (DSA). 

🔵 We're excited to announce the launch of the 1.8 version of
@radar.checkfirst.network! This practical, open framework is designed to help stakeholders simplify and standardise the #DigitalServicesAct.

🔗 checkfirst.network/radar-1-8-i...

How von der Leyen’s no-confidence vote fueled Russian propaganda A confidential study found that a known Russian disinformation network had ramped up its posts by 60 percent while pushing the narrative that the European Commission president was “toxic.&#82…

Russian-sponsored propaganda engines went into overdrive in the weeks leading up to the European Parliament’s no-confidence vote against Ursula von der Leyen, a confidential study seen by POLITICO shows.

While much remains to be explored regarding 16th Center's precise operations, this study paves the way for further research on Russia's security agencies operating in Russia and abroad, including those engaged in intelligence-gathering in Ukraine and European countries. Want to know more about this story? Contact us: info@checkfirst.network

If you have any questions about this report, please write to us at info[a]checkfirst[dot]network. Thanks for reading!

Unit 03110 (1975): The oldest insignia linked to this unit features symbols such as tropical palms and a flag that confirm that it was previously stationed in Lourdes (Cuba), before being relocated close to Sotchi (Russia) in the late 2000s. Among the ten bases we have identified, this one is the only one that equipped its antennas with radomes designed to protect the equipment from weather and hide its orientation and specifications from unwanted eyes. These domes, which may contain a radar or a dish antenna, are even depicted on one of the unit's insignia, which also portrays the facility facing the sea, with mountains in the background.

Unit 61608 (1918): The unit's insignia frequently feature symbolic representations of Moscow, including the Kremlin. The unit hosts more than a dozen parabolic antennas near the T-shaped control building, as well as pole antennas arranged in an antenna array slightly further north. It is situated south of Tsaritsyno Park, concealed within a dense forest in the heart of Moscow.

Each interception centre also has a unique way of depicting itself through its insignia, as can be seen in these two examples from our report.