Noise without effect: anti-Pashinyan disinformation on the rise ahead of Armenian parliamentary elections
We spent one month ahead of Armenian parliamentary elections monitoring disinformation spread by foreign Information Manipulation Sets and tracking what recommendation algorithms were pushing to diaspora users searching for content about the vote.
CheckFirst helps Armenian CSOs and journalists to protect election integrity
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.
#Disinfo2025: our key takeaways from the EU DisinfoLab’s annual conference
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.
RADAR 1.8: Identify, assess and address potential DSA infringements
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).
Decoding Secrets Through Symbols: How Military Insignia Revealed Russia’s Hidden SIGINT Network
Sometimes the best intelligence comes from the most unexpected sources. Our latest investigation proves this by using Russian online military insignia stores to map one of the FSB’s most secretive units.
Operation Overload: An AI fuelled escalation of the Kremlin-linked propaganda effort
The Russian propaganda operation targeted at media organisations and fact-checkers is still going strong.
5 years of CheckFirst: looking back at our journey
Today, it’s Check First’s 5th anniversary! To celebrate this big step, it is time to highlight some of our achievements of the past years.
Introducing RADAR: A Common Language for Digital Services Act Enforcement
Making DSA enforcement measurable, comparable, and actionable across Europe
“Pravda” Network: Worldwide Expansion and LLM, Wikipedia Pollution
CheckFirst, in partnership with DFRLab, shows how the Russian propaganda and disinformation “Pravda” network extended its coverage and aims (and succeeds) at polluting large language models (LLMs) and Wikipedia. Lastly, we demonstrate the inability of X’s Community notes to aptly address the spread of “Pravda” content on the platform.
Influence by Design: How Meta Accepted Russian Propaganda Payments Despite Sanctions
Check First, in partnership with Reset.tech and AI Forensics, unveils the extent to which Kremlin-linked entity SDA have exploited Meta platforms to disseminate propaganda.