The Kremlin’s Digital Pirates: How Russian Tracking Pixels Harvest Romanians’ Data to Fund Conspiracies and Extremism
For five months, we tracked over 100,000 ads displayed across 131 websites in Eastern Europe. After decoding the hidden mechanisms behind these ads, we uncovered a network of Russian companies. This investigation reveals what data is harvested from Romanians, who ends up receiving it, and why the ads shown on platforms with conspiratorial and extremist content are among the most valuable to this network.
2 years of CheckFirst
“We should work together for good and found a company!”. The exclamation came in between three people who hadn’t met in real life yet, but had spent countless hours fighting disinformation about COVID together during the first wave of the global pandemic.
22vlalapub: an analysis of political advertising on Meta, Google and Snapchat during French presidential election
During 4 months, Check First monitored political advertising using its tool 22vlalapub.fr. Using those data, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the political advertising landscape on social media platforms during the 2022 French presidential elections.
The French information ecosystem put to test – a report on 2022 French Elections by the Online Election Integrity Watch Group
As a member of the Online Integrity Watch Group, Check First took part in the analysis of political advertising using its tool 22vlalapub
Webinar: An analysis of recommendation algorithms on YouTube against disinformation
On 9 June, Check First presented the findings of its first investigation in the CrossOver Project to the EDMO BELUX community.
EFCSN’s open consultation report summarises opinions on the future European Code of Standards for Fact-Checking and Open Source Investigation
The European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN) is publishing a report summarising the results of surveys and interviews carried out in recent months about the future European Code of Standards for Fact-Checking and Open Source Investigation Operations.
Are YouTube Algorithms Addicted to State-Controlled Media?
Since the ban of Russia Today and Sputnik in the EU, the CrossOver project has been observing that CGTN Français, a Chinese State-run media, replaced the Russian fed content on Youtube when looking up the word “Russia”.
Check First to join the “Groupe de veille numérique à l’intégrité électorale” for the French presidential election of 2022
We, researchers and civil society experts on disinformation, foreign interference, election integrity and digital regulation, we come together in the Digital Election Integrity Watch Group.
Check First to join the EFCSN working commitee
The European Fact-Checking Standards Network Project is an effort to bring together fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT) organisations to discuss and define the standards of independence, transparency and methodological and journalistic quality that must guide our efforts to combat disinformation.
22vla la pub: a new tool to monitor political advertising on social media
Check First is launching 22vlalapub.fr, a tool for monitoring advertising around candidates, their parties, and campaign themes related to the
the French presidential election of 2022 on the platforms of Meta