Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Influence operations are a complex threat, and the community combating them—academics, social platforms, think tanks, governments—is broad. The goal of the Partnership for Countering Influence Operations (PCIO) is to grow this community and equip it to fight influence operations worldwide.
What is known about influence operations and their effects? How are we studying influence operations? What countermeasures have been tried? Explore our datasets to find out.
The partnership fosters a multidisciplinary international community of thirty official advisers and partners working to understand influence operations. We publish innovative policy ideas and founded the Influence Operations Researchers’ Guild to help foster standards in investigations of influence operations. Additionally, each month the PCIO and Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy convene a brainstorming session called “The Sphere of Influence.”
PCIO has convened an advisory group of leading experts from industry, media, academia, and civil society to complement Carnegie’s global network of researchers. Advisory group members participate in their individual capacities and provide strategic advice in the development of new projects and publications. Learn More >
PCIO has also established institutional partnerships to promote international, cross-sectoral consensus on key issues. Our partner organizations have designated liaisons to support our work and are invited to participate in relevant projects on a case-by-case basis. Learn More >
Influence operations are disrupting democracies the world over. But we lack the robust, evidence-based measurements of their spread, effects, and the effectiveness of countermeasures that are needed to support community resilience and appropriate policy interventions. To address this gap, the PCIO and the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project at Princeton University are convening multidisciplinary working groups that hope to publish their findings next year
Research shows that fact-checking can reduce the harmful impacts of false information. But beyond that, we know relatively little about the efficacy of counter-influence measures being implemented or considered by platforms, governments, and civil society.
As cybersecurity threats grow, democracies should avoid borrowing the authoritarians’ playbook. Here’s what democracies need in developing a cyber strategy of their own.
Social media platforms generally rely on human moderation to remove prohibited content. Yet what if moderation could happen before content is even posted?
Influence operations can have measurable effects on people’s beliefs and behavior, but empirical research does not yet adequately answer the most pressing questions facing policymakers.
Social media and messaging platforms are de facto regulators of online speech and therefore key decisionmakers in combating online influence operations. In recent years, major platforms have begun maintaining public “community standards”—written policies on a wide range of problematic activity like hate speech, violence, and influence operations.
Increasing diversity in the field of countering influence operations is essential to the field’s future. Members of the counter–influence operations community discuss the barriers to greater diversity and recommendations for making progress.
Carnegie’s Partnership for Countering Influence Operations is grateful for funding provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and WhatsApp. The PCIO is wholly and solely responsible for the contents of its products, written or otherwise. We welcome conversations with new donors. All donations are subject to Carnegie’s donor policy review. We do not allow donors prior approval of drafts, influence on selection of project participants, or any influence over the findings and recommendations of work they may support.