Dear Colleagues and Friends, I am excited to share a wave of reporting this week relevant to the interests of this group... from the deep investigation Forbidden Stories have done with 30 media partners exposing a dark corner of the influence industry and its cyber mercenaries #storykillers... (Forbidden Stories <https://forbiddenstories.org/> pick up the investigations of murdered journalists and complete them, so stories cannot be silenced by deadly means). I have been helping the team over several months providing insights and expertise and there has been a great deal of reporting this week. I am including here links to some of the articles, and some of the expertise I contributed to their investigations as well as an article from me at the end of the email, which may be helpful for highlighting how related intelligence and influence industries work together for online influence operations. Forbidden Stories investigation picked up the important work of murdered journalist Gauri Lankesh in India and his first article on Lankesh <https://forbiddenstories.org/story-killers/gauri-lankesh-in-the-age-of-false-news/>is a disturbing account of how online hatred and harassment can incite violence against a journalist to silence them. I told Forbidden stories that “manipulating the truth has swelled into a billion-dollar business with hundreds, possibly thousands, of service providers worldwide.” And “There is a huge range of unregulated industry practices that would widely be considered unethical but not illegal.” Next an article <https://www.occrp.org/en/storykillers/hacks-bots-and-blackmail-how-secret-cyber-mercenaries-disrupt-elections> in OCCRP gives a deep dive into this surveillant industry for 'Hacks, Bots and Blackmail: How Secret Cyber Mercenaries Disrupt Elections.' And another episode this investigation by Der Spiegel <https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/storykillers-undercover-bei-den-cybersoeldnern-der-grosse-spiegel-report-a-2b51071c-6efe-41f3-9cec-3fd08d51f4cc> about the sting that set up 'Team Jorge' and The Guardian revealed their Cambridge Analytica ties <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/18/cambridge-analytica-staff-leaked-emails-team-jorge-nigeria-election-sam-patten-tal-hanan?ref=upstract.com>... Der Spiegel interviewed me on how overlooked this industry has been: "Emma Briant, one of the world's leading experts in information wars & Cambridge Analytica scandal, argues the public focus continues to be on Facebook, Twitter and similar media companies. But not on the real problem, on the huge industry that exists in secret." And the next big investigation <https://forbiddenstories.org/story-killers/the-gravediggers-eliminalia/> to read in this disturbing series is on 'reputation management' firm, Eliminalia. This is a segment of industry which puts a price on censorship and enables the powerful to rewrite history... I told Forbidden Stories investigation that “The legitimate uses for this kind of reputation management are few compared to the advantages for corrupt individuals.” These are firms profiting on the cleansing of wrongdoing from the public record. This is just a few of the articles published this week. With that in mind, in an attempt to draw larger insights from the series and highlight important issues… I share my own analysis of what is revealed about this highly coordinated and opaque Digital Influence Industry by the series of individual investigations in my article on Patreon ‘Coordination in the Influence Industry: 'Surfacing' Team Jorge’ <https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-article-in-78908871>: https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-article-in-78908871 I hope you find this a helpful update and thanks for supporting my ongoing work on this. I have another new scholarly publication forthcoming on Digital Influence Mercenaries this year which I will update you on very soon. Best wishes, Emma -- Dr Emma L Briant Owner: Maven of Persuasion LLC Fellow at Bard College, Human Rights Project Fellow at Central European University, Center for Media, Data and Society Associate at University of Cambridge, Center for Financial Reporting & Accountability Author of: *Propaganda and Counter-Terrorism: Strategies for Global Change *from Manchester University Press Co-Author of: *Bad News for Refugees* with Prof. Greg Philo and Dr. Pauline Donald from Pluto Press. Support my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/emmalbriant Website: www.emma-briant.co.uk Sign up for my Newsletter <http://emma-briant.co.uk/sign-up-for-important-updates/>! Follow me on Mastodon @emmalbriant@mastodon.online Follow me on Twitter @emmalbriant "I thought yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life but it turns out today is." - Steve Martin