X/Twitter research

Anonymous third-party paid political advertising in the Cyprus 2026 parliamentary elections

MedDMO researchers tracked ads naming Cyprus’s 753 registered candidates across Meta, Google and TikTok ad libraries/APIs and identified five anonymous third-party advertising operations totalling more than 450 political ads, including one spreading fabricated polling data days before the vote. Enforcement was weak and reactive: Meta removed less than 1% of flagged ads while still live and TikTok logged only one removal in 220 days, but after researchers escalated directly to the platforms and the European Commission, Meta removed 687 ads within 30 hours and TikTok removed 631 ads within five days.

The Owner Amplifier: Musk spreading violent anti-migrant narratives on X

Musk amplified anti-migrant narratives; CCDH found 3,930 replies containing calls for violence.

Online Domestic Extremism in Canada Data Briefing (Dec 2025-Feb 2026)

Recurring data briefing tracking violent-extremist activity across major platforms in Canada; consistently finds Telegram the leading platform for such activity.

X Turns Jewish Grief into a Target, Again

130 hateful replies to British Jewish figures after the Golders Green attack, all apparently violating X rules, were left up.

Overloading the Moldovan Elections

A September 2025 visit by Western media figures, facilitated by the Russian Orthodox Church, produced content alleging religious persecution in Moldova that was then amplified by Russian FIMI operations to discourage support for the pro-EU government ahead of parliamentary elections.

X-rated: X recommends explicit content to 13-year-olds

Test 13-year-old accounts: 8 in 10 searches returned explicit content and 30% of For You posts were explicit.

Persistent Infrastructure and Cross-Border Influence Operations Targeting European Elections on X

Identified 550+ coordinated inauthentic accounts on X that amplified divisive content during the October 2025 Dutch elections (at least 225 traced to Nigeria, plus Ghana and Asia), and found the same infrastructure redeployed for the April 2026 Hungarian elections to boost pro-Orbán and pro-Russian content via the recommendation algorithm.

How fossil fuel companies and their financiers avoid criticism on X

Major fossil fuel companies use X ad-targeting to hide their advertising from the users most likely to challenge them (pro-climate audiences).

Weaponising social media: smears of Indigenous leaders in Guatemala

Deregulation of major platforms is helping drive online smear campaigns and criminalisation of Guatemalan land and democracy defenders.

Uneven Moderation by Language: Differences in DSA Content Removals in 2025

Companion study finding that content reported in smaller or minority EU languages was removed far less often (23.3%) than content reported in major languages (40.2%), pointing to language-based gaps in how platforms moderate under the DSA.

Uneven Moderation Across Platforms: Differences in DSA Content Removals in 2025

Of 13,187 posts and comments reported under the DSA across seven EU languages in 2025, 34.6% were removed overall, but action rates ranged from 71.3% on YouTube down to 12.5% on X, a roughly 5.7x disparity that evidences sharply uneven DSA enforcement between platforms.

Blacklight update: are TikTok and X tracking you across the internet?

The Markup expanded its Blacklight privacy inspector to detect TikTok and X tracking pixels on third-party websites, revealing how these platforms follow users across the web.

Grok floods X with sexualized images of women and children

After a one-click edit feature launched, Grok generated an estimated 3M sexualized images (including ~23,000 of children) in 11 days.

Grok Unleashed: An Update

Follow-up found a drop in minimally-attired images by mid-January (suggesting new safeguards), but Grok.com retained the capability and synthetic media depicting minors was still found.

Sexualized images on X: what we are doing to stop them and what we expect from the EU

Documented networks of X accounts openly promoting non-consensual 'nudify' tools; a reported post was deemed non-violating, and X refused a DSA Art. 40.12 data request, blocking research (context to the EU's DSA fine on X).

Grok Unleashed: Flood of Sexualized Images of Women and Minors

Analysis of 20k+ Grok images and 50k prompts found weak guardrails: 53% minimal attire, 81% women-presenting, ~2% appearing to be minors, 6% public figures, plus Nazi/ISIS propaganda.

Assessment of Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference in the 2025 Czech Parliamentary Election

Found the 2025 Czech elections resilient: no evidence of coordinated, large-scale foreign interference capable of changing the outcome. Russian-linked actors focused on eroding trust via fraud narratives and content laundering (outlets like neČT24 and the Pravda network) across X, TikTok and Telegram rather than disrupting the vote itself.

War profiteers: online ads and the machinery of propaganda for war

Examines how governments deploy war propaganda through online advertising and argues platforms bear responsibility under international human rights law to prevent monetizing it.

Antisemitic abuse on X after Manchester Synagogue attack

Antisemitic abuse and calls for violence flooded X following the attack, largely left unremoved.

Viral antisemitic posts about Charlie Kirk assassination amass 139m views on X

Antisemitic conspiracies about Kirk's killing reached ~140M views; no viral post carried a Community Note.

A Home for Hate: How Antisemitism Thrives on X

Using AI tools, CCDH found X hosts and profits from antisemitic content violating its own policies.

Still marching on(line): How R-FBI Targets Moldova’s Elections

Detailed how the Russian operation Storm-1516 (linked to the sanctioned R-FBI) used fabricated news sites, AI-generated content and impersonated journalists to push 17 false narratives against President Sandu and the PAS party during Moldova’s 2025 elections, accumulating roughly 45 million views via authentic influencers and inauthentic accounts.

Polish Election Country Report 2025

A 28-organisation assessment of FIMI during Poland’s 2025 presidential elections, finding persistent foreign operations (Doppelganger, Operation Overload) and domestic amplification of anti-Ukrainian, anti-EU and anti-establishment narratives, whose impact was constrained by public resilience and active civil-society responses.

X-ploitation: How X Became a Crossroads for Child Abuse and Influence Operations

Documented "Operation X-ploitation," a network of 150+ automated accounts distributing child sexual abuse material on X via hashtag flooding and bot engagement, exploiting the same weaknesses (minimal account-creation barriers, weak moderation) used by Russian influence campaigns like Doppelganger. X’s age-verification and suspensions did not fix the underlying design flaws.

X fails to act on 97% of calls for violence against migrants or Muslims

A year after the riots, X left up 97% of reported violent anti-migrant/anti-Muslim content.

Civil society files joint DSA complaint against X for targeting people with ads using their sensitive personal data

On 14 July 2025, nine organisations — EDRi, AI Forensics, Centre for Democracy & Technology Europe, Entropy, GFF, Global Witness, Panoptykon Foundation, Bits of Freedom and VoxPublic — filed a joint DSA complaint against X with the Digital Services Coordinators of France, Germany and the Netherlands, citing Article 26(3). Using X’s own public Ad Repository, the groups documented advertisers targeting or excluding users via protected categories: Shein targeting far-left political interests, TotalEnergies excluding users interested in ‘ecologist’ content, McDonald’s excluding trade-union members and antidepressant users, and Brussels Signal targeting far-right party sympathisers.

Fuelling Hate: One year after the UK riots, X still lets abuse spread

X is still failing to remove rule-violating anti-Muslim/anti-migrant calls for violence a year after the riots.

Operation Overload: an AI-fuelled escalation ('Overload 2')

The operation escalated using AI-generated content; Telegram is the central hub (673 channels) while ~11,000 X accounts amplify it. TikTok demoted accounts only after 3M+ views.

When Personal Becomes Profitable: Sensitive Targeting on X

X let advertisers target users by sensitive personal data (political beliefs, sexual orientation); 30+ major brands were found doing so, raising GDPR and DSA concerns as VLOPs are barred from such targeting.

X posts claiming European leaders took cocaine reach 135M views

50 posts with baseless drug claims about Starmer/Macron/Merz got 135M views, with no Community Notes.

Report on the 45th Canadian General Election

Monitoring of Canada's April 2025 federal election found election-themed scam ads widespread on Meta and X, CCP-aligned narratives circulating on Chinese-language platforms, and TikTok's feed favouring US content despite majority-Canadian creators; the report calls for stronger researcher data access.

'Pravda' Network: Worldwide Expansion and LLM/Wikipedia Pollution

With DFRLab, showed the Russian 'Pravda' network expanded globally and polluted LLMs and Wikipedia; X's Community Notes failed to address its spread.

Generative AI and the German Far Right: Narratives, Tactics and Digital Strategies

Documents how German far-right actors use generative AI to produce and spread propaganda across social platforms, with new narrative and digital-strategy tactics.

X and TikTok algorithms push pro-AfD content to non-partisan German users

On TikTok, 78% of algorithmically recommended political content (from unfollowed accounts) was pro-AfD; on X, 64%, far exceeding the party's ~20% polling.

The 2025 RDR Index: Big Tech Edition

Seventh edition (first full evaluation since 2022): no company scored over 50%; TikTok debuted strongly while X showed RDR's largest-ever single-company decline after cutting its human rights team and transparency reporting.

Climate of confusion: Bot-like accounts sharing climate disinformation

22 of 45 previously identified bot-like X accounts amplified climate denial/conspiracies, tying climate opposition to broader anti-migrant, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Ukraine political identity.

Rainbow-burning: how social media companies increase risks for LGBTQ+ people in Africa

Documented 214 threatening anti-LGBTQ+ posts across the platforms in five African countries; only 51 were removed when reported, blaming under-resourced moderation for African languages and engagement-driven algorithms.

Verified Disinformation: How X Profits From the Rise of a Pro-Kremlin Network

Documented a network of about 530 inauthentic X accounts that doubled over five months and used paid verification to amplify Kremlin-aligned propaganda in six languages, posting roughly 16,000 times between June and October 2024 to EU audiences, with X monetising the Doppelganger-linked operation.

Doppelganger media impersonation: leveraging domain name dispute resolution

Explores using domain-name dispute resolution as a countermeasure against the Doppelganger media-impersonation operation.

Musk's Political Posts

Musk's own political posts drew more views than all US campaign ads in X's disclosure dataset.

Rated Not Helpful: How X's Community Notes system falls short

Community Notes failed to counter false/misleading US election claims, with proposed notes rarely shown.

US Election Platform Preparedness: Comparative Analysis

Assessed platforms across six areas ahead of the 2024 US election; the most alarming common finding was a pervasive lack of transparency about policies, safety efforts and resourcing.

Operation Overload: a growing disinformation threat targeting the US election

With Reset Tech, confirmed the operation is Russia-based and had shifted focus to the US election, targeting Kamala Harris.

Grok AI: A deepfake disinformation disaster for democracy

X's Grok accepted all 60 tested prompts to generate misleading US election images.

Social media's role in the UK riots (OSA amendments)

Policy paper arguing platforms (especially X and Telegram) fueled the riots via online hate/lies; proposes new regulatory powers.

X ran ads on five accounts pushing lies and hate during UK riots

X placed major brands' ads beside disinformation accounts that amassed 260M views after Southport.

Twitter’s AI plans hit with 9 more GDPR complaints

X began using the personal data of over 60 million EU/EEA users to train its ‘Grok’ AI model from May 2024 without proactively notifying users or obtaining consent; most users learned of it only via a viral post more than two months later. X relies on a ‘legitimate interest’ legal basis rather than opt-in consent.

Musk misleading election claims viewed 1.2bn times on X

Musk's false/misleading US election claims got ~1.2 billion views, none carrying a Community Note.

Musk's X helps Tommy Robinson rack up 434 million views during UK riots

X amplified Tommy Robinson's disinformation to 434M+ views during the UK riots with virtually no fact-checks.

Public Data Access Programs: A First Look

First systematic evaluation of 19 platforms' researcher data-access programs; access varies widely and data quality is poor.

Digital Apartheid in Gaza: Unjust Content Moderation (2-part series)

Documents how platforms, especially Meta (reportedly ~94% compliance with Israeli Cyber Unit takedown requests), disproportionately removed pro-Palestinian content while failing to curb anti-Palestinian hate.

Doppelganger Revamped: Network of Verified Accounts Spreads Multilingual Propaganda on X

Research note documenting about 250 inauthentic X accounts, nearly half of them verified, activated in coordinated clusters from June 2024 to spread Kremlin-aligned content in five languages and hijack trending hashtags such as Euro 2024, raising monetisation and verification concerns.

Trump's assassination attempt conspiracies

Conspiracies about the assassination attempt got 215M+ views on X; 95% of posts had no fact-check.

Yet more evidence of Russia's boundless impunity to spread misinformation in the EU

Further documentation of the Doppelganger influence operation's continued reach across social platforms in the EU.

Political bias on X's AI chatbot (Grok) risks influencing the UK vote

Grok generated politically biased suggested tweets, in 'Fun' mode encouraging a #VoteReformUK vote and in 'Regular' mode implicitly discouraging voting for the incumbent government.

'No ifs, many bots': Partisan bot-like accounts amplify divisive content on X

45 apparent bot accounts generated 4+ billion views (~610,000 posts), amplifying racist/sexualised abuse, conspiracies and climate disinformation; most supported Reform UK.

Bot-like posts seen more than 150 million times ahead of UK election

10 apparent bot accounts posted 60,000+ tweets seen ~150 million times in the weeks before the UK vote, many containing extreme hate speech, disinformation and pro-Putin content.

Operation Overload: pro-Russian actors flood newsrooms with fake content

Exposed the 'Matryoshka'/Operation Overload campaign flooding 800+ media/fact-checking organisations with content urging them to 'verify' fabricated anti-Ukraine material, diverting fact-checker resources.

Assessing cost-effectiveness: responses to the Doppelganger operation

Assesses responses to the Russian Doppelganger operation that clones media outlets and spreads links/ads across X, Facebook and Telegram.

Ticked off: TikTok approves EU elections disinformation ads in Ireland

TikTok approved all 16 election-disinformation ads ahead of the EU parliamentary elections; X rejected all of them and YouTube rejected all but two.

Shrinking democracy, growing violence: Internet shutdowns in 2023

Annual #KeepItOn documentation of shutdowns and platform blocking worldwide in 2023, tying disruptions to elections, protests and conflict.

Full Disclosure: Stress Testing Tech Platforms' Ad Repositories

With CheckFirst: tested ad-transparency tools of 11 companies; none rated 'ready,' with major data gaps and inaccuracies.

Hate Pays: How X accounts are exploiting the Israel-Gaza conflict

10 X accounts pushing anti-Jewish/anti-Muslim/anti-Palestinian hate grew ~4x faster after October 7.

Platforms, Promises and Politics: a reality check on election pledges

Finds platforms' election interventions in the Global Majority are template-copied and far weaker than those offered in the US/EU.

When Kindness Kills: How Algorithms Accelerate Savior Swarms

Introduces 'savior swarming,' algorithmically amplified surges of well-intentioned collective action that overwhelm and harm the communities they aim to help (cases: Twitter trending, r/BlackPeopleTwitter).

Disinformation on X: research and content moderation policies

Factsheet documenting how disinformation on X is researched and how the platform's content-moderation policies operate.

Violent and sexualised hate speech targeting women journalists (South Africa)

Nearly all 40 misogynistic test ads (in 4 languages) were approved; Meta and TikTok approved all 40 within 24 hours. Concludes automated moderation is 'not fit for purpose.'

Platforms' policies on climate change misinformation (V1)

Maps how the five platforms address climate misinformation, revealing uneven and weak climate-specific rules.

A world of online hate and lies: Mapping our investigations

A synthesis of 10+ country investigations concluding platforms systematically fail to enforce their own hate-speech/disinformation ad policies, with weaker moderation outside the US.

X Content Moderation Failure

X still hosted ~86% of 300 reported extreme-hate posts a week after they were reported.

Platforms' policies on elections misinformation

Maps and compares how five major platforms address election misinformation in their policies.

Platforms' policies on health misinformation

Maps and compares how five major platforms address health misinformation in their policies.

Twitter fails to act on 99% of Twitter Blue accounts tweeting hate

Twitter failed to act on 99% of hateful posts by Blue subscribers and appeared to algorithmically boost them.

Toxic Twitter: How Twitter Makes Millions from Anti-LGBTQ+ Rhetoric

Anti-LGBTQ+ 'grooming' rhetoric jumped 119% under Musk while Twitter profited from ads placed against it.

Antisemitism on Twitter Before and After Elon Musk's Acquisition

With CASM Technology: weekly average English-language antisemitic tweets rose 106% after Musk's takeover and new antisemitic-posting accounts more than tripled, with no evidence 'deboosting' reduced engagement.

Toxic Twitter: bringing back banned accounts generates ad revenue

Previously banned accounts reinstated by Musk are generating millions in ad revenue for the platform.

Why is 'Nazis' regularly trending on Twitter in Belgium?

Analysis showing how Russian official narratives get amplified on Twitter in Belgium whenever 'Nazis' trends, revealing coordinated pushing of pro-Kremlin framing.