Simon Fraser University

Purpose

In order to understand how to accurately and rapidly identify disinformation attacks, the applicant proposes to analyze content in existing databases, which contain extensive materials already gathered from previously identified disinformation attacks. They will then employ artificial intelligence, combining their Dark Crawler, SentiStrength, Posit and TensorFlow, to compare known disinformation attacks to "normal" information harvested from social media, in order to calculate the differences in language used during disinformation attacks. This will allow them to develop typologies of past and present hostile activities against Canada and other Allied nations, identify indicators of change in public opinion (esp. as they relate to hostile disinformation activities), identify the social media techniques of hostile actors (and how best to respond to them), as well as to undertake cross-cultural analyses, to determine how hostile actors seek to fuel tensions and undermine social cohesion by exploiting cultural sensitivities.