Disinfo Docket 17 June

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Highlights

1. Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic (Reuters, 14 June)
2. 30 minutes on Facebook: If you like AI-generated images and renamed accounts, you'll just love the current state of the Facebook recommendation algorithm (Conspirator Norteño, 15 June)
3. Elections Round Up: A look at what happened in the South Africa, Mexico, India and European Union elections (Anchor Change, 15 June)

1. Platforms & Technology

1. Apple and Meta may face official EU charges for failing to allow marketplace competition (Mashable, 15 June)
2. Why I'm worried about a fake cannibal (The Information, 15 June)
3. The Influencer Is a Young Teenage Girl. The Audience Is 92% Adult Men. (WSJ, 15 June)

Meta

1. Meta halts plans to train AI on Facebook, Instagram posts in EU (ArsTechnica, 14 June)
2. Facebook, Instagram are using your data – and you can’t opt out (Sydney Morning Herald, 16 June)

TikTok 

1. Parisians on TikTok Plead: ‘Don’t Come’ to Paris for the Olympics (NYT, 14 June)
2. TikTok tumbles into 2024: The social media giant quietly clarifies its political ad prohibitions, as creators continue to claim they’re being silenced (FWIW, 14 June)

2. Russia & Ukraine

1. The Russian Spies Next Door: Posing as Argentine immigrants in Slovenia, the quiet married couple were in fact part of Putin’s aggressive effort to seed the West with ‘illegal’ intelligence operatives, say authorities (WSJ, 17 June)