Information Warfare Watch 54

THE SVR TAKES OVER PRIGOZHIN'S INFLUENCE NETWORK
When Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia's notorious Wagner paramilitary group, launched an abortive coup against the Kremlin back in the Summer of 2023, the consequences were fatal for him – and led to the mercenary outfit (previously an independent entity) becoming subsumed by Russia's Defense Ministry and rebranded as the Africa Corps. But Prigozhin was important to Moscow for another reason as well. The chef-turned-Kremlin insider was also the coordinator and financier of the Russian government's contemporary disinformation and propaganda efforts. And, with his demise, that network has apparently been subsumed by the Kremlin as well.

A new expose from Forbidden Stories details nearly 1,500 pages of internal government documents obtained by the investigative outlet that have shed light on the scale of Russia's current disinformation campaigns in Africa to Latin America. The effort, spearheaded by the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service, continues the work of Prigozhin's original network under a new name, that of "The Company." The new organization, the documents detail, disseminates Russian ideological materials, steers local politics in various countries (like Bolivia) in a direction more favorable to Moscow, and otherwise works to improve the Kremlin's standing via propaganda activities. (Forbidden Stories, February 20, 2026)

TAIWAN FACES AN INFORMATION OFFENSIVE
The PRC is no stranger to disinformation, and Taiwan's information environment has been a major target. In the lead-up to the island's 2024 presidential elections, over 10,000 pieces of suspicious information that aligned with PRC narratives were recorded, part of a wider campaign that the EU's European External Action Service estimates has touched 90 countries across 38,000 unique channels.

In response, Taiwan has created a model for countering the PRC's malign influence, focusing on building up societal resilience. However, the growing use of generative AI has complicated these efforts, enabling malign actors to conduct coordinated inauthentic behavior at scale by producing high volumes of varied posts, masking their origins and overwhelming fact-checkers, even when the underlying disinformation is not particularly sophisticated. (Global Taiwan Institute, February 11, 2026)

A NEW (CANADIAN) TOOL AGAINST RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION
In the fight against Russian disinformation and propaganda, Western governments now have a new tool at their disposal. Cipher is a Canadian-designed human-in-the-loop AI agent built to match the volume and velocity of Russian disinformation. It does so by compressing what once required days of expert analysis into mere hours, allowing a more holistic understanding of the breadth and scope of Russian informational activities. The results are pronounced. Cipher's investigations have revealed coordinated and persistent attempts to shift Canadian public opinion away from support of Ukraine by propagating false narratives that originate with state-controlled outlets and spread through social media influencer networks. Other themes also predominate. When the U.S. conducted an operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January, for instance, Russian networks moved swiftly to flood Canadian channels with narratives casting Western governments as imperialist. Having proven itself in English, Cipher is now being adapted for Russian-language detection, with the goal of "pre-bunking" disinformation before it has the chance to spread. (Kyiv Independent, February 26, 2026)

IRAN KEEPS LOYAL VOICES ONLINE
Since the start of the year, Iran's beleaguered regime has instituted a near-total internet blackout, first as a means to quell popular protests and subsequently in order to prevent Iranians from communicating with the outside world during the U.S.-Israeli conflict launched in late February. That blackout remains in place, with internet connectivity watchdogs like NetBlocks registering a near-total loss of communication capability within the country.

But not everyone is being kept offline. Even as the Iranian public has remained cut off from the internet for much of 2026, the regime is quietly ensuring that select voices remain online — and amplified their voices. Through so-called "white" SIM cards — mobile lines exempt from Iran's filtering system that allow direct access to platforms such as X, Telegram, and Instagram — the government is providing privileged connectivity to those it counts on to promote its messaging. Notably, President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed in early December to deactivate white SIM cards, having repeatedly promised to lift filtering more broadly. That step, however, was never taken. And now that the United States and Iran are in active conflict, the regime in Tehran has put a premium on platforming loyal voices — and keeping all other narratives about domestic conditions and politics offline. (Iran International, March 10, 2026)