Peter Benzoni

Ten months after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Club de Periodistas de México (The Club of Journalists of Mexico) bestowed awards upon three journalists from RT, a Russian state-owned media outlet, for their international coverage of the Kremlin’s “special operation in Ukraine”.

Introduction Threat actors increasingly operate across national boundaries, but information-operation detection rarely extends beyond single-language analysis, leaving blind spots in multilingual and visual domains. This focus on textual narratives neglects the critical role visuals play in spreading influence. Images carry powerful messages independent of language and can swiftly move across borders, enhancing narratives, shaping public perception, and often evading traditional detection methods.

Since the protests over immigration raids in Los Angeles began last weekend, false and misleading information about the ongoing demonstrations and the Trump administration’s crackdown have proliferated online. Though many of the falsehoods have been driven by partisan actors, foreign adversaries have also seized on the unrest to promote conspiracies and narratives aimed at further sowing chaos and denigrating the United States.