Samantha Bradshaw

Doctor of Philosophy Candidate Oxford Internet Institute

  • Oxford

Samantha Bradshaw is a D. Phil. candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute, working on the Computational Propaganda project.

Contact

Media

Social

Biography

Samantha Bradshaw is a D.Phil. candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute. She is also a Researcher on the Computational Propaganda Project at Oxford University, and a Senior Fellow at the Canadian International Council. Samantha studies the relationship between social media and democracy. In particular, her work examines government use of social media for coordinated digital disinformation campaigns. Her research has been featured by numerous media outlets, including the Washington Post, CNN, Bloomberg, the Financial Times and Mother Jones. She holds an MA in global governance from the Balsillie School of International Affairs, and a joint honors BA in political science and legal studies from the University of Waterloo.

Industry Expertise

Media - Online
Education/Learning

Areas of Expertise

Politics
Human Rights Online
Computational Propaganda
Social Media and Democracy
Cyber Security
Internet Governance
Government

Education

University of Oxford

Ph.D.

Information, Communication and Social Sciences

University of Waterloo

M.A.

Global Governance, Global Security

2013

University of Waterloo

B.A.

Political Science and Legal Studies

2012

Affiliations

  • The Canadian International Council, Senior Fellow
  • Computational Propaganda Research Project, University of Oxford

Media Appearances

Fake news rife on Twitter during election week, study from Oxford says

CNN Media  online

2017-09-28

"We found that in the swing states there was a higher concentration of this highly polarizing content," Samantha Bradshaw, a researcher who worked on the study, told CNN...

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Trump-Russia investigation may target Reddit posts, says senator's aide

The Guardian  online

2017-09-27

“[Reddit] is one of the forums that some of the coordinated information campaigns happened on,” Samantha Bradshaw, a researcher at Oxford University, told the Hill. Bradshaw studies how governments use social media to influence public opinion, and said she had witnessed patterns on the site that suggested a deliberate effort to distribute false news ...

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Facebook pushed to publicly release Russian-connected ads

The Hill  online

2017-10-08

“[Showing the ads] might just create more fear, lower levels of trust, and give the Russian government more credit than they deserve for what happened in 2016,” said Samantha Bradshaw, a researcher at the University of Oxford who has explored how governments use social media to influence people ...

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Event Appearances

Global Trends in Digital Disinformation

National Democratic Institute Board Meeting  Washington D.C.

2017-09-26

Troops, Trolls and Trouble Makers: A Global Inventory of Social Media Manipulation Paper

Association of Internet Researchers Conference  Tartu, Estonia, 2017

The DNS Blackbox and Individual Privacy

Association of Internet Researchers Conference: The Internet Rules, But How?  Berlin, Germany

2016-10-05

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Articles

Combatting Cyber Threats: CSIRTs and Fostering International Cooperation on Cybersecurity

Global Commission on Internet Governance Paper Series

2015

The increasing visibility and sophistication of cyber attacks, coupled with the global interconnection and dependence of the Internet, has created a need not only for specialized skills in the prevention of and response to cyber attacks but also for cooperation on a global scale. A “cyber regime complex” is emerging as governments, the private sector, the technical community and non-governmental organizations cooperate to secure cyberspace. Computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) are key actors in the cyber regime complex that help the broader Internet community prevent and respond to cyber incidents through incident analysis and response, information sharing and dissemination, and skills training. Teams generally agree that cooperation could be strengthened through the enhanced and timely exchange of cyber threat information. However, a number of complex legal questions and a lack of trust among community members have discouraged sharing. This paper examines the role of CSIRTs in the emerging cyber regime complex and asks what might be driving the lack of trust and information sharing within the community. The commercialization of cyber security and threat vulnerabilities, the Internet’s development as a new power domain, the growth of the CSIRT community and the emergence of a cyber regime complex are examined as factors that are giving rise to and exacerbating existing problems around information sharing and trust.

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Encryption at the IGF

Internet Governance & Jurisdiction, Conflict Management & Security

2015

Encryption technology, and associated questions around freedom of speech, national security and privacy, have been at the forefront of discussions at the 2015 Internet Governance Forum.

Encryption is used to secure online communications and works by scrambling data sent across the network so that only intended recipients can access it. It is a fundamental technology for establishing trust on the Internet, as it prevents unlawful or unauthorized access by a third party, making it essential for upholding and protecting freedom of speech, privacy and security online.

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Digital diplomacy - #notdiplomacy

Internet Governance & Jurisdiction, Conflict Management & Security

2015

Digital diplomacy has been heralded as 21st century statecraft. It involves using the Internet and social media platforms to communicate with citizens, businesses and non-state actors; promote national values; and build public support for policy goals or strategies.

In a world where everyone is increasingly connected, the ability to gather and share information to wide audiences at unprecedented rates has created new opportunities for policy leaders and government departments to share messages and set political agendas beyond traditional channels. While conventional forms of diplomacy still dominate both the domestic and foreign policy landscape, an increasing number of governments are utilizing technology as a new tool for communication, information gathering, and the promotion of values both at home and abroad.

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