Get in-depth analysis of international events and situations based on the latest hyperlocal data.
April 04, 2025
As their government wages war on Ukraine, many Russians are feeling like public services—especially those dealing with their public safety—are being neglected. They complain about unsafe public transi......
March 28, 2025
After toppling Bashar al-Assad and being named transitional president of Syria, Ahmed al-Shaara has been widely congratulated and received by foreign leaders. However, FilterLabs found a disparity bet......
March 21, 2025
For starters, check out this New York Times piece that showcases FilterLabs analysis, including the following: As with all things Ukraine/Russia-related, the picture is complicated, though from the bo......
March 14, 2025
The Trump administration is at the beginning of deploying its foreign policy agenda, including efforts to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development and curtail “softer” foreign policy tool......
March 07, 2025
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: FilterLabs' new brief, Disrupting the China-Russia Axis, is now available! You heard it straight from the White House: the tariffs are back. While the response from Beijing offi......
February 28, 2025
This just in: FilterLabs has just published a new brief, Disrupting the China-Russia Axis. Check it out! FilterLabs has been closely following Russian coverage of US-Russo diplomacy in the Trump era, ......
February 21, 2025
With 127.7 million viewers, Super Bowl LIX wasn’t just the biggest sporting event of the year—it probably drew the biggest American audience since the Apollo 11 moon landing. So, who made the most of ......
February 14, 2025
FilterLabs will soon publish a brief entitled Disrupting the China-Russia Axis. It covers two countries where it is notoriously difficult to break through the propaganda to how people there really fee......
February 07, 2025
In the past 90 days the United States has conducted several major airstrikes in Yemen against Houthi targets. One might expect sentiment around the United States in Yemeni media to have declined after......
February 04, 2025
With President Trump now officially back in the White House and talk of efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine back in the news, this week we thought we’d ask Talisman (FilterLabs’ data platform) a si......
January 23, 2025
Key takeaways: Chinese state-backed media has reported positively to recent diplomatic talks, which could end several years of tension along the Sino-Indian border On social media, Chinese “netizens” ......
January 21, 2025
Key takeaways: After a burst of enthusiasm at the time of Trump's election, sentiment around the re-elected former president on Russian media has been surprisingly ambivalent. Russia’s mainstream pres......
January 17, 2025
Key takeaways: Five years after a military standoff across their border in Ladakh, India and China appear to have reached a diplomatic breakthrough—to the approval of the mainstream Indian press. Indi......
January 13, 2025
Key takeaways: The Kremlin has struggled mightily to reduce inflation, which remains at almost 10%. The wartime economy is driving inflation, but other structural factors are contributing as well. Rus......
December 20, 2024
Key takeaways: After Bashar Al-Assad’s sudden fall, Lebanese media focused on the immediate implications for regional politics. Many commentators criticized Hezbollah for its involvement in the Syrian......
December 16, 2024
Key takeaways: Iranian mainstream news outlets called Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) a terrorist group, until HTS drove Assad out of Syria. Then they started to refer to HTS as the “Syrian opposition coa......
December 10, 2024
Key takeaways: The sudden success of the Syrian opposition took the Russian media by surprise, just like everybody else. Despite waging war against the opposition for a decade, the Russian government ......
December 09, 2024
Key takeaways: Russia and North Korea have been cultivating a relationship for decades and have recently pledged mutual military assistance. The Kremlin and Russian mainstream media have studiously av......
November 27, 2024
Key takeaways: Netanyahu reportedly preferred a Trump victory, and sentiment surrounding Trump in Israeli online discourse rose after he was elected. However, sentiment in stories that referred to bot......
November 25, 2024
New from FilterLabs: Navigating Noise We're on episode five of our new podcast, Navigating Noise, and we wanted to take a moment to invite our newsletter subscribers to join us—and to tell you what a ......
November 21, 2024
Key takeaways: The Russian parliament has passed a law banning “child-free propaganda”—that is, promoting the benefits of a child-free lifestyle or the refusal to have children. The Russian birth rate......
November 14, 2024
Key takeaways: Sentiment around Russia in Chinese media is generally positive, including during the recent BRICS conference. Like other members in BRICS, the Chinese government presented BRICS as a co......
November 08, 2024
Key takeaways: Putin welcomed Iran into BRICS, which he hopes will grow into a counterweight to US military and economic supremacy. At recent conferences, Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart, M......
November 06, 2024
Coverage of the US presidential candidates from Russia, China, and Iran Key Takeaways The US presidential elction has received extensive coverage in Russian, Chinese, and Iranian media—both in mainstr......
November 05, 2024
As you have likely not forgotten, America votes today. National (and international) discussion will shift to election outcomes soon. While we're waiting, the FilterLabs team thought it might be intere......
November 01, 2024
Key takeaways: Putin hopes that the BRICS economic group can act as a counterweight to western influence He has found a partial ally in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi but, despite appearing frien......
October 30, 2024
Key takeaways: Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian political figures have been discussing nuclear weapons with new urgency. Putin and his allies claim that their ar......
October 18, 2024
How popular is Iran in the Middle East, particularly in countries where it supports “resistance” groups? And how is its present conflict with Israel changing its standing in the region? Key Takeaways ......
October 10, 2024
Key takeaways from FilterLabs’ analysis: Sentiment in Lebanese mainstream media around Hezbollah is generally positive. The picture is more mixed on Lebanese social media, where some commentators are ......
October 07, 2024
As FilterLabs CEO Jonathan Teubner told the New York Times last week, reactions to the Hezbollah secretary-general’s death were not the same throughout the Arab world. Key takeaways from FilterLabs’ a......
September 30, 2024
News media coverage showed a spike in positivity around the ruling APC party that was absent from Nigerian social media discourse. Key takeaways Looking at sentiment data aggregating thousands of arti......
September 25, 2024
Key takeaways: Israeli social media users generally assume that Mossad was behind the explosion of thousands of pagers in Lebanon. Sentiment around Mossad rose sharply after the attacks, and it appear......
September 20, 2024
Key takeaways from FilterLabs’ analysis: Substantial Russian government investments in the Crimean tourism industry have garnered positive local press. Official government statistics show that tourism......
September 17, 2024
Key Points from FilterLabs' Analysis: Despite his surprisingly disappointing election results earlier this summer, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been receiving generally positive coverage in the In......
September 16, 2024
Key points on Russian views of US presidential candidates As FilterLabs CEO Jonathan Teubner discussed on NBC this past weekend, Russian media has been paying more attention to Donald Trump than it ha......
September 06, 2024
Key Points from FilterLabs’ Analysis: US sanctions against Russia are now affecting Chinese firms. These sanctions are extremely unpopular in Chinese media. They provoke indignation from the Chinese g......
August 30, 2024
Key Points from FilterLabs’ analysis After the Kursk incursion, sentiment around Putin fell in Chinese, Iranian, and Israeli media. At the same time, these nations’ news media seem equally interested ......
August 23, 2024
Key points from FilterLabs’ analysis: Yesterday the New York Times published an article focused on our analysis on declining Russian sentiment toward President Putin. The article also referenced our r......
August 22, 2024
Today's installment expands on last week's investigation of how Ukraine's incursion into Kursk is affecting Russians' sentiment toward Putin. Stay tuned for a quick-turn newsletter on how the Kremlin'......
August 16, 2024
Vladimir’s Putin’s domestic popularity rests on his image as a strong leader who can ensure order. The Ukrainian military’s surprise incursion into the Kursk region has taken 1000 km of Russian territ......
August 09, 2024
Back in March, FilterLabs released Anxious Empire, an in-depth report on the underlying weaknesses of the Putin regime. One major weakness we observed was the Russian economy, and over the past few mo......
August 02, 2024
The Olympics Games are easily one of the most popular events in the world. In a recent global survey, 9 out of 10 respondents could identify its trademark rings. One place the Olympics are not popular......
July 30, 2024
With President Biden stepping aside, people around the world have turned their attention to his vice president, Kamala Harris. It can be hard to know what ordinary people in places like Russia and Chi......
July 23, 2024
The American presidential race was in upheaval again last week, after former President Trump was nearly assassinated at a rally on July 13. The American media is rightly focused on the killer, his mot......
July 18, 2024
Two factors make all the difference between global trading triumphs and misfires: timing and accuracy. Financial analysts have to be quicker than their competition in assessing opportunities and then ......
July 12, 2024
The year 2024 might be called the Year of Elections. There are 64 countries–which are home to almost half the world’s population–holding elections this year. These elections promise not only to scramb......
July 05, 2024
If talking heads from Washington DC to Jerusalem can agree on one thing, it’s surely this: last Thursday Joe Biden had a terrible debate. However, sentiment on Joe Biden actually rose in Israeli socia......
June 27, 2024
Two weeks ago, Reuters reported that inflation in China was holding steady... It was good economic news, and yet, according to a FilterLabs.AI analysis of Chinese social media activity, sentiment arou......
June 21, 2024
As part of its ongoing mission to gather and analyze data from around the world, FilterLabs has recently launched its coverage of China. Getting reliable information about China can be difficult. The ......
June 14, 2024
After decades of worrying about the impending “population bomb,” governments around the world are now facing the exact opposite problem: population decline. Most countries have fertility rates below r......
June 07, 2024
A paradox of the modern media landscape is that the world seems to be at once more comprehensible and more bewildering. Comprehensible because anyone with access to the internet can get information fr......
May 31, 2024
FilterLabs.AI recently participated in WAN-IFRA’s 75th Annual World News Media Congress, held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Three members of the FilterLabs team—founder and CEO Jonathan Teubner, director of......
May 24, 2024
Last week, Vladimir Putin replaced Sergei Shoigu, his minister of defense, with Andrei Belousov, an economist. Shoigu was a controversial figure in Russian life. He is known to have a close relationsh......
May 17, 2024
Protests have roiled American college and university campuses for more than a month. Since Columbia students set up a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the university’s campus on April 17, Pro-Palestini......
May 10, 2024
Sentiment around the ceasefire rose in both Israeli and Arabic-language media, but a more fine-grained analysis through Talisman showed just how far apart the two sides remain. A ceasefire proposal be......
May 03, 2024
Drawing on both Israeli news media and Israeli social media sources, FilterLabs has been analyzing sentiment in articles and online discussion about the IDF. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are a pil......
April 29, 2024
We're continuing to expand our coverage and the angles from which we can approach the data. We'd love your thoughts on the kinds of insights that would be most helpful to you! We're growing! This week......
April 19, 2024
If the Iranians feel like their message wasn’t getting through, they may feel the need to try again. Early last Sunday, April 14, the Iranian government launched hundreds of drones and missiles into I......
April 12, 2024
The general rule of data seems to be: the more the merrier. Big data, large language models (AI), national polling – the more information we collect, the more certain our knowledge becomes. There’s no......
April 05, 2024
What could explain the sudden rise of entertainment spending? One answer could be fears about inflation. Vladimir Putin appears to be riding high. He won the recent presidential election handily (even......
March 29, 2024
Who’s listening to the Kremlin’s line that Ukraine was somehow behind last week’s terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall? A lot of people, it turns out. After the deadly bombing at Moscow’s Crocus City ......
March 22, 2024
An election produces a wealth of information—not just votes, but news stories, commentary, and an avalanche of online conversation. Putin’s Pre-Election Propaganda Blitz, Attacks and Intimidation at t......
March 15, 2024
Today FilterLabs.AI released Anxious Empire, a report on Russia’s vulnerabilities. The report draws on FilterLabs’ analysis of more than 7,000 streams of discursive and behavioral data, as well as ins......
March 08, 2024
A shocking murder trial, Barbie, and the media's view of feminism Today is International Women’s Day, a major holiday in Russia, and the FilterLabs team thought it would be a good time to look at diff......
March 01, 2024
Last month, FilterLabs.AI released Talisman, our new tool that gives organizations and individuals access to hyper-local discursive and behavioral data through our powerful natural language processing......
February 23, 2024
Our goal was to find out first, how the Kremlin was going to present the story, and second, how ordinary Russians would respond. Would the official story dominate? Or would alternate explanations emer......
February 16, 2024
Considering Crimea In the creation legend of modern-day Russia, a group of Kievan Rus’ tribesmen travel overseas and ask a Varangian (Viking) prince to rule over them. For, the tribesmen tell the prin......
February 12, 2024
In a little over a month, Russians will have a presidential election. Although the outcome is not seriously in doubt (yes, Putin will win again), it can be hard to get reliable news and polling about ......
February 02, 2024
Against a backdrop of widespread pro-government coverage, it can be hard to identify specific propaganda campaigns—and even more difficult to find and exploit dissent. Difficult, but not impossible. A......
November 17, 2023
In the days following the October 7th attacks, sentiment scores in articles mentioning Abdullah II fell sharply. Then, in late October, sentiment suddenly shot up again... Insights from FilterLabs’ an......
October 19, 2023
Beyond its obvious duplicity, the Kremlin’s domestic response to the conflict is a perfect example of what Jacques Ellul called "integrative propaganda," which promotes a passive acceptance of existin......
October 11, 2023
The U.S. Department of State recently released a report on the scope of Chinese information campaigns. We note that the PRC's strategies frequently coincide with the Kremlin’s, and the similarities ca......
September 15, 2023
Discontent may be brewing after an apparent Putin victory Last weekend’s municipal elections in Russia are widely regarded as a sham. Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party appears to have won almost ev......
August 31, 2023
The strange career of Yevgeny Prigozhin has come to an abrupt end. On August 23rd, exactly two months after Prigozhin led a brief and quixotic rebellion against the Russian military, the mercenary com......
August 16, 2023
Yes, there is a religious angle. But overall, the issue is less politically polarizing than it is in the US and reflects Russians' widespread anxiety over demographic decline. Abortion policy has been......
July 01, 2023
Last weekend the world watched in amazement as Evgeny Prigozhin, head of the mercenary Wagner Group, seized the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don without a fight. Then, even more surprisingly, a column of......
June 22, 2023
Negative sentiment does not always mean displeasure. To make sense of sentiment in big data sets, one actually needs to know the minutiae of local social conditions. Sounds too paradoxical? Consider t......
June 08, 2023
As we have expanded our work not only beyond Russia but also into other types of data (economic, consumer, and social indicators), we have come to believe that a broader aperture is needed. Welcome, o......
November 11, 2022
Before the midterm elections last Tuesday, many pundits and political insiders predicted a Republican red wave. Or, even more dramatically, a “bloodbath.” It didn’t happen. Instead, the Democrats defi......
November 03, 2022
FilterLabs.AI was back in the news last week. A story in The New York Times quoted chief executive Jonathan Teubner on the subject of a new rumor swirling around Russian social media: an alleged Ukrai......
June 21, 2022
As war in the Donbas region grinds on, the Russian military is in desperate need of fresh troops. From central Russia to the far-flung provinces, reservists are being called up and, in many cases, sen......
May 05, 2022
It may look like the Russian forces are in disarray and sure to retreat soon, even from the Donbas region [1]. But in truth the information battle may only be beginning. Reports suggest that the Russi......
April 28, 2022
It may look like the Russian forces are in disarray and sure to retreat soon, even from the Donbas region [1]. But in truth the information battle may only be beginning. It is a truth universally ackn......
April 21, 2022
Or, the hidden value of the internet’s ugly ducklings—and where to find them Meta (née Facebook) deletes an average 1.5 billion fraudulent accounts each quarter.[1] Somewhere between 5 and 30% of Twit......
April 14, 2022
Even without Facebook and Twitter, millions of Russians are making their voices heard online—if you know how to listen. Shortly after its invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government dropped a new digi......
March 31, 2022
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