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Tom
Ascott

Digital Communications Manager

Tom Ascott is the Digital Communications Manager at the Royal United Services Institute. He is in charge of coordinating all of RUSI's digital offering, including the website, production of the RUSI Podcast 'In Context' and the social media channels. He joined RUSI in November 2017.

Tom did his undergraduate in Law at King's College London as well as his masters in Global Ethics and Human Values. He wrote his undergraduate thesis on Human Rights and his graduate thesis on the risks posed by Automated Weapons Systems.

His professional background is in research, technology and analysis. His interests are technology, law and ethics, and autonomous military systems.

Tom
Ascott
Digital Communications Manager

Tom Ascott

Contact Details

RUSI Whitehall

+44 (0) 2077474951

Research Focus

UK Autonomous Weapons Systems ;

By This Author

"The other way the government is tackling this is by working directly with social media platforms to have content taken offline. If they can work with experts to identify false information online, whether that’s misinformation, which is information that is simply wrong, perhaps from self styled experts, or disinformation, which is often malicious information coming from bad actor, that will be much more beneficial than asking the public to try to be more critical online of the content they read. "

Sitrep 2nd April

2 April 2020

Tags: Cyber, UK, Resilience, Technology, Europe

"Technology and social media have proven to be very effective in mobilising protests. This was also the case during the recent protests in Hong Kong. However, China was also very successful in influencing social media and technology companies to undermine the use of technology by protesters and to stifle the international effects of negative press coverage."

Hong Kong: Tech Companies Becoming Mediators in Protests?

18 March 2020

Tags: China, Cyber, Technology, Pacific

Book Review: This is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality

16 March 2020

Tom Ascott reviews This is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, by Peter Pomerantsev.

Tags: RUSI Journal, Information

Infectious Lies

11 March 2020

Coronavirus conspiracy theories are multiplying, but following common patterns.

Tags: Coronavirus

"As online news and social media have proliferated over the last decade, a whole new category of information has entered the popular lexicon: fake news. Online disinformation has come a long way from “On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog” to a place where a malicious article hatched from a troll farm can sit side-by-side with legitimate, rigorous journalism. Awareness of the issue is widespread, but stopping misinformation requires social media platforms, journalists, fact checkers, and citizens all to take action."

Is media literacy the magic bullet for fake news?

28 February 2020

Tags: Cyber, UK, Information, Law and Ethics, Technology, Europe

"Meme warfare now more often refers to using memes as individual weapons of information warfare. It’s a form of disinformation that can be used to secure strategic goals. "

How memes are becoming the new frontier of information warfare

19 February 2020

Tags: Cyber, UK, Information, Resilience, Technology, Europe

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"The other way the government is tackling this is by working directly with social media platforms to have content taken offline. If they can work with experts to identify false information online, whether that’s misinformation, which is information that is simply wrong, perhaps from self styled experts, or disinformation, which is often malicious information coming from bad actor, that will be much more beneficial than asking the public to try to be more critical online of the content they read. "

Sitrep 2nd April

2 April 2020 Tags: Cyber, UK, Resilience, Technology, Europe

"Technology and social media have proven to be very effective in mobilising protests. This was also the case during the recent protests in Hong Kong. However, China was also very successful in influencing social media and technology companies to undermine the use of technology by protesters and to stifle the international effects of negative press coverage."

Hong Kong: Tech Companies Becoming Mediators in Protests?

18 March 2020 Tags: China, Cyber, Technology, Pacific

"As online news and social media have proliferated over the last decade, a whole new category of information has entered the popular lexicon: fake news. Online disinformation has come a long way from “On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog” to a place where a malicious article hatched from a troll farm can sit side-by-side with legitimate, rigorous journalism. Awareness of the issue is widespread, but stopping misinformation requires social media platforms, journalists, fact checkers, and citizens all to take action."

Is media literacy the magic bullet for fake news?

28 February 2020 Tags: Cyber, UK, Information, Law and Ethics, Technology, Europe

"Meme warfare now more often refers to using memes as individual weapons of information warfare. It’s a form of disinformation that can be used to secure strategic goals. "

How memes are becoming the new frontier of information warfare

19 February 2020 Tags: Cyber, UK, Information, Resilience, Technology, Europe

"Social media is becoming the most important way for political campaigns to reach out to potential voters, and online misinformation campaigns use coordinated inauthentic activity to subtly manipulate citizens. "

The Rise of Digital Propaganda – An ‘Alt-Right’ Phenomenon?

22 January 2020 Tags: Cyber, United States, Americas, UK, Technology, Europe

"“Some individuals struggle to form communities because they harbor politically incorrect thoughts and meet resistance,” explains Tom Ascott, the digital communications manager for the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies. “Yet racist, sexist, homophobic and alt-right communities thrive online. Such communities might be small and inconsequential in any one geographic area, but the internet presents a border-free world, allowing niche, politically incorrect views to thrive.”"

Global Conspiracy Theory Attacks

19 November 2019 Tags: Cyber, Technology

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