Digital Rights Weekly Update: 21 - 27 August 2026

News Digest

Fake US thinktank set up and funded by Israel sought to game AI for propaganda

The Guardian

A pro-Israel messaging website badged with the name of a thinktank that does not exist has published more than half a million words in nine days, built on a commercial platform that promises to optimize content so that AI chatbots will cite it. The site gives Israel’s position on subjects including the torture of Palestinian prisoners, Israeli war crimes and whether Israel has deliberately starved Palestinians in Gaza, all presented as neutral research. The New York media production company Piro Inc filed the site with the US justice department this month under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara), a 1938 law that requires anyone working for a foreign government to formally disclose it, as material it distributes for the Israeli government. The site publishes in the name of the Hanover Institute for Public Policy, which apparently does not exist as a legal entity in any jurisdiction, has no physical address, and carries no named staff and no bylines on any of its reports. Its own terms of use are governed by the laws of “the state in which the Institute is established”, which they decline to name.

AI and Civil Society: Threats and Obstacles to Deployment and Advocacy

Civicus

Surveillance of public and digital spaces pose severe risks to civic space. FRT deployment facilitates mass surveillance in public spaces and severely undermines anonymity, freedom of movement, and freedom of peaceful assembly. AI tools also provide law enforcement agencies and government authorities with the capabilities to collect and analyse vast amounts of data on their citizens, and those they perceive to be a threat, for instance, through AI data mining, predictive policing, and risks analysis tools. Despite the risks and biases associated with these tools, states continue to acquire them from companies looking to profit and then deploy them in human rights violations. In contexts where robust data protection and AI regulations are lacking, civil society organisations (CSOs) are even more vulnerable to the chilling effect of surveillance. As a result of increased deployment of AI in surveillance, civil society actors feel monitored and unsafe. Fearing retaliation, they may resort to self-censorship and avoid protesting or engaging in civic life and public matters.

Meta to pay up to $17bn and dramatically change Instagram and Facebook to settle huge US court case

Independent

Meta will pay up to $17bn and make sweeping changes to Instagram and Facebook to settle a major US court case. The tech giant has been fighting a lawsuit against the attorneys general of 29 US states, who accused it of knowingly damaging young people’s wellbeing with its platforms. Now, the two sides have reached a settlement that commits Meta to bring in a host of changes, including daily limits and nighttime blocks on teenagers’ accounts on Instagram and Facebook. Young people will also be blocked from being able to see the number of likes or reactions to posts. The case had been hailed as a major opportunity for Meta and its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, to answer claims that its platforms had harmed children. The hearings brought a series of dramatic accusations, including claims that Meta had deliberately hidden evidence of ways its platforms were damaging young people’s mental health. But overnight reports suggested that Meta and the states’ attorneys general were working towards a mid-trial settlement that would bring the hearings to an end. Meta, which has always denied the claims in the case, did not admit to wrongdoing as part of the newly announced settlement.

Israel seeks to influence AI responses on Gaza: Reports

The Siasat Daily

Israel has launched a campaign aimed at influencing how artificial intelligence systems respond to questions about Gaza, Palestine and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), according to reports. Politico reported that documents filed with the US Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) linked the campaign to Piro Inc., a US advertising agency working through French communications company Havas Media. The filings identified a USD 100,000 project involving the creation and distribution of source-supported material about Israel. The campaign centres on the Hanover Institute for Public Policy, a website presenting itself as a US research organisation and publishing reports on Israel, Palestine, antisemitism and the Gaza war. Tests conducted by Politico found that ChatGPT and Perplexity cited material from the Hanover Institute when answering neutral questions about Gaza, anti-Zionism and antisemitism. The reported strategy is not to alter the AI models themselves, but to place material online that systems can potentially retrieve when generating answers.