Professional Affiliation

Founder, Sophias Strategies LLC; Former Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellow 

Expert Bio

Nina Jankowicz studies the intersection of democracy and technology in Central and Eastern Europe. She is the author of How To Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict (Bloomsbury/IBTauris). Ms. Jankowicz has advised the Ukrainian government on strategic communications under the auspices of a Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellowship. Her writing has been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and others. She is a frequent television and radio commentator on disinformation and Russian and Eastern European affairs. Prior to her Fulbright grant in Ukraine, Ms. Jankowicz managed democracy assistance programs to Russia and Belarus at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. She received her MA in Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, and her BA from Bryn Mawr College.

Wilson Center Project

• Malign Creativity: How Gender, Sex, and Lies are Weaponized Against Women Online
• Bridging the Trust Gap: How the West Can Learn from Eastern EU’s Experience Battling Russian Disinformation.
• Comparative Approaches to Countering Disinformation and Regulating Social Media in the Digital Age

Project Summary

Comparative Approaches to Countering Disinformation and Regulating Social Media in the Digital Age

This project will advance a unique, three-pronged program of research, outreach, and capacity building around social media regulation and counter-disinformation efforts. The program will specifically target global legislators. The project will begin by undertaking a research paper comparing legislative approaches to social media regulation in the counter disinformation realm. It will explore the specific legislative mechanisms at work in other large social media markets and their effects, laying out a menu of best practices for legislators in the United States and beyond to consider. The project will then convene legislators and key staff to exchange experiences related to countering disinformation in their home countries, and complete a tabletop exercise on a disinformation crisis. The third component of the project, a manual for campaigns and political offices, will draw on the conclusions and observations made at the summit as well as best practices in the field of strategic communication.

Major Publications

Malign Creativity: How Gender, Sex, and Lies are Weaponized Against Women Online (Wilson Center, 2021)

How To Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict (Bloomsbury/IBTauris, 2020)



Ukraine's Election Is an All-Out Disinformation Battle (The Atlantic, 2019)

The Disinformation Vaccination (Wilson Quarterly, 2018)

It’s Time to Start Regulating Facebook (Washington Post, 2018)

The Only Way to Defend Against Russia’s Information War (New York Times, 2017)

 

 

Previous Terms

Disinformation Fellow, Science and Technology Innovation Program, 9/9/19 - 5/31/21

Former Global Fellow, Science and Technology Innovation Program & Kennan Institute