Experts in the News | Miller Center

Q&A: With Zelenskyy Surrender Hoax, the Feared Future of Deepfakes Is Here

A “deepfake” video purportedly depicting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling on his forces to surrender to the Russian army circulated online Wednesday – including on Facebook, which later removed the misinformation. University of Virginia professors Danielle Citron, a Law School expert on deepfakes and digital privacy, and David Nemer, an assistant professor of media studies who researches online misinformation, talked to UVA Today about the future of malign actors using digital tools to create false impressions for their own ends, including the ill omen for democracies and their security.

Danielle K. Citron

Health security is national security

The unified Western response to Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression has generated a sense of palpable relief that the democratic world is still capable of determined, unified action. A glimmer of hope, perhaps more than a glimmer, has emerged that the liberal international order might yet hold. In the United States, however, the past week provided evidence that the deep dysfunction of democracy remains. Congress, inexcusably, has failed to take the minimum necessary steps to prepare for future stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although many on Capitol Hill seem not to recognize it, this is an urgent matter not only of public health but of national security.

Guian McKee

Zelensky, Churchill, Reagan

Eric and Eliot host British author and historian Andrew Roberts and discuss his revisionist account of King George III and how a good man was nonetheless the monarch under whom the American colonies were lost. They discuss his new podcast Secrets of Statecraft, the most important characteristics of leadership in wartime, and the role Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is playing today and its Churchillian and Reaganite overtones. They also talk about Vladimir Putin, the role of individuals in history, and more.

Eric Edelman

First ladies help fight the good fight during war

From the moment first lady Jill Biden welcomed Ukraine’s Ambassador Oksana Markarova to the 2022 State of the Union address, President Biden’s spouse has been following in the footsteps of her predecessors’ wartime contributions to our nation. Standing firm with her husband against the Russian invasion, another first lady, Ukraine’s Olena Volodymyrivna Zelenska, has earned admiration around the world for her heart-wrenching descriptions of the terror inflicted on her country, especially its children.

Barbara Perry

What's going on with China and Russia?

As we enter the fourth week of the Ukraine conflict, the dynamic between China and Russia has shifted. The rise of the China-Russia alliance has been complicated by competing domestic interests in China. Despite the Chinese government’s support for Russia and heavily controlled media, Chinese social media posts are not unified on the Ukraine question. New research led by Stanford’s Jennifer Pan has found mixed public opinion about the Ukraine conflict on Chinese social platforms. This suggests a softening of censorship of critical views of Russia, as well as domestic popular opinion pressuring Chinese leaders to contend with efforts to collaborate with Russia.

Aynne Kokas

China takes a key step toward chip self-sufficiency

Aynne Kokas, media studies professor at the University of Virginia, warns in her latest book that China is winning at what she calls “data trafficking.” This concept describes “an exploitative process that leverages fragmented corporate data security policies that have limited user consent or acknowledgment of how the data has been shared”. In this way, data from the US and elsewhere can be “exploited and taken across borders” to China.

Aynne Kokas