(AFP) A leading American university was sued Wednesday over a disinformation campaign allegedly financed by the United Arab Emirates, accused of seeding false narratives that linked academics to a radical group in the Middle East.
Farid Hafez, an Austrian political scientist, filed the $10 million lawsuit against George Washington University and Lorenzo Vidino, the director of its program on extremism.
It’s the second such case in US courts this year that sheds light on what researchers call a lucrative “disinformation for hire” industry that peddles false information and influence operations on behalf of paying clients.
Foreign governments have long been accused of buying influence with large donations to US universities and think tanks. But Hafez’s lawsuit takes it further, accusing a premier higher education institution of involvement in damaging reputations on behalf of a sovereign state.
