Yonder (company)

Yonder, formerly named New Knowledge, is a company from Austin, Texas, specializing in information integrity, founded in 2015.[1] It is known for studying online tactics which were used by the Internet Research Agency in an effort to influence the 2016 US Presidential election. In its early days, it was being used by the press to identify candidates that Russian social media accounts show interest in, and was involved in an election meddling scandal in the 2017 US Senate special election in Alabama.[2] As of Fall 2019, the company and its official website have re-branded under the name Yonder.

Yonder
Formation2017
Founded atAustin, Texas
CEO
Jonathon Morgan
WebsiteHttps://www.yonder-ai.com/
Formerly called
New Knowledge

Yonder CEO, Johnathon Morgan, was profiled in HBO's 2020 documentary, After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News.

Yonder now supports both Government and Commercial customers as they try to better understand what's real and what's not online, as well as emerging narratives and factions that matter most to their brand and values. They often share their intelligence more broadly (ie via Fast Co) to help the general public better understand the actual groups behind differing perspectives on the social web.

Background

Lux Capital and GGV capital provided $11 million in capital for the company in 2018.[3]

The Hamilton68 database, which tracks disinformation on-line for the US German Marshall Fund's Alliance for Securing Democracy was built by the company.[4]

The company prepared "The Tactics and Tropes of the Internet Research Agency" for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.[5]

Two days after this report was published, a New York Times story broke about the company's participation in an experiment in which it simulated the bot-nets used during the US 2016 elections by the Internet Research Agency. According to a company internal report, they "orchestrated an elaborate ‘false flag’ operation that planted the idea that the Moore campaign was being amplified on social media by a Russian botnet." Renée DiResta, one of the principal authors of the Senate report on the Internet Research Agency, said that as she understood it the goal of the New Knowledge experiment was to "investigate to what extent they could grow audiences for Facebook pages using sensational news".[6] The CEO, Johnathon Morgan, had his Facebook account suspended due to his participation in the project.[7]

Democratic donor Reid Hoffman donated $750,000 to American Emergent Technologies which provided funding for New Knowledge. He disavowed any specific knowledge of the project, called Project Birmingham.[7]

Media use

Ruth Reader, writing for Fast Co in April 2020, cited Yonder findings in an article on Anti Vaxxer faction involvement with narratives regarding Vitamin C and a hypothetical Covid-19 treatment saying, "In the past several years, social media has given a soap box to a previously niche group of people who are against vaccination. This group, known colloquially as anti-vaxxers, fabricates stories about the danger of vaccines in attempt to discredit them. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has given some members of this faction an opportunity to spread more anti-vaccine propaganda, and it’s starting to make its way to the mainstream."[8]

Taylor Hatmaker, writing for TechCrunch in April 2020, cited findings in a new Yonder report] in relation to 5G consiparcy theories saying, "A report on coronavirus misinformation from the company notes “the mainstream is unusually accepting of conspiratorial thinking, rumors, alarm, or panic” during uncertain times — a phenomenon that explains the movement of misinformation that we’re seeing now. While the company estimates that it would normally take six to eight months for a “fringe narrative” to make its way from the edges of the internet into the mainstream, that interval looks like three to 14 days in the midst of COVID-19."[9]

In a press release, Yonder described their new product: "Yonder Narrative alerts users when a topic is about to go viral and analyzes how internet subcultures are affecting the narrative, contextualizes the conversation, authenticates which conversations are real and helps users make a decision."[10]

Robert Windrem, writing for NBC News in 2018, cited the company's report on the Internet Research Agency in an article about Green candidate Jill Stein's 2016 campaign.[11] He also cited the company in 2019 to report increased activity on Russian bot-nets surrounding Democrat primary candidate Tulsi Gabbard.[12] Both candidates and some media outlets have been critical of use of New Knowledge, given its own involvement in meddling in the Roy Moore-Doug Jones Senate race.[13][14]

gollark: Initially, it was over WiFi in another room, which I *think* is why the connection dropped out a bit.
gollark: Yes.
gollark: I also just now plugged in the ethernet cable on the HNode™, so enjoy better quality of service.
gollark: Exciting news: all of osmarks.net now supports HTTP/3 probably. Enjoy your UDPous UDPoforms.
gollark: I wonder how many dark gods I'll end up invoking if I try and patch this *myself*.

References
  1. "New Knowledge". New Knowledge.
  2. Sebastian Herrera (February 15, 2019). "Who is Jonathon Morgan? Austin researcher makes a name -- and finds controversy -- in cybersecurity world". Austin American-Statesman.
  3. Connie Loizos (August 28, 2018). "New Knowledge just raised $11 million more to flag and fight social media disinformation meant to bring down companies". Techcrunch.
  4. Jim Rutenberg (January 13, 2019). "Fake News as 'Moral Imperative'? Democrats' Alabama Move Hints at Ugly 2020". New York Times.
  5. "New Reports Shed Light on Internet Research Agency's Social Media Tactics". US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. December 17, 2018.
  6. Scott Shane; Alan Blinder (December 19, 2018). "Secret Experiment in Alabama Senate Race Imitated Russian Tactics". New York Times.
  7. Tony Romm (December 26, 2018). "Internet billionaire Reid Hoffman apologizes for funding a group tied to disinformation in Alabama race". Washington Post.
  8. Ruth Reader. "Surprise, surprise: Anti-vaxxers are spreading false claims about cures for COVID-19". Fast Co. Retrieved 2020-04-13.
  9. Taylor Hatmaker. "Coronavirus Conspiracies Like That Bogus 5G Claim Are racing Across The Internet". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
  10. Sean Czarnecki. "Yonder Launches Narrative to Counter Disinformation". PRWeek. Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  11. Robert Windrem. "Russians launched pro-Jill Stein social media blitz to help Trump, reports say". NBC News. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  12. Windrem, Robert; Popken, Ben (February 2, 2019). "Russia's propaganda machine discovers 2020 Democratic candidate Tulsi Gabbard". NBC News. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  13. "Stein calls on Senate Committee to retract election interference report by cybersecurity firm caught interfering in US election" https://www.jill2016.com/
  14. Greenwald, Glenn (February 3, 2019). "NBC News, to Claim Russia Supports Tulsi Gabbard, Relies on Firm Just Caught Fabricating Russia Data for the Democratic Party". The Intercept. Retrieved May 23, 2019.

Official website

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