On November 26, 2021, Ali Soufan, Founder of The Soufan Center, delivered a distinguished lecture at the 2021 Olive TREE Forum in Singapore. Hosted by Humanity Matters, a non-profit working to promote social cohesion and resilience and educate grassroots and?community leaders on countering violent extremism in Singapore, the forum addressed the theme ‘Disinformation: Fake is for Real.’ Mr. Soufan’s virtual lecture looked at the impact of disinformation in the areas of geopolitics and international security, in particular the impact from a terrorism perspective. “This link between conspiracies, disinformation, and violence is often referred to as the disinformation-terrorism nexus, or conspiracy driven violent extremism,” he warned. The lecture also looked at how disinformation can be amplified by?hostile foreign influence operations. Mr. Soufan’s remarks built upon the findings from The Soufan Center’s report ‘Quantifying The Q Conspiracy: A Data-Driven Approach to Understanding the Threat Posed by QAnon.’ The lecture was preceded by a keynote opening address by?Singapore’s Minister of State for Home Affairs Mr. Desmond Tan.
