
Aliaksandr Herasimenka is a political communication scholar and a postdoctoral researcher at the Computational Propaganda Project.
Dr Aliaksandr Herasimenka
Researcher
Profile
Aliaksandr is a postdoctoral researcher at the Computational Propaganda Project at the Oxford Internet Institute. His work investigates how political groups and governments use social media to manipulate public opinion. He also studies how people organise protest movements in authoritarian countries. His research interests also include computational methods, messaging platforms and anti-vaccination movements. Aliaksandr is part of the Alternative News Networks project.
Aliaksandr completed his doctorate at the Westminster School of Media and Communication, University of Westminster. His dissertation investigated how digital dissidents in Belarus and Russia use social media to organise protests and disseminate information. This work showed how they built ad hoc shadowed organisational structures and deployed vast digital communication ecologies to address authoritarian surveillance and censorship. The study offered an explanation of why some anti-authoritarian movements are more powerful than others.
Before pursuing his doctorate, Aliaksandr received a Master of Arts in European Studies from Aarhus University (Denmark). He also holds degrees in Political Science and Computer Science. Aliaksandr worked as a journalist and an editor, as well as a media coordinator in an international NGO. He also held visiting and graduate assistant teaching positions at University College London, University of Portsmouth, University of Westminster and Middlesex University, and worked as a researcher at University of Westminster. He was involved in teaching subjects related to digital methods, political communication, digital activism, communication theories and media production. He was a fellow at German Marshal Fund of the United States.
Research Interests:
political communication, computational methods, digital media, social movements, political disinformation, messaging platforms.
Position held at OII:
- Postdoctoral Researcher, April 2020 –
Videos
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Equal Voices Building an Equal Society – Digital Protest and Revolution in Belarus
Recorded: 1 September 2020
Duration: 00:22:11
Athina Karatzogianni, editor of the book series Digital Activism and Society, talks to researcher Aliaksandr Herasimenka about the role played by ICT in the 2020 protests again President Alexander Lukashenko.
News
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Telegram becomes refuge for far-right commentators, says new Oxford study
20 July 2020
New research shows the Telegram instant messaging service, used by 400 million people worldwide, has become a refuge for far-right commentators who have been removed from mainstream social media platforms.
Events
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OII’s Wednesday Webinar Week 2 ‘Understanding anti-vaxx communities on social media’
27 January 2021
The OII looks forward to this webinar featuring Dr Jonathan Bright, an Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the OII, he will be joined by Dr Aliaksandr Herasimenka, a postdoctoral researcher at the Computational Propaganda Project.
Press
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Facebook is hampering efforts to crack down on Covid-19 fake videos
21 September 2020 The Telegraph
YouTube had improved its algorithm to promote credible sources, but videos were still going viral elsewhere.
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There’s more to Belarus’s ‘Telegram Revolution’ than a cellphone app
11 September 2020 The Washington Post
For the past month, since the Aug. 9 election, Belarusians have engaged in daily protests and strikes across the entire country.
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There’s more to Belarus’s ‘Telegram Revolution’ than a cellphone app
11 September 2020 The Washington Post
New surveys show protesters had to be creative to share information.
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Fight between information and propaganda in Belarus
3 September 2020 Radio Télévision Suisse
The conflict in Belarus is also playing out in the field of information and propaganda. The working conditions of journalists, sometimes detained or beaten, have become increasingly difficult since the contested re-election of Alexander Lukashenko.
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The EU cannot handle the onslaught of misinformation. Central Europe parrots Russia
27 August 2020 Seznam Zprávy
Disinformation, fake news, propaganda. Terms that have been inhabited in our environment for a few years. And their consequences can be major. For example, in influencing major political events such as elections.
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“The US Is Nowhere”: As The Political Crisis In Belarus Deepens, America Is Conspicuously Absent
25 August 2020 Buzz Feed News
Crackdowns and demonstrations continue to roil Belarus after a contested election, but the US seems reluctant to play a role in the push for an autocratic leader to share power and scale back police abuse.
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Even the elderly and factory workers are now turning their backs on Europe’s last dictator
24 August 2020 Politiken
More than 150,000 protesters defied the regime's threats and took to the streets on Sunday in Belarus. President Alexander Lukashenko appeared armed and in full military gear.
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Summer storm in the “Little Soviet Union”: How do the demonstrators see the future of Belarus?
21 August 2020 The Initium
Privatized by Europe? Privatized by Russia? The Lukashenko system is full of ills. Belarusians want autonomy, but they also need a change.
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Protests in Belarus: Not to be blocked
20 August 2020 Die Tageszeitung
In Belarus, the government keeps blocking the internet. The messenger Telegram remains accessible - and becomes a medium of protest.
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When a dictator is scared, he turns off the internet. The protesters in Minsk took a detour
19 August 2020 Zetland
It was Sunday, August 9, and for a rare occasion, Europeans turned their eyes to what was happening on the streets of Minsk, Belarus' capital.
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Belarus’s security apparatus stands behind Lukashenko — for now
18 August 2020 The Financial Times
One problem for the opposition in peeling away Mr Lukashenko’s securocrat backers is the question of what will happen to them without him.
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Protest Belarus continues thanks to Telegram: ‘it looks like a guerrilla’
16 August 2020 NOS News
More than a week after the controversial presidential elections in Belarus, the protests against President Lukashenko are still not over.
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How the founder of the Telegram messaging app stood up to the Kremlin — and won
28 June 2020 The Washington Post
Telegram founder Pavel Durov used cyber-dodging tactics and the messaging app’s reach to outmanoeuvre Russia’s state telecommunications regulator.
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‘Conspiracy bingo’: Transatlantic extremists seize on the pandemic
12 May 2020 Politico
The coronavirus is providing a global rallying cry for conspiracy theorists and far-right extremists on both sides of the Atlantic.
Integrity Statement
In the past five years my work has been financially supported by the Global Challenges Research Fund, Open Society Foundations and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. As part of my science communication and policy outreach, I have served in an unpaid advisory capacity to the World Health Organisation.
I conduct my research in line with the University's academic integrity code of practice.