Quad · Information Environment Research
Understanding narratives, information operations and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) across the Quad.
02Context
The Quad brings together Australia, India, Japan and the United States around a shared vision of a free, open and resilient Indo-Pacific. Its importance extends beyond traditional security, as the region is increasingly shaped by competition across maritime, cyber, technological and information domains.
As digital platforms become central to how states receive and interpret information, protecting the information environment has become an increasingly important component of regional resilience. Information integrity is therefore an important shared regional concern, including cooperation to address foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI), disinformation and other activities that can undermine regional security.
The Quad has consequently identified FIMI and disinformation as shared challenges requiring greater cooperation and information-sharing.
Member states
INDIndiaNew Delhi
Fastest-growing digital public sphere; multilingual narrative contestation.
Documented FIMI / information manipulation cases
Case narrative and sources pending.
Quad cooperation: Countering Disinformation Working Group, 2024 → present.
India, New Delhi. Fastest-growing digital public sphere; multilingual narrative contestation. 2 documented cases: Pakistan-linked coordinated disinformation networks (2022); Operation Sindoor misinformation campaign (2025).
03Stakes
Conflict is no longer limited to the physical battlefield.
States and other actors increasingly operate across conventional and digital domains, where information can be used to shape perceptions, influence political discussions, create uncertainty and affect how events are understood.
The rise of social media and digital platforms has made this environment faster, wider and more difficult to separate from everyday political discourse. Information operations can now reach audiences across borders and languages within a short period of time.
Information operations can reach audiences within a short period of time.
Narratives move across borders and languages rather than staying local.
Harder to separate from ordinary, everyday political discourse.
04Definition
Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) refers to intentional and coordinated behaviour by foreign or foreign-linked actors that seeks to manipulate the information environment and potentially influence political processes, public debate or societal perceptions.
FIMI is broader than simply asking whether a piece of information is true or false.
It looks at
The ABCDE frame
Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference is assessed across five dimensions rather than judged on content alone. Select one to read how it is used.
05Framework
We use the ABCDE Framework: five dimensions, read together. Each asks a different question of the same activity.
Who is participating?
How are accounts posting, replying and amplifying?
What narratives, claims and frames are being promoted?
How large, frequent and widespread is the activity?
How does the narrative spread across audiences and languages?
06Signals
We examine a set of observable signals that can help identify unusual patterns of activity in the information environment. These signals are assessed together, allowing us to distinguish isolated activity from patterns that may indicate coordinated behaviour.
Sudden increases in activity.
Unusual concentrations of replies rather than original posts.
Large numbers of very low-follower accounts.
Accounts moving narratives between language spaces.
Repeated framing with limited variation.
Creation dates, posting patterns and network relationships.
07Trajectory
The instruments of contestation have not replaced one another so much as accumulated. Each era added a layer — and lowered the cost of reaching an adversary’s public directly. Eras below are approximate framings, not precise start dates.
01approx. Pre-2000
Force projected through territory, materiel and manoeuvre.
02approx. 2000s
Networks become a domain — intrusion, disruption, exfiltration.
03approx. 2010s
The contest shifts to perception, at broadcast and social scale.
04approx. 2016→
Manipulative foreign behaviour treated as a discipline in its own right.
05approx. 2023→
Generative systems lower the cost of volume, persona and translation.
Qualitative · illustrative — not measured data
BoundedBorderless
DaysMinutes
TractableContested
08Case studies
The QUAD+ project maps information environments one country at a time. Japan is the first case; further studies will be published here.
09Get in touch
We work with researchers, government agencies and enterprise teams across the Indo-Pacific. Get in touch to discuss the programme or a specific line of enquiry.
