Nika is a digital forensic researcher with the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab, seconded by the NATO Strategic Communication Centre of Excellence (NATO StratCom COE). Her research interest is tracking and understanding the spread of disinformation in digital engagement spaces, be it social media, online news, blogs, or forums in the Baltic states and beyond. She has paid close attention to hostile Kremlin narratives about NATO’s enhanced forward presence (NATO eFP) in the Baltic states and Poland, the spread of disinformation about COVID-19, the Belarus political crisis in 2020, and malign information influence campaigns about the war in Ukraine. Her work has appeared in Huffington Post, BBC, NBC, AP, Der Spiegel, Politico, and others.
Nika has a background in journalism. Prior to joining NATO StratCom COE, she worked with Infogram, a popular data visualization service.
In her free time, she works to empower Latvian journalists with data journalism skills by curating the School of Data branch in Latvia.