Gavin Xu is a Research Associate specializing in Chinese information operations at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab). With expertise in OSINT and social media analysis, he investigates state-sponsored disinformation campaigns, develops data collection tools, and identifies online coordinated inauthentic behavior. His work implementing AI systems for social media data classification has enabled detecting harmful content at scale. His research has been cited by NPR, AFP, and The Washington Post.
Xu holds an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins SAIS with a Strategic Studies concentration and a Bachelor of Computing and Financial Management from the University of Waterloo.