EDELMAN × OSAVUL

Counter-Disinformation Unit

Reputational Threats on Hard-to-Monitor Platforms:

The Enterprise Risk Reality

Analysis period: June 1 – December 1, 2025 | 130 global brands across TikTok and Telegram

130

Brands Analysed

Under Attack

1,271

Narratives Detected

25,053

Messages Linked

~3.37 billion estimated views where reach data was available

Executive Summary

Overview

An Edelman analysis in partnership with Osavul

Reputational threats on hard-to-monitor platforms — primarily TikTok and Telegram — are now tightly bound to legal, operational, and physical risk. They can create real liability, trigger safety concerns, and cause operational disruption. In some cases, they serve as precursors to cyber or real-world harm, on top of the reputational damage most organisations are already trying to manage. Many organisations remain blind to these threats until it is too late.

This report, produced jointly by Osavul and Edelman's Counter-Disinformation Unit, analyses six months of threat data across 130 global brands. Of those brands, 76 were subjects of adverse reputational narratives. In total, 1,271 distinct narratives were detected, comprising at least 25,053 messages and generating approximately 3.37 billion views where reach data was available.

The findings reveal a corporate threat surface that is broader, faster-moving, and more closely linked to enterprise risk than most organisations are currently structured to manage. The solution is organisational: integrate communications, legal, intelligence, and security around shared detection processes, response playbooks, and measurable escalation thresholds.

This is a warning about adversarial storytelling that exploits moments of reputational vulnerability, regulatory exposure, social tension, and operational disruption — shaping perception faster than organisations can identify the threat, validate the facts, align internally, and respond with credibility.

The data points to a shift in kind, not just in volume. Reputational threats are aligning with enterprise risk in ways that challenge existing governance, escalation, and ownership models.