all these universities kept axing medieval history departments as if they thought tyrants beefing with the Pope was going to stop being relevant

I created a free interactive dashboard documenting all META's influence operation takedowns A searchable database and interactive dashboard collating all META's CIB and ATP reports

I've built a free open-source intelligence dashboard tracking every coordinated inauthentic behaviour (CIB) operation Meta has disclosed since 2018. 214 operations. 53 origin countries. $22.7M in ad spend. 71 reports analysed. Access it here! marcowenjones.substack.com/p/i-created-... #disinfo

My black cat with a wide eyed stare at daffodils

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!

🔴🇷🇺#Propaganda Machine: Secret documents reveal Russia’s foreign influence strategy across three continents.

@thecontinent.org @istories.bsky.social @opendemocracy.net @aeowinpact.bsky.social Dossier Center

How Romanians Helped Conservative Brothers in Poland Win Elections - VSquare.org We go behind the scenes of the “MEGA” movement and reveal European Trumpists between Bucharest and Warsaw.

💥Pro-Russian far-right leader George Simion may have lost Romania’s presidential race, but the online campaign machine behind his rise helped Karol Nawrocki win in Poland—and is now powering the populist Law and Justice’s comeback push.

Check out our new investigation & follow @vsquare.bsky.social!

"Russian strategic culture treats war as a permanent condition, challenging the West’s notion of armed force being limited by international law", writes Beatrice Heuser for CSDS.

Read
csds.vub.be/publication/...

A smiling woman with short silver hair makes a heart with her fingers

Leader of the 2020 Belarus protests Maria Kolesnikova has been released from prison following talks with the US. No doubt part of the Potash deal.

A chaque fois qu'on sort du cadre des opérations de propagande ("L'Europe est le principal obstacle à la paix en Ukraine"), les stratèges russes continuent d'être très transparents sur leurs ambitions belliqueuses face à l'Europe.

*COVER REVEAL* for Tonight the Music Seems So Loud: The Meaning of George Michael. It has been a dream to spend a year and a half on this subject and I'm excited for people to read the book in 2026. Pre-orders now open for UK and US editions, early signed editions, etc. Link: shorturl.at/qhPlJ

Voters’ minds are hard to change. AI chatbots are surprisingly good at it. New research suggests AI chatbots can shift people’s political views more effectively than campaign ads on TV.

New: AI chatbots can change voters' minds, according to a pair of in-depth studies published just now in Science and Nature.

How they do it is interesting — and concerning. Gift link: wapo.st/49RSstP

The Persistence of Informational Manipulation and the Appropriation of This chapter introduces the concepts of conspiratorial publics and conspiratorial canon within the context of Strategic Digital Information Operations (SDIOs)

Super happy that my friends @katemfitzgerald.bsky.social, @timothyjgraham.bsky.social and I have just published a chapter about conspiracy theories, their formation and persistence on digital platforms. Edited by @ihsanylmz.bsky.social & Shahram Akbarzadeh

www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-...

Прокремлевский олигарх Илан Шор заявил о закрытии своих «социальных проектов» в Молдове Прокремлевский беглый олигарх Илан Шор заявил о закрытии своих «социальных проектов» в Молдове и отказе от поддержки депутатов

Pro-Kremlin oligarch Ilan Shor announced the closure of his "social projects" in Moldova

A longitudinal analysis of misinformation, polarization and toxicity on Bluesky after its public launch Bluesky is a decentralized, Twitter-like social media platform that has rapidly gained popularity. Following an invite-only phase, it officially opene…

I am pleased to announce that our work “A longitudinal analysis of misinformation, polarization, and toxicity on Bluesky after its public launch” has been accepted at #OSNEM.
The paper is an extension of our previous work presented at #ASONAM.
Don't miss it: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Your cat when you're choking to death in your apartment

Now do the show but only with senior academics.

Updating my LEGO White House

Given how much the China spy case has dominated headlines, it really does beg the question: why is our political-media class so uninterested in Nathan Gill, his Russian bribes, his once close associate Nigel Farage, and Reform UK?

Our new Byline Times edition investigates what the media won't 👇

Who’s driving disinformation in Europe? 🕵️‍♀️
A new report maps actors across all 27 EU states, featuring insights from our MedDMO members Pantelitsa Leonidou, Megan Mallia & Thanos Sitistas.
📘https://bit.ly/edmo-report

Losing the war on woke

An array of photos, interviews and videos of Farage and Gill completely debunk Zia Yusuf's claim that "most people in the senior leadership team have never really heard of the guy”. But there's much more 2/12

"Das Kapitalubu"

We Say You Want a Revolution: PRISONBREAK - An AI-Enabled Influence Operation Aimed at Overthrowing the Iranian Regime - The Citizen Lab We investigate a coordinated network of inauthentic X accounts that is spreading AI-generated content to induce revolt in Iran. The network has been active since 2023, but increased activity during th...

1/ NEW REPORT: “We Say You Want a Revolution” - An AI-Enabled Influence Operation Aimed at Overthrowing the Iranian Regime. We call it PRISONBREAK. Keep reading to find out why.

THREAD 🧵

BREAKING:

🇲🇩 Moldova parliamentary elections are more important for the Russian state to interfere than these 2024-2025 elections _combined_:

🇺🇸 US, presidential
🇩🇪 Germany, parliamentary
🇵🇱 Poland, presidential

...as measured by an effort spent on a bot network. 🧵

🇬🇧: Another observation, also positive for PAS, is the low turnout in Transnistria, where only about 11,000 voters have cast their ballots (out of roughly 275,000). Historical patterns and political apathy outweigh Russian influence operations and pressure.

With nearly 97% of votes counted, the pro-European PAS has secured a majority of 54 seats in Moldova’s parliament. Congratulations to the people of Moldova, your future belongs in the EU! 🇲🇩🇪🇺

For Expertise to Matter, Nonpartisan Institutions Need New Communications Strategies To avoid irrelevance when they are needed most, experts and nonpartisan analysts must rethink not just their channels of communication but also their theory of influence.

"For Expertise to Matter, Nonpartisan Institutions Need New Communications Strategies. To avoid irrelevance when they are needed most, experts and nonpartisan analysts must rethink not just their channels of communication but also their theory of influence." carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

The @elegraph Farage claims migrants are eating swans in Royal Parks Reform UK leader's accusations immediately rebuffed by Royal Parks charity IBC

I’ve heard it say that Nigel Farage has no less than seventeen nipples spread over his chest and back.

I’m, of course, not saying it’s true, but we have no evidence saying otherwise.

It could be true, we just don’t know.

That’s how this works, right?

Grimsby Town’s horrible mascot, an older man with a white hat.

On the reading list this week 📝. A much needed intervention and framework for “disinformation studies” by @raquelrecuero.bsky.social