Join us ONLINE (May 19th-3pm CEST) to explore digital threats in conflict with @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social ( @witnessorg.bsky.social ), Jocelyn Woolbright ( @cloudflare.social ), Luis Eduardo BARRUETO ( @accessnow.org Digital Security Helpline), and Mia Marzotto ( @oxfaminternational.bsky.social )

Yesterday, the Paris prosecutor's office announced an escalation of its investigation of Elon Musk and his social network X, seeking formal charges on a range of claims, including complicity in the possession of child sexual abuse material. We updated our timeline with the latest.

Mahsa's article on the eight Iranian protestors that Trump made appear synthetic is a must read

really great conversation with @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social about what AI-powered propaganda is doing to the information space

France has summoned Musk and Yaccarino to face preliminary criminal charges over Grok-generated CSAM and sexually explicit deepfakes. The Durov/Telegram case was about failing to moderate user content.

🧵My paper on "Uneven Datafication" just came out! It draws on literature on coloniality, uneven development and dependency. Uneven datafication operates through three interrelated dynamics: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

New on @indicator.media: At 11 a.m. on Wednesday morning, I discovered that my partner Mia has a hidden Tinder Platinum account. Except Mia is not actually my partner. She isn’t even a real person. The image I uploaded was created with Google AI. So, it turns out, was the Tinder profile.

New analysis by Valerie Wirtschafter (@vwirtschafter.bsky.social): AI-generated content flagged on X has surged to record highs since the Iran conflict began. The data point to a coordinated effort to use AI as a tool of information warfare—eroding public support and sowing confusion at scale.

Will be part of this @accessnow.org webinar with @giuliowolfe.bsky.social and and others on May 19. Join us! www.accessnow.org/event/digita...

Day 66 of Iran's internet shutdown, the longest nationwide blackout. Over 90 million people cut off. Tomorrow I'm joining @farzdusa.bsky.social and J. Alex Dalessio at SplinterCon Online on direct-to-cell, satellite internet, and overcoming shutdowns. Register: splintercon.net/splintercon-...

Reuters Institute. NEW on our site How AI is thickening the fog of war With the US and Iran using AI and memes to obstruct conflict coverage, our own Gretel Kahn spoke to @mantzarlis.com @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social Emerson Booking and Sam Dubberley from @hrw.org

NEW on our site How AI is thickening the fog of war With the US and Iran using AI and memes to obstruct conflict coverage, our own Gretel Kahn spoke to @mantzarlis.com @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social Emerson Booking and Sam Dubberley from @hrw.org reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/trollin...

This was the most devastating part of the Rights Con debacle. The loss in not having the opportunity to attend, learn and further our movement through what was going to be one of the most thoughtful and productive convenings broke my heart. Please donate to @thedecenter.bsky.social if you can.

Our Design from the Margins workshop was cancelled after the Zambian government shutdown RightsCon. We moved fast because the safety of our community came first. It always will. Our loss was huge, but the work continues. See our full statement. the-decenter.ghost.io/update-the-f...

I wrote about RightsCon's cancellation after Zambia's government announced it would postpone the event to sort out its concerns over "thematic issues." With thousands about to depart (or already en route) to Lusaka, it's a huge blow to the digital and human rights field.

I had missed RightsCon for a few years and was genuinely looking forward to being in a room with this community again. The world is bleak. We find light in each other. Watching a government try to snuff that out is a serious blow, and it should be treated as one.

what mess.

Misunderstanding of our AI reality as a binary AI vs. Real is furthering eroding the truth in the information space, best exemplified by this week's Trump vs. Islamic Republic disinformation tit for tat over real Iranian women protesters. @witnessorg.bsky.social @techpolicypress.bsky.social

Well, the images are AI-modified/generated, the women are real (verifiably six of them, at least), only one of them is slated to be executed, and Tehran claims no concessions have been made www.theverge.com/policy/91718...

I published this yesterday. www.eff.org/deeplinks/20... Today I learned that my friend Ahmed Shihab Eldin is among those detained. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

“Those who stared too long into the Lego abyss came out sounding completely deranged.” @sarahjeong.bsky.social continues to be one of my favourite writers and honoured my scraps of thought were featured in this alongside @azadehakbari.bsky.social and @thedecenter.bsky.social’s Afsaneh Rigot.

Quoted in @apnews.com on Iran's AI meme war. The tell: if you can generate and upload this content at volume while Iran's internet is near-totally shut down, you are officially or unofficially cooperating with the regime. Bandwidth is evidence. apnews.com/article/ai-m...

Our urgent statement on escalating rhetoric & attacks on essential systems in Iran. Under international law, both what is said and what is done carry legal consequences. Accountability must be applied consistently & forcefully — or it ceases to function the-decenter.ghost.io/urgent-state... #iran

Stop the executions in Iran !

We didn't deserve this day.

Today I got on a plane and made the mistake of paying for wifi. I am just rattling through the skies in a metal can imagining a apocalypse miles away in the land of my family and thousands of years of ancestors. It's just a normal Tuesday.

Can someone help me unpack what we think "the end of civilisation" means for Trump? Asking for all the people I know living in said civilisation.

Excuse me, WHAT

someday, in Tehran www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Sahar Delijani 🕊️

“Just the fact that we are seeing this massive difference between June 2025 and March 2026 really speaks to the fact that this is a train going at full speed, and there isn't very many safety features on board,” said @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social of @witnessorg.bsky.social.

“If now forensics analysis is itself going to be doubted because we have these instances, this is now a new layer to the AI doubt,” said @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social of @witnessorg.bsky.social. “We are really going towards epistemic fracture in the information environment.”

This week the UN ITU's Radio Regulations Board is meeting on IRI’s demand to disable Starlink in Iran. This will set an important precedent for one of the key ways people are circumventing Internet shutdowns. Read the full breakdown by @farzdusa.bsky.social: iranianwomen4internet.org/blog.html

The video of the Iran war we can see is limited for many reasons. We're missing the intimate P.O.V. of amateur video. @morganmeaker.bsky.social speaks with @bellingcat.com's @eliothiggins.bsky.social, Witness.org's @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social & @hrcberkeley.bsky.social's @alexakoenig.bsky.social

There’s been a surge of AI-generated content around the military conflict in Iran. Now AI-detection tools are being weaponized to falsely discredit authentic evidence. @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social explains the brave new world of AI in wartime: lnk.to/onthemedia/b...

A wave of AI-generated images and video has emerged from the Iran war. But a new phenomenon is also observable, write shirin anlen and Mahsa Alimardani from WITNESS: the spread of technical-looking analyses used to discredit authentic evidence.

Incredible achievement: Trump has now made it possible to be simultaneously at war with the regime in Iran and allow Americans to buy and sell Iranian oil for the first time since 1996. Not even Obama’s JCPOA allowed this. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/w...

I am sorry to say but the Iran war took me back to X. I deleted by long time Twitter account a few years ago but I just opened a new one (had saved my names handle to avoid abuse) so I could a) contribute to demystifying the info-fog and b) sift through the fog.

nothing will induce me to go back on x but i'll note that breaking news events in the middle east don't happen here because the community for it isn't here. also? iran protests + war has been a fucking slop propaganda shitshow of x-poisoned insanity

Iran is the worst-case scenario for everything we’ve warned about: AI fakes, real footage dismissed as fabricated, and a regime that engineered the doubt itself. “The regime controls who gets to document and what gets documented.” I spoke to @morganmeaker.bsky.social for Bloomberg Weekend.

📻 Tune into this week’s show, featuring: @minnahfarshad.bsky.social, @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social, Samantha Gross @brookings.edu, and Erik Slavin @starsandstripes.bsky.social. lnk.to/onthemedia/b...

Roya Pakzad wrote this after the supreme leader was found and killed by Israel: "You see how the tools used as a system of oppression become a fragility for the oppressor?" On the irony of cameras built to police Iranians becoming the regime’s Achilles’ heel royapakzad.substack.com/p/youre-welc...

By keeping millions of people in a digital blackout but granting connectivity to a select few, Iran’s regime is openly using Internet access as a political tool. @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social explains: carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

Iran's regime stopped hiding behind security justifications. They're telling us directly: connectivity exists to control the narrative. Will the world act on this, or just condemn it? I unpack Iran's war time information ecosystemm and the solutions needed for @carnegieendowment.org

shirin anlen and I at @witnessorg.bsky.social did a deep dive into viral discrediting of authentic documentation of civilian casualties in Iran as AI-generated. The first case, fake heatmap analyses of real Tehran strike photos, spread widely. Many people I know believed it. That's the problem.

"The fog of AI does not need every piece of content to be fabricated. It needs the question ~Is this real?~ to become close to unanswerable." Great piece by @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

The regime has been running this playbook since 2009, long before any US or Israeli strikes. But sure, you know better from the west with full connectivity @parismarx.com. Go off!

Funny, Iran's own spokesperson and Foreign Minister didn't use the cyberwarfare justification. They clearly said internet goes to those who can amplify the regime's voice. That's not a defensive posture. That's content policy.

Not to toot our own horns but I feel like we packed so much in this one hour panel with @karenhao.bsky.social and John Palfrey. You can find the recording at www.youtube.com/live/I1tJnM8...

دو تا تیک دوباره برمیگرده، نه؟ ❤️‍🩹