Storm 1516 -- an influence operation attributed to Russia -- is expanding its target audiences www.recordedfuture.com/research/cop...

Big update to Social Media Operations Manager! Play or download for free: timothyjgraham.itch.io/social-media... I'd love to hear any feedback or ideas #roguelike #indiegames #indiedev

This better not be the soft launch of presidential murders

Calling all social media researchers, if you have access to the TikTok research API or are doing research on TikTok via a browser plugin, you will soon be able to collect and analyze TikTok data via our research tool, @communalytic.org. No coding required. #DSA40 #CSS #ComSky #AcademicSky

From 1939-1945 German officers also listened to speeches from civilians about how the laws of war didn’t apply to them. And then they participated in the Holocaust, starved millions of prisoners of war, destroyed villages and cities, and were defeated.

The statistic that history will remember will be the USAID death toll, after this man’s actions in 2025 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Latest 2c from me in this article from @joshtaylor.bsky.social on the enduring woes of combatting misinformation when the term has been become so deeply politicised www.theguardian.com/media/2025/o...

If gravity were politicised, Grok would be telling people they can fly

A Russian drone strike killed a whole family in Sumy region of Ukraine last night: mom, dad and kids aged 4 and 6. Deepest condolences. This is beyond horrible.

Emma Briant, a Notre Dame professor who studies propaganda, says President Trump’s deep involvement in TikTok raises the risk he's “cherry-picking the board, making deals with his buddies … and creating a media monopoly to keep himself in power.” https://wapo.st/3KhxPww

Experimenting with genetic algorithms to optimise games This bot plays Social Media Manager 1000x faster than a human to try and find the best strategy. Hopefully this will help to balance the game and make it more fun. #gamedev #indiedev timothyjgraham.itch.io/social-media...

For educational purposes, I built an influence campaign simulator game. Check it out via the link below! It’s free and you can play in the browser.

Crackers

Update: players are reporting a bug in the shop on day 6 that freezes the game. Fix coming later today - sorry! #gamedev #indiegames

Excited to announce my first ever published game, for the @halcyonfrequency.bsky.social gamejam. ”Social Media Manager", a shady deskjob simulator with #roguelike elements. I hope you enjoy it and would love to hear any feedback #indiegames #indiedev timothyjgraham.itch.io/social-media...

Literally the authoritarian playbook: 1. Call your opponents terrorists. 2. Deploy state power against them. There's nothing subtle or confusing or complex about what's happening. The *outcome* is uncertain but the authoritarianism is right out in the open.

Taking a moment this morning to honour the people of Ukraine in their fight against fascism. Slava Ukraini

George Orwell on Hitler

“Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.” - Timothy Snyder

What really worries me about the current moment is how quickly people and companies just start pandering to authoritarian leaders. Like, “oh well, there’s a new game in town”

That moment when he rolls out the conspiracy theory uncle, but instead of a family dinner party it’s the White House and an entire nation’s health on the line

It’s crazy that ten years into Trump headline writers still treat his pronouncements as if they’re not all lies.

I conducted an experiment on what Tiktok and YouTube recommends when not logged in on the app. Given the social media ban only covers accounts, hard not to see this could be the experience for teens in Australia come December. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/s...

In-depth investigation from the BBC, which infiltrated a disinformation operation to interfere in the Moldovan elections. This operation is coordinated remotely by pro-Russian actors through Telegram. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

“But are there not many Fascists in your country?" "There are many who do not know they are Fascists, but will find it out when the time comes.” - Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)

The road to authoritarianism - total information control. bsky.app/profile/scot...

What is going on

Estonian PM Kristen Michal: Russia is an acute threat to every sane country and Europe is only at the beginning­ of rebuilding its defences. Key points from the interview with The Times: ▪️ "Russia is an acute threat to Europe, to Nato, to every sane country in the world.

BREAKING | ANU staff in the College of Arts and Social Sciences have received a Cease Work Order due to dangerous working conditions. Under the WHS Act staff will be paid while this order is in place. The order seeks to protect lives and wellbeing.

Who commits more domestic terrorism: left-wing or right-wing extremists? I compiled a brief literature review using various sources including the FBI, DHS, GAO, and academic studies. The facts: far-right extremism is now the predominant domestic terrorist threat. 🧵 Thread with references:

"Multiple studies, nevertheless, have found that right-wing extremists commit far more attacks—and deadlier ones—than the left, a statistical reality that cuts directly against the administration’s script."

Say what now?

Follow the money. #DarkPoliticalCommunication

Call for Papers, 2026 Cambridge Disinformation Summit Research on systemic risks from technology that affects information streams or the amplification or monetization of disinformation. www.linkedin.com/pulse/call-p...

Javier Bardem at the #Emmys: "Here I am today denouncing the genocide in Gaza... Free Palestine!" (via @Variety)

Without media that provides a correspondence-based index into reality, AI is used to concoct one. It doesn’t matter that it’s AI. It’s the reality they think coheres with what the truth of the world is, rather than what the truth actually is. Then, by sleight of hand, it becomes “evidence”.

The ultra rich benefit from chaos. They don’t care about the public good. They see opportunities when the fight breaks out and spills into the street, because, unlike the common person, none of it really poses any risk to them. They’ll be fine even if the city burns to the ground.

Grok is a propaganda instrument that is tuned to cohere with ideological fantasy rather than mind-independent facts. If sums were politicised tomorrow, you can bet that 2 + 2 wouldn’t stand a chance

Reminder that mass shootings are mostly committed by men (~95%) with *white men* representing the largest single group. However, this roughly reflects population demographics. Individual factors like social isolation, grievance narratives, and weapon access are more predictive than demographics.

"Pete Hegseth tells Pentagon staff to hunt for negative Charlie Kirk posts by service members. Several people have already been relieved of their jobs because of their posts on social media, defense officials told NBC News." www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...

AoIR is pleased to congratulate the winners of this year’s Nancy Baym Book Award ‪@aramsinn.bsky.social‬ & @jesgilbert.bsky.social for The Secret Life of Data: Navigating Hype and Uncertainty in the Age of Algorithmic Surveillance (@mitpress.bsky.social). Congratulations! aoir.org/2025nb_booka...

This kind of "journalism" has absolutely zero ethics of care or democratic value. It's dangerous and it needs to be called out as such.

My new article, “ANO Dialog: Innovation in Controlling Russia’s Digital Information”, is out in Post-Soviet Affairs in Open Access. With @florian-toepfl.bsky.social & @jkling288.bsky.social, we extend our OSINT CV analysis method of Prigozhin’s troll factory to a new case doi.org/10.1080/1060... 1/3

New ADM+S submission: Research ahead of the 2025 Federal Election reveals astroturfing is mainstream in climate & energy debates. Calls for stronger laws, transparency & platform accountability to protect democracy. Read more bit.ly/41MbRYn #PoliticalAdvertising #Astroturfing #DigitalTransparency

Spencer Cox: "Our nation is broken. We had political assassinations recently in Minnesota. We had an attempted assassination on the gov of Pennsylvania. And we had an attempted assassination on a president. Nothing I say can unite us as a country. Nothing I can say right now can fix what is broken"

Do not go on X today. The For You feed is gruesome and a disgusting example of what happens when you monetize content in a hyperpartisan attention economy

Like many Never Trumpers and other people with a public profile, I have been on the receiving end of death threats for years just for speaking my mind. No one in America should risk being killed for exercising their right to speak, no matter how despicable you think their views might be.

We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.