Had a blast synergising @deconspirator.bsky.social and ARM project with @mariellew.bsky.social at the @clingendael.bsky.social REKA conference. Discussed current approaches to #FIMI and the challenges European democracies face. Despite our happy faces, we were not always optimistic...

Russian authorities have restricted calls on WhatsApp and Telegram, two of the most widely used messengers in the country. The two platforms disputed the move, with WhatsApp calling it an effort to "violate people’s right to secure communication."

🤯 Approximate movement of missiles and drones during the night attack on Ukraine…

⚡️At least 5 killed, 39 injured in Russian attacks against Ukraine over past day. Ukraine endured the largest aerial attack since the start of Russia's full-scale war, with at least 5 civilians killed and 39 injured across multiple regions over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian officials said on July 9.

❗️For the second night in a row, Ukraine is yet again under a massive russian drone attack.

⚡️UPDATE: Russia's mass missile and drone strike on Kyiv injures at least 23. The attack damaged apartment buildings, businesses, a school, a medical facility, railway lines, and other civilian infrastructure in multiple districts. Fires blazed across the city, making the air dangerous to breathe.

For @lawfaremedia.org, I explained how the Trump administration has destroyed promising policy progress on transnational repression in record time www.lawfaremedia.org/article/trum...

@wzb.bsky.social is searching for new director for the study of democracy These are extraordinary senior positions; tenured wth funding to establish a new dept & pursue big agendas www.wzb.eu/en/jobs/dire... 🚨Please share widely! #Polisky @epssnet.bsky.social @ecpr.bsky.social @apsa.bsky.social

University of Virginia President Resigns Under Pressure From Trump Administration www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/u...

Can an ordinary person in Russia be imprisoned for sharing a book sold in bookstores? Grigory Skvortsov, a photographer from Perm, was sentenced to 16 years in prison Thursday for doing just that.

Missed the launch of the Digital Constitutionalism Network database of Digital Bills of Rights at the UN IGF this afternoon? No worries. The recording of the session is now available online: www.youtube.com/live/FdqiH1B... #IRsky #polisci #polisky #commsky #digitalrights #humanrights #civilsociety

Willingness to defend requires a combination of two factors: a clear threat perception, on the negative side, and a positive narrative about what is worth defending. In the Europe Dispatch with @phillipspobrien.bsky.social, I wrote about why willingness to defend the country is so high in Finland.

Universiteit Utrecht bezuinigt en schrapt 80 tot 100 banen

On Wednesday 25 June, we will introduce the new @digiconstnetwork.bsky.social database at the UN Internet Governance Forum, now featuring 321 fully coded Digital Bills of Rights. Join us at 14:40 at the Open Stage, or join online via the livestream. igf2025.sched.com/event/244wv/...

Depressing news. 10 years ago, Russian scientists were massively incentivised to collaborate internationally and publish in English. Current situation is the direct opposite. Control over international contacts has been there for much longer of course, but this is a final blow for academic freedom.

Putin signed a law that allows the FSB to control who Russian scientists and researchers talk to, where they travel and etc. Not that they didn't do that before but this opens up a way for greater repressions against disloyal or whoever talked to "bad foreigner" via zoom

#OpEd Both Google and Apple have been making VPNs inaccessible at Moscow's request. Thankfully, there are still ways Russians can use the internet freely. Sarkis Darbinyan from Roskomsvoboda gives his recommendations.

Working on platform governance? Join for PlatGovNet 2025 Free online conference Dec 1-2 Extended abstracts (800-1000 words) due Sep 2 Amazing community, opportunity to share work, get feedback, meet others working in this area. Glad to be part of organizing it Details: platgov.net/conferences/...

Russia’s Investigative Committee has completed its inquiry into the 2024 Crocus City Hall attack. Despite the accused being linked to Wilayat Khorasan (ISIS-K), the final conclusion is that the massacre was planned and committed in the interests... of Ukraine 1/5

I am at the UN Internet Governance Forum this week. Send me a message if you'd like to meet

BREAKING: A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore millions of dollars in canceled grants to University of California researchers, calling the terminations flagrantly illegal and unconstitutional. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

⚡ Belarus has freed 14 political prisoners, including Siarhei Tsikhanouski, husband of opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. The release follows a meeting between Alexander Lukashenko and U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg. meduza.io/en/news/2025...

Meanwhile, IR students will be reading Barry Posen’s recent article, which claims Ru is pursuing a defensive, preemptive war. Because it’s important to have a scholarly debate or something, regardless of how disconnected from facts some takes are.

The Russian state is using a new internet filtering technique: it's targeting @cloudflare.social, provider of security and performance tools to 20% of the global web. The move leaves Russian businesses dangerously exposed. Here's what we know: en.zona.media/article/2025...

Nieuwe column voor @groene.nl. Deze week over de houdgreep van Wilders op de media - inclusief dode én schattige katten. 🐈‍⬛ www.groene.nl/artikel/wild...

De zoektocht naar tienduizenden door Rusland ontvoerde Oekraïense kinderen dreigt noodgedwongen te worden gestaakt. Voor de opsporing is geen geld meer, omdat die grotendeels werd gefinancierd via de Amerikaanse overheid, schrijft @chriscolijn.bsky.social. platformraam.nl/artikelen/28...

'Meredith,' some guys ask, 'why won't you shove AI into Signal?' Because we love privacy, and we love you, and this shit is predictable and unacceptable. Use Signal ❤️

Our article with @tanyalokot.bsky.social on platforms as political actors just passed 15.000 reads. So happy it continues to find its audience. In the article, we develop the concept of 'platform actorness' and apply it to Telegram in the 2020 Belarus protests. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

🚨NEW REPORT: exposing clever new hacking tactic. 🇷🇺Russian state-backed hackers used an App-Specific Password attack against prominent Russia expert @keirgiles.bsky.social It's like they knew what we all expect from 🇷🇺...and then did the opposite 1/ By us @citizenlab.ca & Google's GTIG

⚡️Update: 'A brutal strike' — Massive Russian missile and drone attack hits Kyiv, killing 21, injuring at least 134. kyivindependent.com/kyiv-hit-by-... Photo's: State Emergency Service / Telegram

💥🥸Here we go again... Hungarian NGOs are facing a new wave of suspicious interview requests—echoing (Israeli private intelligence firm) Black Cube–style sting operations seen before the 2018 & 2022 elections. The aim seems to be feeding Orbán’s propaganda machine. Source: vsquare.org/goulash-orba...

⚡️UPDATE: Russian mass attack hits Kyiv, killing 14, injuring at least 40. Russian drones and ballistic missiles targeted the capital overnight, killing 14 people and injuring at least 40, local authorities reported. Damage to civilian infrastructure has also been reported throughout the city.

The annual Digital News Report is great for showing trends, but most of all the global diversity in how people consume news online. Some interesting findings on the US are highlighted in the thread, but do check out the full report.

5️⃣ X shifts to the right without losing reach Use of X for news is stable or growing, with the biggest uplift in the US (+8), Australia (+6) & Poland (+6). Since Musk's takeover, more right-leaning people have flocked to X. Threads and Bluesky are used by less than 2% globally

For those who stil haven't heard about Joe Rogan - take note

3️⃣ An alternative media ecosystem is emerging This shift towards news consumption on platforms is supercharging the rise of news influencers 📊 22% of our US sample say they came across news or commentary from Joe Rogan right after the inauguration, including many young men

Dit is écht cruciaal om de misplaatste notie dat PVV-stemmers ooit PvdA-stemmers waren te ontkrachten: ja, PvdA stemmers kwamen in het verleden uit de arbeidersklasse en ja PVV-stemmers nu komen uit die klasse maar de meerderheid van de arbeidersklasse stemde toen geen PvdA en nu geen PVV.

New publication by CERiM CEEhub expert @mariellew.bsky.social on the link between bad policy and democratic backsliding (Open Access)

📘 New publication by @mariellew.bsky.social and Ian Roberge: Giving Serious Thought to Bad Policy and the State of Democracy. This chapter explores the link between bad policy, democracy, and democratic backsliding. Read the chapter here: tinyurl.com/454w3pfp

As a former @cais-research.bsky.social fellow, I absolutely recommend applying

Today we celebrate the publication of 'Ineffective Policies: Causes and consequences of bad policy choices' (Policy press, 2025) with a book launch event in Groningen hosted by Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn. Looking forward to returning to my alma mater for the occasion!

All, there's been a LOT going on, but this is something we should all be aware of too:

I and @mariellew.bsky.social discuss this in our OA article on Telegram as a political actor and coin the concept of ‘platform actorness’ doi.org/10.1080/1060...

This IStories investigation further supports our argument w/ @mariellew.bsky.social that for Telegram, the performative mythology of the platform is a key part of its reputation & perception management arsenal. storage.googleapis.com/istories/en/...

With @bnbakker.bsky.social and @mrooduijn.bsky.social I am going to conduct a large intervention study in the Netherlands to reduce polarization and strengthen pro-democratic attitudes. Do you have an idea (plus budget) for an additional intervention? Do reach out! stukroodvlees.nl/input-gezoch...

Court grants preliminary injunction against OPM/DOGE: “defendants disclosed OPM records to individuals who had no legal right of access... the defendants violated the Privacy Act and departed from cybersecurity standards that they are obligated to follow. This was a breach of law and of trust”

More than 80 civil society groups, technologists, and companies—including EFF—have a message for the EU: There’s no encryption backdoor that only “good guys” can use.

Authoritarian propaganda 101: create or exaggerate chaos, insert yourself as the necessary solution, demand loyalty and praise. It rewrites history in real time, creating confusion about what did or didn’t happen. This is compounded today by the disastrously bad information environment.

Headline/chyron if this were happening in a foreign country: "Far right president calls for arrest of opposition party provincial governor, raising further questions about democracy & the rule of law" Headline/chyron when this happens in 🇺🇸: "Trump Takes Questions As He Returns To The White House"