Here it comes, kids.

"Aara, aara" 😏

«The network, we concluded, is made up of at least 90 TikTok accounts - some masquerading as news outlets - which have posted thousands of videos totalling more than 23 million views and 860,000 likes since January. Moldova's population is just 2.4 million.» #Moldova #elections #Russia #infops #EU

I can't say the plot development impressed me much, but STOREHOUSE's set design and execution blew me away, its interactive aspect was nice, and its physically analogised warning about information disorder certainly resonated.

😳

❓What #data do #VLOPSEs collect? How are they structured + used? How can #researchers best utilize #dataaccess under Art. 40 of the #DSA? 👉 Our new report by @jeffallen.bsky.social @mattmotyl.bsky.social + S. Gurley provides valuable answers for academic + civil society researchers: loom.ly/gQa-FjQ

«Russian outlets and individuals who amplified them have also pushed Russia-centric narratives, with some commentators claiming for instance that Kirk was likely to have been killed by Ukraine for opposing U.S. aid to that country. […] Iranian figures have said Israel was behind Kirk’s death […]»

Some forensics by @nath-ormond.bsky.social regarding the "3 million" crowd headcount alleged at "Unite The Kingdom". #UK #UniteTheKingdom #factCheck

We are a nation of cowards. Where are all the free speech warriors who were going to start a revolution because Twitter was throttling Hunter's d*ck pics? buff.ly/0xkjHt8

"If Charlie Kirk lived in Biblical times" … he'd be either ordering or carrying out the orders in Numbers 31:14–18.

NEW The UK constitution is even more vulnerable than the US constitution In the face of an illiberal radical assault, what has happened politically in America could easily happen in the UK By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

Slavery of any kind is bad, but to enslave people specifically to do things that ruin other people's lives is a level beyond. Oh, what I would like to have inflicted upon such absolute garbage people.

My submission was selected for audience member questions at BBC's A Question of Science, hosted by Brian Cox, at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

Another Storm-1516/R-FBI crossover disinformation campaign, now targeting Armenia. The campaign alleges that Armenian leadership has issued an order to execute disloyal soldiers.

Looks like the latest Storm-1516 disinformation campaign targeting France. The campaign includes a video with a group of the alleged "Islamic extremists", who are threatening to make France an "islamic state" and are slashing the French flag in the end of the video.

It worries me that we're losing the war against rightwing disinfo. There is no rational reason the shooting of Charlie Kirk made global news while Melissa Hortman's murder barely made national news & everybody has forgotten they blamed this on the left as well www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Want some free career advice? #AcademicChatter

👀 Wondering whether an account is monetized? Or who makes money in your language? ➡️ Head to www.monetization.wtf to start exploring. If you publish anything, make sure to cite the WHAT TO FIX Meta Monetization Archive, and let us know about it so we can amplify your findings.

A big step forward in getting transparency in platform monetization. I hope for many more such. #transparency #platform #monetization #socialMedia

🚨⏳ Starting soon, and there are still online-attendance (and also free) tickets available!

Yup.

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...

Great investigative work here.

And many are made and pushed from abroad by foreign operators using farmed and monetized social media accounts, making money off domestic nationalists as cash cows or paid infops. I've written about this here: sohandsouza.substack.com/p/radio-fake...

“The Russians are targeting the diaspora,” she said, accusing Moscow of using Russian Orthodox priests to spread propaganda, and deploying the “Matryoshka” bot network to generate fake content while posing as legitimate foreign media.  www.ft.com/content/877e...

My colleague @thejohnsimpson.bsky.social has done a terrific deep dive into the financial links between US tech billionaires and Tommy Robinson Well worth a read observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

The Dept. of Education has pulled funding for programs in 8 states that support students with both hearing and vision loss. A staffer at one program says he was told the Trump admin. took issue with 2 words on the grant application: “transition" and “privilege": www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Our ability to comprehend daily events has been corrupted by a toxic info environment where political & attentional dynamics distort & manipulate our “collective sensemaking” processes. Our “official” sources are now products of that same environment. Reality fractures, along with the social fabric.

This is basically every conservative on Twitter right now.

Looked at my data collections for state-backed activity. If the report were a picture:

"The Constitution does not apply to foreigners" = the state can have troops barge into the home of a foreigner and take up quarter (3A), or summarily search/convict/torture them without due process (4A–8A), or enslave them (13A).

Pete Hegseth at his confirmation hearing about efforts to counter extremism in the military: "Things like focusing on extremism... have created a climate inside our ranks that feel political when it hasn't ever been political." Hegseth now: Deploying commissars

How Iran uses global criminal gangs to do their dirty work | If You're Listening «Iran has spent the last few years bankrolling low level attacks all over the world, so is this a signal of Iran’s strength or a weakening regime?»

"But 4chan said he was a confirmed groyper" 4chan lies about everything, it's literally just what they do

I'd like to once again point out that if this can be deployed against the citizens of their own country, it will almost certainly be deployed against citizens of others, and may already be. And with tech openly making chummy with them, there will be even less resistance and transparency this time.

Still can't tell if the organiser (@ TommyRobinsonFans, cid=641285852409088, 20250521) of this "Tommy Robinsons Fans" march (cid=1410188963461914, 20250619, 3k+ sign-ups) tomorrow in London is someone of note, or just another enthurando and/or natgrifter.

I'm seeing news of the killer referencing meme/trolling/shitposting culture. This is lulz chum, and we've seen it before.

PSA: never trust Crowder

📢 On 18 Sept, we explore how AI-driven Russian propaganda campaigns target media. 📚Insights on tactics to target fact-checkers, media, and global audiences. 🎙Featuring @allxbo.bsky.social from @reset.tech and @g.checkfirst.network from @checkfirst.network 🔗Register: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

And very importantly, muster the tech infrastructure and skill sets needed to gather, archive, organise, and analyse the data, in an environment that is often ephemeral and disjoint. I described some of these in the final section of my post here. #natsec #infops #disinfo #UK #tech #strategy

This has the same energy as the Boston Marathon Bombing investigation on Reddit.

The replies on X to the FBI's call for help IDing the Charlie Kirk shooting suspect is made up mainly of people either blaming trans people or doing shitty internet detective work. Also lots of terrible attempts to use LLMs to enhance the images.

Wait. The same Clay Higgins who suggested Twitter execs would be investigated by the FBI and jailed for doing basic content moderation... is now demanding that social media accounts be banned for life?

Anyone got access to the raw footage of the CLR stabbing of Iryna Z, as originally released? I'm seeing alleged copies doing rounds with the killer appearing to say "I got that white girl" (including one posted by the Daily Caller and reposted by Charlie Kirk). But CCTV typically has no audio track.

Our talks for the rest of the year are rescheduled—and we’re adding a bonus talk in October! 13 Oct. Monday: How They Hide the Truth from You – Meirion Jones 20 Oct. Monday: Superfood or Supertoxic – How Debunking Food Myths Can Teach People About Scientific Skepticism – @drlabos.bsky.social

An interesting case I covered last week: a brand new anonymous X sent manipulated pictures of SNS supporters to people active in the current protest movement in Serbia. The goal seems (to me) to convince them to publish false info to later discredit them. Did it work? Yes. cinjenice.afp.com

17/ What makes them an inauthentic network? 🧩 ~80% accounts created on Sep..Oct 2024 🧩 25% replies posted at rate >200 wpm, impossible for a human typist 🧩 each bot waits ≥10s, typically 12s between its tweets 🧩 if 2 bots replied to the same tweet, a typical interval is 10s

16/ Totaling at least 1360 fake accounts, the network is powered by LLM and runs under a day-to-day human oversight for over 10 months now. Its 123K replies gained 4.7M views overall; on the average one in two replies was liked or replied to.

This is huge. And par for the course, given what happened during Trump 1.0. Only this time, the fox owns the hen house. #disinfo #infops #USA #Xitter #socialMedia #politics #botnet #bots

Please smash that like button will be the last words we hear before the world blows up.