The Active Measures Newsletter Podcast

This week in the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson unpack why democratic elections continue to be the playground of autocratic malign influence; highlight the ODNI's recent assessment of threats to U.S. election security; examine Russia's hand in Venezuela's contested election, the far-right riots in the UK, and Israeli politics; and they take one last look (for now, at least) at how China sought to capitalize on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, Mark Jacobson and Jim Ludes discuss a strategy--seemingly inspired by the film "The Untouchables"--to counter Russia's hybrid attacks on the West. They then move on to the dynamic environment around the Olympics; the latest in efforts to counter the Doppelganger campaign; Russia's efforts to target Moldova's upcoming election; and efforts in Canada and across NATO to fight back more effectively. Companion podcast to the Active Measures Newsletter No. 293.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week's Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson discuss two weeks of heavy news: leaked plans documenting Russia's propaganda campaign against the West; the way Russian sources depicted the 75th Anniversary NATO summit; a U.S. Department of Justice take down of nearly 1,000 sock-puppet accounts on social media; and the way the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was spun, both internationally and domestically.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NATO leaders meet in Washington this week to mark the 75th anniversary of the alliance amidst as hostile an information environment as the alliance has ever known. We break down what's at stake at the summit, recent reports of Russian efforts to target French elections and the up-coming Olympics, evidence of disinformation in the UK election, and what health-related misinformation teaches us about the need for institutional integrity.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, we discuss explosive reporting from Reuters on a secret U.S. campaign in the Philippines to undermine the Chinese vaccine at the height of the COVID pandemic. We then turn to reporting from David Adam in Nature on the way bad information influences elections--it doesn't necessarily change opinions, but it might change behaviors.  Finally, Dr. Joshua Foust of Syracuse University joins us to discuss U.S. government efforts to use video games to counter disinformation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Across Europe, officials are tracking a spate of suspected sabotage--from GPS jamming in the Baltic to attacks on public infrastructure in Czechia--attacks believed to tie back to Russia. Meanwhile, a senior U.S. diplomat warns that most Americans don't appreciate just how much foreign disinformation they're consuming in their social media even while one of America's elite university's shuts down its Internet observatory--designed to study and educate about the threat.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Influence campaigns come in a lot of shapes and sizes.  On the Korean peninsula, the back and forth between Soul and Pyongyang sees the North launching garbage balloons and the South responding with K-Pop.  In Europe--awash in Russian disinformation as voters cast ballots to shape the European Parliament--the methods of influence are both old and novel.  Ultimately, the center in European politics held, this time, but the far right saw substantial gains moving French President Manuel Macron to call for new National Assembly elections in a matter of weeks. Ultimately we're left to ponder whether influence campaigns and disinformation work.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The leaders of U.S. influence operations met at a conference in Florida recently and concluded the United States is not performing well in the face of Russian and Chinese efforts. Patrick Tucker, the science and technology editor at Defense One, discusses his reporting on that conclusion and the reasons why succeeding in this fight doesn't get the investment it deserves. We also review reporting on a former Florida sheriff's deputy now running a disinformation network with at least 160 fake news sites from Moscow and the latest reporting from OpenAI on state-use of their platform by Russia, China, Iran, and Israel.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Carter Center and the McCain Institute highlight disinformation for hire in a new report; the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence tracks threats to America's elections and grapples with who will tell the American public when disinformation drops on the eve of an election; lessons from the Second World War; a new Russian campaign claiming the CIA is meddling in American elections; and reports of Russian sabotage in Western Europe.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

COPY COP--a Russia aligned disinformation network is using AI to generate content at scale with divisive and biased content.  Meanwhile, the French report on  PORTAL KOMBAT, a network of Russian content portals that now span Europe, countries in Africa and Asia, pushing pro-Russian narratives about the war in Ukraine. Simultaneously, Iran is running EMERALD DIVIDE to stoke societal divisions in Israel on everything from LGBTQ rights to the conflict with Hamas.  Closer to home, Spanish-language disinformation is coming through in waves, while disinformation about non-citizens voting in American elections persists. Finally, we take a look at the Swedish Psychological Defense Agency and wonder why we can't have nice things, too.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.