The Active Measures Newsletter Podcast

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.

This week: evidence of Russia, China, and Iran seeking to exploit campus unrest; Russia preys on public health anxieties in Africa; Tucker Carlson presents Russian fascism to his audience; the 4th Psychological Operations Group gets spooky (again); and respected voices urge all of us to neither downplay nor exaggerate the disinformation threat. The companion podcast to Active Measures Newsletter Issue #282.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

France "Pounded" by Russian Disinformation as part of an EU-wide campaign to influence European Parliamentary Elections; Building Momentum for Foreign Disinformation Campaigns Targeting the United States; The Role of Local Journalism in Protecting America's Information Ecosystem; and more in the second episode of the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast from the Pell Center at Salve Regina University.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The debut, companion podcast to the Active Measures Newsletter from the Pell Center at Salve Regina University.  Featuring Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson, this edition looks at reporting on the Russian Foreign Ministry's secret plan to weaken the United States and the West; Russia's activities in Africa and Europe; China's possible approach to a conflict in the Taiwan Strait; and what AI can tell us about the effectiveness of disinformation in election interference.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.