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Disinformation units: who watches the watchers?
Governments built units to fight foreign disinformation. The operations they fight are real. So are the documented cases where the units turned to their own citizens, domestic media and opinions. What the record shows, and who watches the watchers.
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Everyday fakes: old photos, cut videos, fake quotes, satire
An AI picture of Italy's foreign minister in a MAGA cap ran in 46 articles before it was deleted. The five shapes of everyday fakes (wrong-context photos, cut videos, fake quotes, satire, synthetic faces), cases from every side, and quick tests.
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Romania's annulled election, 2024: what is documented
Romania's Constitutional Court annulled the 2024 presidential election on 6 December. What the declassified documents, TikTok and investigators showed, what each side argues, what is still unproven, and how the story looks on LSN News two years on.
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Check a claim yourself in 10 minutes: a practical toolkit
52% of 3,446 US students took a Russian ballot-stuffing video as strong evidence of US fraud. A timed 10-minute routine to check any claim: primary sources, lateral reading, reverse image search, archives and counting independent voices.
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Troll farms from every direction: six documented operations
Six covert account operations, from Russia's Internet Research Agency and Iran's Storm-2035 to a Pentagon anti-vaccine campaign in the Philippines: what courts, Senate reports and platform takedowns document, what is disputed, and how little most achieved.
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Deepfakes and voice clones: what changed from 2023 to 2026
A cloned Biden voice called New Hampshire voters in 2024; a fake audio clip hit Slovakia's 2023 election. Their effect on results is not shown. People catch fake voices about 73% of the time and detectors falter on real fakes. Verification beats detection.
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Cambridge Analytica: what was real and what was hype
Cambridge Analytica took data on up to 87 million Facebook users under false pretences, and regulators proved it. The claim that it could steer voters by personality is another matter: the UK regulator found well-known methods and exaggerated marketing.
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Machines that argue back: AI chatbots as persuaders
AI chatbots can now out-argue people in some tests. In one study they cut conspiracy beliefs by 20%; in the biggest study, the most persuasive settings were also the least accurate. The double edge, the Zurich Reddit scandal, and how I keep my own AI honest.
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Making an enemy: the ten principles of wartime propaganda
Every war needs an enemy, and every side builds one with the same ten claims. Ponsonby's 1928 Falsehood in War-Time and Morelli's ten principles, tested on documented cases from Britain, Germany, the US, Kuwait, Russia, Ukraine and Gaza.
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Anatomy of a fake story: the Simpsons blackout, measured
A rumour that The Simpsons predicted a global blackout on 17 November 2026 reached 85 headlines in 6 languages in six days. Only 23 called it false. How it was built from true pieces, how it travelled and mutated, and how to spot the template.
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"Doubt is our product": how the tobacco industry sold uncertainty
In 1954 the tobacco companies did not deny the cancer evidence. They manufactured a controversy. A 1969 memo called doubt "our product". How the recipe works, where it travelled, and how to spot it.
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Information hygiene: a daily routine that takes 15 minutes
In one day, 191 big stories in my news engine averaged 43 outlets but only 17 independent voices. A 15-minute daily routine against the drip: notifications off, slow news, count voices not outlets, three sources, and one question before you share.