-
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.
-
High-control groups: how cults recruit and hold people
918 people died at Jonestown, yet only about 4% of Unification Church workshop attendees were full-time members two years on. How high-control groups recruit and hold people, the checklists, the scholarly critics, and the warning signs.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
What censorship looks like in 2026: from removal to quiet demotion
Censorship in 2026 is less often a ban and more often a ranking change, a lost ad or a keyboard that won't finish your phrase. The six forms, documented cases from every side, and how to tell which one is happening to you.
-
"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.
-
Fear as a lever: how fear narrows thinking
Fear narrows attention and makes us cling to protectors. Research shows fear appeals work, especially with a clear action. From the 1918 flu to the 2020 SPI-B paper, fear was held down or raised on purpose, by every kind of power.