The Active Measures Newsletter Podcast

This week on the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson unpack the viral, dangerous misinformation about immigrants and family pets in Springfield, Ohio; take a look at the disinformation targeting Latino voters in Michigan; and discuss new reporting about the leader of RT, on the one hand, and, on the other, the effort by former U.S. Senator Gordon Humprhey to build...

This week, New York Times reporter Julian E. Barnes joins Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson for an in-depth conversation of the multiple indictments announced late last week by the U.S. Department of Justice exposing the scheme by Russian state-media to funnel $10 million to American right-wing influencers peddling divisive and anti-Ukrainian messages to American audiences. See omnystudio.com/listener f...

This week, Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson discuss the investigation of American citizens working for Russian state media; the potential of 'Green Cicada,' a newly identified AI-enabled network on X, to achieve strategic surprise in the information-space; legal and financial consequences for those using synthetic media in campaigns; Russia's likely use of "gendered disinformation" in the 2024 U.S. cam...

Special guest David Klepper, the intelligence reporter on the national security team for the Associate Press, joins Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson to discuss his recent reporting. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently briefed reporters on the actions of Russia, China, and Iran in the run up to the 2024 elections.  Each has an interest--but each is approaching the election in th...

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,...

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 Canad...

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 Presid...

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...

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. Josh...

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...

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...

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...

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 repor...

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 Is...

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 I...

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 Universit...

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...