In his poem A Descent into the Maelstrom, Edgar Allan Poe tells the story of two brothers caught in a terrible hurricane that pulls their ship into a vortex. While one brother drowned, the other survived—not by fighting the current, but by studying its patterns. He observed how some objects were attracted and pulled into…
The European Democracy Hub (EDH) recently published an important analysis, Are Democratic Space Assessment Tools Fit for Purpose in a Time of Repression? The authors pose a hard but necessary question: Can our current democracy-monitoring tools detect the forms of disruption, polarisation, and civic pressure reshaping democratic life today? Their conclusion is clear. While widely…
Insights from Dr. Jacob’s Athens Democracy Forum Speech When trust breaks, democracy follows.That was the central message Dr. Jacob delivered at the Athens Democracy Forum—a message shaped by his own childhood in Nigeria, where he witnessed how quickly democratic hope can collapse into fear when citizens lose faith in those who govern them. His 10-minute…
Recent nationalist demonstrations in Sofia opposing Bulgaria’s adoption of the euro underscore a deeper and more calculated threat: the growing power of AI-enhanced disinformation in shaping not just political discourse, but also realities. Far from being isolated expressions of economic concern, these protests are the downstream effects of a sophisticated information warfare campaign that systematically…
By the time a false story goes viral, the real damage is already done. But what if the most effective disinformation doesn’t even look like a lie? In the second installment of the Disinformation Observatory’s Strategic Information Threat Report (SITRep) series, analysts Georgi Angelov and Dr. Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob investigate a deeper, quieter force at…
Disinformation has entered a new phase – and we are all still lingering two steps behind, figuring out how to go about it. On the heels of the 1st Pravda Ecosystem Report, we convened a roundtable to outline how experts from different planes of the disinformation field see the next steps in front of all…
Most disinformation follows a script. Not a literal one, but a psychological playbook refined over decades and perfected in the digital age. And what is interesting about it is that whether it’s sowing doubt, hijacking public debates, or grinding down trust in institutions, disinformation thrives on patterns. One useful framework for decoding those patterns is…
A sprawling Russian disinformation network—hiding under the classic name Pravda (Russian for Truth)—is zeroing in on countries across the former Soviet Union, the Balkans, and Central Europe. That’s the conclusion of a new report by the CIDC–Sensika Disinformation Observatory, the first instalment of its Strategic Information Threats Reports series. Pravda is a network of over…
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