I had one of those difficult conversations on Venezuela with my dear @ayoub.bsky.social in @thefirethesetimes.com. I deeply appreciated having a welcoming space for such a complicated conversation and being able to keep calling attention to what is going on.

thefirethesetimes.com/2025/06/10/a...

With the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado, we're diving once again into endless debates about her political position - with media calling her "far-right" or "radical right."

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.

Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

"Several cynics have suggested that Altman’s lament was his first foray into marketing OpenAI’s rumored social media platform." techcrunch.com/2025/09/08/s...

7/Many thanks to the authors- @fittarelli.com, @rondeibert.bsky.social @mmichae1sen.bsky.social, Maia, and Darren for enriching the field with this report and findings!

6/Repression at home disempowers, while external actors weaponise that disempowerment. This cruel double bind shows the urgent need to address the weaponisation of synthetic media in conflict.

5/What strikes me most: Iran’s own repression creates the conditions for this. Decades of censorship and propaganda breed nihilism and distrust, leaving citizens vulnerable to synthetic manipulation.

4/This builds on what @samgregory.bsky.social and I wrote about the Iran–Israel war as a testing ground for AI propaganda. carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

3/ @citizenlab.ca stops short of certainty, but concludes: “The hypothesis most consistent with the available evidence is that the Israeli government – directly or through a contracting firm – conducted the operation.”

2/These deepfakes falsely attributed songs to Shervin Hajipour, Toomaj Salehi and Mehdi Yarahi, twisting authentic voices of Iranian pain and frustration into calls for uprising aligned with Israel’s messaging.

1/Citizen Lab’s new report on PRISONBREAK is a must-read. It exposes an AI-enabled influence operation targeting Iran with deceptive media, from the infamous Evin Prison gates video to deepfake music.

Also, @haaretzcom.bsky.social @themarkup.org has an exclusive companion report here, authored by Gur Megido and Omer Benjakob 👇

www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

1/ NEW REPORT: “We Say You Want a Revolution” - An AI-Enabled Influence Operation Aimed at Overthrowing the Iranian Regime. We call it PRISONBREAK. Keep reading to find out why.

THREAD 🧵

Millions in crisis rely on ubiquitous tools that betray them: from social media to Starlink. The deeper shock is when secure tools also exclude them through everyday hurdles like phone verification. In order to have real alternatives, we must reclaim hyper-accessibility. 🔐

During the Iran-Israel war, civilians in Iran had little access to trustworthy information. AI deepfakes circulated online exacerbated this situation. What are the implications?

@mahsaalimardani.bsky.social and @samgregory.bsky.social explained:

Ty

Can you share a link for this? For Noland Arbaugh’s neuralink implant I could only find positive coverage going back to June 2025.

🆕| There is a growing gap between the sophistication of AI deception and analysts’ ability to detect it, heralding a frightening new phase in global conflict.

@mahsaalimardani.bsky.social & @samgregory.bsky.social's latest for @carnegieendowment.org⤵️

I can't emphasize enough how crucial accurate information is when you live anywhere in the margins. This is true in wartime Iran, & it's true under militarized policing and white supremacist kyriarchy in the U.S.

Thank you @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social for all of your lifesaving work.

Thank you for the kind words @loreleilee.bsky.social 🙏

Read this piece where we explore the serious implications of synthetic media in conflict -especially when it begins to further destabilise an already fragile information ecosystem like Iran’s, amid wartime conditions where access to truth can mean the difference between life and death.

The Iran-Israel war signals a major gap between the sophistication of AI deception and analysts’ ability to detect it.

@mahsaalimardani.bsky.social & @samgregory.bsky.social explain how the info war is changing and its consequences @carnegieendowment.org

⬇️

carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

Glad to collaborate with @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social on this exploration of AI war propaganda in the Israel-Iran war and the gaps growing in our capability to detect and respond carnegieendowment.org/research/202...