Decades of psychological research suggest that authoritarian leaders and their admirers consistently share one thing in common: they twist the truth. To accomplish this, such leaders frequently follow a common playbook of attacking truth tellers and truth-telling institutions as a prelude to controlling information infrastructure and a broad-scale decimation of scientific programs.
TIME
A global group of broadcasters and publishers is calling on artificial intelligence developers to make sure their technology serves the public by helping to counter misinformation and protect the value of fact-based news.
The Associated Press
The Indian government has recently banned 16 Pakistani YouTube channels, citing their role in spreading provocative, communally sensitive content and misinformation targeted against India. The decision, announced Monday, comes just days after a terrorist attack April 22 in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which left 26 civilians dead.
The Integrity Project
As an immunologist who works in biomedical research, I know misinformation and pseudoscience about cancer is not only frustrating but also extremely dangerous. And if any of you watched the recent Netflix series Apple Cider Vinegar, let me tell you: that is only scratching the surface of dangerous lies that circulate in wellness spheres.
Skeptical Inquirer
Power in the 21st century is no longer confined to ships and boots on the ground. Increasingly, it tweets, trolls, and manipulates. As the line between truth and fiction continues to blur in the digital age, misinformation and disinformation have emerged as potent weapons in their own right in the geopolitical arsenal—a destructive force that never needs to eat, sleep, or reload, silently bypassing borders and fences to target our hearts and minds.
The Integrity Project
‘The strong do what they will, the weak suffer what they must.’ So wrote Thucydides in the ‘History of the Peloponnesian War,’ and the Greek historian’s cold-eyed observation still holds.
The Conversation
In the ongoing battle between fiction and reality, fiction — much of it created by Russia’s robust disinformation machine — appears to be winning. A national YouGov survey commissioned by NewsGuard found that one third of Americans believe at least one false claim being spread by Russian media outlets.
NewsGuard
We live in an age of widespread public deception, where aggressive forms of narrative manipulation spread despair and undermine trust in the commons. Disinformation entrepreneurs harass and intimidate scientists in an attempt to silence them. They create noise and stir up misdirected public outrage.
The Tyee
As Romania heads into another round of presidential elections, TikTok has unveiled a set of initiatives aimed at bolstering election integrity on its platform. These include the launch of a dedicated Election Center, a media literacy campaign in partnership with Romanian media outlets, and an expansion of its moderation and fact-checking efforts.
TikTok
Concerned that the nation’s health leadership is casting unfounded doubt on the safety of well-studied vaccines and may take action to curb their use, a group of public health experts is working to put pieces in place to respond.
CNN
This month, a network of pro-Russian websites began a campaign aimed at undermining confidence in the U.S. defense industry, according to disinformation analysts. The F-35 fighter jet was one target.
The New York Times
Mark Carney was just days away from announcing his bid to lead Canada’s Liberal Party in January when his face popped up on a viral right-wing Facebook page. Two photographs showed Mr. Carney, who became prime minister last month, at a garden party beside Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex trafficker and former confidante of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The New York Times
As of late April, the U.S. has confirmed 800 measles cases in 2025 across more than 20 states – already more than double the amount of cases reported in 2024. KFF’s latest Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust finds that most adults (56%) and about half of parents of children under 18 (48%) are aware that the number of measles cases in the U.S. is higher this year than in recent years.
KFF Health News
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that the State Department is closing an office designed to counter foreign disinformation, stating that the effort had ‘spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans.’
The Washington Post
If you saw the recent HHS Press Briefing by RFK Jr., you’re likely as horrified as I am. RFK Jr. proclaimed that ‘it’s gotta be environmental toxins’ causing the supposed autism epidemic. As always, he manipulated data to claim autism is ‘skyrocketing.’
ImmunoLogic.org
Late on Friday afternoon, hundreds of researchers funded by the National Science Foundation got emails with bad news: their grants or fellowships had been cancelled.
Nieman Lab
As TikTok continues to wait for a deal that will secure its future in the United States, the company is embracing a crowd-sourced approach to fact-checking. The service is adding “Footnotes,” a Community Notes-like feature that will allow contributors to add “more context” to videos on the platform.
Engadget
A Delaware judge, once again, has found that a conservative news outlet broadcast false and defamatory claims about the role a voting technology company played in the 2020 presidential election. This time, that network is Newsmax, Fox News' upstart rival, which is fresh off a successful initial public offering.
National Public Radio
The First Amendment is first for a reason, and James Madison, chief author of the Bill of Rights, was a staunch supporter of the values enshrined therein: Speech, Religious Liberty, Freedom of the Press, Free Assembly, and the Freedom to Petition for Redress of Grievances.
The Integrity Project
Make no mistake, the recent appearance of Dr. Suzanne Humphries on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast—which reaches an astronomical 11 million listeners per episode—represents a public health emergency that demands an urgent, forceful and unified response.
Deplatform Disease
