Stephan Lewandowsky

The lessons from Brazil and Serbia? Don't concede one inch of ground to the far right. Don't appease. Don't triangulate. Don't grovel. Don't say they have "legitimate concerns". Mobilise your base, and fight them with all the democratic means at your disposal.

Have you checked out DISARMED yet? Aside from having the best damn theme song in the world, we’ve got interviews with the people who used to keep our country safe from foreign propaganda. What happened, and what can we expect before the midterms? Join us — thewayfinder.net/s/disarmed

Good day for democracy worldwide with Brazil and Serbia. Earlier this year Hungarian autocrat Orban fell as well. The vibe is shifting. Democracy is resilient. People are tired of those who try to drag us back, of strongman spectacle and techno-fascist visions. Guess now all eyes on US midterms.

Every accusation is of course an admission In fact, Bolsanaro allies did intimidate voters and just stopped public transport in cities so the poor masses leaning Lula have a hard time reaching voting stations At the same time, US oligarch Zuckerberg used Meta to throttle Lula and promote Bolsanaro

Final call: Call for Papers, 2027 Cambridge Disinformation Summit Research on incentives or power infrastructures that support malign cognitive influence and disinformation campaigns. For more information, see the Call for Papers tab on the website. www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/events/cambr...

Geoff Hale worked on election security at CISA for nearly 10 years. Since Trump slashed CISA's budget and fired Geoff and others, Geoff refers to US election security as a "fractured shield." Find out why & what his outlook is for the midterms is: www.thewayfinder.net/p/the-people... more links ⬇️

The Right’s Fascistic Fever Dreams Are a Sign of Weakness MAGA wants us to believe that Trump can simply declare “martial law” and wipe away the system - but it’s just not true. A threat assessment before the midterms. My new piece:

Brexit has been catastrophic. It's time to rejoin the EU.

🚨🚨 "Donald #Trump has sold out #Ukraine. He makes appeaser #Chamberlain looks like a man of iron-principle". Great piece by Simon Tisdall on the massive human cost and shattering of world-order caused by the shattering #trump betrayal. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Donald Trump ist kein allmächtiger Gottkönig Die Trumpisten wollen die Wahlen manipulieren und eine stabile autoritäre Herrschaft errichten. Das schaffen sie aber nur, wenn im demokratischen Lager Defätismus herrscht. Mein neuer Essay, auf Deutsch:

He's betrayed the American people, our country, and global relationships. It's obvious who he is serving. Putin owns him. Why? "...you have a US president who might as well be skywriting his support for Russia and his betrayal of Ukraine." #Pinks #TrumpIsUnfitForOffice

How Meta is allowed to still operate abroad after all its scandels is beyond me. Cambridge Analytica. Genocide in Myanmar. Election interference in Nigeria, Phillippines, Brazil. Like X, it needs to be fined and stomped into the ground by regulators all around the world.

Putin has incomparably more influence in the West Wing than he has in eastern Ukraine. Indeed, his only hope in eastern Ukraine sits in the West Wing.

Weekend reading: I wrote a brief history of the Right deriding anything that threatens the social and racial hierarchy, any sort of leveling attempt, as "communism" or “socialism.” This week’s piece - about the Right’s attempts to demonize the idea of equality:

We're planning a public execution. We only admit white "refugees" from a former apartheid state. Our domestic security service uses white nationalist messaging. And the president routinely appears to encourage or endorse violence against his opponents & the media. Nothing subtle or complicated here.

Within one week, the US government pressured a disinformation conference in Europe and sanctioned the International Criminal Court. This is actually one and the same campaign for suppressing facts and voices of justice, writes Jeanne Sulzer.

It's not just Russian media reporting it now. Axis of Evil becoming more visible by the day.

Glad to have some lessons in morality from the Tech Taliban. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Whenever I travel abroad to meet with foreign leaders, I write a behind the scenes account of the trip on my way home. Here are notes from my recent trip to the Middle East. It's not a comprehensive recitation of all the topics raised. Just a snapshot.

If Americans view, clip, share, and permanently enshrine an American public killing in a million ways on the internet, we will move towards fascist rituals of violence. snyder.substack.com/p/four-wrong...

Putin throws lifeline to try to save Trump in the midterms. In return, American dollars go to Russia and get put toward killing innocent Ukrainians. Trump/Russia right out in the open. www.dailymail.com/news/article...

Credit to the US for making the point the conference was trying to make about US foreign interference in European democracies for them, and bringing more attention to the conference and its themes than they could have possibly hoped for. www.politico.com/news/2026/10...

The Trump administration sanctions the ICC hours after a former judge wins the Nobel peace prize. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

The entire Republican Party and broader conservative movement need to be smashed to bits. Donor networks gotta be exposed and disrupted. All the outside machinery needs to be dismantled. And electorally it must lose over and over and over and over. We need a truth and reconciliation commission.

FIMI is a new acronym I just learned, short for “Foreign information manipulation and interference”. An international conference is going to have a session entitled “USA as a FIMI threat: acknowledge, adapt, push back”. So the Trump administration threatened the EU and Canada and they pulled out.

Regarding political perceptions on disinformation, climate, health, inequality, and other lines of research, it might help to revisit my opening speech from the 2025 Cambridge Disinformation Summit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgA4...

Aside from the usual thuggery and pathetic surrender, the events surrounding Disinfo 2026 raise an interesting question: should governments ever sponsor conferences on disinformation that may include analyses of governments? It appears the right answer is no. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

So a European disinformation conference talking about the threat of FIMI (foreign information manipulation and interference) from the US finds itself.... targeted by FIMI from the US? Irony is dead.

Nothing says US FIMI like bullying other governments into withdrawing sponsorship for a conference that discusses US FIMI. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

In June this year, I wondered, in my column for EUobserver @euobserver.com, whether the EU would be prepared to call out MAGA Washington’s interference in European politics the same way it rightly called out Moscow’s and Beijing’s interference. euobserver.com/222156/europ... 1/3

Was invited to give a lecture for media economy bachelor students today. I am afraid I feft them with a bit of an apocalyptic sense on where we are today. 😅 So I just wanted to outline a little bit my thinking and why I believe now is the time to build something better; and that gives me hope.

Good on the SPD, good on Boris Pistorius, for this defiant refusal to cede the territory of national pride to the far-right - on the day an AfD politician became the president of a state parliament for the first time. www.zeit.de/politik/deut...

The German version of my latest essay is out: What Do Authoritarians Do When They Are About to Lose an Election? Trump’s schemes to subvert the midterms have so far failed. What happens next? A reflection on the threat as well as the limits of authoritarian escalation.

Lithuania, Canada, and EEAS pulled out of #Disinfo2026 at such short notice they didn't have time to redo the signage.

“Polanski’s authority is solar-powered, activated only when the light of an enthusiastic crowd shines directly on him. If there is a risk of no applause, he powers down” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Shellenberger is seemingly preparing to smear a bunch of people attending a conference on disinformation this week. Ten bucks says he’s gonna claim the researchers there are cEnSoRiNg yOu!!!1 In reality they’re presenting their ideas. Talking. Debating. You know, using their speech rights.

An example of FIMI (Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference) in action at the @disinfo.eu conference? Apparently someone in the U.S. did not agree with the topic of a session named "USA as a FIMI threat: acknowledge, adapt, push back" and applied pressure on the sponsors...

Let me try this once more. It was a choice. EITHER the Greens adopted a slogan. OR they could have joined the next govt, where they could push for an end to arms sales, sanctions, support for the arrest warrants etc. It was never going to be both. Which one makes a material difference? #GazaGenocide

This despite record global temperatures & extreme weather events. It didn't happen by accident. It's a predictable consequence of Trump/GOP assault on the media coupled w/ plutocratic capture of media outfits and platforms.

Following our @cbc-conference.bsky.social and the keynote by @lewan.uk I just read the Anti-Autocracy Handbook he and his colleagues wrote: research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publicati... I found it timely and useful and recommend having a look

Onward. Forward. With your help. Happy birthday to Democracy Americana! One year ago, I started this experiment. To keep it going, I need your support. This is my once-annual pitch to everyone reading. I hope you’ll indulge me:

📣 Save the Date! #TeaP2027 is coming to Mannheim March 21st to March 24th 2027! Abstract submissions will open October 1st 🥳 For more details, check out our website: www.uni-mannheim.de/teap-2027/

Conspiracy Believers Often Hold Two Beliefs That Can’t Both Be True studyfinds.com/conspiracy-b... From study: "...the strongest conspiracy believers showing a 91% probability of being incoherent" (by @lewan.uk et al.)

A huge thank you to our keynote speakers @lewan.uk, @lkfazio.bsky.social, @helenamatute.bsky.social, Jon Roozenbeek, @goripaula.bsky.social (@edmo-eu.bsky.social), Pablo Hernández (@maldita.es) and to all participating doctoral students for their insightful questions and contributions! 👏

@natematias.bsky.social, @rebekahtromble.bsky.social, and Sarah T. Roberts write in Science about how restrictions on researchers’ movement threaten free inquiry. Read: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The ceNsOrShiP iNdUstrIaL cOmpleX hoaxers are starting to go after AI evaluators using the same playbook that took down social media research. It worked for them last time. No consequences for lying. Shellenberger, Schmitt both starting up. Smears & subpoenas from the lie machine commencing. Watch.