The documents from the Russian disinformation campaign are on the left. The “never before seen” US intelligence documents released by Tulsi Gabbard are on the right. They’re the same.

Even Russian propaganda outlet RT joined in, running an entire segment aimed at trying to discredit me/my work. x.com/rvawonk/stat...

Once I started publishing my findings about Gabbard’s online army, I quickly became the target of one of the most intense smear campaigns I have ever experienced. x.com/rvawonk/stat...

As bad as this looks already, I am pretty confident in saying that this story is an example of a limited hangout — meaning that we are only being shown part of the picture, in the hopes of distracting us from pursuing the bigger story.

The allegations also align with the State Dept’s new counter-disinformation framework, which among other things calls for using local influencers to launder official government messaging so it looks authentic. Except this time, it’s aimed at Americans, not foreign nations.

At this point, the allegations are just that — allegations. But they closely align with several other datapoints, including claims made by Ashley St. Clair, who recently described how the Trump admin launders its talking points through pro-Trump influencers to make them look authentic.

As I’ve written about extensively, the Trump admin has dismantled US defensive counter-disinformation capabilities. But according to the leaked docs, that infrastructure was rebuilt as an offensive capability, then outsourced and used against Americans. It’s a massive scandal.

Since the start of the outbreak, the CDC has provided inconsistent answers — that is, when they provide answers at all. On repeated occasions this week, they’ve refused to answer fundamental questions about the outbreak and their response to it

If the hantavirus outbreak remains contained, it will be because of the weak rate of transmission of the virus — not because of the strength of our response.

As I explain in the piece, there were notable shifts in how Russian propaganda outlets approached their coverage of the protests (compared to the past). The key takeaway is that Russian propaganda is moving from telling alternative stories to shaping the meaning of real ones.

Oh, and embarrassingly, Rep. Luna gave these socks to the sanctioned Russian lawmakers as a gift.

I looked at coverage across Russian state media and propaganda outlets, as well as their associated social media accounts. Notably, U.S. lawmakers have barely spoken about the talks, which has allowed Russia to set the narrative.

My latest piece looks at what the research says about the platform features at the heart of the Meta/YouTube case, including infinite scroll & recommendation algorithms. As I argue, these features promote a feedback loop that mirrors addiction — but potentially even worse.

Former WH Chief Strategist Steve Bannon suggested on his podcast this week that deploying ICE agents to airports is a “test case” for sending them to polling places on Election Day. History tells us that it’d be wise to take this seriously.

VOA also alleges that Trump officials have injected White House talking points — at times, word-for-word — into news coverage. This breaches an editorial firewall that is codified into US law. It describes a newsroom strategy that resembles information laundering more than traditional journalism.

The worst part: these aren’t errors. This is how chatbots are designed. They are trained to maximize engagement through sycophancy, even at the expense of safety. This is a very solvable problem, but AI companies would apparently rather sacrifice lives than a small % of profit.

The TX case is the first but certainly won’t be the last. To learn more about the years-long disinfo campaign that paved the way for the first domestic terrorism charges connected to antifa, please consider subscribing to Weaponized to support my work. weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/how-the-tr...

Elon Musk has weaponized and monetized a global disinformation network on X, which he is using to help him fight his new war against the EU. My latest for @bylinetimes.bsky.social: bylinetimes.com/2025/12/08/e...

Per CNN, police believe the Emory shooter targeted the CDC because he was sick or thought he was sick “and blamed the illness on the Covid-19 vaccine.” And this is why we keep telling you that anti-vax conspiracy theories are dangerous. www.cnn.com/us/live-news...

Algorithms are not inherently good or bad; they take on the properties of the code that humans write, but apply it at a scale that humans are not capable of. We won’t win this game. And when we lose, the cost will be control over our own minds.

Algorithms serve up content you like b/c they know that’s how they can hook you and get you to keep clicking, keep scrolling, and keep making them more money. They’re like digital drug dealers — and I’d argue that the effects are more insidious and corrosive than actual drugs.

This is the first piece of advice I offer in the survival guide for resisting algorithmic tyranny. Until you learn the difference between entertainment and education vs covert psychological manipulation, you will remain a slave to the algorithm. Learn the difference. Act on it.

Let’s be clear: Reverse algorithmic capture isn’t a policy debate about platform bias. It’s a strategy designed & rolled out by the Trump admin to realign the rules of information visibility in favor of those in power, using regulatory levers to reprogram epistemic systems.

We are witnessing the emergence of a privatized information infrastructure that serves public ideological aims without invoking the First Amendment—or admitting the state’s hand. It’s being done by rebranding algorithmic power as populist reform. Hi, Bannon.

In the name of fighting censorship, the Trump administration is shaping digital ecosystems to favor its preferred narratives while chilling dissent. It is a form of soft epistemic authoritarianism—and we all (I hope) know what comes next.

Interestingly (to me at least), this set of tactics actually mirrors in some ways a Russian disinfo tactic called reflexive control. Though there are some key differences, what Trump is doing is basically forcing platform decisions by manipulating the choice architecture.

That’s not even close to all of it. We have also seen companies like YouTube & Facebook respond to the Trump admin’s false claims of censorship by scrapping their own content moderation practices, which almost always benefits right wing media outlets & commentators.

In a new EO, Trump codified this process of reverse algorithmic capture by forcing any company that wants to do business now or in the future with the federal government to implement standards to reduce “bias“ — which includes not mentioning things like diversity and equity.

These algorithms are essentially unseen curators of reality. They decide what content you see or don’t see; what creators you see or don’t see; what ads you get served; what your Google results look like when you search for anything from restaurants to personal health questions.

This practice of reverse algorithmic capture has already been written into policy and is affecting the algorithms that shape everything from search results to feed curation to ad targeting, to content moderation on platforms. It’s affecting you. Probably more than you realize.