In this episode, we talk about misinformation, disinformation, and troll farms in the 21st century with Olga Belogolova and Regina Morales.
Olga Belogolova is the Director of the Emerging Technologies Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She is also a professor at the Alperovitch Institute for Cybersecurity Studies at SAIS, where she teaches a course on disinformation and influence in the digital age. At Facebook/Meta, she led policy for countering influence operations, leading execution and development of policies on coordinated inauthentic behaviour, state media capture, and hack-and-leaks within the Trust and Safety team. Prior to that, she led threat intelligence work on Russia and Eastern Europe at Facebook, identifying, tracking, and disrupting coordinated IO campaigns, and in particular, the Internet Research Agency investigations between 2017-2019. Olga previously worked as a journalist and her work has appeared in The Atlantic, National Journal, Inside Defense, and The Globe and Mail, among others. She is a fellow with the Truman National Security Project and serves on the review board for CYBERWARCON.
Regina Morales is the principal of Telescope Research, where she conducts investigations on behalf of law firms, multinational corporations, financial institutions, and not-for-profit organisations. She has subject matter expertise in Latin American politics, corruption issues, extremism, and disinformation. In particular Regina specialises in investigating disinformation campaigns waged on social media platforms, forums, and certain messaging apps. These campaigns include online harassment, corporate disinformation relating to securities, conspiracy theories, and politically or ideologically driven campaigns. She has seen, often in real time, how the theoretical components of disinformation and propaganda are used in practice. Prior to founding Telescope Research, Regina worked for two top-tier, Chambers and Partners-ranked global investigative firms where she conducted and managed complex, multi-jurisdictional investigations on behalf of white shoe law firms and multinational companies.
Listen on Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts, by RSS feed, on Youtube, or right here:
How to Run a Troll Farm – How to get on a Watchlist
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Books and media mentioned during the episode, and suggestions for further research on this topic:
- How to Lose the Information War (Nina Jankowicz)
- Active Measures (Thomas Rid)
- This Is Not Propaganda (Peter Pomerantsev)
- Nothing is True but Everything is Possible (Peter Pomerantsev)
Additional reading suggestions can be found on our 2024 geopolitical reading list.
Purchases made using the links in this article earn referrals for Encyclopedia Geopolitica. As an independent publication, our writers are volunteers from within the professional geopolitical intelligence community, and referrals like this support future articles.
The hosts:
Lewis Sage-Passant is a researcher in the field of intelligence and espionage, and a former British Military Intelligence Officer. Lewis holds a PhD from Loughborough University in intelligence studies, and is an adjunct professor in intelligence at Sciences Po Paris. He has extensive experience working and living in the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions in a variety of geopolitical analysis and intelligence roles, supporting the energy industry, the financial sector, leading technology firms, and the pharmaceuticals sector. He has appeared in numerous media outlets, including the BBC, France24, CNBC, Harvard Business Review, The New Arab, El Mundo, GQ, and others, discussing intelligence, geopolitics, and security topics.
Colin Reed is a geopolitical risk adviser working in the US technology sector, specialising in strategic intelligence and global planning for businesses and executives. In his current role he works to identify, assess, and inform senior technology leaders on emerging topics of geopolitical & economic significance, and chairs an intra-business Geopolitical Strategy Council which works to align company posture to global events. He is a dual graduate of both Russian History and International Relations from North Carolina State University and a postgraduate in International Security from Georgetown University. Colin previously worked for the US government and engages regularly with industry groups and security professional associations on the intersectionality of multinational business and international affairs.
The production team:
Producer: Edwin Tran
Researchers: Lewis Sage-Passant, and Colin Reed
Additional credit goes to several unnamed members of the Encyclopedia Geopolitica team, as well as our colleagues in the intelligence and security community who helped to make this podcast possible.
If you liked this episode, don’t forget to sign up to our mailing list and subscribe on your podcast platform of choice. Please also consider supporting our work via Patreon. While the topics we discuss here are often shrouded in secrecy and security classifications, we really hope you’ll tell your friends about us!
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