(Mis)Translating Deceit (AHRC-funded project)
@m-deceit.bsky.social
3-year AHRC-funded project ‘(Mis)Translating Deceit: Disinformation as a Translingual, Discursive Dynamic’. PI: Stephen Hutchings / Lead Co-I: Vera Tolz
@OfficialUoM
Political science
71%
Sociology
13%
Echoes of Deceit - Media, Pandemics and the Disinformation Lifecycle
events.ceu.edu
Vera Tolz will be delivering a seminar at @weareceu.bsky.social on Thursday 29 January on health-related disinformation from the 1980s to the present. It is a hybrid event, and you can register to watch the presentation via the link - events.ceu.edu/2026-01-29/e...
How will the zero-click internet impact the informational ecosystem? - (Mis)Translating Deceit
Nicolas Hénin explores the rise of the zero-click internet, and its implications on an increasingly changing online information ecosystem.
www.mis-translating-deceit.com
🚨New blog post! Our project consultant, @nicolashenin.net has written a fantastic piece on the impact of the "zero-click internet" on the informational ecosystem. You can read the blog post via our website - www.mis-translating-deceit.com/project-blog...
Disinformation as process: modeling the lifecycle of deceit
Abstract. This article offers a new conceptual model of disinformation which accounts for the performative status of disinformation accusations, and the di
academic.oup.com
You can read the full article via OpenAccess - academic.oup.com/ct/article/3...
It is a good opportunity to have a look at my recent journal articles that call for a rethink of #sportswashing with a bigger focus on the role of media and audiences in interpreting the political power of sports:
www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/r...
thx @uomhums.bsky.social, @fettitude.bsky.social
www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/r...
thx @uomhums.bsky.social, @fettitude.bsky.social
Research calls for “sportswashing” rethink amid FIFA Peace Prize rumours
As global attention turns to rumours that FIFA may award a new “Peace Prize” to US President Donald Trump later next month, new research has argued that public debates about politics and sport need fa...
www.manchester.ac.uk
Congratulations to Vitaly on the publication of two fantastic articles on sportswashing! The article published in the International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics applies a disinformation lifecycle model developed by Vitaly, Vera Tolz, @stevhutch.bsky.social , and Sofia Tipaldou
Short blog from me and @maudinet.bsky.social about last week’s launch of the new RT India channel and what to expect from it, written for @uk.theconversation.com
@oupolitics.bsky.social @ou-gcsj.bsky.social
theconversation.com/rt-india-how...
@oupolitics.bsky.social @ou-gcsj.bsky.social
theconversation.com/rt-india-how...
RT India: how the Kremlin is spreading its ‘west v the rest’ narrative to a global audience
RT has targeted non-western audiences for years.
theconversation.com
Congratulations to @preciouschatd.bsky.social and @maudinet.bsky.social on their fantastic blog on RT India being published on @uk.theconversation.com last week!
Reposted by Stephen Hutchings
RT India: how the Kremlin is spreading its ‘west v the rest’ narrative to a global audience
RT has targeted non-western audiences for years.
theconversation.com
Short blog from me and @maudinet.bsky.social about last week’s launch of the new RT India channel and what to expect from it, written for @uk.theconversation.com
@oupolitics.bsky.social @ou-gcsj.bsky.social
theconversation.com/rt-india-how...
@oupolitics.bsky.social @ou-gcsj.bsky.social
theconversation.com/rt-india-how...
Reposted by Stephen Hutchings
Vitaly Kazakov
@vitalykaz.bsky.social
· Dec 6
Research calls for “sportswashing” rethink amid FIFA Peace Prize rumours
As global attention turns to rumours that FIFA may award a new “Peace Prize” to US President Donald Trump later next month, new research has argued that public debates about politics and sport need fa...
www.manchester.ac.uk
It is a good opportunity to have a look at my recent journal articles that call for a rethink of #sportswashing with a bigger focus on the role of media and audiences in interpreting the political power of sports:
www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/r...
thx @uomhums.bsky.social, @fettitude.bsky.social
www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/r...
thx @uomhums.bsky.social, @fettitude.bsky.social
When Poland Speaks with One Voice: Media Unity on Moldova’s Elections and Russian Threats - (Mis)Translating Deceit
Gosia Koroluk writes about the Polish media coverage of the 2025 Moldovan elections.
www.mis-translating-deceit.com
🚨New blog post! Glosia Koroluk writes about the Polish media coverage of the 2025 Moldovan elections. You can read it on our website here - www.mis-translating-deceit.com/project-blog...
committees.parliament.uk
Stephen Hutchings, Vera Tolz, and Alexandr Voronovici have had their written evidence on disinformation diplomacy published by the Foreign Affairs Committee as part of their disinfomration inquiry. Read the full submission here: committees.parliament.uk/writtenevide...
LLMs grooming or data voids? LLM-powered chatbot references to Kremlin disinformation reflect information gaps, not manipulation | HKS Misinformation Review
Some of today’s most popular large language model (LLM)-powered chatbots occasionally reference Kremlin-linked disinformation websites, but it might not be for the reasons many fear. While some recent...
misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu
Congratulations to Maxim Alyukov and Alexandr Voronovici for the publication of their research note in Harvard Kennedy School's Misinformation Review! You can read the full article here - misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/llms...
Прафесар Гатчынгс: «Вучэнні – сігнал Захаду, што Расея гатовая да вайны»
52 палітычныя вязні вызваленыя, але Лукашэнка выкарыстоўвае гэта як разменную манету. А ў гэты ж час Беларусь разам з Расеяй праводзяць вучэнні «Захад-2025», якія эксперты называюць правакацыяй і рыхт...
belsat.eu
Stephen Hutchings has been quoted in the following articles for various international news outlets:
- Belsat: belsat.eu/89015792/ras...
- SVT: www.svt.se/kultur/ryska....
- Lupa: lupa.uol.com.br/jornalismo/2... AND lupa.uol.com.br/jornalismo/2...
- Belsat: belsat.eu/89015792/ras...
- SVT: www.svt.se/kultur/ryska....
- Lupa: lupa.uol.com.br/jornalismo/2... AND lupa.uol.com.br/jornalismo/2...
(Mis)Translating Deceit - (Mis)Translating Deceit: Disinformation as a Translingual, Discursive Dynamic
(Mis)Translating Deceit - A 3-year AHRC-funded interdisciplinary research project aiming to develop a new, holistic approach to a key global challenge (runs from October 2023 to October 2026; total v...
www.mis-translating-deceit.com
You can also subscribe on our website to receive project updates - www.mis-translating-deceit.com. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and enter your email address to subscibe.
Newsletter #4 - (Mis)Translating Deceit
June - August 2025
www.mis-translating-deceit.com
Our latest newsletter has just been published on our website! You can read it here - www.mis-translating-deceit.com/newsletter/n...
Mauritania, a laboratory for the vulnerabilities of Sahelian information ecosystems - (Mis)Translating Deceit
Nicolas Henin provides a vulnerability study on Mauritania's information ecosystem, and provides solutions on how it can strengthen these vulnerabilities.
www.mis-translating-deceit.com
🚨New blog post! @nicolashenin.net Nicolas Henin provides a vulnerability study on Mauritania's information ecosystem, and provides solutions on how it can strengthen these vulnerabilities. You can read it on our website here - www.mis-translating-deceit.com/project-blog...
Reposted by Stephen Hutchings
How Russia is trying to win over the world beyond the West - BBC News
Over the past three years, Russian state-backed news channel RT has expanded its international presence.
www.bbc.com
The BBC has done a deep dive into current activities of Russia’s RT network, extensively citing research from me, @rhyscrilley.bsky.social @m-deceit.bsky.social et al in our new (free-to-download!) book.
@oupolitics.bsky.social
www.bbc.com/news/article...
@oupolitics.bsky.social
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Emotional Governance in Wartime Russia: Pacification, Fear and the Manipulation of Hope - (Mis)Translating Deceit
Olga Vlasova's blog examines Russian propaganda, through the lens of emotional governance.
www.mis-translating-deceit.com
🚨New blog alert! Olga Vlasova, Visiting Researcher at King's College London, examines Russian propaganda, through the lens of emotional governance. You can read Olga's blog here - www.mis-translating-deceit.com/project-blog...
Reposted by Stephen Hutchings
Debunking Putin’s New World Order - FPIF
The Russian president's speech at the Valdai Discussion Club was full of paranoia and propaganda.
fpif.org
New piece from me arguing that the Kremlin's narratives are familiarly ideological: "The bogeyman is no longer capitalism as such, but what Putin described at Valdai as the 'greed of those Western elites,' with 'elite' being today’s hip, populist term for 'bourgeois.'"
fpif.org/debunking-pu...
fpif.org/debunking-pu...
Reposted by Stephen Hutchings
Amplifying doubt: How Russian trolls leveraged pandemic uncertainty for strategic gain
Russian state-sponsored trolls seized on the moment of uncertainty posed by COVID-19—not to promote any coherent counter-narrative, but to make coherence itself elusive. Their strategy was not to pers...
thebulletin.org
"Amplifying doubt: How Russian trolls leveraged pandemic uncertainty for strategic gain," by Maksim Markelov. (9/11)
Congratulations to one of our co-investigators @neilsadler.bsky.social on the publication of his new article in Communication Theory, "Suspicious stories: taking narrative seriously in disinformation research". You can read it via Open Access here - academic.oup.com/ct/advance-a...
Is Russia really ‘grooming’ Western AI?
The panic is there, but the evidence is thin – at best.
aje.io
Maxim Alyukov and Alexandr Voronovici contributed to an Al-Jazeera English Opinion piece on Russia's influence of Western AI. aje.io/lv4v9l
New Russian network takes aim at fact checking
mailchi.mp
Maksim Markelov has provided comments on Russia's Global Fact-Checking Network for the RMIT Information Integrity Hub's newsletter, The Repost. You can read and subscribe to it here - mailchi.mp/rmit.edu.au/...
Why is tracking disinformation so difficult—and what can we do about it? - (Mis)Translating Deceit
Emma Connolly explores why tracking mis and disnformation is challenging as it moves across platforms, and why it is vital its circulation is mitigated.
www.mis-translating-deceit.com
🚨New blog post! Emma Connolly (Research Fellow at UCL's Digital Speech Lab) explores why tracking mis and disnformation is challenging as it moves across platforms, and why it is vital its circulation is mitigated. You can read her blog on our website - www.mis-translating-deceit.com/project-blog...
Reposted by Sabina Mihelj, Vera Tolz
🎉 Excited to share the APSA Technology & Politics Section Award winners! 🏆
📚 Best Book
The Illiberal Public Sphere: Media in Polarized Societies
by @sabinamihelj.bsky.social & @vstetka.bsky.social. You can access it, it is in open access!
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
🧵
📚 Best Book
The Illiberal Public Sphere: Media in Polarized Societies
by @sabinamihelj.bsky.social & @vstetka.bsky.social. You can access it, it is in open access!
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
🧵
The Illiberal Public Sphere
This book uncovers the media's role in global illiberalism through cutting-edge analysis of recent developments in Eastern Europe.
link.springer.com
Congratulations to @sabinamihelj.bsky.social and @vstetka.bsky.social for winning this prestigious award!
Reposted by Stephen Hutchings, Sabina Mihelj
The Illiberal Public Sphere
This book uncovers the media's role in global illiberalism through cutting-edge analysis of recent developments in Eastern Europe.
link.springer.com
🎉 Excited to share the APSA Technology & Politics Section Award winners! 🏆
📚 Best Book
The Illiberal Public Sphere: Media in Polarized Societies
by @sabinamihelj.bsky.social & @vstetka.bsky.social. You can access it, it is in open access!
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
🧵
📚 Best Book
The Illiberal Public Sphere: Media in Polarized Societies
by @sabinamihelj.bsky.social & @vstetka.bsky.social. You can access it, it is in open access!
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
🧵
8)Article has significant implications for how we understand disinformation, and how it is best combatted
7)Disinformation lifecycle can be viewed both as a sequence of developments from birth to death and rebirth, and as an atemporal system of interactions between factors endogenous within, and exogenous to, disinformation
6)Model allows us to show how disinformation claims do not travel as fixed objects but are discursively renegotiated as they journey, acquiring new, layered meanings at every point in the cycle
5) The lifecycle process follows a logic that is both simultaneous (the dialogue with counter-disinformation applies at all points) and linear (from allegation, to rebuttal, to counter-allegation)
4)Analysis of how COVID claims are authenticated across media genres; how they modulate to reflect shifting scientific consensus; how they are adapted for different linguistic audiences; hyperlink analysis detailing Russian/non-Russian collusion; their de-authentication by CDUs
3)We applied to this material a combination of qualitative close-reading methods and computer-driven network analysis tools in five replicable analytical steps visualised in diagrammatic form. Steps include …