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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa

@sanjanah.bsky.social

4.7K followers 420 following 4.3K posts

Studying confluence of influence operations, disinfo, truth decay, information integrity & policies addressing online harms. Many thoughts, sometimes prayers.

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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · Dec 23

A ‘War of Stories’: Humanitarianism in the Disinformation Age | @heatherleson.bsky.social from the @theifrc.bsky.social invited me to pen this article mid-2024. I sent it to her months ago, and finally got around to publishing it.

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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 6h

"Dr. Hattotuwa at the forum stressed further that the question is not whether AI can be fully controlled, but whether journalism can adapt rapidly enough to preserve its economic foundations while maintaining its role as a check on power." ceylontoday.lk/2025/10/04/w...

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 10h

Excellent tool for NZ'ers (and also, anyone from anywhere in the world). Created by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Highly recommend those in politics, public life, activism, journalism, media, and academia use this tool to determine risk of PII exposure. www.howexposedami.co.nz

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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 11h

Suspected Chinese government operatives used ChatGPT to shape mass surveillance proposals, OpenAI says www.cnn.com/2025/10/07/p...

Suspected Chinese government operatives used ChatGPT to shape mass surveillance proposals, OpenAI says | CNN Politics

Suspected Chinese government operatives asked ChatGPT to help write proposal for a tool to conduct large-scale surveillance and to help promote another that allegedly scans social media accounts for “...

www.cnn.com

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 15h

An offline stench that was even more odious online, & to an extent that to this day remains grossly under-appreciated by the same folk flagged by Eddie. It was a historic, & unprecedented inflection point for truth decay, far-right narrative foundations, & worsening information disorders in NZ.

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Reposted by Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa

Dr. Cassandra Mudgway @legallyfeminist.bsky.social · 15h

Tory Whanau’s final speech as Mayor (in part) called out the racist misogyny, and gendered disinformation that defined her term. The comments on FB had to be turned off. That's what online violence against women politicians looks like in real time. #nzpol

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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 17h

Brilliant poem, read out so well by Thom Yorke. Written in 2016, & read out by York in 2019, but (sadly) so much more relevant, & resonant today. Via www.instagram.com/reel/DPgsLS-...

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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 1d

Don't do it.

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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 1d

A key tactic in anti-vaxx, anti-establishment, anti-government, far-right toolkit, when adopted by others invites rapid escalation in political violence that can't be contained to any one in-group. Everyone's risk increases, esp. those most vulnerable already - from left, Maori, minorities, & woman.

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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 1d

If we reject doxxing because it risks violence/vandalism against those we are aligned with, follow, love, are partial to, vote for, believe in, & respect, it must be the same yardstick for everyone. I've studied doxxing in NZ for years, & have always proactively warned folks targeted, & at risk.

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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 1d

Study of 100s of comments against 2 posts on Acacia O'Connor's Instagram account targeting Winston Peters feat. home address, which in t/his case (esp. given foreign adversaries) is nat-sec threat. Comments are totally unmoderated, & feat. calls for invasive surveillance, vandalism, & violence.

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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 1d

Whether against Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, Ghahraman, Ardern, other MPs, Wiles, Bloomfield, & others involved in pandemic response, transgender activists, drag queens, judges, lawyers or academics - effects of doxxing are inherently harmful, & often leads to kinetic violence or vandalism.

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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 1d

From Australia’s e-Safety Commissioner. Good tips for NZ’ers too. | Gore online: How violent content is reaching children and what you can do www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/blo...

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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 2d

Risk of rapid escalation is very real. Political violence spirals unpredictably, & often strikes hardest at those already very vulnerable: wāhine Māori, & minority reps. Condemning violence against WP isn't defending his politics. It's defending a non-violence undergirding activism, protecting all.

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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 2d

Peters has track record of divisive rhetoric targeting LGBTQIA+ communities, immigrant MPs, & trans people. His speech fosters, & festers harms. Yet arson, & violence against his home cross a clear line. Political violence never advances democratic debate. It degrades it, & puts everyone at risk.

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Reposted by Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa

The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 3d

President Trump’s sweeping national security memo directs feds to investigate and prosecute any person, non-profit, or entity displaying what Trump calls political violence: anti-capitalism, anti-Americanism, anti-Christianity, and “extremism” on race, gender, and migration.
trib.al/F2kxhw3

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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 5d

Phishing campaigns: A looming crisis for Sri Lanka's banking, and financial sector www.linkedin.com/pulse/phishi...

Phishing campaigns: A looming crisis for Sri Lanka's banking, and financial sector

Phishing attempts, fraudulent campaigns, constellations of inauthentic accounts on social media, and misleading, unauthorised content presented as legitimate, and official now delivered at scale in Si...

www.linkedin.com

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 5d

Phishing attempts over Instagram and email targeting Sri Lanka www.linkedin.com/pulse/phishi...

Phishing attempts over Instagram and email targeting Sri Lanka

An ad served on Instagram, and an email forwarded to me by a leading Sri Lankan human rights activist showcase contemporary threats involving phishing attempts, malware, and ransomware directly at Sri...

www.linkedin.com

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 5d

Cyber scams on Google, SMS, and Instagram targeting Sri Lankan victims www.linkedin.com/pulse/cyber-...

Cyber scams on Google, SMS, and Instagram targeting Sri Lankan victims

From New Zealand to the United States, people are losing their life savings to cyber-scams. RNZ reported recently about the tragic case of a pensioner who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to a sc...

www.linkedin.com

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 5d

Phishing, and cryptocurrency scam fraudulently featuring well-known Sri Lankans, and a newspaper www.linkedin.com/pulse/phishi...

Phishing, and cryptocurrency scam fraudulently featuring well-known Sri Lankans, and a newspaper

An advertisement delivered yesterday on Facebook piqued my interest, because it looked at first glance to be content from Sri Lanka's Daily Mirror newspaper. The ad was being delivered to those 25 or ...

www.linkedin.com

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 5d

What's a clear problem on Facebook, & newsworthy in the US was first trialled, & is now an even greater issue in markets like Sri Lanka, & more generally in the Global South. | Spam and Scams Proliferate in Facebook’s Political Ads www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/t... (Gift link)

Spam and Scams Proliferate in Facebook’s Political Ads

www.nytimes.com

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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 5d

Beautiful, and so richly deserved.

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 5d

“Supposedly in charge of the government” is the Chef’s Kiss.

David Hood @thoughtfulnz.bsky.social · 5d

It is offensive for the person supposedly in charge of the government and its economic levers to suggest that youths, and their playstationing ways, are responsible for the most rapid surge in unemployment since the Great Financial Crash

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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 5d

Related, and tragically so. | Cambridge graduate’s death linked to ‘incomprehensible’ influence of conspiracy theorist mother, coroner rules www.lbc.co.uk/article/palo...

Cambridge graduate’s death linked to ‘incomprehensible’ influence of conspiracy theorist mother, coroner rules | LBC

Her mother, Kay

www.lbc.co.uk

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 5d

Never does.

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 5d

Epistemic fractures: Fake cancer cures, and related threats to New Zealand’s democracy sanjanah.wordpress.com/2025/03/19/e...

Epistemic fractures: Fake cancer cures, and related threats to New Zealand’s democracy

New Zealand’s PM posted to both Twitter, and Facebook recently about funding for cancer research: “NEWS: Pharmac has confirmed six new cancer medicines will be funded thanks to our $604…

sanjanah.wordpress.com

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