The case of the French elections of 2017 and the #MacronLeaks affair. The French elections of April 2017 come after the François Hollande presidency, whom is a left-wing figure of the “Parti Socialiste”. His presidency was marked by several crisis such as the terrorist attack of Paris. He faced many complex situations that exposed him as an unpopular and unserious candidate for the election. As a result, the first poll draws the left parties as weakened and the right party (L

Wagner’s Information Warfare in Mali and the Central African Republic (2017–2023): Fueling Anti-French Sentiment and Legitimizing Russia I first became interested in Wagner’s activities in Africa when I stumbled upon a short video on social media showing a local radio promoting pro-Russian messages. I was shocked at how these narratives could influence people’s opinions, and I wanted to understand the bigger picture behind these operations. Image from LCI youtube channel  (  

If you have read the online news on the Ukrainian conflict this morning, your opinion may have changed on the relevance of the Western economic and military support. Are you sure you read your favorite online media? Was the tweet with a screenshot on the front page of your favorite newspaper true? There is maybe a chance that you saw a false website, and you have been misled by a vast pro-Russian disinformation campaign, the Doppelgänger Operation. The worst part is that you

During the night of 8–9 February 2021, cybercriminals broke into the information system of the Dax hospital in France. They remotely took control of the network and launched a ransomware attack. Within a few hours, thousands of confidential medical files were locked and rendered inaccessible. This topic is deeply personal to me: my mother is a nurse and had to manage the aftermath of a cyberattack at the hospital where she worked. The consequences were immediate: operations

In today’s media ecosystem, the scarcest resource isn’t information - it’s attention. We - Gen Z in Georgia - don’t “go online”, we live there. Georgian Gen Z behaves like Gen Z everywhere - feed-first, video-native, creator-trusting, and DM-driven - because the same attention infrastructure (platform penetration + fast mobile) organizes their media choices. Local context shapes topics and tone , but the mechanics  of discovery and trust are universal.  As Herbert A. Simon  (

The Puzzle: Why would influential Georgian businessmen pour millions into pro-government, anti-Western broadcasters like  Imedi TV  and  POSTV , even as these outlets rack up massive losses? At first glance, the economics make no sense. Traditional business logic would suggest that investors avoid money-losing ventures. Yet, when viewed as  political infrastructure rather than profit centers,  the rationale becomes clear. These media outlets provide  political protection, inf

Independent media worldwide have been facing growing operational pressures in recent months. Eastern Europe is a vivid example. This is...

Six months after the October 2024 parliamentary elections, Georgia remains in a profound political crisis. Significant irregularities...

In today's world, information can wield power comparable to physical weapons, making the control of narratives essential for national...

By Butuc Paula Ivory. The question surrounding disinformation in the Republic of Moldova transcends mere influence; it delves into the...

By Adam Crhák Gerasimov doctrine, named after the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces General Valery Gerasimov, has become a widely recognized term. Coined by Mark Galeotti in a blog post from 2014 reacting to the Russian occupation of Crimea and regurgitated by virtually all Western media outlets reviewing the topic, it has entered the public consciousness and fascinated the public ever since. Sensational newspaper headlines, such as “It’s Russia’s new cha

By Leon Brunzel On Friday 31 January 2025, something historically unprecedented happened in the German federal parliament, the Bundestag....

By Valentyna Konovalova Russia’s pro-war influencers, known as "Z-Bloggers," have turned the ongoing war into a lucrative business, using...

By Jakob Krueger Populism is a common saying in political everyday language. How gladly do politicians attest to the political opponents...

Georgia’s political landscape has been an intense battleground between pro-Western and pro-Russian forces for decades. While there is...

Disclaimer: A German exploration of the topic can be found in Digital Threads Unmasked, the joint newsletter by FORTITUDE and PENEMUE....

The Northern Black Sea region, southern and eastern regions of Ukraine still suffer from the echoes of the mythologized story about the...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the ensuing war marked the beginning of new era in international politics. Aptly dubbed...

When I arrived in Georgia in 2021 I knew nearly nothing about the country. I decided to make my Erasmus+ stay in a place which I saw as...

Conspiracy theories have become increasingly prevalent in contemporary society, and Georgia is hardly an exception. These theories serve...