THE CONTINUED PUSH FOR A KREMLIN-BACKED MESSAGING APP
In recent weeks, the Kremlin has begun to interfere more and more extensively with video and voice calls on popular messaging apps in Russia, including WhatsApp and Telegram. The measures are part of an official effort to promote state-backed messaging app MAX, which the government of Vladimir Putin sees as an important instrument to limit the reach of Western technology and influence within the country. The app already comes preinstalled on some mobile phones and offers a variety of services, including messaging, appointment scheduling, and digital ID.
Reception for MAX has been mixed among the Russian populace. Some citizens have expressed frustration at having to switch from platforms like WhatsApp, and have pointed out the difficulties of communicating via MAX while abroad. Other concerns stem from the use of MAX as a mechanism for government surveillance – a function Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov has acknowledged. Anyone using messaging apps "must understand that they are all transparent – for the intelligence services," Peskov has argued. (New York Times, October 21, 2025)
HAMAS HEARTS AL-JAZEERA...
In the weeks since the start of a tenuous, U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, details have proliferated about how, exactly, the Palestinian terrorist group managed to manipulate media and global public opinion so effectively over the course of the conflict. An October report from the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, for instance, details how during the war Hamas issued broadcasting instructions to Qatar's state-run Al-Jazeera, and made efforts to establish a secure communication channel with its offices in Doha. This line of effort, the Center details, represented a major prong of Hamas's ongoing propaganda campaign – one designed to "send real-time instructions on what to broadcast and what to embargo" to the channel, which provided sympathetic coverage to Hamas activities throughout the course of the conflict. (Jerusalem Post, October 21, 2025)
...AS THE BBC'S BIAS IS EXPOSED
Al-Jazeera, moreover, isn't the only media outlet to have taken sides in the recent conflict. An internal whistleblower report has exposed BBC Arabic for displaying a strong anti-Israel bias and for pushing a pro-Hamas campaign aimed at "minimizing Israeli suffering." The effort, the report lays out, included rapid, uncritical airing of anti-Israel stories, as well as the continuous platforming of biased and anti-Semitic journalists. BBC Arabic, the report details, was significantly more biased than English-language BBC broadcasting, which produced at least some content about issues like Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
This effort, moreover, was allegedly known to channel executives, who sought to cover up the journalistic lapses rather than disclose them to the public. "Having made such serious and misleading journalistic errors, BBC executives chose to hide them from the public rather than correct the record," the report charges. "Protecting the BBC's reputation came before the duties and principles enshrined in the BBC's Charter obligations." (The Telegraph, November 6, 2025)
AUSTRALIA TIGHTENS SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDELINES
Amid a wave of recent proposals across Europe to curb youth access to social media, Australia has gone even further, becoming the first country to fine firms up to $32 million if they fail to block users who are under the age of 16. Denmark advanced a similar social media restriction earlier this Fall, just weeks after Russian hybrid warfare attacks on the Copenhagen airport. Australia's legislation makes up another component in the broader global effort to counter online information threats, from Europe's battle with Russian digital disruption to America's efforts to rein in China's wildly popular TikTok video platform. (Reuters, November 4, 2025)
U.S. ARMY FOCUSES ON DISINFORMATION
Since returning to office in January, the Trump administration has systematically sought to dismantle traditional U.S. international broadcasting capabilities, including laying out plans to shutter the U.S. Agency for Global Media. At least one part of the new Administration, however, is taking up the information warfare portfolio. In November, the U.S. Army established a new detachment based in the Indo-Pacific and focused on countering disinformation and "malign influence" aimed at the U.S. – most directly from China. The unit is designed to "maneuver within the information environment and maintain positions of advantage," strengthening the Army's ability to resist narratives advanced by competitors and adversaries, an Army official has said. Moreover, it may be the start of a broader initiative. A second, similar unit is expected to be established as part of the U.S. Cyber Command in coming months. (Stars and Stripes, November 8,