Symbols matter
11.02.2026 14:21 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
I'm so sorry to hear about this. If you're interested in doing some writing for our team, please ping me
05.02.2026 21:04 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Why Dictators Take Out the Internet
Weak governments shut the internet down. Strong authoritarians don’t let it get to that point.
On the latest What Next TBD: Iran’s government shut off the country’s internet for three weeks. How do we still know what’s going on? slate.trib.al/VaeK5FT
01.02.2026 10:30 — 👍 3 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0
YouTube video by Carnegie Explains
Why Are U.S. Products in Russian Weapons?
News of Ubiquiti’s technology in Russian drones made waves this week, not least because the company’s CEO owns the Memphis Grizzlies.
But Ubiquiti isn’t the only U.S. company whose products are showing up in Russian weapons. @stevenfeldstein.bsky.social explains: youtube.com/shorts/KQMC9...
30.01.2026 17:09 — 👍 4 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
Amazon’s Promotion of ‘Melania’ Has Critics Questioning Its Motives
Imagine all the ways you could spend $35M that didn’t involve promoting a sham documentary. 🤔
Maybe use the $$ to stop laying off Amazon + @washingtonpost.com staff??
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/b...
30.01.2026 03:29 — 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
✊
youtube.com/watch?v=wWKS...
29.01.2026 04:24 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
And what are they learning? Experts on the formation of internal security services in authoritarian regimes point to a sense of impunity as a warning sign. Regime officials abuse their power when they know they will be protected, and even praised, for doing so.
Over the course of weeks and months, we have seen images of DHS officials abusing American citizens and immigrants alike, including killing them. What we do not hear is regime officials calling for credible investigations into such abuses, or even expressing any concerns. Renee Good’s killer was announced innocent, and both Good and her wife was instead the subject of an investigation, a perversion of justice so obvious that an FBI agent and half-dozen career Department of Justice prosecutors assigned to Minnesota resigned.
What we are watching is a paramilitary force learning that they can kill with impunity, that the regime will smear the victim and defend them. Unless politicians and the legal system exerts accountability, it will not stop. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/past-the-b...
24.01.2026 16:32 — 👍 3702 🔁 1447 💬 53 📌 73
Nothing to see here
24.01.2026 18:00 — 👍 1 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Don’t be fooled. I’ve worked in human rights for two decades and ICE tactics are exactly the kind of thing US government officials used to yell at authoritarian governments to stop
24.01.2026 18:00 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Once again, the government is trying to get you to believe your own eyes are lying to you. This was another murder by ICE, an agency that proves day after day it has no business policing on America’s streets.
24.01.2026 17:52 — 👍 357 🔁 137 💬 13 📌 5
American individuals are subject to US laws so there’s the promise of some degree of accountability. Good luck trying to find justice under “Chinese law”
23.01.2026 01:28 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 5 📌 2
The strategy document only includes 3 references to democracy.
And all of them warp the traditional usages of the term, according to @stevenfeldstein.bsky.social. The first is a warning shot, while the others take aim at European governments.
22.01.2026 20:37 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Carney’s Remarkable Message to Middle Powers
And how they can respond.
“No matter how much a leader might behave like a character from Mean Girls, the world isn’t a giant high school.”
@lageneralista.bsky.social, @sophiabesch.bsky.social, @stevenfeldstein.bsky.social, & Stewart Patrick discussed Canadian PM Carney’s Davos speech: carnegieendowment.org/emissary/202...
22.01.2026 17:01 — 👍 7 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 1
The levels of digital repression globally today vs 20 years ago are stark.
The world is experiencing a surge of surveillance, censorship, propaganda, shutdowns.
These two charts show the change:
22.01.2026 18:18 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0
Iran’s internet shutdown tells a larger story: Digital repression is on the rise
Like Iran, governments worldwide rely on internet shutdowns to suppress populations, rig elections and collectively punish their citizens.
Iran, in its 14th day of a digital blackout, isn't the only country to use this tactic to control its citizens. In 2025, an estimated 212 shutdowns occurred across 28 countries, affecting 798.12 million people, write @stevenfeldstein.bsky.social & Shreya Joshi for @thebulletin.org
22.01.2026 16:35 — 👍 9 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
Remember when Trump said he’d make America respected again? When does that happen?
17.01.2026 20:58 — 👍 1694 🔁 340 💬 113 📌 14
‘Like a Military Occupation’: Clashes Rise With Federal Agents in Minneapolis
“This is a military occupation, and it feels like a military occupation”
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/u...
14.01.2026 01:01 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
YouTube video by Carnegie Endowment
Every War Is Now a Drone War
Drones aren't the future of warfare anymore. Conflicts from Ukraine to Sudan have made it clear: they're the present. Can states (and non-states) keep up?
@stevenfeldstein.bsky.social discusses with Jon Bateman on this week's World Unpacked: www.youtube.com/watch?v=49sg...
09.01.2026 15:05 — 👍 6 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 1
Preorder BYTES AND BULLETS at bn.com from 12/30-1/1 and get 25% off with code PREORDER25.
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bytes-and-...
👉 Note, this discount is only available to B&N members but free memberships are available - learn more at barnesandnoble.com/membership/
30.12.2025 21:19 — 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Muckraker, traveler, adventuress. East and Southern Africa Bureau Chief for the Washington Post. Email: katharine.houreld at washpost.com
Reporter at The Washington Post; co-author of forthcoming book on Iran for Doubleday
Rolling Stone/Senior Writer
Days of speed and slowtime Mondays
Pissing down with rain on a boring Wednesday
Watching the news and not eating your tea
A freezing cold flat with damp on the walls
Junior Fellow in Democracy, Conflict, and Governance at Carnegie Endowment. Stanford alum. Historian among political scientists.
All takes lukewarm and my own.
Just asking questions.
Senior Editor, Lawfaremedia.org.
Send story ideas and tips to anna.bower@lawfaremedia.org
Assistant Professor @ UvA, political scientist studying digital authoritarianism, internet shutdowns, computational propaganda, India & Southeast Asia, Partij voor de Dieren www.krisruijgrok.com
RAND China Research Center. Former Senior Geo-Economics Analyst at Bloomberg, CSIS Economics Program, DNIO for Economic Issues at NIC, and CIA. All views my own.
CFI Project - EU Institute for Security Studies @euiss.bsky.social
Alumno @lseir.bsky.social
Countering Foreign Interference - FIMI
Disinfo - EU Diplomacy 🇪🇺
Views my own.
U.S. Senator from Connecticut.
The Journal of Democracy: The smartest analysis on democracy and authoritarianism around the world. Reposts ≠ Endorsement. https://linkin.bio/jodemocracy
Tracking autocratic legalism around the world from Princeton University.
Editor-at-large, World Politics Review. Spent more than a year in Provence. Used to be an American in Paris. Currently bringing coal to Newcastle.
https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/
@wpr.bsky.social
Professing literature in Philadelphia. Writing MIDDLEMEN: Literary Agents & the Making of American Fiction (April ‘26).
laurabmcgrath.substack.com
Tèmíladés best friend. ‘Ládi’s daddy. ‘Tìmí’s daddy. Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative
@gbengasesan everywhere 🌍
Dad Lander. Former Councilmember Lander. Former Comptroller Lander. Running for Congress because we need to fight, not fold. 🥊
landerfornyc.com
https://www.mobilize.us/landerforcongress
Senior Researcher, Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS).
Conflict, security and development.
& occasionally Cricket, rugby and football.
Associate professor of political communication @ddc-sdu.bsky.social, University of Southern Denmark.
Focus on digital & right-wing media + parties.
Associate Editor @ International Journal of Press/Politics
National politics reporter at semafor.com. Alum: WashPost, Bloomberg, Slate, Reason. Author of “The Show That Never Ends.”
Professor of Public International Law, University of Exeter
Saarf-Londoner. Cat Dad. Assoc Prof at the Swedish Defence University. PhD from KCL. Associate, IWM Institute. Senior fellow at Global & National Security Institute, Uni of South Florida. ex-West Point fellow. FRHistS. Series editor @Hurst Publishers
