Todd Helmus

Europe Races to Craft a Trump-Era Plan for Ukraine and Defense European leaders are gathering in Brussels Thursday to discuss how to support Ukraine and fend more for themselves on defense.

“We are living in the most momentous and dangerous of times.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/w...

Be Wary Of Russia’s Call For Negotiations While peace is a net positive, there are legitimate fears of Russian manipulation in negotiations to create terms suitable for only Putin.

this piece with @oxanashevel.bsky.social
nationalinterest.org/feature/be-w...

Better Feeds: Algorithms That Put People First – Knight-Georgetown Institute

So much great work coming out on people-first tech lately! Today from KGI, an incredibly detailed report on recommender systems by a collection of rockstar technologists. We focus so much on moderation, but *curation*- particularly recommendation- really matters!

kgi.georgetown.edu/research-and...

I am writing up talking points for a int’l symposium event on what the west must do to deter adversaries from using disinformation in conflict.

Realizing tho that the notion of a unified “west” is an increasingly an antiquated and out of date notion. And it blows my mind.

YouTube video by Cambridge Disinformation Summit RAND Corp's Sr Behavioral Scientist Todd Helmus on how propaganda reinforces community, 27 July 2023

Disinformation & propaganda reinforce social identity.

Emotional need for belonging seems to dominate the need to understand what’s really going on.

RAND Corporation Sr Scientist @toddhelmus.bsky.social discussed this in the context of terror groups.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=GvC2...

As a reporter who covered the Facebook apology tour circa 2016, and spent HOURS on the phone with FB flak and executives earnestly telling me Zuckerberg was torn up over Russian election interference and was making it a top priority to fix misinfo on FB, this week’s developments are 🙃

Emily Gross and I shared beers while chatting on her podcast, @beerocracy.bsky.social. Beers aside, we spoke about a deadly serious topic, extremism and suicide-protest among veterans. We also spoke about how my participation in a One-Wheel Facebook group explains online radicalization.

Tesla Cybertruck driver struggled with mental health, investigators say Authorities say U.S. soldier Matthew Livelsberger died by suicide in a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.

And this story is heartbreaking. A devil’s brew of PTSD, depression, paranoid delusions and TBI.

Was he getting the care he needed or was he left out in the lurch by the Army?

www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...

Tracing the New Orleans Attacker’s Secret Radicalization Recordings and interviews detail Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s growing discontent with American society and increasing isolation even within his local Muslim community.

Fascinating story about the New Orleans attacker’s deepening spiral to isolation and puritanical Islam.

But still no public evidence that he consumed extremist propaganda or connected with recruiters or other followers. So the big question still remains. Why ISIS?

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/04/u...

Live updates: Police say 26-year-old man in custody in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing The latest news in the killing of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson.

A provocative little tidbit here that the United Health Care assassination suspect was captured with document that indicates “ill will towards corporate America.”

Could this broader than a targeted killing and veer into the terrorism arena?

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Thanks Alan! Good to be here.