iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 13/10/2026

Whether it's billionaire-funded election falsehoods, concentrated ownership, or taxpayer-funded ads... we all must learn to recognize tactics used for influencing us. Students from 44 countries have strengthened their armour against disinformation with my courses. I'm offering a discount today. 🔽

Map showing 44 countries where the course has reached - top 5: USA, UK, Canada, Australia, India

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 13/10/2026

The US midterms are 3 weeks away and election misinformation is already spreading. As of Oct. 13, NewsGuard has debunked 25 viral false claims about the midterms, appearing across 268 websites and accounts. www.newsguardtech.com/special-repo...

Tracking 25 false claims across 268 websites and accounts
As of Oct. 13, 2026, NewsGuard had identified and debunked 25 false claims about the midterms that have gone viral on social media platforms.

Tracking each claim instance by instance, our analysts have confirmed 365 individual appearances of these claims online across 11 platforms, more than 212 distinct social accounts, 56 websites, and 24 segments on national cable news.

Eleven of the 25 claims centered on supposed election fraud, a particularly pernicious category of false narratives since such claims could undermine confidence in the results of the elections and in democracy itself.

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 08/10/2026

The email. democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...

From a letter that can be viewed here: https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2026-10-07-raskin-dean-to-blanche-doj-patel-fbi-re-botstein.pdf

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 08/10/2026

Dismayed to see this new revelation about Leon Botstein. Even more appalled to see him somehow try and explain it away that he somehow did not write the email that came from his email account asking Epstein if a girl was "for me"?! www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/u...

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 03/10/2026

I'm on my way to @isanet.bsky.social @apsa.bsky.social Security Conference at UCLA to present my paper 'Responses Without Responsibility: Remedial Distortions in Disinformation Governance'

Responses Without Responsibility: Remedial Distortions in Disinformation Governance
Sunday 4th

Abstract
Influence operations are conducted by heterogeneous actors—including states, political movements, and commercial firms—with differing objectives, resources, and strategic logics. Policy discourse predominantly frames these threats as problems of falsehood circulating through dysfunctional information systems. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of influential policy reports produced between 2017 and 2024, this article shows that reports based on this frame converge around actor-detached response repertoires prioritizing civic resilience, platform governance, and informational management. It argues that these repertoires are produced through recurring remedial distortion: institutional recombinations of governance traditions that selectively privilege remedies compatible with existing political, infrastructural, and platform-governance arrangements while leaving actors driving influence operations unconstrained. It concludes that actor-centred repertoires are necessary to produce democratic accountability capable of confronting the actors producing influence operations.

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 25/09/2026

Had a fun time today being interviewed for a documentary by the Japanese Public Broadcaster NHK Japan about the role of data in elections, my research for my book, privacy and AI! The documentary will air on 11th November.

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 23/09/2026

NEW: Advising on the European Hybrid and Space Initiative for the European Commission and Hybrid COE. Check out my latest post (free) here: www.patreon.com/emmalbriant/...

Me grinning in front of big satellite receiver at European Microwave Signature Laboratory (EMSL)

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 18/09/2026

I'm staying in Italy next to a lake currently for a workshop and I went for a walk along the path along the lake this morning and ran into this critter who looked a little lost! I wasn't sure if he'd escaped from the lake or the hotel kitchen! Do you even get freshwater crayfish or lobsters?

Little lobster or crayfish with only one big claw

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 05/09/2026

Dirty deeds and they're done dirt cheap!! Omg this one reminds me of when I worked (briefly) in Radio Shack in Banff 🇨🇦 and on a slow day we would crank this up on the stereo!

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 05/09/2026

Watching The Pretty Reckless open for AC/DC at Notre Dame stadium! 🤘

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 04/09/2026

"Emma Briant, for instance, who has submitted the new e-mails to the British government for further investigation, told openDemocracy that “this evidence shows that Banks was seeking foreign funding for Brexit from the very beginning.”"

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 03/09/2026

Still got mine somehow. Those were rather heavily scratched and sniffed though 🤣

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 01/09/2026

I beg to differ @nytimes.com brolly ☂️ is most definitely a word!!!! 😆 🇬🇧

NYT Spelling bee - my word apparently not in word list

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 12/08/2026

Someone just approached me on LinkedIn asking me if I want to make the most of my PhD and train AI. 👀😖 just.... wow

Details:
Pay:
Accepted Submission $95
Completed Review $28
Completed Adjudication $35
Average handling time: 30min
Start: ASAP
Project End Date: Ongoing with extensions as we have future developments
Note: Must be able to work as a 1099 contractor and cannot reside in California

Current topics with PhD focus: note: there are numerous sub-topics related to each
Communication
Iberian and Latin American Cultures
French, German and Italian

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 10/08/2026

Haha.... omg yes my friend is less floofy but still adorable - her name is Tozi

Golden chihuahua mix with a white dash on her head sits on a grey couch with paws crossed

She looks dolefully up from under my arm, with ears back

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 08/08/2026

"Written evidence submitted by Dr. Emma L. Briant (DIS0044) to Inquiry on Disinformation Diplomacy: How malign actors are seeking to undermine democracy" committees.parliament.uk/writtenevide...

5.0 Lessons for British Response
While British culture is largely resilient to pro-Russian propaganda coming direct from Russia,
we are far less prepared against influence from the US. British cultural affinity to the US is
longstanding, we are economically fused and even more dependent on the US as an important
trade partner since Brexit. We are massive consumers of American culture and the US has
benefited greatly from ‘soft power’, global influence built upon the ‘attractiveness’ of a culture.
While soft power in the form of aid and public diplomacy are being slashed by Trump, American
dominance is underpinned also through trade, especially technology, cultural and commercial
goods. The greatest concern for Britain should be the potential for reflexive control leveraging
Britain’s cultural relationship with the US. This cultural Trojan horse was already through the
gates when President Trump was inaugurated. US culture is firmly embedded within British
society. A relationship that once represented a cultural strength for Britain now offers a major
indirect vector for Russian reflexive control. Reflexive control is a strategy where a complex
adaptive system such as the ‘special relationship’ Britain clings to, might be used to manipulate
- introducing information to prompt behavior that will give the US-Russian bloc a competitive
advantage and seed a far right cultural shift. We need a defensive policy of containment in
relation to the US and a shift toward European companies. There needs to be a Europe wide
ban on engagement-based recommender systems and targeted advertising. Addressing
‘disinformation’ alone will not make Europe more resilient to those leveraging our culture against
us to advance narrow far right elites in politics.
The normalization of far right populist rhetoric in UK politics is a longstanding challenge, as my
research with Greg Philo and Pauline Donald for the book Bad News for Refugees showed.
Today it is creating a situation where even the…

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 05/08/2026

Thank you for the advice, I used this. It doesn't even melt properly!

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 01/08/2026

I adapted a basic recipe by adding walnuts and cinnamon but it looks great!

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 01/08/2026

I'm having a go at making banana and walnut bread today. I'm not much of a baker. But it's in the oven and smelling great! 👍

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 01/08/2026

Delighted to see my #Udemy courses on propaganda and disinformation have helped people in 44 different countries (!) become more digitally literate. Incredible to see such an impact for a course equipping people for our misleading and manipulative online environment. www.udemy.com/course/propa...

Map showing distribution of my students in 44 countries around the world in 10 different languages. It shows the top five countries: USA, UK, Canada, Australia and India.

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 17/06/2026

Look at this beautiful creature Tozi and I came across this morning on our walk! Sadly he seemed to have lost his mum.

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 15/06/2026

So.... such is the weird world we are in, I received this email. And checked the BBC to see if this is true and there's no new update on Iran. Who knows what reality is...

Email from the White House announcing President Trump Peace Deal with Iran

BBC - most recent story is from 12 hrs ago - Trump says US Iran deal to be signed on Sunday as Tehran casts doubt on timing.

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 12/06/2026

Yes except it's weird things like... for example, this in Indiana is the same but not proper balsamic dressing - some kind of watered down dressing that doesn't taste as good. And no rosemary. These are prepared products so surely easy to standardise?!

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 11/06/2026

I'm visiting UCLA today and watching an interesting talk by @jennyjudge.bsky.social on 'Algorithmic Recommendation and Changing Tastes'

Jenny Judge, dressed in black by a white podium, speaking next to a screen which reads 'Algorithmic Recommendation and Changing Tastes' a blonde woman's head is slightly obscuring my view.

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 10/06/2026

I met this sweet boy today. Notre Dame has 3 comfort dogs who wander the campus with their handlers all day giving love to everyone. This is Finn, he's got his own business card. 😆❤️ You can literally call the Notre Dame campus police and ask for a comfort dog to visit if you are having a bad day.

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 05/06/2026

Nowak murder: police accused of ‘anti-white bias’ five times more likely to stop black people But of course it doesnt stop the US state department engaging in a little foreign influence to stoke far right lies and division in their supposed ally. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Department of State: "ideological conditioning and two tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilisational decline. They must be rejected across the West. The United States sent our condolences to the family of Henry Nowak and the people of the United Kingdom at this troubling time.

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 26/05/2026

Tozi is extremely unimpressed that Mommy had something yummy smelling at 1030pm and only gave her a carrot. Even though she's had a LOT of treats today.

Golden doggy in a 'downward dog' position in front of her bowl.

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 22/05/2026

I explained the way these posts while conveying strength to his supporters, suggest to opponents that, for Trump, normal rules do not and will not apply...

"Briant said that Trump’s habit of sharing images of himself as powerful suggests he might be playing out fantasies where he is perpetually in power. For her, Trump’s recent AI-generated post where he blows up targets from space does not suggest “‘I’m going to nuke everyone,’ but what I do think it says is ‘I have no limits.’”

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 13/05/2026

Is he suggesting this is Maduro's tracksuit? www.msn.com/en-ca/war-an...

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 10/05/2026

It's not Mother's Day in the UK but I'm still thinking about my Mum seeing all the tributes being shared. My Mum's been gone for four years now and I still miss her every day.

My Mum sat among the tulips and me age maybe 4 on her knee eating an ice cream

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 09/05/2026

I had surgery on my foot this week and am stuck on the sofa with my swollen foot elevated above my heart on 3 cushions and a saggy, old cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams... they were meant to deliver crutches today. It is SO painful to walk... nothing on Netflix and this is not fun.

Per the description my leg with bandaged foot is up on the sofa on three cushions and a Bagpuss toy.

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Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 09/05/2026

Given the ABSOLUTE DISASTER that Brexit was, it is insane that Labour haven't committed to a return to the EU, and used Brexit to attack Reform. They are not going to win by reinforcing anti-immigration narratives. They need to *contest* everything Reform stand for and FIGHT.

Reform's vote share is up almost 50% in strong Brexit areas

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