Think of the last time you saw a headline that made you angry or afraid, and then discovered it was false. The feeling of betrayal, the nagging question of what else might be untrue, the awkwardness of talking to a relative who still believes it—misinformation is not an abstract problem. It affects everyday life: the vaccine decision made in fear, the vote cast in confusion, the scam accepted as official correspondence, the friendship fractured by a conspiracy theory. In the UK and around the world, this pollution of the information environment has become so pervasive that it threatens democracy, public…

There are moments in international politics when the loudest confrontation isn’t taking place at a negotiating table or on a frontline, but in the quiet, relentless scroll of social media feeds. In Poland, that moment has arrived in a particularly unsettling form. According to Reuters, in mid-August, Warsaw experienced a striking and coordinated explosion of Russian disinformation aimed at widening the rift between Poland and Ukraine. The timing was no accident. It came right after a very public dispute erupted between the two neighboring countries, and the online fallout was immediate and measurable. Anti-Ukrainian content in Polish across major platforms…