For the first time in years, New Zealand’s political parties are actually pulling back from the murky world of online disinformation—not completely, but noticeably. That’s the encouraging word from Dr. Mona Krewel, director of Victoria University’s internet, social media, and politics research lab. Her team runs the New Zealand Social Media Study, a long-running project that tracks the Facebook pages of political parties and party leaders, both during election season and in quieter political moments. And right now, the findings are surprisingly hopeful. Since the study began in 2020, the current period has recorded the lowest level of disinformation ever…

On the morning of October 23, a school in New Delhi was plunged into a sudden, chilling silence. Students who had barely settled into their classrooms were startled by an announcement, then hurried through corridors under the watchful eyes of teachers, their backpacks left behind, their questions unanswered. A threat had arrived by email, and its subject line was blunt and terrifying: “Bombs Placed in Your Building.” The words did not read like a prank or a joke, not to the principal who opened the message, not to the staff who scrambled to execute emergency protocols, and not to the…