Massimo Flore
@massif.bsky.social
Exploring how narratives exploit our fears and desires.
Revealing the hidden battlefield of the information age.
Weekly insights → https://massimoflore.substack.com/
Revealing the hidden battlefield of the information age.
Weekly insights → https://massimoflore.substack.com/
I think it's sadly time to expand the list of FIMI actors beyond Russia and China.
www.ft.com/content/f869...
www.ft.com/content/f869...
US government to fund Maga-aligned think-tanks and charities in Europe
State department grants to spread ‘American values’ are part of Washington’s 250th anniversary celebrations
www.ft.com
February 6, 2026 at 1:42 PM
I think it's sadly time to expand the list of FIMI actors beyond Russia and China.
www.ft.com/content/f869...
www.ft.com/content/f869...
Hold on, this thing has a name... it was called co... col... colo... ah, I can't remember.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/u...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/u...
Rubio Says Venezuela Will Submit Monthly Budget to White House
www.nytimes.com
January 29, 2026 at 11:19 AM
Hold on, this thing has a name... it was called co... col... colo... ah, I can't remember.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/u...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/u...
[surprised pikachu]
www.ft.com/content/674b...
www.ft.com/content/674b...
Tech titans lined up for Trump’s second inauguration. Now they’re even richer
Silicon Valley bosses who lined up behind the US president for his inauguration have fared well under his administration
www.ft.com
January 20, 2026 at 1:23 PM
[surprised pikachu]
www.ft.com/content/674b...
www.ft.com/content/674b...
Bitchat is a reminder of something we keep forgetting: the internet is not a switch, it’s a network.
It was built to route around damage, even extreme disruption.
You can shut down access points, but the network logic adapts.
www.reuters.com/business/med...
It was built to route around damage, even extreme disruption.
You can shut down access points, but the network logic adapts.
www.reuters.com/business/med...
Ugandans, Iranians turn to Dorsey's messaging app Bitchat in web crackdowns
A little-known offline messaging app launched by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has emerged as a key lifeline for Ugandans cut off from the internet ahead of a contentious election that could extend P...
www.reuters.com
January 15, 2026 at 4:58 PM
Bitchat is a reminder of something we keep forgetting: the internet is not a switch, it’s a network.
It was built to route around damage, even extreme disruption.
You can shut down access points, but the network logic adapts.
www.reuters.com/business/med...
It was built to route around damage, even extreme disruption.
You can shut down access points, but the network logic adapts.
www.reuters.com/business/med...
I keep saying this: tech companies cannot be trusted with public health. Without oversight, they will always push boundaries in their own interest.
mashable.com/article/goog...
mashable.com/article/goog...
Google changes key parental control setting in wake of high-profile criticism
Teens will now need to get explicit permission to remove a parental supervision setting.
mashable.com
January 14, 2026 at 11:22 PM
I keep saying this: tech companies cannot be trusted with public health. Without oversight, they will always push boundaries in their own interest.
mashable.com/article/goog...
mashable.com/article/goog...
Strong analogy, but the damage goes deeper.
In markets, broken contracts create instability. In politics, broken contracts erase obligation.
Trump isn’t just extracting value from politics, he’s showing that political commitments no longer bind.
In markets, broken contracts create instability. In politics, broken contracts erase obligation.
Trump isn’t just extracting value from politics, he’s showing that political commitments no longer bind.
Trump is doing to politics what biz schools taught future CEOs to do: break the social contract (e.g., the one btw mgmt & labor that once ensured steady jobs) & extract all the value stored inside.
This will have the same effect on politics as it did on the labor mkt: instability & immiseration.
This will have the same effect on politics as it did on the labor mkt: instability & immiseration.
If I was the commander in chief of the Imperial hegemon I would simply not dismantle the network of military and diplomatic alliances, favourable trade deals, and broad cultural paramountcy that had made my nation the most wealthy and powerful the world has ever seen.
January 11, 2026 at 3:18 PM
Strong analogy, but the damage goes deeper.
In markets, broken contracts create instability. In politics, broken contracts erase obligation.
Trump isn’t just extracting value from politics, he’s showing that political commitments no longer bind.
In markets, broken contracts create instability. In politics, broken contracts erase obligation.
Trump isn’t just extracting value from politics, he’s showing that political commitments no longer bind.
What if the core democratic challenge today isn’t fixing information, but preserving the ability to decide together under conditions of permanent disagreement?
The last Future Frontiers issue of 2025 is a reflection on orientation, not prediction.
The last Future Frontiers issue of 2025 is a reflection on orientation, not prediction.
Reading the World With Outdated Maps
What happens when disagreement no longer turns into collective decisions
open.substack.com
December 30, 2025 at 8:12 AM
What if the core democratic challenge today isn’t fixing information, but preserving the ability to decide together under conditions of permanent disagreement?
The last Future Frontiers issue of 2025 is a reflection on orientation, not prediction.
The last Future Frontiers issue of 2025 is a reflection on orientation, not prediction.
We talk a lot about misinformation and polarization. But 2025 revealed many of the frameworks we still rely on no longer help societies translate disagreement into shared decisions.
📬 This is the last issue of Future Frontiers for 2025. See you next year!
📬 This is the last issue of Future Frontiers for 2025. See you next year!
Reading the World With Outdated Maps
What happens when disagreement no longer turns into collective decisions
open.substack.com
December 29, 2025 at 8:12 AM
We talk a lot about misinformation and polarization. But 2025 revealed many of the frameworks we still rely on no longer help societies translate disagreement into shared decisions.
📬 This is the last issue of Future Frontiers for 2025. See you next year!
📬 This is the last issue of Future Frontiers for 2025. See you next year!
The so-called “global censorship-industrial complex” is a tiny world of academics and NGOs, journalists, and disinformation researchers who for the last decade have been trying to understand the power and reach of the tech platforms and how they are invisibly manipulating our information spaces.
December 25, 2025 at 1:07 PM
The so-called “global censorship-industrial complex” is a tiny world of academics and NGOs, journalists, and disinformation researchers who for the last decade have been trying to understand the power and reach of the tech platforms and how they are invisibly manipulating our information spaces.
We are in a post-disinformation phase where the core problem is no longer false content, but the collapse of shared standards for knowledge and collective action. This matters for security too. I connect these dots in this week’s Future Frontiers.
America’s 2025 Security Strategy and the End of the Post-Cold War Illusion
A twenty-year shift that reshapes alliances, fractures the global order, and leaves Europe without a strategic compass.
open.substack.com
December 18, 2025 at 8:07 AM
We are in a post-disinformation phase where the core problem is no longer false content, but the collapse of shared standards for knowledge and collective action. This matters for security too. I connect these dots in this week’s Future Frontiers.
The US willingness to act alone is not new. What’s new is the reason behind it. Democratic values once justified unilateral action; today they are treated as constraints.
📬 This week in Future Frontiers, I try to explain why that matters, especially for Europe.
📬 This week in Future Frontiers, I try to explain why that matters, especially for Europe.
America’s 2025 Security Strategy and the End of the Post-Cold War Illusion
A twenty-year shift that reshapes alliances, fractures the global order, and leaves Europe without a strategic compass.
open.substack.com
December 16, 2025 at 8:12 AM
The US willingness to act alone is not new. What’s new is the reason behind it. Democratic values once justified unilateral action; today they are treated as constraints.
📬 This week in Future Frontiers, I try to explain why that matters, especially for Europe.
📬 This week in Future Frontiers, I try to explain why that matters, especially for Europe.
When Merz says the “American peace” as Europeans knew it is over, he’s pointing to a long shift, not a sudden break.
📬 This week in Future Frontiers, I look at how US security thinking evolved from post-9/11 universalism to today’s far narrower logic.
open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
📬 This week in Future Frontiers, I look at how US security thinking evolved from post-9/11 universalism to today’s far narrower logic.
open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
America’s 2025 Security Strategy and the End of the Post-Cold War Illusion
A twenty-year shift that reshapes alliances, fractures the global order, and leaves Europe without a strategic compass.
open.substack.com
December 15, 2025 at 10:44 AM
When Merz says the “American peace” as Europeans knew it is over, he’s pointing to a long shift, not a sudden break.
📬 This week in Future Frontiers, I look at how US security thinking evolved from post-9/11 universalism to today’s far narrower logic.
open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
📬 This week in Future Frontiers, I look at how US security thinking evolved from post-9/11 universalism to today’s far narrower logic.
open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
I wrote about the strange sensation of knowing more while understanding less, and how this shapes the future of journalism. The piece is less a verdict and more an open question. How do we build shared reality in a fragmented information climate.
Journalism in a World Without Common Bearings
News flows endlessly while meaning struggles to take form.
open.substack.com
December 11, 2025 at 8:07 AM
I wrote about the strange sensation of knowing more while understanding less, and how this shapes the future of journalism. The piece is less a verdict and more an open question. How do we build shared reality in a fragmented information climate.
Media debates often ask how to fix newsrooms or regulate platforms, but what if the real crisis is that stories no longer stay.
This week Future Frontiers reflects on journalism as a space where orientation might still be built.
This week Future Frontiers reflects on journalism as a space where orientation might still be built.
Journalism in a World Without Common Bearings
News flows endlessly while meaning struggles to take form.
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Media debates often ask how to fix newsrooms or regulate platforms, but what if the real crisis is that stories no longer stay.
This week Future Frontiers reflects on journalism as a space where orientation might still be built.
This week Future Frontiers reflects on journalism as a space where orientation might still be built.
Sometimes it feels like we are living inside an information climate rather than an information system.
📬 This week Future Frontiers explores what happens when journalism can no longer guarantee a shared foundation for public understanding.
open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
📬 This week Future Frontiers explores what happens when journalism can no longer guarantee a shared foundation for public understanding.
open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
Journalism in a World Without Common Bearings
News flows endlessly while meaning struggles to take form.
open.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Sometimes it feels like we are living inside an information climate rather than an information system.
📬 This week Future Frontiers explores what happens when journalism can no longer guarantee a shared foundation for public understanding.
open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
📬 This week Future Frontiers explores what happens when journalism can no longer guarantee a shared foundation for public understanding.
open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
That's what a russian asset would do.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
US Urged Europeans to Oppose EU Plan for Loan to Support Ukraine
The US lobbied several countries in the European Union in an effort to block EU plans to use frozen Russian central bank assets to back a massive loan to Ukraine, according to European diplomats famil...
www.bloomberg.com
December 5, 2025 at 10:24 AM
That's what a russian asset would do.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
The real challenge today is not the volume of information but the pathway it follows through our minds.
This week in Future frontiers I look at how attention and identity now guide the first steps of understanding.
This week in Future frontiers I look at how attention and identity now guide the first steps of understanding.
The Attention Trap: How Platforms Shape What We Think Before We Notice
The digital feed reverses the ancient order of persuasion, turning emotion and identity into the first gateway to understanding.
open.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:07 AM
The real challenge today is not the volume of information but the pathway it follows through our minds.
This week in Future frontiers I look at how attention and identity now guide the first steps of understanding.
This week in Future frontiers I look at how attention and identity now guide the first steps of understanding.
I have been thinking about how attention works today. Not the usual story of distraction, but the deeper shift in how ideas reach us. Emotion sets the tone, identity frames the reaction and reasoning negotiates what remains.
The Attention Trap: How Platforms Shape What We Think Before We Notice
The digital feed reverses the ancient order of persuasion, turning emotion and identity into the first gateway to understanding.
open.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 8:12 AM
I have been thinking about how attention works today. Not the usual story of distraction, but the deeper shift in how ideas reach us. Emotion sets the tone, identity frames the reaction and reasoning negotiates what remains.
I keep returning to the idea that the feed does not only show us things. It sets the order in which we feel, align and only later think.
📬 This week in Future Frontiers a piece about this quiet shift in public understanding.
open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
📬 This week in Future Frontiers a piece about this quiet shift in public understanding.
open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
The Attention Trap: How Platforms Shape What We Think Before We Notice
The digital feed reverses the ancient order of persuasion, turning emotion and identity into the first gateway to understanding.
open.substack.com
December 1, 2025 at 10:10 AM
I keep returning to the idea that the feed does not only show us things. It sets the order in which we feel, align and only later think.
📬 This week in Future Frontiers a piece about this quiet shift in public understanding.
open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
📬 This week in Future Frontiers a piece about this quiet shift in public understanding.
open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
Russia’s move in Armenia follows a tested script. Undermine an independent government, flood the infosphere, then escalate when soft pressure fails. Georgia showed the pattern. So did Ukraine. The goal remains a return to old borders.
www.dw.com/en/russias-d...
www.dw.com/en/russias-d...
Russia's disinformation campaign in Armenia gains momentum – DW – 11/30/2025
Russia is ramping up a disinformation campaign aimed at undermining Armenia's West-leaning government ahead of a parliamentary election in June 2026.
www.dw.com
November 30, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Russia’s move in Armenia follows a tested script. Undermine an independent government, flood the infosphere, then escalate when soft pressure fails. Georgia showed the pattern. So did Ukraine. The goal remains a return to old borders.
www.dw.com/en/russias-d...
www.dw.com/en/russias-d...
And Remigration, a common political stance from the far-right, linked to the conspiracy theory of the "Great Replacement", enters once more into governments' policies.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Trump Demands ‘Reverse Migration’ in Push for Sweeping Crackdown
President Donald Trump called for “reverse migration” in the US as he outlined a further crackdown on immigration following the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington.
www.bloomberg.com
November 28, 2025 at 11:33 AM
And Remigration, a common political stance from the far-right, linked to the conspiracy theory of the "Great Replacement", enters once more into governments' policies.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
The real #AI battle isn’t just about money or state laws. It’s about who controls the window through which we all see the world.
When a few actors shape the models, the platforms and the cues we rely on, the concentration stops being economic and becomes epistemic.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/tech...
When a few actors shape the models, the platforms and the cues we rely on, the concentration stops being economic and becomes epistemic.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/tech...
Tech Titans Amass Multimillion-Dollar War Chests to Fight AI Regulation
Some are battling state AI laws and threatening to punish candidates who oppose rapid deployment of the technology.
www.wsj.com
November 28, 2025 at 11:27 AM
The real #AI battle isn’t just about money or state laws. It’s about who controls the window through which we all see the world.
When a few actors shape the models, the platforms and the cues we rely on, the concentration stops being economic and becomes epistemic.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/tech...
When a few actors shape the models, the platforms and the cues we rely on, the concentration stops being economic and becomes epistemic.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/tech...
There’s a growing market of synthetic friends. The problem is the silent shift they trigger in how people form bonds, seek validation, and outsource judgment. We’re still underestimating the structural impact of this tech. I explored this in more detail here:
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
November 26, 2025 at 9:11 PM
There’s a growing market of synthetic friends. The problem is the silent shift they trigger in how people form bonds, seek validation, and outsource judgment. We’re still underestimating the structural impact of this tech. I explored this in more detail here:
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/massimof...
Still not convinced about the web enshittification?
🇺🇸 Americans looking for ACA plans on Google are met with for-profit telemarketing companies.
www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
🇺🇸 Americans looking for ACA plans on Google are met with for-profit telemarketing companies.
www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
Americans Googling Obamacare Are Finding 'Junk Insurance' Instead
During open enrollment, ads from telemarketers are crowding out official health exchanges.
www.bloomberg.com
November 23, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Still not convinced about the web enshittification?
🇺🇸 Americans looking for ACA plans on Google are met with for-profit telemarketing companies.
www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
🇺🇸 Americans looking for ACA plans on Google are met with for-profit telemarketing companies.
www.bloomberg.com/features/202...