***Bette members will find the registration links below the paywall. To join our community events and to help support independent investigative journalism in a time of grave peril, please upgrade to a paid membership.***
French historian and author David Colon, who specializes in exposing foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI), is our guest on Tuesday, 13 October, 11 am Pacific.
You can see by his book titles above that we will have much to talk about, and I already envision a series with him. But for this first event, we will be getting a preview of his latest book, Infodémie: Comment lutter contre le virus de la désinformation (Infodemic: How to fight the disinformation virus).
The book is currently available in French, but you can follow his work at his new Substack, which is very easy to translate into English:
Here is a sampling from the post above:
“Here Comes the Vlad Patrol!”: How to deal with coordinated authentic behavior
The Kremlin doesn’t rely only on bots, but also on flesh-and-blood influencers to spread its false narratives. Faced with this authentic behavior, the response is far from obvious.
By David Colon
To respond or not to respond: that was the question that obsessed, on Saturday, several people responsible for countering foreign information attacks targeting France. At issue was a false narrative circulating in pro-Russian circles, targeting the head of state and claiming—video evidence to back it up—that Notre-Dame’s stained glass had “stuck a red demon mask right onto his face.” In reality, the video was shot at the Élysée, where the sun’s reflection on the colored panels installed by Daniel Buren on the winter garden’s glass roof produced that lighting effect. Nothing paranormal, then, and no connection to Notre-Dame.
As in 2025 with the handkerchief presented as a bag of cocaine, the Kremlin’s disinformation networks seized the opportunity to smear Emmanuel Macron, whose unpopularity is a powerful lever for getting their false narratives into the French public debate. Just as the handkerchief false narrative aimed to divert attention from the success of the “coalition of the willing” summit in Kyiv, the Notre-Dame stained-glass one very likely aimed to divert attention from the success of the Pope’s visit to France. But the fact that these two attacks target the head of state, commander-in-chief, is not trivial, and should remind us that—using an expression dear to our military—the final desired effect (FDE) sought by the Kremlin is not so much the election of this or that candidate aligned with its views as the lasting weakening of the cohesion of our democratic society. Undermining trust in our institutions and in the legitimacy of our elected officials is, according to Russian theorists of information warfare, the best way, in the long run, to bring about the decomposition of the adversary’s society.
I invite you to read the full Substack post, because it’s a powerful essay on the correct framing to adopt when analyzing information warfare.
As a new debate rages on Twitter on whether or not the bombing of Russian data centers is reducing inauthentic campaigns, I think David’s assessment is, at the very least, damn fine propaganda.
“RIP to the many French ‘patriots,’ unconditional supporters of Putin, who were living in that Russian data center...”
More about David Colon:
DAVID COLON is a teacher and researcher at Sciences Po Paris. A specialist in the history of media and mass communication, he is the author of two award-winning books, Propagande (Flammarion, 2021) and La Guerre de information (Texto, 2025). Strongly committed to the fight against Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI), he is a member of the steering committee of Reporters Without Border’s Propaganda Monitor, and of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Information Integrity. His latest book Infodémie is out this week on Tallandier.
Here is a recent op-ed I published from him on Lithuania’s resilience model:
I am pleased that our community remains so well informed as we come together to listen and learn.
And I am very grateful to the people who are sticking their necks out during a full-throated information war to call it what it is: war.
Looking very forward to adding a new author to our fold, and if you are not yet a Bette member, do consider joining us and registering for our community meetings.
We have multiple upcoming events, including Part 2 of Dietmar Pichler’s disinformation tutorial on Tuesday, 20 October; and intellectual historian Marci Shore offering a lecture on Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt on Tuesday, 27 October. And on Sunday, 18 October, I will be sharing images from my travels to Sacred Spaces.
Thank you for being here and for your support.
Please keep scrolling to the very bottom of this post below the paywall to find the registration link.
****
****
Bette Dangerous is a reader-funded magazine. Thank you to all monthly, annual, and founding members.
I expose the corruption of billionaire fascists, while relying on memberships for support.
Thank you in advance for considering the following:
Share my reporting with allies
Buying my ebooks
A private link to an annual membership discount for older adults, those on fixed incomes or drawing disability, as well as activists and members of the media is available upon request at bettedangerous/gmail. 🥹
More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter/producer, author, and veteran music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Her Hot Type column appears in Byline Supplement. Thank you for your support of independent investigative journalism.
🤍
Begin each day with a grateful heart.
🤍
REGISTRATION LINK FOUND HERE