1 US election interference, voting machine vulnerabilities and the who’s who of disinformation
CTRL ALT DECEIT: Democracy in DangerShow Notes
Will the 2024 US election be hacked? On the first episode of Ctrl Alt Deceit, journalists Nina Dos Santos and Owen Bennett-Jones get to grips with how the upcoming election in the US might be undermined - from outside and within. Joined by Senior Advisor on Election Security for Free Speech for People Susan Greenhalgh and disinformation researcher Darren Linvill, the team examine the vulnerabilities of US voting machines and who might be exploiting such vulnerabilities for their own gain. Plus, we analyse the latest disinformation playbook, and look at what the likes of Russia, China and Iran might have in store. Ctrl Alt Deceit is brought to you by Democratys, a charity committed to exposing interference in our democratic institutions and inspiring debate and engagement in our democratic process in the UK and beyond. Producer: Paige Reynolds Exec Producer: Lucinda Knight
More from CTRL ALT DECEIT: Democracy in Danger
In the season finale of Ctrl Alt Deceit, Nina dos Santos and Owen Bennett-Jones dig into the tangled web of media ownership, foreign influence and the future of free press. With a new UK government potentially greenlighting a UAE-backed bid for a stake in The Daily Telegraph, the hosts ask: does it matter who owns the news anymore? From Silicon Valley billionaires to Gulf state investors, the press is no longer just the fourth estate; it's a business, a weapon and a mirror of global power shifts. Is editorial independence a thing of the past? And can democracy survive in a world where outrage sells and facts struggle to pay the bills?
Hosts Nina dos Santos and Owen Bennett-Jones are joined by crypto journalist Matt Binder and longtime observer of U.S. politics and policy Edward Luce to explore the staggering wealth being generated by the Trump family’s crypto empire.
Hosts Nina Dos Santos and Owen Bennett Jones explore the mounting political and financial pressures confronting higher education on both sides of the Atlantic. In the U.S., it unpacks the unprecedented clash between the Trump administration and Harvard, raising broader questions about academic freedom, ideological conformity, and the role of government oversight. In the U.K., the conversation turns to the sector’s growing reliance on international students and foreign funding—particularly from China—and the implications for institutional independence and research integrity. Together, the episodes chart the uneasy intersection of education, economics, and geopolitics in today’s universities.Guests:-Tyler Coward is the lead counsel for government affairs at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).-Rose Stephenson is Director of Policy and Advocacy at Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI)Producer: Pearse LynchExecutive Producer: Lucinda Knight
Britain's Conservative Party is one of the oldest and most successful political parties in history. Local elections in the UK have signalled that they are facing the prospect of being wiped out, imperilled by the rise of the right-wing Reform Party, headed by one of the most pervasive and divisive figures in British politics: Nigel Farage. Reform’s success is also coming at the expense of Labour, whose voters are underwhelmed and unconvinced by the performance so far of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government.
On this edition of Ctrl Alt Deceit: Democracy in Danger, we are live at the Royal United Services Institute.