"Synthetic Propaganda - Tracing an AI-Driven Political Operation" with Effie Webb

About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of AI in political operations with Effie Webb, focusing on a case of AI-generated propaganda.

This week we spoke with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism's AI reporter, Effie Webb about the use of AI in the political sphere and what researchers/journalists can effectively report on AI misuse. Effie uncovered what some experts are calling a first-of-its-kind case—where a registered political party paid for content from an AI-generated influencer pushing ideological messaging. The talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on April 16th 2026. Music featured is courtesy of Artlist. Recorded live in our Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/bellingcat Links: Effie Webb's original reporting: https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026-03-12/danny-bones-meet-the-ai-rapper-funded-by-a-far-right-party Effie's follow up investigation on the cash in following her reporting: https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026-03-26/the-hate-economy-in-action-how-an-ai-rapper-tried-to-cash-in-on-our-coverage Advance UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_UK Bellingcat coverage of Indian political parties using AI-generated images to spread hate: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/03/31/india-bjp-hate-speech-ai /?utm_source=rss The Node Project website…

People in this episode

Host: Charlotte Maher

Guest: Effie Webb

Topics covered

• AI in politics
• journalism
• propaganda
• political operations
• AI misuse

Keywords

• AI
• political party
• influencer
• propaganda
• journalism
• investigation
• misuse

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Advance UK, Bellingcat, The Node Project

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