Yeah.

So I didn't know...

Also, maybe it's weird for somebody else to play a younger version of yourself.

I didn't know he would, how he would react to me, and he couldn't have been nicer.

And, uh, we talked a little bit about the character and, um, maybe, uh, how to do it, how not to do it.

One thing he said was, "Don't do an i-..." He said, "Don't try and do an impression of me."

Yeah.

It was so well-written.

What lessons have bad actors learned from the pandemic, and how are they applying them today?

I think the experience of COVID-19 and the lockdowns really informed disinformation accounts about what's effective and what gains traction online.

In that year and a half, these influencers, accounts, disinformation channels, whatever you want to refer to them as, they really got a grasp on what gets people angry and what keeps them engaged.

From what we've seen through our monitoring, this is mostly focused on revealing allegedly hidden or repressed information, usually about symptoms of diseases or pathogens, the number of cases, the rate of transmission, and potential treatments.

And we've seen a lot of accounts already over the past couple of weeks preemptively discrediting official information, including posts that, you know, will say something to the effect of, "The World Health Organization is going to declare this a pandemic, and when it does, they'll use this as a way to control you and stifle your freedoms." This really sets up users online to distrust official information, and it's a tactic that leverages that gap in time between spreading unsubstantiated claims and waiting for researched information to be disseminated.

Adam, how much do historical factors, whether that's colonial legacies, political instability, or more recent experiences like COVID shape the way people respond to health guidance?

Public health emergency response, um, it's often working in parts of the world where there's a large distrust of multinational institutions anyway.

COVID and the lockdowns really revealed that people in the northern hemisphere can display the same level of distrust against their governments and institutions.