Journalism that unpacks the global authoritarian toolkit
Current
Oligarchy
Tracking how the super rich are changing the world for the rest of us.
Who’s homeless enough for housing? In San Francisco, an algorithm decides
Replacing human decision making with a computerized scoring system is hurting California’s most vulnerable residents
Current
Polarization
Who you are and what you believe have been weaponized in new ways in the power struggles of the 21st century. We track what price individuals and societies pay for these identity battles.
From Russia with hate
Vladimir Putin’s anti-LGBT blueprint has made its way across the world to the Oval Office, where Donald Trump is using it to draw up American policy
Musk and Milei’s chainsaw bromance
Argentina’s president and Donald Trump’s chosen oligarch are self-styled outsider radicals driven by an ideological desire to cut government down to size
Current
Rewriting History
In this current, stories on how those in power shape our future by weaponized the past and manipulating our memories
Letter from Germany: A strange and enduring love affair with the antebellum South
Tucked away in a leafy area of Berlin, the Uncle Tom’s Cabin subway station may look like the last vestige of a national obsession with the darkest period of American history, but these ideas live on in other ways
Special project
Generation Gulag: how Russia rewrites its Soviet history
Today the Russian government is rewriting some of the darkest chapters of its Soviet past. The eyewitnesses of Soviet authoritarianism have a different story for us and a message for our era.
BY CODA STAFF
Current
Disinformation
Truth is under attack as our information system splinters. Ever more platforms and voices means ever more noise and alternative facts. This current looks at the winners and the losers in the war for people’s minds.
The Border Propagandist
Jaeson Jones, a former DPS captain-turned-MAGA influencer, is helping lay the groundwork for mass deportations and conflict with Mexico
How California’s wildfires are fuel for propaganda
On Chinese and Russian social media, the narrative being spread is one of American failure and social dysfunction
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Current
Authoritarian Tech
In this current, stories on how technology has captured every aspect of our lives from intimacy to politics.
Legendary Kenyan lawyer takes on Meta and Chat GPT
Mercy Mutemi has made headlines all over the world for standing up for Kenya’s data annotators and content moderators, arguing the work they are subjected to is a new form of colonialism
The war for truth in Myanmar’s cyberspace
A decade ago in Myanmar, a SIM card could cost as much as $2,000. Facebook now has 18 million local users and is a parallel space for the conflict in Rakhine State
