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Mor Naaman

Mor Naaman

@informor.bsky.social

8.4K followers 960 following 620 posts

Cornell Tech professor (information science, AI-mediated Communication, trustworthiness of our information ecosystem). New York City. Taller in person. Opinions my own.

Mor Naaman is a professor of information science at Cornell Tech. He is the founder of the Connective Media Hub and director of the Connective Media degree program. Naaman is known for foundational work on tagging behavior on social networking sites, the use of sites such as Twitter as social awareness streams, and real-world identification from social network activity. His research in these areas has been cited over 12,000 times on Google Scholar. .. more

Computer science 43%

Physics 15%

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Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Mor Naaman

Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 23h

Also damning (and perhaps even more meaningful in retrospect) is how Jack was in there RTing Crystal1Johnson, revealing how the “new elites” of Twitter have long been high on their own supply (of disinformation). Jack just got his from the Gabbard wing of the “left” and now Elon from the hard right

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 1d

Here it is, the most damning academic figure in the history of all figures: Russian IRA accounts deeply embedded in both sides of the 2016 Twitter BLM "discussion" (by @katestarbird.bsky.social & team, 2018).

THIS is what our information ecosystem supports. Twitter just made it 1% more visible.

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 1d

Full paper:

dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Acting the Part: Examining Information Operations Within #BlackLivesMatter Discourse: Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction: Vol 2, No CSCW

This research examines how Russian disinformation actors participated in a highly charged online conversation about the #BlackLivesMatter movement and police-related shootings in the USA during 2016. ...

Reposted by Kate Starbird

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 1d

Here it is, the most damning academic figure in the history of all figures: Russian IRA accounts deeply embedded in both sides of the 2016 Twitter BLM "discussion" (by @katestarbird.bsky.social & team, 2018).

THIS is what our information ecosystem supports. Twitter just made it 1% more visible.

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 1d

I have a lot to say about the X location feature/scandal but in the meantime @cwarzel.bsky.social is here to remind you that it was not a surprise (see next post), the incentives are misaligned, and the corporations generally do not want to fix it.

www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Elon Musk’s Worthless, Poisoned Hall of Mirrors

How X blew up its own platform with a new location feature

www.theatlantic.com

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 1d

I don't know if @jilltxt.bsky.social does but I just heard her brilliant talk documenting what sounded like a similar problem

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 1d

No but I can make it so they are uploaded less

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 1d

To be clear for other readers, this was a story about independence, not perks

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 1d

Many people don't know this but arXiv is maintained and operated by @cornelltech.bsky.social (that does NOT mean you can send me complaints or feature requests!)

Everyone in the community should be excited that arXiv got $7M to upgrade from Schmidt Sciences, NASA

news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...

$7M grant from NASA, Schmidt Sciences to upgrade arXiv | Cornell Chronicle

The funding will help arXiv – which is maintained and operated by Cornell Tech – finish migrating to cloud infrastructure and modernizing its code.

news.cornell.edu

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 2d

TVs these days are too thin for rabbit ears! 🐰😱

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 3d

Haha yes it is not perfect

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 3d

In summary, the moment captured here explains why I am now a professor.

Steve Job pulling a MacBook Air for the first time out of a brown office envelope

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 3d

I was visiting @destrin.bsky.social at (then) UCLA the day MacBook Air was first launched. Saw her turn to her admin and say "please get me one". Meanwhile, as (then) Yahoo researcher, to replace a broken mouse I'd need sign-offs from three different SVPs. Academia instantly became more attractive

Recurse Center @recursecenter.bsky.social · 14d

What’s the lore behind choosing your career path ?

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 4d

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Gift link.

The Missing Kayaker

What happened to Ryan Borgwardt?

www.theatlantic.com

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 4d

This story alone may have completely justified my annual subscription

The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 4d

Police spent more than 50 days searching a lake for Ryan Borgwardt, a kayaker they assumed had drowned. Then they told his wife that they’d come to believe something different. Jamie Thompson spoke with the people involved in the case that rattled a Wisconsin town. theatln.tc/EpGemzk9

Reposted by Mor Naaman

The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 4d

Police spent more than 50 days searching a lake for Ryan Borgwardt, a kayaker they assumed had drowned. Then they told his wife that they’d come to believe something different. Jamie Thompson spoke with the people involved in the case that rattled a Wisconsin town. theatln.tc/EpGemzk9

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 4d

Yep, that paper makes it clear 😭

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 4d

What do you mean "manually reviewed" participants? How did you detect AI? And was it 30/150?!

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 4d

Now here's something to be alarmed about @mims.bsky.social -- even if social scientist do not turn to these tools, these tools (simpler, revenue-maximizing ones) will find them.

bsky.app/profile/did:...

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 5d

Summary: a (rather simple) AI bot can not only successfully evade survey-level protections, it can also mimic personas accurately across questions, parse photos/videos, and infer the researcher’s hypotheses to produce data that confirms them.

The official paper link:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 5d

One example: the bot performed a prescribed "education level" accurately across multiple "enter state capital" questions -- though it does show some vulnerability, if you examine the rate of "own state correct". Phew!

(but, surveys without additional protections are now officially a fool's errand)

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 5d

Summary: a (rather simple) AI bot can not only successfully evade survey-level protections, it can also mimic personas accurately across questions, parse photos/videos, and infer the researcher’s hypotheses to produce data that confirms them.

The official paper link:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 5d

You may have seen this:

news.sky.com/story/the-x-...

The X Effect: How Elon Musk is boosting the British right

For nine months, Sky News' Data and Forensics team has been investigating whether X's algorithm amplifies right-wing and extreme content. It does.

Reposted by Mor Naaman, Solon Barocas

Nancy Baym @nancybaym.bsky.social · 5d

Our postdoc search is open! socialmediacollective.org/2025/11/20/s...

Apply for our sociotechnical systems postdoc position, for July 2026

Microsoft Research New England is looking for a postdoctoral researcher interested in bringing sociotechnical perspectives to analyze critical issues of our time. They will join a team of social sc…

socialmediacollective.org

Reposted by Mor Naaman

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 5d

Changing the culture (w/a fist on the scale), one LLM at a time. "Elon Musk's Grokipedia cites a neo-Nazi website 42 times, researchers say. An analysis by researchers at Cornell University is the first comprehensive look at Grokipedia since Musk launched his project" www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-mu...

Elon Musk’s Grokipedia cites Stormfront — a neo-Nazi forum — dozens of times, study finds

An analysis by researchers at Cornell University is the first comprehensive look at Grokipedia since Musk launched his project last month.

www.nbcnews.com

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 11d

Configurable I believe! In the app?

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 11d

Calling NYC parents -- after years of requests we finally offer a summer high school program on campus.

Cornell Tech @cornelltech.bsky.social · 12d

Cornell Tech is launching a new Summer Innovation Intensive for high schoolers! Explore AI, ethical coding, data science & product design on our Roosevelt Island campus this July.

Join us at our Open Houses on Dec 7 & 11.
https://tech.cornell.edu/programs/summer-innovation-intensives/

Reposted by Mor Naaman

Cornell Tech @cornelltech.bsky.social · 12d

Cornell Tech is launching a new Summer Innovation Intensive for high schoolers! Explore AI, ethical coding, data science & product design on our Roosevelt Island campus this July.

Join us at our Open Houses on Dec 7 & 11.
https://tech.cornell.edu/programs/summer-innovation-intensives/

Reposted by Kori Schake, Mor Naaman, Jonathan Wolff , and 8 more Kori Schake, Mor Naaman, Jonathan Wolff, Pierre Bataille, Richard Waite, Justin Lewis, Brian Keegan, Keith Williams, Dan Immergluck, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Valeria Mazza

Recurse Center @recursecenter.bsky.social · 14d

What’s the lore behind choosing your career path ?

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 18d

As an academic w/ social science overlap: don't be too alarmed yet. There is a wide array of validation studies trying to establish whether this kind of simulation holds water as a methodology for some type of studies. I have yet to see a publication in a top venue that uses AI simulation outright.

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 20d

... and does not allow them to take appropriate measures to stop the abuse.

bsky.app/profile/info...

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 20d

This from @craigsilverman.bsky.social's story nails it. The companies generally do not like spam ads or need the revenue from them. They simply can't fight the spam effectively without adding friction that will result in “too much good revenue flushed out”. So they make it OUR problem.

#Regulation

WIRED @wired.com · 20d

Rob Leathern and Rob Goldman, who both worked at Meta, are launching a new nonprofit that aims to bring transparency to an increasingly opaque, scam-filled social media ecosystem. www.wired.com/story/scam-a...

Mor Naaman @informor.bsky.social · 20d

I think history shows that the fines rarely reach the level of pain required for the companies to act