Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · 4h

“Fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone,” said @mit.edu's Pres. The other 8 campuses have yet to respond: U of AZ, Brown, Dartmouth, UPenn, USC, UT, Vanderbilt, + UVA. Faculty, Alum, speak out!

Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · 4h

So proud to be an alum of @mit.edu today. MIT is the 1st of 9 universities Trump tried and FAILED to pressure into a contract. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment

www.nytimes.com

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · 4h

So proud to be an alum of @mit.edu today. MIT is the 1st of 9 universities Trump tried and FAILED to pressure into a contract. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment

www.nytimes.com

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · 5h

#EugenicFantasies of a racially cleansed US are driving DHS's + Trump's campaign to illegally deport law-abiding residents. Chinese S/E European Jewish immigrants + dissidents were 1st targeted by eugenic surveillance tech 100 yrs ago, see my piece in #PubicEye politicalresearch.org/2025/10/10/d...

DHS’s Immigrant Tracking Tech Lays the Ground for Authoritarian Surveillance

Anita Say Chan reveals how new surveillance technologies employed by DHS and ICE to monitor, arrest, and deport immigrants have a long history rooted in eugenics profiling from the 19th and 20th centu...

politicalresearch.org

Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · 5h

Am excited to join @CHARLES BABBAGE Institute w/ @rachelplotnick.bsky.social for the new CBI Research Fellows cohort! It'll be a privilege to work w/ @justcode.bsky.social & CBI's amazing researchers. Keep your eyes peeled this Spring 2026 for #AICriticalGeographies programming we're planning!

Jeffrey Yost @justcode.bsky.social · 2d

CBI is absolutely delighted to announce that thought-leading scholars University of Illinois' @anitachan.bsky.social & Indiana University's @rachelplotnick.bsky.social have just joined us as new CBI Research Fellows. Below is the link to the article. #histsci

cse.umn.edu/cbi/news/cbi...

CBI Names Anita Say Chan and Rachel Plotnick as the Institute’s New Research Fellows

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (10/09/2025)—The Charles Babbage Institute for Computing, Information and Culture (CBI) is delighted to announce the addition of University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana’s Anita...

cse.umn.edu

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Jeffrey Yost @justcode.bsky.social · 2d

CBI is absolutely delighted to announce that thought-leading scholars University of Illinois' @anitachan.bsky.social & Indiana University's @rachelplotnick.bsky.social have just joined us as new CBI Research Fellows. Below is the link to the article. #histsci

cse.umn.edu/cbi/news/cbi...

CBI Names Anita Say Chan and Rachel Plotnick as the Institute’s New Research Fellows

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (10/09/2025)—The Charles Babbage Institute for Computing, Information and Culture (CBI) is delighted to announce the addition of University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana’s Anita...

cse.umn.edu

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · 17d

What a pleasure to speak to the hosts of @disruptedscience.bsky.social podcast - their questions on AI's on academic publishing and research, and why our institutions can and SHOULD reframe the core issue to 1 about #publicsafety and service (rather than productivity/efficiency) are beyond timely!

Disrupted Science @disruptedscience.bsky.social · 17d

Our new interview with @anitachan.bsky.social is up! A great interview with someone who has thought deeply about Big Tech, eugenics, AI, and dispossessed communities.
www.the-geyser.com/pod-intervie...

Pod — Interview with Anita Chan

The author of “Predatory Data” joins us to discuss the current moment

www.the-geyser.com

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Disrupted Science @disruptedscience.bsky.social · 17d

Our new interview with @anitachan.bsky.social is up! A great interview with someone who has thought deeply about Big Tech, eugenics, AI, and dispossessed communities.
www.the-geyser.com/pod-intervie...

Pod — Interview with Anita Chan

The author of “Predatory Data” joins us to discuss the current moment

www.the-geyser.com

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · 17d

Am excited to keynote #Bsides Bloomington's Cybersecurity Conference this weekend! I'm curious to hear what this community has to share after a talk on #Eugenics in Big Tech. Indy friends, if you are around, come join!

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · 25d

I was the guest on #TheInternetIsCrack latest episode, with hosts @Caroline Risberg and @Seth Camillo. It was a fast conversation, w/ discussion on Francis Galton's 19th C design of a creepy hand-held "beauty" tracker, to OpenAI's aim to monetize child attention.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQXY...

#47 The Whole Story: A Discussion with Anita Say Chan

YouTube video by The Internet is Crack

www.youtube.com

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · 26d

What an honor to have #PredatoryData included @nature.com's recommended Summer reading list. I'm already of fan of other authors in the list - @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social 's the AI Con, @Grace Howard's The Pregnancy Police - that are great reading in the Fall & Winter too!

Gen Wojcik @genandgenes.bsky.social · Jul 17

We never left.

I wrote about “Predatory Data” by @anitachan.bsky.social in Nature’s summer reading list. Such a great work demonstrating the persistence of eugenics in all its many forms while offering a better way forwards.

Maybe not a fun beach read, but absolutely essential for these times.

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · 26d

So excited to see #JUSTCODE's out, just in time for a new semester of teaching! Three cheers to its authors + editors @justcode.bsky.social & Gerardo Con Diaz for a volume that unpacks how the invisible work of code in algorithmic bias, AI in labor practices and more perpetuate global inequality.

Jeffrey Yost @justcode.bsky.social · Aug 12

Copies of JUST CODE just arrived! Partnering w Con & teaming w 19 brilliant STS authors on the vital topic of code/codes & inequality was so special! Authors (full list ToC below) On bsky: @mysdick.bsky.social @histoftech.bsky.social @dmulvin.bsky.social & blurb from @anitachan.bsky.social #histtech

Open box of books with two out showing front and back covers propped up on the balcony railing of my Minneapolis condo. Trees and sunshine are in the background. The book's full title is JUST CODE: Power, Inequality, & the Global Political Economy of IT, and it is in bold black lettering with pastel fading trails of the letters.

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Jeffrey Yost @justcode.bsky.social · Aug 12

Copies of JUST CODE just arrived! Partnering w Con & teaming w 19 brilliant STS authors on the vital topic of code/codes & inequality was so special! Authors (full list ToC below) On bsky: @mysdick.bsky.social @histoftech.bsky.social @dmulvin.bsky.social & blurb from @anitachan.bsky.social #histtech

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Jeffrey Yost @justcode.bsky.social · Mar 8

So grateful to the incredible Prof. @anitachan.bsky.social for her tremendous lecture (& wonderful conversation) in MPLS "Predatory Data: Feminist Resistance to Eugenics in Big Tech," on Thursday!!! Hosted by CBI for Computing, Info. & Culture & HHH Ctr. on Women, Gender, & Public Policy. #Histsci

Prof. Anita Say Chan delivering her talk on Predatory Data in MPLS for CBI & CWGPP at UMN.

Prof. Anita Say Chan in Q & A discussion following her lecture, she is seated and is holding a microphone.

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Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom @underthetreepod.bsky.social · Apr 16

NEW EPISODE!
We’re joined by @anitachan.bsky.social, author of Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech
We talk surveillance, algorithmic discrimination, echoes of anti-immigration movements of the 19th century, and alternative data practices of minority actors in pursuit of justice.
bit.ly/42zfRuE

Anita Say Chan wears a navy coat and blue and white ikat scarf. She has tortoise-shell glasses and her hair is blowing gently back as she looks directly at the viewer.

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Gen Wojcik @genandgenes.bsky.social · Jul 17

We never left.

I wrote about “Predatory Data” by @anitachan.bsky.social in Nature’s summer reading list. Such a great work demonstrating the persistence of eugenics in all its many forms while offering a better way forwards.

Maybe not a fun beach read, but absolutely essential for these times.

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · Jul 11

I don't usually get to talk to broadcast news personalities about eugenics in big tech, but I was so glad for this interview w/ @The Mark Thompson Show. Thanks @Mark Thompson, @Kim McCallister, and producer @John Daly for the welcome conversation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_Pv...

Eugenics, It’s Thriving in Silicon Valley With Elon & The Tech Bros, Professor Anita Say Chan

YouTube video by The Mark Thompson Show

www.youtube.com

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · Jul 8

@aft.org #OpenAI plan will ram AI into public schools w/o ANY real consent fr parents + teachers. OpenAI's real goal is to DATAFY KIDS, who currently are poorly modeled in the data AI co's scrape. Get ready for a future where our kids get sex ed from AI. No one wants this @rweingarten.bsky.social.

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · Jul 2

OpenAI claims that LLMs will "discover new science" are RIDICULOUS. It also distracts us fr what AI heads KNOW is their ACTUAL concern: ie monetize systems for MUCH more boring queries. & we'll burn up the planet for exchanges on celebrities & sports. Stop #AIHype
www.the-geyser.com/altman-makes...

Altman Makes Science Claims

OpenAI's CEO says science is up next. Not so fast . . .

www.the-geyser.com

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · Jun 28

University heads in the US can take a lesson fr the Pope in being so clear in the commitment to human dignity and protecting future generations, rather than profit as progress, in addressing AI in higher ed: techcrunch.com/2025/06/18/p... #CatholicWorkersMovement #LiberationTheology

Pope Leo makes AI’s threat to humanity a signature issue | TechCrunch

Pope Leo XIV, the new American pope, is making the threat of AI to humanity a key issue of his legacy.

techcrunch.com

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · Jun 17

Thanks @Kent Anderson for the interview in The Geyser. Among the topics we discussed, how surveillance capitalism started with eugenics, how history shows us predatory data is NOT inevitable, & why DOGE's dysfunction sadly doesn't mean the end to techno-eugenics. www.the-geyser.com/interview-an...

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · May 14

Join us momentarily online and in person for a book talk on #eugenicsInBigTech at @ucsandiego.bsky.social's Design Center! If you are looking for ways to resist #PredatoryData, and reimagine solidarity around tech, Zoom in at the link below!
calendar.ucsd.edu/event/predat...

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · May 1

This #MayDay in honor of #workersAgainstAI, I'm traveling to @UTEP to talk on #PredatoryData and #eugenics in #BigTech.
Later this May, I’ll be traveling to another pt of the US West - to UCSD’s Design Lab & UCSC. Thx @Elise Takehana @Nik Usher @gleemie.bsky.social @Zac Zimmer for the invitations!

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · Apr 17

It was such an honor to get to speak with Bill Ayers on for the @underthetreepod.bsky.social podcast! The episode was just posted and aside from the amazing @Lisa Yun Lee, who introduced us, there are few others I wanted to get to talk #HullHouse data history & #solidaritystrategies with.

Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom @underthetreepod.bsky.social · Apr 16

NEW EPISODE!
We’re joined by @anitachan.bsky.social, author of Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech
We talk surveillance, algorithmic discrimination, echoes of anti-immigration movements of the 19th century, and alternative data practices of minority actors in pursuit of justice.
bit.ly/42zfRuE

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · Apr 14

I had a blast getting to talk to @ksqdfm.bsky.social's @Moment of TRUTH's @Meilin Obinata and @Reggie Meisler whose Community Radio conversations in #SantaCruz and the #BayArea are more of what the Tech World needs!! ksqd.org/predatory-da...

"Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech" Interview with Anita Chan

Guest host Meilin Obinata and local activist Reggie Meisler speak with Dr. Anita Say Chan, a professor at the University of Urbana-Champaign who recently published Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech...

ksqd.org

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · Apr 9

JOIN me, @xriskology.bsky.social, @timnitgebru.bsky.social & @mwoluchem.bsky.social for @datasociety.bsky.social 's
#PredatoryData event discussion of the 21st C #eugenicsInBigTech and how to resist it. RSVP and join us online tomorrow Thur 4/10 at 1P EasternUS time! datasociety.net/events/resis...

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Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · Mar 12

April 10 @ 1pm ET: Join "Predatory Data" author @anitachan.bsky.social, @xriskology.bsky.social, @timnitgebru.bsky.social, & @mwoluchem.bsky.social for a discussion of the 21st century eugenics revival in big tech and how to resist it. RSVP and join us online! datasociety.net/events/resis...

A green, yellow, blue and red promotional graphic for the online discussion “Resisting Predatory Data” happening on April 10 at 1pm ET, moderated by Maia Woluchem, with headshots of participants Anita Say Chan, Emile P. Torres, and Timnit Gebru.

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Anita Chan @anitachan.bsky.social · Mar 31

I'm thrilled to be speaking on #EugenicsinBigTech this Thursday 4/3 at 12P at the Nat'l Center for Supercomputing Applications - @ncsaatillinois.bsky.social for its Colloquium series! Join us in person (w/pizza) or or online - more details are here: calendars.illinois.edu/detail/7097?...

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Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · Mar 31

“AI may be a mid technology with limited use cases to justify its financial and environmental costs,” @tressiemcphd.bsky.social writes. “But it is a stellar tool for demoralizing workers who can, in the blink of a digital eye, be categorized as waste.” www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/o...

Opinion | The Tech Fantasy That Powers A.I. Is Running on Fumes

A.I. is just what we need in the post-fact era: less research and more predicting what we want to hear.

www.nytimes.com

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Anonymous @youranonjd.bsky.social · Mar 26

Rumeysa Ozturk a Tufts PhD student, was disappeared by plainclothes ICE terrorists outside her home - no charges, no warning, no accountability. Her only offense was supporting Palestine via Op-Ed. This is political erasure through state violence. USians, you are living under authoritarian rule! #3E

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Ansley Erickson @ansleyerickson.bsky.social · Mar 26

She is a Teachers College alum and doc student at Tufts on a valid visa. She co-wrote an op ed calling for Tufts to recognize genocide in Gaza. She has been taken by Homeland Security.

Federal authorities detain Tufts student in Somerville - The Tufts Daily

Federal authorities detained a Tufts graduate student last night outside an off-campus apartment in Somerville. University President Sunil Kumar announced in an email around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night t...

www.tuftsdaily.com

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