Renee DiResta
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noupside.bsky.social
Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social
🌐Studies influence, propaganda, platform design@Georgetown

✍🏼Lawfare,The Atlantic

📕Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality (invisiblerulers.com) —how influencers, algorithms, &online crowds shape public opinion

🦹🏻‍♀️Twitter Files supervillain
Pinned
New from me: an essay on the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, and its remarkable 30 year history of witch hunts & blacklists.

It chronicles the progression of how industries & academia went from capitulation to defiance,& what we can take from that today

www.lawfaremedia.org/article/proc...
Spoiler: it didn’t
February 10, 2026 at 9:03 PM
This seems unlikely to work but should be interesting?
Dinking around in the St. Clair v. xAI docket, I found that xAI is indeed raising Section 230 as a defense to liability for Grok's bikini pics, as previewed in its opposition to a PI. ("Does 230 apply to gen AI outputs?" is a Q courts haven't answered yet.) storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Memorandum of Law in Opposition – #17 in St. Clair v. X.AI Holdings Corp. (S.D.N.Y., 1:26-cv-00386) – CourtListener.com
MEMORANDUM OF LAW in Opposition re: 7 Proposed Order to Show Cause With Emergency Relief, . Document filed by X.AI Holdings Corp...(Shuster, Michael) (Entered: 01/21/2026)
storage.courtlistener.com
February 10, 2026 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Renee DiResta
New @scalinglaws.bsky.social episode: @noupside.bsky.social and I talk to @dgrand.bsky.social about his research showing AI chatbots can shift people's political beliefs. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/scal...
Scaling Laws: The Persuasion Machine: David Rand on How LLMs Can Reshape Political Beliefs
www.lawfaremedia.org
February 10, 2026 at 5:39 PM
Reposted by Renee DiResta
existential cookie message from the olympics website
February 10, 2026 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by Renee DiResta
Matt Taibbi announces his site is rebooting under the eye of new editor Emily Kopp, most recently an investigative reporter at the Daily Caller
February 9, 2026 at 9:30 PM
If you make it trend, you make it true
February 10, 2026 at 2:43 PM
I just caught the Justin Bieber Grammys 2026 performance of Yukon and it’s really something. The original is lovely but so pitched it didn’t sound like him. This semi-unplugged version with a looper made me think about a return to unambiguously human talent in an AI era.

youtu.be/Y_aan-2Gqjs?...
Justin Bieber Live at the Grammy 2026 #Yukon🥰🎶
YouTube video by Its Savagery
youtu.be
February 10, 2026 at 5:03 AM
Reposted by Renee DiResta
Reached out to Ed Martin to ask if he'd comprehended that this was satire, and asked him whether he's even seen Arrested Development before. Will report back if he responds.
February 9, 2026 at 6:30 PM
21 hours, no community note, on mail-in ballot conspiracy theories debunked in 2020. Now boosted by Elon. They are arguing hard for eliminating them and laying the groundwork to delegitimize losses by way of them.

www.usatoday.com/story/news/f...
February 9, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Renee DiResta
This is absolutely untrue. For more than a decade, Kennedy campaigned against vaccines, as @vermontgmg.bsky.social reported in @longlead.com’s LONG SHADOW podcast.

Listen to this episode, featuring @noupside.bsky.social’s fight against his antivax efforts as far back as 2013, for the full context:
Long Shadow podcast: Breaking the Internet
Journalist Garrett Graff hosts season 4 of Long Shadow, a podcast produced by Long Lead. The series chronicles the evolution of the internet.
longshadowpodcast.com
February 8, 2026 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by Renee DiResta
In 2023 @enirenberg.bsky.social & I wrote about RFK Jr's role in the deadly measles outbreak in Samoa (time.com/6289037/robe...)

Turns out, Samoa was a trial run for the horrific, deadly anti-vaxx activism he's now inflicting worlwide 😔

Thx to @bymichellersmith.com & colleagues for their reporting
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that his trip to Samoa in 2019 ahead of a deadly measles outbreak had “nothing to do with vaccines.”

But records obtained by @theguardian.com + @apnews.com — stemming from a FOIA lawsuit filed by @rcfp.org attorneys on the outlets' behalf — tell a different story.
Newly revealed emails undermine RFK Jr testimony about 2019 Samoa trip ahead of measles outbreak
Kennedy later said the purpose of his trip had nothing to do with vaccines. US embassy and UN staff at the time said otherwise, emails show
www.theguardian.com
February 8, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Renee DiResta
BASH: Is this measles outbreak a consequence of the administration undermining support for vaccines?

DR OZ: I don't believe so. Secretary Kennedy has been advocating for measles vaccines

BASH: Oh, come on
February 8, 2026 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Renee DiResta
“Epstein class” is good framing
Ossoff: We were told that MAGA was for working-class Americans. But this is a government of, by, and for the ultra-rich. It’s the wealthiest Cabinet ever. This is the Epstein class. They are the elites they pretend to hate.
February 8, 2026 at 3:08 AM
Tulsi Gabbard out here losing the “Who was President in 2020?” game tonight

They don’t even try to lie well.
February 8, 2026 at 2:47 AM
When the cEnSorShiP indusTriaL cOmplEx hearings were happening I offered to testify in public only—if there was a mass cabal why didn’t Rs want accountability?! Why keep only calling liars like Shellenberger and Taibbi as witnesses w/backroom interrogations for perps?

The answer will shock you…
February 8, 2026 at 12:05 AM
FIRE is representing NewsGuard as it sues the FTC:

“At stake is whether the govt can punish private companies and nonprofits that it sees as part of a “censorship-industrial complex” suppressing conservative viewpoints — or whether the 1A protects those orgs”

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
A company that rates news sites says the Trump administration is strangling it
NewsGuard sues Trump’s FTC alleging censorship after Chairman Andrew Ferguson barred a major ad agency from using its ratings
www.washingtonpost.com
February 7, 2026 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Renee DiResta
The X account that created the video Donald Trump shared depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes was previously behind the clip the US president shared that portrayed him as a pilot dumping excrement on "No Kings" protesters. Note the matching watermark.
February 6, 2026 at 2:51 PM
I always read Stephen Richer, a former R election official from Maricopa County (incl in 2020 — who remembers Sharpiegate?). He’s an excellent and clear communicator about the stakes of election fraud lies. Highly recommend:

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/o...
Opinion | What’s Really Driving These Bogus Claims of Voter Fraud
www.nytimes.com
February 6, 2026 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Renee DiResta
Let's just say that @joho.bsky.social's YouTube channel provides a far more reliable history of the pandemic than the @nytimes.com, particularly given its platforming of "Podcast Jay" Bhattacharya's historical revisionism and justification for promoting MAHA. sciencebasedmedicine.org/podcastjaybh...
Pandemic Revisionism Is a Pretext for MAHA Vandalism
My YouTube channel is a reliable history of the pandemic. The NY Times is not.
sciencebasedmedicine.org
February 6, 2026 at 3:07 PM
Ask the trainers how they keep the bedbugs alive to train the dogs.
The dog's whole vibe is "GREAT NEWS BUDDY - YOU GOT THE BED BUGS!"
This is Zephyr. He is a professionally trained bed bug detector. When he recognizes the scent of live bed bugs, he gives an alert by sitting and smiling exuberantly at his handler. We're pretty sure no one has ever been more excited to find bed bugs in their life. 13/10 (TT: emmercrew)
February 6, 2026 at 5:18 AM
Reposted by Renee DiResta
The word don't is censored. Don't, or Don T. If you're looking for just some fun proof they're doing control+f censoring
February 5, 2026 at 11:30 PM
Now look at CBS trying to avoid “canceling” Peter Attia
Brad Karp was pushed out of his top job at one of the country's biggest law firms over his newly revealed Epstein emails.

Good timing, too, since he was just about to appear at a WSJ conference.

The topic: "Leadership in uncertain times."

🎁 link:

www.wsj.com/business/a-r...
Exclusive | A Revolt Inside Paul Weiss Over the Epstein Files Took Down Brad Karp
The latest batch of Epstein emails prompted partners to push elite law firm’s leader from chairman role.
www.wsj.com
February 6, 2026 at 12:22 AM
They’re having Wayfair discourse on Threads. 🙄 Top of feed in my reco engine! No Notes. The comments are serious -they think it’s real.

Community Notes sure seems like it’s a failure on Meta properties. They won’t make the data transparent so it’s hard to tell but I get antivax stuff regularly too.
February 5, 2026 at 4:16 PM
Eric Schmitt is gunning for a VP slot in a Vance administration. That’s what’s happening here. I read his book—review coming.

He’s a pathological liar who files vexatious lawsuits that he constantly loses, but ties his enemies up in paper. He only cares ab spectacle. Mock him —he can’t handle it.
Schmitt: "Your words that don’t mean anything aren't going to stop what’s coming, and I want you to take that back to Soros and all these ridiculous funders you have. Because justice is coming. And by the way, if I have it my way, we will be denaturalize all these fraudsters and send them home."
February 5, 2026 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Renee DiResta
This is exactly why I wrote this story up.

www.importantcontext.news/p/nih-direct...
February 4, 2026 at 7:55 PM