Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa
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sanjanah.bsky.social
Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa
@sanjanah.bsky.social
4.8K followers 420 following 4.4K posts
Studying confluence of influence operations, disinfo, truth decay, information integrity & policies addressing online harms. Many thoughts, sometimes prayers.
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sanjanah.bsky.social
Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · Dec 23
A ‘War of Stories’: Humanitarianism in the Disinformation Age | @heatherleson.bsky.social from the @theifrc.bsky.social invited me to pen this article mid-2024. I sent it to her months ago, and finally got around to publishing it.
Reposted by Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa
socialmedialab.ca
Despite DOGE's failure at the domestic level, as noted in slate.com/news-and-pol..., the US is pushing for DOGE-style cuts at the UN.
www.newsweek.com/us-ambassado...
US ambassador pledges 'we're going to clean house' at UN
Mike Walz said 'we have to reform' and make the UN "work better" in a video recorded outside the Manhattan headquarters
www.newsweek.com
November 26, 2025 at 9:24 AM
sanjanah.bsky.social
Make this make sense.
November 26, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Reposted by Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa
openpolicy.bsky.social
Sadly this also seems increasingly relevant to academics in Aotearoa.
cc @hendysh.bsky.social @siouxsiew.bsky.social @sanjanah.bsky.social
markpachucki.bsky.social markpachucki @markpachucki.bsky.social · 21h
I always try to talk up the great work of my colleague Jen Lundquist (not on bsky) who developed UMass’ Academic Freedom Crisis Toolkit, as a public resource, especially to help guide faculty who face online harassment, doxxing, weaponized FOIA… www.umass.edu/faculty-deve...
Academic Freedom Crisis Toolkit : Office of Faculty Development : UMass Amherst
Academic Freedom Crisis Toolkit
www.umass.edu
November 26, 2025 at 5:44 AM
sanjanah.bsky.social
I see this New Zealand citizen is making the news again. www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/new-jd-van...
Tweet by Christopher Hale noting “NEW: Peter Thiel, JD Vance’s top donor and one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful men, recently called Pope Leo XIV a tool of the Antichrist — and directly told the vice president not to listen to him.”
November 25, 2025 at 5:34 AM
sanjanah.bsky.social
No other way to put it other than an absolute clusterfuck | Court Filings Allege Meta Downplayed Risks to Children and Misled the Public time.com/7336204/meta...
7 Allegations Against Meta in Newly Unsealed Filings
Court filings allege Meta tolerated sex trafficking, hid harms to teens, and prioritized growth over user safety for years.
time.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Reposted by Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa
hypervisible.blacksky.app
“Meta shut down internal research into the mental health effects of Facebook after finding causal evidence that its products harmed users’ mental health, according to unredacted filings in a lawsuit by U.S. school districts against Meta and other social media platforms.”
Meta buried 'causal' evidence of social media harm, US court filings allege - The Economic Times
Meta reportedly halted internal research into the mental health impacts of Facebook and Instagram after finding causal evidence of harm. Internal documents revealed users reported lower depression and...
m.economictimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 4:46 PM
sanjanah.bsky.social
Modern South Asia Workshop macmillan.yale.edu/southasia/mo...
November 23, 2025 at 7:15 AM
sanjanah.bsky.social
The friendship illusion: China’s influence operations, and strategic erasure of India

A study of Facebook posts from 1 October to 21 November 2025

www.linkedin.com/pulse/friend... (on LinkedIn)

sanjanah.wordpress.com/2025/11/23/t... (on WordPress)

#China #InfluenceOperations #India
November 23, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Reposted by Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa
wired.com
At New Zealand's Kawaiican cybersecurity convention, organizers hacked together a way for attendees to track CO2 levels throughout the venue—even before they arrived. www.wired.com/story/this-h...
This Hacker Conference Installed a Literal Anti-Virus Monitoring System
At New Zealand's Kawaiican cybersecurity convention, organizers hacked together a way for attendees to track CO2 levels throughout the venue—even before they arrived.
www.wired.com
November 21, 2025 at 11:06 AM
sanjanah.bsky.social
Sad, from the perspective of a country losing good people, & esp. wāhine Māori, at pace. Also entirely unsurprising, given the study of hate targeting former Mayor of Wellington. | Tory Whanau says harassment ‘ongoing’ as she outlines reasons for moving to Melbourne www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3608...
November 20, 2025 at 3:35 AM
Reposted by Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa
dieworkwear.bsky.social
when I was young, i used to wonder how people like this would fare in life, as they didn't seem suited for gainful employment. it turns out, the internet allowed them to accumulate a massive audience of similar idiots, enriching them and turning them into a presidential advisor
Polymarket tweets: "BREAKING: Zohran Mamdani to require all New York elementary school students to learn Arabic numerals." Laura Loomer replies: "You know things are bad when you can't tell if this is real or a joke. Dear God. It's real. Isn't it?"
November 20, 2025 at 12:58 AM
sanjanah.bsky.social
How Gemini 3 transforms video into structured, searchable datasets: Implications for human rights, and digital forensics

www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-ge... (LinkedIn)

sanjanah.wordpress.com/2025/11/19/h... (WordPress)

@samgregory.bsky.social
November 19, 2025 at 8:25 AM
sanjanah.bsky.social
New article by me in the International Catalan Institute's Peace (ICIP)'s 'Peace in Progress' publication. The other contributions are fantastic too. | Mediation in the Age of Algorithms: Risks and Opportunities for Peace Processes www.icip.cat/perlapau/en/... #ICT4Peace #Peacebuilding #PeaceTech
Mediation in the Age of Algorithms: Risks and Opportunities for Peace Processes  - Peace in Progress magazine
Sanjana Hattotuwa reflects on how the digital environment affects mediation processes.
www.icip.cat
November 19, 2025 at 5:38 AM
sanjanah.bsky.social
"New Zealand saw a record number of citizens depart in the 12 months to September as a sluggish economy forces more people to look offshore for better paying jobs." www.straitstimes.com/asia/austral...
New Zealand citizens depart in record numbers as economy stalls
About 58 per cent of all citizen departures were to Australia. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.
www.straitstimes.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Reposted by Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa
dreddieclark.bsky.social
In a crowded field of evil corporates, Elsevier is unethical and antisocial enough to really stand out. Fully support unis across our part of the world refusing to bow to them.

Elsevier should be made to eat it at every opportunity.

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
Universities in 'battle of the century' with journal publisher Elsevier
One New Zealand university told its staff all universities in New Zealand and Australia would "lose some degree of access" to the publisher's 1600 titles from the start of next year.
www.rnz.co.nz
November 15, 2025 at 6:50 AM
sanjanah.bsky.social
Steve Bannon’s fascist rhetoric as blueprint: Transnational extremism’s entrenchment in New Zealand

www.linkedin.com/pulse/steve-... (LinkedIn)

sanjanah.wordpress.com/2025/11/14/s... (WordPress)

#nzpol
November 14, 2025 at 5:00 AM
sanjanah.bsky.social
It's remarkable how much quieter hatescape I study is with him behind bars. Even more remarkable is how through voice notes uploaded to social media *while in jail*, Arps issues chilling death threats to Police, judges, lawyers, & others through 'One Policy' trope, which telegraphs death by hanging.
November 14, 2025 at 2:09 AM
sanjanah.bsky.social
Created Google NotebookLM instance on IPCA Report 'Review of Police handling of complaints against Jevon McSkimming'. notebooklm.google.com/notebook/13f... Has a number of resources for New Zealanders to grasp what's in 135-page PDF. Important to render this material accessible to widest audience.
The source is a public report from the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA), dated November 11, 2025, detailing a review of how the New Zealand Police handled a series of complaints against then-Deputy Commissioner Jevon McSkimming. The report focuses on the Police's response to allegations of misconduct, including sexual assault, made by a woman referred to as Ms Z following a past relationship. The IPCA finds that senior Police officers repeatedly failed to appropriately investigate Ms Z's serious allegations, instead relying on McSkimming's narrative that she was a "woman scorned" and prioritizing his career, including his application for Police Commissioner. Consequently, Police initiated a criminal investigation and prosecution against Ms Z for harassment, improperly using her complaints as evidence against her and failing to follow established integrity and sexual assault investigation policies. The IPCA also acknowledges that its own responses to the matter in earlier years were inadequate.
November 12, 2025 at 5:05 AM
sanjanah.bsky.social
Because it is. Ask any Māori.
November 12, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Reposted by Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa
osanetwork.bsky.social
As Prof Lorna Woods tells @bbclaurak.bsky.social in her piece on risks of #ai #chatbots, the #onlinesafetyact is "clear but doesn't match the market ...
the problem is it doesn't catch all services where users engage with a chatbot one-to-one." 1/2 ⬇️
www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc....
Mothers say AI chatbots encouraged their sons to kill themselves - BBC News
In her first UK interview Megan Garcia speaks to Laura Kuenssberg about the death of her teenage son.
www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org
November 9, 2025 at 10:29 AM
sanjanah.bsky.social
Can think of few others as deserving as Siouxsie - who helped protect so many lives, & was NZ'er of the Year in 2021 - of our support now. She won legal case on truly awful online harassment/hate but remains 400k+ out of pocket. Absurd. Time to help her move forward www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7PB...
Support Dr Siouxsie's crowdfunding campaign!
YouTube video by Siouxsie Wiles
www.youtube.com
November 2, 2025 at 4:25 AM
sanjanah.bsky.social
Courts don’t know what to do about AI crimes restofworld.org/2025/latin-a... @legallyfeminist.bsky.social
October 31, 2025 at 3:26 AM
Reposted by Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa
anneapplebaum.bsky.social
Dutch liberals, together with the Dutch center-right, fight back
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/w...
Dutch Voters Deliver Major Setback to Far-Right Party of Geert Wilders
www.nytimes.com
October 30, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Reposted by Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa
mehr.nz
Luxon himself handed me the Prime Minister's science prize last year. Let me say this in plain English: he's an idiot for running a govt who budgeted more for AI than for the Marsden fund. any journo reading this can quote me on it #nzpol
September 18, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Reposted by Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa
rnzrss.bsky.social
'Absolutely breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi': UN-bound report warns racial discrimination is worsening in NZ
'Absolutely breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi': UN-bound report warns racial discrimination is worsening in NZ
The UN-bound report says the current government is "actively and profoundly aggravating NZ's constitutionally racist foundation in a way we have not seen for at least half a century".
www.rnz.co.nz
October 29, 2025 at 6:35 AM