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Ryan McGrady

@antisomniac.bsky.social

1.3K followers 490 following 240 posts

The internet, YouTube, Wikipedia, NYC, birds, media... Sr Research Fellow at UMass Amherst Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure, Media Cloud. Places: rhododendrites.com Rhododendrites @ Wikipedia/Instagram/Threads Antisomniac @ Mastodon.social

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 14

The Social Media & Society article this is based on just went live! One Platform, Four Languages: Comparing English, Spanish, Hindi, and Russian YouTube
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · 28d

Start with a conclusion (e.g. "Wikipedia is woke"), pin photos/string to the wall until you've successfully recycled an old conspiracy, don't bother with evidence connecting it to the implied conclusion, rely on antiwoke confirmation bias crowd to conflate word count with evidence. archive.ph/OjBs9

archive.ph

Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Sep 8

Well, jump as in be excited to volunteer, at least [legal practicalities and the uniqueness of 230 aside :) :/ :( ]

Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Sep 8

Was thinking about this recently with the official haranguing of Wikipedia -- as if there aren't dozens of countries who would jump at the chance to become home to the world's most popular public knowledge resource / shining example of what can be accomplished with free speech/free press.

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · Sep 8

"Why on earth would we abandon institutions that have genuinely made America great? ... Why would we put at risk laboratories that are working to cure cancers or perfecting artificial limbs or exploring deep space or testing the limits of artificial intelligence?"

David Darmofal @daviddarmofal.bsky.social · Sep 8

We Are Watching a Scientific Superpower Destroy Itself

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Sep 5

same surprise here. I'm into the idea of exploring alternative school models, but the repetition of "they just crush academics in 2 hours" with no real explanation just sounds too much like this stuff www.tiktok.com/@motivatedmi...

How Ed Mylett changed and manipulated time - Speaker: Ed Mylett #motivation #time #motivatedmindstate #fyp #fypage #inspirationaledits #inspiration #mindset #days #getmoredone #lifeadvicetiktok

TikTok video by motivatedmindstate

www.tiktok.com

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Sep 4

Josh Dzieza at @theverge.com has a great feature about how @wikipedia.org survives constant efforts to influence/attack it because it's fundamentally *boring* ... but, as @bluerasberry.bsky.social put it, we can't "take it for granted". www.theverge.com/cs/features/...

Wikipedia is under attack — and how it can survive

The site’s volunteers face threats from Trump, billionaires, and AI.

www.theverge.com

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 29

16.5/15 Also, to be clear, while I'm not sure WP is the primary target here, any state effort to out wikipedia contributors in order to chill or punish legal speech is dangerous mission-jeopardizing overreach (and not just Wikipedia's mission)

Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 29

16/15 Correction: The last bit was imprecise. If someone was sanctioned but not blocked/banned, IPs could still be in the logs. (there are some other nuanced technical exceptions, too).

Reposted by Ryan McGrady

Molly White @molly.wiki · Aug 27

I’ve spent the better part of two decades dealing with people trying to dox and harass the volunteers who make Wikipedia the incredible resource it is today.

I liked it better when they weren’t in Congress.

oversight.house.gov/wp-content/u...

oversight.house.gov

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

Reposting for no reason at all.

Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · May 14

Imagining a "Wikipedia Liberty Index," Ryan McGrady says real or threatened censorship of Wikipedia is a lagging indicator of a state's attitudes towards free press, free speech, academic freedom, and free expression in general, and a real-time indicator of active efforts at suppression.

What Attacks on Wikipedia Reveal about Free Expression | TechPolicy.Press

Ryan McGrady writes that you can learn a lot about a state's view on free expression by how it treats Wikipedia.

www.techpolicy.press

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

All true. This particular inquiry appears to be the battleground variety. Might be fishing for future ammo against the WMF, but that would be a "bonus" beyond the immediate targets of universities and activists. IMO. But yes, WP is certainly in play in the war on politically inconvenient education.

Reposted by Ryan McGrady

Manuel Tonneau @manueltonneau.bsky.social · Aug 28

Social media platforms operate globally, but do they allocate human moderation equitably across languages?

Our new WP shows the answer is no:

-Millions of users post in languages with zero moderators
-Where mods exist, mod count relative to content volume varies widely across langs

osf.io/amfws

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

Doesn't look to have media traction yet. Pings for a few ppl maybe interested. @justinhendrix.bsky.social @ethanz.bsky.social @daphnek.bsky.social @lu.is @noamcohen.bsky.social @stephenharrison.com @lilashroff.bsky.social @sarahgrevy.bsky.social @jasonkoebler.bsky.social @julesaroscoe.bsky.social

Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

The WMF deletes IPs connected to accounts after 90 days anyway, so even if subpoenaed, it would only include people sanctioned in the two most recent cases on [checks] Indian politics and capitalization (yes, capitalization). Those damn universities coordinating to capitalize article titles. [15/15]

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

The WMF knows protecting editors' privacy is essential for the project to survive (although this is being tested in several ongoing cases). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_N... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_... [14/?]

Asian News International vs. Wikimedia Foundation - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

I don't think the WMF will have trouble supplying most of this information (again, much of it is already public), but sharing IP addresses of accounts subject to arbcom sanctions isn't going to happen without a subpoena. [13/?]

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

But again the notable examples are public, many of which are collected in the Wikipedia article "list of Wikipedia controversies". Also relevant: web.archive.org/web/20250220... [12/?]

web.archive.org

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

"possible coordination by nation state actors" - A subject I'm interested in, too. Good to see that the request also includes the @atlanticcouncil.bsky.social report. Foreign influence is a bipartisan concern. The worry, of course, is it's also a useful frame to apply to "unamerican" speech. [11/?]

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

(Editing Wikipedia is a popular alternative to a term paper. Contribute to a public knowledge resource, experience collaborating, learning some media/information literacy skills, etc. - these assignments tend to be subject to more, not less scrutiny by organizers and Wikipedians). [10/?]

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

Certainly those involved with coordinating academic editing of Wikipedia should be on alert. Of course, the whole point of organizations like @wikieducation.bsky.social and the Education Program are to ensure students *are* complying with policy. [9/?]

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

So perhaps more about ammo to use against academic institutions or individuals engaging in particular kinds of advocacy (the last big arbcom case was about Israel/Palestine, which is also the subject of the 6th request). [8/?] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...

Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Palestine-Israel articles 5 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

Many of the requests in the letter are for things that are already publicly visible. Others have to do with people/material that have already been deemed to be in violation of policy (not failures to apply policy). [7/?]

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

There's probably some degree of fishing for what can be labeled "foreign influence," but despite bluster about revoking nonprofit status, if that were the goal (as some predicted earlier this year), the WMF wouldn't make a great test case (high profile, more resources, transparent policies..). [6/?]

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

That doesn't mean Wikipedia won't get pulled into the headlines. Wikipedia has been a mainstay in right-wing media for a few years now, and this will certainly produce a new cycle of Larry Sanger "Co-Founder Says Wikipedia is Woke" interviews. [5/?]

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

Wikipedia doesn't receive federal money that can be taken away, and is far more transparent than e.g. social media when it comes to disclosing its moderation policies. The WMF also plays a minimal role in that moderation and does not own the content. None of this makes for an ideal show trial. [4/?]

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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · Aug 28

My sense of the primary target here, as framed by the start of the letter, is "individuals at academic institutions subsidized by U.S. taxpayer dollars [using Wikipedia] to influence U.S. public opinion". @wikipedia.org here is probably not a direct target but a battleground. [3/?]

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