Ben Horne
@benjamindhorne.bsky.social
Assistant Professor, School of Information Sciences @ UT-Knoxville. I study trust in media ecosystems, particularly when interventions are introduced.
Computational Social Science | Disinformation | Content Moderation | Alt-Tech
benjamindhorne.github.io
Computational Social Science | Disinformation | Content Moderation | Alt-Tech
benjamindhorne.github.io
Reposted by Ben Horne
If you only follow the laws & rulings-on-the-law that you like, then you are not following the law & rule-of-law.
KARL: Did you know about the judge's order when you issued your order for the planes to continue?
KRISTI NOEM: This is an activist judge. We comply with all federal orders that are lawful and binding.
KRISTI NOEM: This is an activist judge. We comply with all federal orders that are lawful and binding.
December 1, 2025 at 1:48 AM
If you only follow the laws & rulings-on-the-law that you like, then you are not following the law & rule-of-law.
Reposted by Ben Horne
"They're trying to change our habits, because all of the projections rely on people becoming truly dependent on the technology. Whether or not it's actually a good thing for society isn't considered to be a factor."
Analysis: OpenAI is a loss-making machine, how can it survive?
Don't call it a bubble! Loss-making monster OpenAI is on the hook for $1.4 trillion (with a T) in compute commitments. How can this go on?
www.windowscentral.com
November 29, 2025 at 11:30 PM
"They're trying to change our habits, because all of the projections rely on people becoming truly dependent on the technology. Whether or not it's actually a good thing for society isn't considered to be a factor."
Reposted by Ben Horne
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.
THIS is what our information ecosystem supports. Twitter just made it 1% more visible.
November 25, 2025 at 1:30 PM
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.
THIS is what our information ecosystem supports. Twitter just made it 1% more visible.
Reposted by Ben Horne
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...
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
November 25, 2025 at 1:24 PM
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...
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Reposted by Ben Horne
"In any other administration, at any other time in American history, this level of corruption would be a political disaster — a scandal that could bring down the administration. For the Trump administration, it is a Tuesday."
wrote about the president’s flagrant and destructive corruption in a column that references street fighter, the simpsons, machiavelli, and a host of revolutionary-era americans (gift link)
Opinion | The White House Gold Rush Is On
www.nytimes.com
November 19, 2025 at 2:27 PM
"In any other administration, at any other time in American history, this level of corruption would be a political disaster — a scandal that could bring down the administration. For the Trump administration, it is a Tuesday."
Reposted by Ben Horne
Getting nervous for the talk I'm about to give at a workshop about "using AI to drive impact" which features slides such as these.
November 6, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Getting nervous for the talk I'm about to give at a workshop about "using AI to drive impact" which features slides such as these.
Reposted by Ben Horne
So Corporate Media amplifies Trump's disinformation instead, and calls that being neutral.
October 21, 2025 at 12:40 PM
So Corporate Media amplifies Trump's disinformation instead, and calls that being neutral.
Reposted by Ben Horne
Basically Corporate Media refuses to show how uninformed, confused, deteriorated, hateful, corrupt, dangerous Trump is, because if they report basic facts about Trump, if they amplified his own public appearances & social media posts with proper context, they would "appear" to be anti-Trump.
October 21, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Basically Corporate Media refuses to show how uninformed, confused, deteriorated, hateful, corrupt, dangerous Trump is, because if they report basic facts about Trump, if they amplified his own public appearances & social media posts with proper context, they would "appear" to be anti-Trump.
Reposted by Ben Horne
"There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."
Here is our full story that Vance is dismissing, with primary source documents showing Trump cabinet members with multiple primary-residence mortgages
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
October 12, 2025 at 5:34 PM
"There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."
Reposted by Ben Horne
I actually don't really care if AI is useful/interesting/good for some things in education actually - it is besides these things clearly a big problem already that maybe need listing yet again:
October 11, 2025 at 10:20 PM
I actually don't really care if AI is useful/interesting/good for some things in education actually - it is besides these things clearly a big problem already that maybe need listing yet again:
Reposted by Ben Horne
Curious if folks are getting the impression that those around them are unaware antifa is not an org? We know this admin is dead set on pretending it is & many media are uncritically perpetuating that. Feels like we’re watching an elite disinfo campaign move in both a rapid and absurdist fashion.
you'd think a prominent news outlet like the New York Times might mention that "antifa" isn't an actual organization in a long story about antifa, but nope!
and the subhead helps props up a false claim this professor was up to something seedy as something up for debate
and the subhead helps props up a false claim this professor was up to something seedy as something up for debate
October 10, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Curious if folks are getting the impression that those around them are unaware antifa is not an org? We know this admin is dead set on pretending it is & many media are uncritically perpetuating that. Feels like we’re watching an elite disinfo campaign move in both a rapid and absurdist fashion.
Reposted by Ben Horne
Now we have no rule-of-law: Trump brazenly commits crimes while using Justice Department to prosecute his enemies on absurd political charges. Our Elite are so bad for US.
October 9, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Now we have no rule-of-law: Trump brazenly commits crimes while using Justice Department to prosecute his enemies on absurd political charges. Our Elite are so bad for US.
Reposted by Ben Horne
Media & Political Elite told US that indicting & prosecuting Trump would undermine rule-of-law, because hardcore Trump supporters would lose faith in system and Trump would escalate if he regained power: But dragging feet undermined rule-of-law for rest of US AND allowed him to retried to power.
October 9, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Media & Political Elite told US that indicting & prosecuting Trump would undermine rule-of-law, because hardcore Trump supporters would lose faith in system and Trump would escalate if he regained power: But dragging feet undermined rule-of-law for rest of US AND allowed him to retried to power.
Reposted by Ben Horne
This is the genius of the Portland protests - they make the claims of lawlessness look not just wrong, but comical
The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.
October 9, 2025 at 10:54 PM
This is the genius of the Portland protests - they make the claims of lawlessness look not just wrong, but comical
Reposted by Ben Horne
Pretty crazy that government is arguing they need the military for an active war in Portland OR, but no Corporate Media can bother to send a reporter out there to investigate the situation on the ground and show US there is no violence to justify their war against US
October 9, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Pretty crazy that government is arguing they need the military for an active war in Portland OR, but no Corporate Media can bother to send a reporter out there to investigate the situation on the ground and show US there is no violence to justify their war against US
Reposted by Ben Horne
Pretty crazy that government is arguing they need the military for an active war in Portland OR, but can provide no proof *at all* that there is any violence *at all*
October 9, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Pretty crazy that government is arguing they need the military for an active war in Portland OR, but can provide no proof *at all* that there is any violence *at all*
Reposted by Ben Horne
Obviously signing Trump’s compact is the death knell for a university, but the fact that any of them are even *considering* it exposes something deeply rotten at the heart of their leadership. It should disqualify them forever.
October 7, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Obviously signing Trump’s compact is the death knell for a university, but the fact that any of them are even *considering* it exposes something deeply rotten at the heart of their leadership. It should disqualify them forever.
Reposted by Ben Horne
Our Media & Political Elite spent the last few years announcing that Democrats were dangerous echo chambers and needed more exposure to Republican ideas. Meanwhile, Republican leadership governs US from a fantasy world, completely divorced from reality.
Trump: Portland is burning to the ground—insurrectionists all over the place. The politicians are afraid for their lives. That’s the only reason they say there’s nothing happening.
October 6, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Our Media & Political Elite spent the last few years announcing that Democrats were dangerous echo chambers and needed more exposure to Republican ideas. Meanwhile, Republican leadership governs US from a fantasy world, completely divorced from reality.
Reposted by Ben Horne
Yep that is our future
(Also: cites our research although in an ever-so-slightly wrong way).
(Also: cites our research although in an ever-so-slightly wrong way).
Workslop is AI output that looks polished but is hollow on closer read, leaving the receiver to decipher it to find any actual substance.
With companies pushing AI everywhere, we’re drowning in empty content no one bothers to read before spreading. Instead of AI boosting productivity, it kills it.
With companies pushing AI everywhere, we’re drowning in empty content no one bothers to read before spreading. Instead of AI boosting productivity, it kills it.
Workslop is oozing into every corner of America's white-collar offices — Business Insider
Office workers everywhere are awash in
stocks.apple.com
October 1, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Yep that is our future
(Also: cites our research although in an ever-so-slightly wrong way).
(Also: cites our research although in an ever-so-slightly wrong way).
Reposted by Ben Horne
I know we're desensitized, but it's important to note, again, that today's events would have led to the immediate impeachment & removal of any president from at least Truman to at least Obama. We're hundreds of miles on the interstate past Richard Nixon's high school prank-level crimes compared to 👇
Trump wraps up a speech to military leaders that represented a major escalation of his effort to weaponize the armed forces into a tool he can use to violently quash domestic dissent. Hard to imagine how anyone with a shred of dignity can keep serving after this, which of course is the point.
September 30, 2025 at 6:32 PM
I know we're desensitized, but it's important to note, again, that today's events would have led to the immediate impeachment & removal of any president from at least Truman to at least Obama. We're hundreds of miles on the interstate past Richard Nixon's high school prank-level crimes compared to 👇
Reposted by Ben Horne
Not to mention that this particular part of the crime spree will somehow make Madden an even worse product.
Corporate Media keeps reporting on the massive corruption of Trump Family as isolated events, while it should be viewed at as a single ongoing $10+ billion crime spree with semi-hostile foreign nations that weakens our national security, undermines our economy, and threatens our democracy.
FT: Several people said they expected the transaction to go through fairly easily.
“.. What regulator is going to say no to the president’s son-in-law?" 🤡
@financialtimes.com $EA
www.ft.com/content/61ce...
“.. What regulator is going to say no to the president’s son-in-law?" 🤡
@financialtimes.com $EA
www.ft.com/content/61ce...
September 30, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Not to mention that this particular part of the crime spree will somehow make Madden an even worse product.