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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫

@bostonjoan.bsky.social

31K followers 1.2K following 2.3K posts

I am the founder of The Critical Internet Studies Institute and an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media Studies at Boston University www.criticalinternet.org

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · Apr 9

Our non-profit, The Critical Internet Studies Institute, has a BlueSky account. Please follow for updates: @criticalinternet.bsky.social

Check us out and leave a donation to support independent research and analysis that puts community and safety first.
www.criticalinternet.org

The Critical Internet Studies Institute

CISI is an independent nonprofit that offers research and programs that mobilize knowledge on emerging technology topics including networked incitement, privacy and community safety, surveillance over...

www.criticalinternet.org

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 6h

They’ll rewrite history in the present so they don’t have to live with the facts, buts it’s us who write the history books and it’s those narratives that will survive long after we all become dust.

Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 6h

Sens Ted Cruz and Eric Schmitt are holding their hearing on the Biden Censorship Regime of 2018. Watch live here as they try to figure out: who was president in 2020?

Witnesses: Alex Berenson, Sean Davis of the Federalist,
Eugene Volokh, Gene Kimmelman

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QRu...

LIVE: Ted Cruz Leads Senate Hearing About 'How Uncle Sam Jawboned Big Tech Into Silencing Americans'

YouTube video by Forbes Breaking News

www.youtube.com

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 6h

I think this is what people expected from Taylor Swift, but instead got let down by their own expectations that she would make a culturally relevant banger about the loss of the American dream and the arrival off the American nightmare.

Instead, they got exactly what she is living.

BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 6h

Ice Barbie is one beat away from charging Zach Bryan with terrorism.

Celeb cultures of resistance matter precisely because it rattles the rank and file.

Somewhere someone is hearing this song and thinking twice about the human cost of freedom.

www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMBcvJQs/

Kristi Noem has lashed out at country music star Zach Bryan for his 'disrespectful' new song which includes lyrics taking aim at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Read more at DailyMail. #new...

TikTok video by Daily Mail

www.tiktok.com

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 22h

Bondi is coming undone in this oversight hearing: www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMBPNmvA/

"Canned attacks on you? No one needs a canned attack on you." Attorney General Pam Bondi sparred with California Sen. Adam Schiff during a contentious Senate hearing.

TikTok video by ABC News

www.tiktok.com

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 2d

I started a project earlier this year looking at generative AI as a national security risk. Now that Sora is being publicly tested, more media outlets will have to cover and debunk AI slop and disinformation: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

OpenAI launch of video app Sora plagued by violent and racist images: ‘The guardrails are not real’

Misinformation researchers say lifelike scenes could obfuscate truth and lead to fraud, bullying and intimidation

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫

West Ovarian @westovarian.bsky.social · 2d

I had to look that up. Thanks for that!

NYT Issues Correction After Bari Weiss Uses ‘Antifa’ Account Run By Alt-Right Trolls to Prove Left is Intolerant

New York Times writer Bari Weiss has been duped (again).

www.mediaite.com

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 2d

I’m not surprised day in and day out that media corporations are failing to meet the basic needs of news consumers, while outlets like @404media.co and @19thnews.org are able to write incisive articles that help everyday readers build democratic resilience.

#PushBack2026

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 4d

It was great to talk to folks in Barcelona about the disinformation crisis and how the US has failed to mitigate the harms created by social media companies.

Ismael Peña-López @ictlogist.bsky.social · 4d

"El dany final que fan les xarxes socials quan els polítics se n’apoderen és que reprimeixen la llibertat d'expressió. [...] Això ens ha portat a aquest punt en què el govern dels Estats Units es posa literalment a trolejar la població"
@bostonjoan.bsky.social

www.ara.cat/media/tots-i...

Joan Donovan: “Tots els investigadors de la desinformació als Estats Units hem perdut la feina per pressions”

Acadèmica experta en xarxes socials

www.ara.cat

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Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫

Emily Bell @emilybell.bsky.social · 4d

went to see @alexwinter.com and Keanu Reeves in Broadway Waiting for Godot. Bill and Ted were time travelers in Excellent Adventure - they literally had to learn from the past to progress in the present

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 4d

This reminds me a lot of 3D printed guns and how difficult it has been to regulate or mitigate.

ICEBLOCK will still be available, but I’m expecting the administration will criminalize it and implement an arrest-able charge, like conspiracy, if you have it.

It’s good to know your neighbors.

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 5d

"When faced with actual, explicit, documented government censorship—the kind they’ve been breathlessly warning about for years—they have nothing to say. Because this censorship serves their agenda, targets their enemies, and advances their political goals." www.techdirt.com/2025/10/03/d...

DOJ Demands Removal Of ICEBlock App; Why Are The ‘Free Speech Warriors’ Suddenly So Quiet?

For years now, the MAGA crowd has been absolutely convinced that the Biden administration engaged in the most egregious censorship campaign in American history. They’ve waved around the Murth…

www.techdirt.com

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Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫

Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 5d

DHS Includes White Supremacist Meme in Video Promoting Deportation Blitz talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dhs-inc...

DHS Includes White Supremacist Meme in Video Promoting Deportation Blitz

A video posted on X by the Department of Homeland Security included...

talkingpointsmemo.com

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 5d

Strategic silence is a tactic used by journalists during the civil rights era to avoid spreading the Kkk’s terror by only covering their marches and events when it served their audiences. Journalists also turned away from covering the KKK as a business org and instead covered their violence.

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 5d

When reflecting on Klein’s oped about Kirk “doing politics the right way,”Coates asked Klein, “was silence not an option?”

Klein’s oped deflected from focusing on gun violence and networked incitement, and instead contributed to the frantic myth-making, which meant ignoring Kirk’s own words.

think all of that is understandable. But was silence not an option?
Silence to me was not grieving with people.
I felt it was important, as someone who is liberal, as someone who has a voice, that there are moments like that.
I really do feel - and it's funny, because you said something like this in your piece, but it was a little bit more offhand: Political violence is an attack on us all.
And in that moment, even if it's very temporary, it's important to come together, to try to see other people in their grief, to try to cool things down just a little bit.
Given everything you read that Charlie Kirk said — and we probably don't have very different views on the value of the things he said — why do you think he was winning?

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 5d

What if everything you know about law came from watching reruns of Judge Judy and Law and Order SVU?

a cat wearing a tie with the words excooze me written below it

ALT: a cat wearing a tie with the words excooze me written below it

media.tenor.com

Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫

Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 6d

This is more or less what the American Revolution was about

Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 8d

"I'll just go use official force to coercively raise my own revenue (a/k/a taxes!) and then spend it on whatever government stuff I decide I want to do" is complete and total executive tyranny, Congress reduced to nothing but a powerless sham legislature, a head of state with absolute power.

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 6d

Meta are preparing to seed local elections with tons of money in exchange for pro-AI policies and to thwart state laws that protect citizens.

The federal government is already captured by big tech so it will take all of us to #PUSHBACK2026

www.tiktok.com/t/ZTM6XbDcb/

Mark Zuckerberg has a vision for how A.I. could be used in Meta’s universe. But the actor and filmmaker Joseph Gordon-Levitt is here to point out a flaw: the lack of federal guardrails around how chat...

TikTok video by New York Times Opinion

www.tiktok.com

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 7d

The AI Slop is strong.

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 7d

Hegeseth saying “FAFO” in his speech about preparing for war was a dog whistle to the Proud Boys.

Let’s hope these generals refuse to take up arms against citizens because the proudboys certainly won’t hesitate.

www.reuters.com/investigates...

The Proud Boys are back: How the far-right group is rebuilding

The Proud Boys are re-emerging as unofficial protectors of ex-President Donald Trump, hoping he’ll pardon members jailed in the Capitol riot if he's re-elected.

www.reuters.com

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 8d

Our tax dollars at work. AI slop is on brand.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8d

This is one of the most demented things Trump has posted

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 8d

Sometimes I feel very dumb when doing research about media manipulation. For example, I just had to plan a lesson about photoshop forgeries, where the central bad actor is a man that goes by “CatTurd.”

Am I the crazy person?

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 9d

FREE EVENT TOMORROW NIGHT IN WALTHAM.

GO SOX!

Local Event: Journalism in Jeopardy: a panel dicussion

Check out the latest community post from one of your neighbors. (The views expressed in this post are the author’s own.)

patch.com

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Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫

Ben Green @benzevgreen.bsky.social · 9d

Last week, I joined @justinhendrix.bsky.social and Maddy Dwyer @cdt.org to discuss DOGE, AI, and government "efficiency" initiatives for the @techpolicypress.bsky.social podcast. It's a rather grim topic, but I enjoyed making sense of it with Justin and Maddy.

www.techpolicy.press/following-do...

Following DOGE, US States Pursue 'Efficiency' Initiatives | TechPolicy.Press

A conversation with Center for Democracy and Technology policy analyst Maddy Dwyer and University of Michigan scholar Ben Green.

www.techpolicy.press

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Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 9d

as an author of a book on reparations I am intimately familiar with the move people make from "the thing you want isn't politically viable right now" to "you shouldn't want it, talk about wanting it, or even think about it" but it never stops being weird to me

Lupita Nihongo @otsumamiboy.bsky.social · 10d

It is actually peak absurdity that we still have people arguing that voters should bend to the positions of their political representatives instead of the other way around.

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 9d

And now THE THING is going to rise up and kill us all. Thanks America!

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Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 9d

This is now the second attempted terrorist attack on the LGBTQ community in a week as "revenge" for Charlie Kirk. This follows an attempted mass shooting of a gay bar in Arizona.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Texas man accused of plotting Pride parade shooting as revenge for Charlie Kirk

Exclusive: ‘Come on bro let’s go hunting fairies,’ Joshua Cole wrote to a friend two days before the Abilene Pride Parade, according to an FBI probable cause affidavit reviewed by The Independent

www.independent.co.uk

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