Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · 16d

Needless to say, strongly agree with @ebakerwhite.bsky.social in this op-ed in the Times this morning!

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/o...

Opinion | Legislators Should Force Social Media Platforms to Tell the Truth

www.nytimes.com

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Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · Jun 10

Same...but I went with Blood Meridian.

Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · May 29

lol

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Reposted by Brandon Silverman

DeathNerd Killer @daphnek.bsky.social · May 29

This new report from @brandonsilverman.bsky.social and @naomishiffman.bsky.social is great. It documents numerous concrete cases in which platform transparency (or scraping-based research) has had significant real-world impact.

iddp.gwu.edu/sites/g/file...

iddp.gwu.edu

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Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · May 21

Anyone know what video was actually played?

Trump leans into widely disputed claims about "white genocide" in S. Africa

Trump played a controversial video to emphasize his claims about white Afrikaners facing racial violence.

www.axios.com

Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · May 13

Unsubscribe from campaign text messaging is obviously broken. We need a mechanism for more upstream unsubscribes...campaigns should have to tell you *where* they got your number and you should be able to remove yourself from the source list.

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Reposted by Brandon Silverman

Rebekah Tromble @rebekahtromble.bsky.social · May 13

The worst happened. We were DOGE’d. Our NSF funding is gone.

So now there’s nothing stopping me from sharing Expert Voices Together, a crisis response system for US-based researchers and journalists facing harassment.

It's a true passion project. 🧵 1/

expertvoicestogether.org

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Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · May 13

My useless contribution to the Qatar plane news cycle is that people are severely underestimating the economics of private jet ownership.

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Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · May 8

Link to the full report here: iddp.gwu.edu/sites/g/file...

iddp.gwu.edu

Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · May 8

Of course, the kicker to the entire paper is that most of the data sharing programs that empowered all these specific examples and the subsequent impact...are mostly completely shuttered.

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Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · May 8

We detail 20 case studies where transparency led to impact in four core areas: (1) impacting platform decision-making, (2) contributing to academic understanding of key issues, (3) helping shape government and regulatory actions, and (4) contributing to a more informed public.

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Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · May 8

This morning, @naomishiffman.bsky.social and I published a report that helps make the case for why online platform transparency is so important by looking at *specific, concrete case studies* where data sharing led to real-world impact.

Link to the report and 🧵 with more details below!

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Reposted by Brandon Silverman

Aaron Ross Powell ☸️ @aaronrosspowell.com · Apr 23

Looks like we finally found the censorship industrial complex. I'm sure the Twitter Files conspiracy theorists will be all over it any day now. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

They Criticized Musk on X. Then Their Reach Collapsed.

Three users who disagreed with the site’s owner saw views for their posts plummet.

www.nytimes.com

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Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · Apr 23

You can now specifically add citations!

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Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · Apr 23

👍

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Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · Apr 22

Yes please!

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Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · Apr 22

Yup! Just discovered that and reached out to them...otherwise, I'll definitely just link to it!

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Reposted by Brandon Silverman

patcurley.bsky.social @patcurley.bsky.social · Apr 22

Just submitted my first suggestion. Super easy process and such a useful tracker.

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Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · Apr 22

Thanks for the bump @mmasnick.bsky.social! And whole thing started with a BlueSky post from @moskov.goodventures.org. Have had a ton of user submissions and just need to go through and approve them all now...

Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · Apr 22

An attempt to create a dashboard of who is capitulating and who is fighting back against unconstitutional gov't pressure and demands...

Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · Apr 22

Think the site is pretty much good to go at this point! trackingourinstitutions.com

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A half-clever Tapir @amelia.codes · Apr 22

This site gets an A+ in design. It's simple, but effective. It's fast. The background isn't blindingly white. There is still strong contrast between the text and background. It looks good on desktop AND mobile.

Brandon Silverman @brandonsilverman.bsky.social · Apr 22

Think the site is pretty much good to go at this point! trackingourinstitutions.com