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Claire Wilmot

@clairelwilmot.bsky.social

910 followers 350 following 88 posts

Journalist/writer/researcher | visiting postdoc fellow, London School of Economics | before: TBIJ, UofT | epistemology, tech, criminal legal systems, gender https://www.instagram.com/clairelwilmot?igsh=MWl2dmJzYjY2YWh2Ng%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

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Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · May 19

Really surprised, really happy, to have had my work shortlisted for the @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social essay prize (alongside these five other projects, which all sound amazing!)

Fitzcarraldo Editions @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social · May 16

📣 ANNOUNCING THE 2025 ESSAY PRIZE SHORTLIST 📣

TESSERAE by Phoebe Braithwaite

MY GREAT NOVEL by Cassandre Greenberg

ON REFUSAL by Sarai Kirshner

CRAPES by Hana Loftus

GULLY CRICKET by Abhinav Ullal

SHOW US THE BODY by Claire Wilmot

For more information: fitzcarraldoeditions.com/prizes/essay...

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Ron Deibert @rondeibert.bsky.social · 14h

NEW @citizenlab.ca report (10/02/25)

We uncovered a network of more than 50 inauthentic X profiles conducting an AI-enabled IO whose aim was to foment revolt in Iran We assess the Israeli gov, or a private contractor under its direction, is likely responsible
citizenlab.ca/2025/10/ai-e...

We Say You Want a Revolution: PRISONBREAK - An AI-Enabled Influence Operation Aimed at Overthrowing the Iranian Regime - The Citizen Lab

We investigate a coordinated network of inauthentic X accounts that is spreading AI-generated content to induce revolt in Iran. The network has been active since 2023, but increased activity during th...

citizenlab.ca

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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 6d

A highly motivated and well networked informed elite can absolutely steamroll a largely disinterested and thus passive democratic majority. Right now that's basically what's happening, the transphobes are getting their way and there's not enough will to stop them.

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The Bureau of Investigative Journalism @tbij.bsky.social · 10d

Patients are being left to suffer as a painkiller crisis hits Gaza’s hospitals

More than 167,000 people have been reported injured in Gaza since 7 October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry

Read the full story: www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

A doctor examines a child injured at Nasser Hospital, southern Gaza

Patients are treated in makeshift tents in the courtyard of Nasser medical complex, southern Gaza

Doctors operate on a patient at Al-Awda hospital, northern Gaza

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Liz Bourke @hawkwinglb.bsky.social · 8d

Over the last couple of days I find myself coming back to this LRB piece, about the emotional value of fakes to people who share them knowingly. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...

Claire Wilmot | Fascistic Dream Machines

Part of the misunderstanding of the deepfake threat stems from the idea that it is a problem of bad information, rather...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 8d

I can't help but wonder why a columnist who says he is committed to "doing the work of politics" doesn't simply go out and DO politics, in the electoral sense, instead of laying the rhetorical foundations to take away some people's rights so that Power doesn't turn on him?

Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 8d

This seems to be just about as elitist and dishonest a position as it is possible to hold!

As Coates says, "you owe people more than that".

Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 8d

And why should people (on any side of politics!) believe that candidates who say "we will eat you" actually mean "we are just *pretending* to want to eat you in order to get power, so we can have the power to protect you later on" 😇

Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 8d

If the price of holding on to power is mimicking or emulating its worst impulses (a premise I reject, but...) you will have to sacrifice people with less power. Which needs to be a non-starter.

Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 8d

Of course not, because he & his candidates won't.

He seems willing to sacrifice their rights (and the rights of many others) in order to hold on to power -- ostensibly so that things don't "get worse."

Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 8d

Can we really expect women & girls to hear "we need to run pro-life democrats in red states" and still believe that he has any real intention of standing up for their bodily autonomy when push comes to shove?

Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 8d

It's especially revealing hearing Klein talk about Obama's shift on the question of gay marriage -- where he implies that progressive candidates should simply *lie to people* and then change their positions when they win office!

Misguided and paternalistic.

Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 8d

He's nostalgic for an incremental progressivism that didn't have to grapple with overtly reactionary forces -- which have now revealed themselves to have been (only temporarily) lurking beneath the surface of polite society.

Coates is cogent and clear about this in the interview.

Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 8d

Ezra Klein's flavour of liberalism makes more sense when you pay attention to how he says "we lost power", which reveals his seemingly unshakable belief that power was held/felt/wielded more or less equitably in the 2010's.

Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 10d

it's a great interview, and what's striking is that at the end of the day both klein and coates believe in winning people over. the difference is that coates thinks you do this by telling them the truth, and klein thinks you do it by empathizing with them and recognizing their concerns as Real

Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 10d

This was revealing. Worth reading. The basic demand is that Coates spend less time thinking/writing his true feelings and more time playing political strategist. Klein asks him over and over him to do Dem strategy; he says no, over and over. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/o...

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Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 12d

“Part of the misunderstanding of the deepfake threat stems from the idea that it is a problem of bad information, rather than a problem of desire (or the material conditions that shape desire)” Claire Wilmot @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...

Claire Wilmot | Fascistic Dream Machines

Part of the misunderstanding of the deepfake threat stems from the idea that it is a problem of bad information, rather...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Reposted by Claire Wilmot

Ros Taylor @rostaylor.bsky.social · 11d

Reminds me of a chapter in The Future of Trust. I imagined a deepfake video of the Queen that was debunked, but the fakery didn't matter to people, because they felt "it might not be real, but it was definitely the kind of thing she would have felt, and probably thought about doing."

Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 13d

I’ve been struck by how the British far right is using deepfake technology — less to deceive about specific events, more to tap into fascistic affects & desires. This is really frightening.

My dispatch from grim corners of the Internet, for @lrb.co.uk online.

www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...

Claire Wilmot | Fascistic Dream Machines

Part of the misunderstanding of the deepfake threat stems from the idea that it is a problem of bad information, rather...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 11d

Kudos @zekuzelalem.bsky.social & @thecontinent.org

Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 11d

But we urgently need more investigative reporting of this calibre from ostensibly 'peripheral', hard-to-reach areas like these.

These stories are obviously crucial in their own right. But they are also illustrative of 'centre' politics, geopolitical dynamics, & can hint and things to come.

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Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 11d

It should give us pause that at the time of the strike, intl media parroted the government's talking points, which described the victims as "terrorists".

@zekuzelalem.bsky.social is an unusually tenacious, talented reporter, so now know better.

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Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 11d

"Civilians - not armed fighters - were killed. That distinction matters."

It also shows that "Ethiopia is once again tolerating a foreign military targeting its own citizens."

Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 11d

Impressive investigation by @zekuzelalem.bsky.social for @thecontinent.org on a massacre of civilians by a Djiboutian drone strike in Ethiopian territory back in January. Do give it a read 👇

Zecharias Zelalem @zekuzelalem.bsky.social · 11d

THREAD: this investigation took up over half my year, but it's here in @thecontinent.org:
A Djiboutian drone strike in January was depicted as a army operation targeting rebels. It was actually a massacre of civilians. The bloodshed & coverup implicating Ethiopia, Djibouti, France & Turkiye.
#OSINT

The Continent 27 SEPTEMBER 2025 | ISSUE 215
15
INVESTIGATION
The Djiboutian massacre
Ethiopia won’t acknowledge
Djibouti drones killed eight people on the other side of its
border with Ethiopia. Djibouti claimed they were terrorists.
Ethiopia said nothing. This investigation found that some of
the dead were Ethiopians, revealing another episode in Addis’s
tendency to let its neighbours kill its citizens with impunity.
Crossing the line: Djibouti’s bombs landed inside Ethiopia, killing civilians – not armed fighters.
zecharias zelalem
On 30 January this year, a drone manned
from Djibouti dropped a bomb on a
funeral gathering in Siyaru, a remote,
semi-arid village near the Ethiopia
Djibouti border. As rescuers rushed in, a
second bomb dropped. And then a third.
At least eight people were killed,
including three children. Several
others were injured. Given the village’s
remoteness, the incident might have
gone unreported if graphic images of
the dead hadn’t spread across Ethiopian
social media.
A statement from the Djibouti’s
defence ministry said the drone struck
rebel fighters from the Front for the

Restoration of Unity and Democracy
(Frud), a Djiboutian political party with
a military wing. It has been fighting for
Afar interests in Djibouti since the 1990s.
The Afar are a community split by the
colonial border separating Ethiopia,
Djibouti, and Eritrea.
“Eight terrorists were neutralised on
site,” said a Djibouti military statement.
“Unfortunately, collateral damage
among Djiboutian civilians in the area
has been documented.”
International media, including Voice
of America, Agence France Presse, and
Radio France Internationale reported
this version of events.
Now, new findings from an open
In recovery: Mariam Mohammed Abdullah was
injured in the drone strike.
source investigation by The Continent
reveal a different reality.
The bombs landed inside Ethiopia,
not in Djibouti, and civilians – not armed
fighters – were killed. That distinction
matters. It shows Ethiopia is once again
tolerating a foreign military targeting its
own citizens, as it did with Eritrea during
the Tigray conflict.
A transparent lie
Even before the ink could dry on the
Djiboutian military’s statement, The
Addis Standard and human rights groups
in Djibouti were emphatic that the strike
had actually occurred inside Ethiopia’s
Afar region. But Alexis Mohamed, an
adviser to Djiboutian President Ismaïl
Omar Guelleh, rubbished these reports
in now-deleted social media posts.
The Continent got to work to figure out
what really happened. Over the course
of eight months, we collected eyewitness
testimonies, interviewed human rights
activists in Ethiopia and Djibouti, and
examined images and footage from the
strike. Our findings align with those of
Djiboutian activists, who pinpointed
Siyaru in Ethiopia’s Afar region as the
site of the strike.
The ammunition residue found on the
night of the strike confirms the bomb
was manufactured by Roketsan, a state
run weapons manufacturer in Türkiye.
Former US army explosives expert
Trevor Ball identified t…

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Peter Mitchell @pdkmitchell.bsky.social · 12d

This is really super

Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 13d

Claire Wilmot | Fascistic Dream Machines

Part of the misunderstanding of the deepfake threat stems from the idea that it is a problem of bad information, rather...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Reposted by Claire Wilmot

Josh Habgood-Coote @impractknow.bsky.social · 12d

This seems compatible with the (I think true!) point that deepfakes aren’t some new assault on truth, but a continuation of practices of satirical and propagandistic image making

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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 12d

When the AI hallucination is deemed more true than empirical reality www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...

Claire Wilmot | Fascistic Dream Machines

Part of the misunderstanding of the deepfake threat stems from the idea that it is a problem of bad information, rather...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Reposted by Claire Wilmot

Roland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 12d

«Part of the misunderstanding of the deepfake threat stems from the idea that it is a problem of bad information, rather than a problem of desire (or the material conditions that shape desire). The deepfakes proliferating across far-right social media … are fascistic dream machines.» #MemeFascism

Claire Wilmot | Fascistic Dream Machines

Part of the misunderstanding of the deepfake threat stems from the idea that it is a problem of bad information, rather...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Reposted by Claire Wilmot

AB in PA @abinpa.bsky.social · 13d

Many have shared this excellent piece by
@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
that speaks to this essential moment. Among many thoughts, it occurs to me that in our desire to do away with internalized shame, self-shame, we gave up shame as a tool of community standards.
www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

How Can We Live Together? - Boston Review

Ezra Klein is wrong: shame is essential.

www.bostonreview.net

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