Reposted
The order creates an Justice Department task force to challenge state AI laws, and directs the Commerce Department to pull future broadband funding from states that pass “onerous” legislation. www.wired.com/story/trump-...
Trump Signs Executive Order That Threatens to Punish States for Passing AI Laws
The order creates an Justice Department task force to challenge state AI laws, and directs the Commerce Department to pull future broadband funding from states that pass “onerous” legislation.
www.wired.com
December 12, 2025 at 12:57 AM
The order creates an Justice Department task force to challenge state AI laws, and directs the Commerce Department to pull future broadband funding from states that pass “onerous” legislation. www.wired.com/story/trump-...
Reposted
Recently accepted at ICWSM: arxiv.org/abs/2512.06129 (w/ @kayladuskin.bsky.social, @katestarbird.bsky.social, and @emmaspiro.bsky.social)
We look at how algorithmic feeds affect Twitter account visibility. More visible accounts:
-Are agitators
-Get attention from Elon Musk
-Are not legacy verified
We look at how algorithmic feeds affect Twitter account visibility. More visible accounts:
-Are agitators
-Get attention from Elon Musk
-Are not legacy verified
Rabble-Rousers in the New King's Court: Algorithmic Effects on Account Visibility in Pre-X Twitter
Algorithmic effects on social media platforms have come under recent scrutiny, with several works reporting that right-leaning accounts tend to receive more exposure. In this paper, we expand upon thi...
arxiv.org
December 10, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Recently accepted at ICWSM: arxiv.org/abs/2512.06129 (w/ @kayladuskin.bsky.social, @katestarbird.bsky.social, and @emmaspiro.bsky.social)
We look at how algorithmic feeds affect Twitter account visibility. More visible accounts:
-Are agitators
-Get attention from Elon Musk
-Are not legacy verified
We look at how algorithmic feeds affect Twitter account visibility. More visible accounts:
-Are agitators
-Get attention from Elon Musk
-Are not legacy verified
Reposted
New research on Twitter (right before rebranding to X) shows right leaning accounts got outsized visibility from the algorithm & suggests this bias stemmed from different content production techniques (more sensational, outrage-bait) and from direct interaction w/ the new king of the platform: Musk.
Recently accepted at ICWSM: arxiv.org/abs/2512.06129 (w/ @kayladuskin.bsky.social, @katestarbird.bsky.social, and @emmaspiro.bsky.social)
We look at how algorithmic feeds affect Twitter account visibility. More visible accounts:
-Are agitators
-Get attention from Elon Musk
-Are not legacy verified
We look at how algorithmic feeds affect Twitter account visibility. More visible accounts:
-Are agitators
-Get attention from Elon Musk
-Are not legacy verified
Rabble-Rousers in the New King's Court: Algorithmic Effects on Account Visibility in Pre-X Twitter
Algorithmic effects on social media platforms have come under recent scrutiny, with several works reporting that right-leaning accounts tend to receive more exposure. In this paper, we expand upon thi...
arxiv.org
December 10, 2025 at 8:40 PM
New research on Twitter (right before rebranding to X) shows right leaning accounts got outsized visibility from the algorithm & suggests this bias stemmed from different content production techniques (more sensational, outrage-bait) and from direct interaction w/ the new king of the platform: Musk.
Reposted
"there is little reason to doubt what the aim [of the massive investment in AI] is: to embed knowledge in machines—knowledge that previously belonged to the people working in these domains."
🧵
🧵
In applying AI to material science, biology, etc, capitalism is trying to shed science.
The point is to substitute the engineering of a machine that can generate what science has hitherto done, but without having people know things. Knowledge ultimately residing in private property is the dream.
The point is to substitute the engineering of a machine that can generate what science has hitherto done, but without having people know things. Knowledge ultimately residing in private property is the dream.
Jeff Bezos Creates A.I. Start-Up Where He Will Be Co-Chief Executive
www.nytimes.com
December 10, 2025 at 6:20 PM
"there is little reason to doubt what the aim [of the massive investment in AI] is: to embed knowledge in machines—knowledge that previously belonged to the people working in these domains."
🧵
🧵
Reposted
In the Trump administration’s war on truth, they have attempted to silence and intimidate those who stand in their way. In their latest attack, they try to strategically frame fact-checking as “censorship.” But fact-checking isn’t censorship, it’s speech.
www.poynter.org/news-release...
www.poynter.org/news-release...
IFCN statement on U.S. visa restrictions targeting fact-checkers - Poynter
New visa directives wrongly conflate journalism with censorship.
www.poynter.org
December 9, 2025 at 7:26 PM
In the Trump administration’s war on truth, they have attempted to silence and intimidate those who stand in their way. In their latest attack, they try to strategically frame fact-checking as “censorship.” But fact-checking isn’t censorship, it’s speech.
www.poynter.org/news-release...
www.poynter.org/news-release...
Reposted
Dean Jackson does a great job here connecting three major stories from this week to the now years-long "'censorship' greivance fantasy" crafted by right-wing conspiracy theorists and embraced by the Trump regime and its supporters: www.techpolicy.press/white-house-...
White House 'Censorship' Grievance Fantasy Kicks Into High Gear | TechPolicy.Press
Three related stories are each part of the larger geopolitical contest which now defines transatlantic relations, writes Dean Jackson.
www.techpolicy.press
December 5, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Dean Jackson does a great job here connecting three major stories from this week to the now years-long "'censorship' greivance fantasy" crafted by right-wing conspiracy theorists and embraced by the Trump regime and its supporters: www.techpolicy.press/white-house-...
Reposted
Reupping this since it looks like X is ab to get hit with a wave of fines under the Digital Services Act and JD Vance is already tweeting about how not complying with transparency and data access laws in the market you operate in is "censorship".
Get caught up:
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/regu...
Get caught up:
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/regu...
www.lawfaremedia.org
December 4, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Reupping this since it looks like X is ab to get hit with a wave of fines under the Digital Services Act and JD Vance is already tweeting about how not complying with transparency and data access laws in the market you operate in is "censorship".
Get caught up:
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/regu...
Get caught up:
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/regu...
Reposted
Holy shit.
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
December 4, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Holy shit.
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Reposted
This is what government censorship actually looks like: defunding entire fields, deporting researchers, and quite effectively chilling speech that helps people understand how our information systems are being exploited and calls out powerful people and platforms for their bullshit.
For the last decade, the pervasive spread of bullshit & manipulation of online platforms have been widely recognized societal concerns. Now non US citizens studying those subjects can be labeled “censors” & denied visas or deported from the US. Censorship, indeed. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Exclusive: Trump administration orders enhanced vetting for applicants of H-1B visa
An internal State Department memo said that anyone involved in "censorship" of free speech should be considered for rejection.
www.reuters.com
December 4, 2025 at 5:27 PM
This is what government censorship actually looks like: defunding entire fields, deporting researchers, and quite effectively chilling speech that helps people understand how our information systems are being exploited and calls out powerful people and platforms for their bullshit.
Reposted
For the last decade, the pervasive spread of bullshit & manipulation of online platforms have been widely recognized societal concerns. Now non US citizens studying those subjects can be labeled “censors” & denied visas or deported from the US. Censorship, indeed. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Exclusive: Trump administration orders enhanced vetting for applicants of H-1B visa
An internal State Department memo said that anyone involved in "censorship" of free speech should be considered for rejection.
www.reuters.com
December 4, 2025 at 3:10 PM
For the last decade, the pervasive spread of bullshit & manipulation of online platforms have been widely recognized societal concerns. Now non US citizens studying those subjects can be labeled “censors” & denied visas or deported from the US. Censorship, indeed. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Reposted
Absolutely devastating account of the CSU's $17 million capitulation to ChatGPT, from a fellow faculty member watching it happen www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
www.currentaffairs.org
December 3, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Absolutely devastating account of the CSU's $17 million capitulation to ChatGPT, from a fellow faculty member watching it happen www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
Reposted
UW CIP postdoc @mertcanbayar.bsky.social explains how a high-profile scientist's statements about the 3l/ATLAS comet harnessed uncertainty and attention dynamics, and spawned widespread speculation about an alien visitor, an "alien of the gaps" in human knowledge: www.cip.uw.edu/2025/12/03/3...
Alien of the gaps: How 3I/ATLAS was turned into a spaceship online
When we reach the frontier of current knowledge, we’re tempted to insert a higher power into the space where answers aren’t yet satisfying for all.
www.cip.uw.edu
December 3, 2025 at 8:52 PM
UW CIP postdoc @mertcanbayar.bsky.social explains how a high-profile scientist's statements about the 3l/ATLAS comet harnessed uncertainty and attention dynamics, and spawned widespread speculation about an alien visitor, an "alien of the gaps" in human knowledge: www.cip.uw.edu/2025/12/03/3...
Reposted
My wife has been HIV+ for 34 years. She’s alive today b/c work of activists who destigmatized the virus, pushed medical science to adapt & find ways to treat it, & advocated for gov health programs that helped fund her care. The current U.S. regime may want to go back in time, but we won’t let them.
December 2, 2025 at 1:27 AM
My wife has been HIV+ for 34 years. She’s alive today b/c work of activists who destigmatized the virus, pushed medical science to adapt & find ways to treat it, & advocated for gov health programs that helped fund her care. The current U.S. regime may want to go back in time, but we won’t let them.
Reposted
The UW Center for an Informed Public is looking for postdocs (for 2026-2028) from across diverse disciplines whose research sheds light on the challenges of our modern information environment, promotes civic health, and/or helps people/communities navigate online spaces: apply.interfolio.com/177901
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:26 PM
The UW Center for an Informed Public is looking for postdocs (for 2026-2028) from across diverse disciplines whose research sheds light on the challenges of our modern information environment, promotes civic health, and/or helps people/communities navigate online spaces: apply.interfolio.com/177901
Reposted
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
Also damning (and perhaps even more meaningful in retrospect) is how Jack was in there RTing Crystal1Johnson, revealing how the “new elites” of Twitter have long been high on their own supply (of disinformation). Jack just got his from the Gabbard wing of the “left” and now Elon from the hard right
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 4:27 PM
Also damning (and perhaps even more meaningful in retrospect) is how Jack was in there RTing Crystal1Johnson, revealing how the “new elites” of Twitter have long been high on their own supply (of disinformation). Jack just got his from the Gabbard wing of the “left” and now Elon from the hard right
Reposted
Social media could work differently. We teach digital literacy, but ppl often can’t apply those lessons w/in systems that obscure where info comes from & how it gets to them. What might social media look like if users had better signals of information provenance? www.rawstory.com/maga-foreign...
Internet erupts as MAGA influencers exposed for being based in other countries
A large number of MAGA social media influencers were exposed over the weekend as being being based in other countries.Podcaster Matt Binder posted screenshots showing that Charlie’s Voice Rising, a po...
www.rawstory.com
November 23, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Social media could work differently. We teach digital literacy, but ppl often can’t apply those lessons w/in systems that obscure where info comes from & how it gets to them. What might social media look like if users had better signals of information provenance? www.rawstory.com/maga-foreign...
Reposted
THREAD: Judge Ellis is the first federal judge to review extensive body cam video of DHS's actions in Chicago. She finds that DHS *repeatedly* misled the public and made claims that were disproven by agents' own videos.
I'll go through some of the most egregious ones here.
I'll go through some of the most egregious ones here.
![II. Credibility
The Court next addresses the credibility of the parties’ evidence and witnesses. After reviewing all the evidence submitted to the Court and listening to the testimony elicited at the preliminary injunction hearing, during depositions, and in other court proceedings, the Court finds Defendants’ evidence simply not credible. [FN 6]
Plaintiffs submitted a mountain of evidence, providing the Court with over eighty declarations, numerous videos and articles, and other evidence. Defendants did not rebut anything that Plaintiffs set forth in their declarations or testimony, even with BWC footage.
[FN 6] In another case considering some of the same evidence presented to this Court, another court in this district also found that the perceptions of certain of Defendants’ declarants, such as Hott and Parra, were not reliable. See Illinois v. Trump, No. 25-cv-12174, 2025 WL 2886645, at *5 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 10, 2025) (noting a “troubling trend of Defendants’ declarants equating protests with riots and a lack of appreciation for the wide spectrum that exists between citizens who are observing, questioning, and criticizing their government, and those who are obstructing, assaulting, or doing violence”), motion to stay denied in part, 155 F.4th 929 (7th Cir. 2025).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2vtbmhmrwzbqcfv4we4uxzzt/bafkreifpyry2il5toxbr3iejgrsxs6kmnwve75qwnhebfp44ieyjrfpsdu@jpeg)
November 20, 2025 at 11:04 PM
THREAD: Judge Ellis is the first federal judge to review extensive body cam video of DHS's actions in Chicago. She finds that DHS *repeatedly* misled the public and made claims that were disproven by agents' own videos.
I'll go through some of the most egregious ones here.
I'll go through some of the most egregious ones here.
Reposted
The party that promised "free speech on campus" has made sure there can be no free speech on campuses.
This week, I withdrew from a speaking engagement at a public university because they sent me a list of prohibited “words & concepts.” I will not humor this censorship. It does a disservice to the stories I’m discussing & the audience, who deserve unfettered access to information & conversation.
November 21, 2025 at 4:25 AM
The party that promised "free speech on campus" has made sure there can be no free speech on campuses.
Reposted
I am by no means a prominent public intellectual, but my inbox is increasingly filled with messages from people who have been convinced by sycophantic chatbots that they have discovered revolutionary theories that entirely upend our scientific understanding of the universe.
November 21, 2025 at 2:49 AM
I am by no means a prominent public intellectual, but my inbox is increasingly filled with messages from people who have been convinced by sycophantic chatbots that they have discovered revolutionary theories that entirely upend our scientific understanding of the universe.
Reposted
Cool story in the @salish-current.org about our collaboration with Sedro-Woolley high school teachers Linsey Kitchens and Anna Ferdinand to bring _Modern Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines_ (thebullshitmachines.com) to a high school audience.
Sedro-Woolley English teachers bring AI literacy into the classroom
Several English classes at Sedro-Woolley High School are implementing lesson plans designed by Linsey Kitchens to help students understand the limitations of artificial intelligence programs such as C...
salish-current.org
November 20, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Cool story in the @salish-current.org about our collaboration with Sedro-Woolley high school teachers Linsey Kitchens and Anna Ferdinand to bring _Modern Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines_ (thebullshitmachines.com) to a high school audience.
Reposted
Our team at the @cip.uw.edu is currently seeking applications for up to two postdoctoral scholar positions. Applications received prior to January 15, 2026 will be given priority. Learn more about the positions, salary range, qualifications and application process: apply.interfolio.com/177901
November 20, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Our team at the @cip.uw.edu is currently seeking applications for up to two postdoctoral scholar positions. Applications received prior to January 15, 2026 will be given priority. Learn more about the positions, salary range, qualifications and application process: apply.interfolio.com/177901
Reposted
I missed this when it initially came out, but now it seems the whole country is about to see this video, through one frame or another.
We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.
The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.
Don’t give up the ship.
The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.
Don’t give up the ship.
November 20, 2025 at 4:28 PM
I missed this when it initially came out, but now it seems the whole country is about to see this video, through one frame or another.
How "Gold Standard Science" of them. Really showing us how science should be ignor- um, interpreted
This is completely disgusting. Today, the CDC updated their vaccine safety page. It now says:
“The claim "vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism”.
“The claim "vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism”.
November 20, 2025 at 3:41 PM
How "Gold Standard Science" of them. Really showing us how science should be ignor- um, interpreted
Reposted
Elon Musk's Grokipedia cites a neo-Nazi website 42 times, researchers say www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-mu...
Elon Musk’s Grokipedia cites Stormfront — a neo-Nazi forum — dozens of times, study finds
An analysis by researchers at Cornell University is the first comprehensive look at Grokipedia since Musk launched his project last month.
www.nbcnews.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Elon Musk's Grokipedia cites a neo-Nazi website 42 times, researchers say www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-mu...