“We are living in the most momentous and dangerous of times.” www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/w...

this piece with @oxanashevel.bsky.social nationalinterest.org/feature/be-w...

So much great work coming out on people-first tech lately! Today from KGI, an incredibly detailed report on recommender systems by a collection of rockstar technologists. We focus so much on moderation, but *curation*- particularly recommendation- really matters! kgi.georgetown.edu/research-and...

I am writing up talking points for a int’l symposium event on what the west must do to deter adversaries from using disinformation in conflict. Realizing tho that the notion of a unified “west” is an increasingly an antiquated and out of date notion. And it blows my mind.

Disinformation & propaganda reinforce social identity. Emotional need for belonging seems to dominate the need to understand what’s really going on. RAND Corporation Sr Scientist @toddhelmus.bsky.social discussed this in the context of terror groups. m.youtube.com/watch?v=GvC2...

As a reporter who covered the Facebook apology tour circa 2016, and spent HOURS on the phone with FB flak and executives earnestly telling me Zuckerberg was torn up over Russian election interference and was making it a top priority to fix misinfo on FB, this week’s developments are 🙃

Emily Gross and I shared beers while chatting on her podcast, @beerocracy.bsky.social. Beers aside, we spoke about a deadly serious topic, extremism and suicide-protest among veterans. We also spoke about how my participation in a One-Wheel Facebook group explains online radicalization.

And this story is heartbreaking. A devil’s brew of PTSD, depression, paranoid delusions and TBI. Was he getting the care he needed or was he left out in the lurch by the Army? www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...

Fascinating story about the New Orleans attacker’s deepening spiral to isolation and puritanical Islam. But still no public evidence that he consumed extremist propaganda or connected with recruiters or other followers. So the big question still remains. Why ISIS? www.nytimes.com/2025/01/04/u...

A provocative little tidbit here that the United Health Care assassination suspect was captured with document that indicates “ill will towards corporate America.” Could this broader than a targeted killing and veer into the terrorism arena? www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...