So if you make a video game that's too sexy you can be left destitute, but the richest man in the world gets to monetise his child porn generator. That's cool

By "confidently claiming that one blurry clip shows evidence of domestic terrorism, the Trump administration is asking the public to disbelieve their own eyes... Who needs AI manipulations when your preferred angle will do the job well enough?" — @miasato.bsky.social www.theverge.com/tech/858710/...

Surely it's unlawful to ask #Grok to 'put her in a bikini'? Many people have been asking about the legal position of the #Grok #X abuse of women and girls. There's been a lot of misunderstanding and confusion. Here's my take on the current law in the UK and how it applies... #nudify #bikini #enough

Got research ideas in the pipeline, but they're stuck due to life

Eludamos has a new CFP for a Special issue: New Perspectives on Men and Masculinity in Gaming Eludamos invites scholars in game studies and beyond to submit full papers for a special issue on men and masculinity in gaming, with deadline March 15, 2026.

GOING BOX MODE 📦 Pleased to share the intro to our CSMC Special Issue on games + Sofia's theory of "container technologies." From solar gaming & trucking sims to hot tub streams & apocalypse bunkers, 13 articles square up for an expanded definition of gaming cultures: doi.org/10.1080/1529...

First MEP report. Medical research often uses non-parametric tests. We looked, and noticed that small-sample rank-based tests (i.e. M-W, Wilcoxon) have significant granularity... like p-values! So, here's GRIM for U values -- GRIM-U. Enjoy. medicalevidenceproject.org/grim-u-obser...

In the aftermath of Github banning or suspending dozens of popular accounts, the eroge modding community wonders if they should move to platforms like GitGoon instead.

New: 6,700. That's how many sexually suggestive or nudifying images Grok is producing every hour, according to an analysis. X is now a top deepfake site. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

New, from me: The Trump administration isn’t just using social media to shape a narrative. They view the world through a social media lens in a way that is plausibly corrupting their judgment and undermining their performance. Welcome to the clicktatorship. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/life-under...

Cc @jayvanbavel.bsky.social

A new paper by George Borjas—who served this past year in the Trump White House designing some of its anti-immigration policies—claims to display evidence of ideological bias among researchers who study immigration. doi.org/10.1126/scia... 🧵 Thread—>

cc @taylorlorenz.bsky.social & other freelance journalists

Socializing While Alone: Loss of Impact and Engagement When Interacting Remotely via Technology. Perspectives on Psychological Science. by Roy F. Baumeister, Michaela T. Bibbly, Dianne M. Tice & Brad J. Bushman doi.org/10.1177/1745...

The rise of deepfakes and AI CSAM prove public and private sectors don’t actually care about abuse, but still punish sex workers, queer people, and women under that guise. Credit cards companies and law enforcement punish consensual sex and sexuality, but ignore and therefore encourage abuse

As our government seeks to erase the truth of five years ago, I am deeply grateful for all those researchers whose words shine with such clarity in our Media and January 6th @oxfordunipress.bsky.social book: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Scarce research funding is becoming more economically costly than the actual investment, especially when it’s a drop in the bucket for profoundly stupid fad topics like “GenAI to solve Africa’s problems.” This piece is SO important: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The Academic Work Tracker spreadsheet is now updated with 2026 dates! If you don't already, 2026 is a great time to start treating your academic work like the wage job where you are paid to work a certain amount of hours that it actually is: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

I feel sad and depressive from browsing LinkedIn. The posts I am exposed to elicit social comparisons in me: humble-bragging, toxic positivity, hustle & neoliberalist framing, ego-boosting, fake job postings, among others. All under that LinkedIn norms of faux high achievement professionalism

🚨 New paper drop! How does a social movement once started out powerful somehow turn into a partisan battle? In our new publication in @icsjournal.bsky.social, we answer this question by analyzing 83 million #MeToo tweets from 2017–2020. 1/

@profsanderlinden.bsky.social and his team uncovered real costs of creating a bot army. It's unnervingly low👀 Read @cam.ac.uk press release below👇 The story also featured in @reuters.com & @financialtimes.com The original article in @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The end goal of Grok sexual harassment is to make women afraid to be visible. It’s a punishment for daring to exist in a way the perpetrators can’t control. There’s no one solution to this, because the problem isn’t just technological. It’s cultural. It’s misogyny. This is just one expression of it.

This celebration of corruption, violence, invasion, and colonization is also made possible through the systemic dehumanization of people living in the global south. The Trump administration weaponizes centuries of this rhetoric and its longstanding appeal to Americans

Car Talk sent me some merch. Very cool.

Online harms impact everyone. In 2025, CCDH research shined the spotlight on the consequences of online misogyny & unregulated AI can have on kids, parents, and communities. Our work isn’t done yet. In 2026, we’ll continue to work to build safer digital spaces for all people. More ️️ ⤵️

We have to impeach him.

It seems bookdown is shutting down, and so I've migrated the free online version of Evaluating What Works here: dorothybishop-evaluating-what-works.share.connect.posit.cloud Hard copy also available here: www.routledge.com/Evaluating-W...

You do not need to be a fan of Maduro to think that this is both morally abhorrent and world-historically fucking stupid.

Talk by Cory Doctorow on de-enshitification of the digital world youtu.be/39jsstmmUUs?...

This slide about being a good #scientist vs. a good #academic was published in 2015 by @gerrycarter.bsky.social Have there been significant changes since then? www.slideshare.net/slideshow/ac...

Why do we always chose the most challenging way to go @kerriadrueppel.bsky.social 😅? Data donation via TikTok. At least we can say that we absolutely experience the validity of what is found www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... by @lionw.bsky.social , @dscheykopp.bsky.social pp.bsky.social et al.

Love, T., Dal Cin, S., & Williams, A. (2025). Shade visibility: Assessing the algorithmic role of colorism in the perception of Black beauty influencers. New Media & Society, 14614448251400684. doi.org/10.1177/1461...

How social responses to online hate messages affect hatefulness by @crazybrokeasian.bsky.social @robinlange.bsky.social @jennyidizhaang.bsky.social & Joseph P. Walther journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Baumler, R., & Palomares, N. A. (2025). Using Gender-Inclusive Restrooms Promotes Positive Attitudes Toward Trans and Non-Binary People: Explanations from Gender Salience and Intergroup Contact. Sex Roles, 92(1), 1. doi.org/10.1007/s111...

An astonishing percentage of Americans are open to car-free living. The problem isn't attitudes. The problem is the failure to invest in viable options. humantransit.org/2025/12/many...

Untitled Yakuza Game

According to internal documents, Meta makes it difficult for regulators to detect scam ads. It's part of an effort to stave off pressure to rein in lucrative scam ads. To increase transparency around paid ads, this was why we launched @polidashboard.org. See: socialmedialab.ca/2025/07/29/p...

According to my records, 471 academic publications on videogames were published for 2025. 66 were related to multiplayer experiences, 30 were related to sexism and 14 were related to sexual harassment. Finally, 13 were related to media violence/effects. That is all.

Saw Bluesky described as where elder millennials go to retire from the internet, and immediately felt the peace that passes all understanding wash over me. None of have to struggle any longer. We completed our time.

van Tuijl, C. J. W., te Brinke, L. W., Gonçalves, M., & van der Waal, J. (2025). Why Do People Perpetrate Sexual Harassment in Public Space? A Systematic Scoping Review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. doi.org/10.1177/1524...

New article ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Zhang, K., Tan, C., & Zhao, Y. (2025). Playing cosplay seriously: exploring cosplay as a form of serious leisure. Leisure Studies, 1–19. #FanStudies doi.org/10.1080/0261...

1. LLM-generated code tries to run code from online software packages. Which is normal but 2. The packages don’t exist. Which would normally cause an error but 3. Nefarious people have made malware under the package names that LLMs make up most often. So 4. Now the LLM code points to malware.

Eaton, A. A., Scott, A. J., Flynn, A., & Powell, A. (2025). Perceptions of sexualized #deepfake abuse across three nations: An exploration of how victim gender & race shape attitudes towards deepfake abuse in USA, UK & Australia. Computers in Human Behavior doi.org/10.1016/j.ch...

Something people outside of education maybe don’t realize is the culture that encourages students to argue every grade, even good ones, destroys trust and puts a hard cap on whatever learning might result. It’s also, from the instructor’s perspective, exhausting and drives grade inflation.

Why am I so against generative AI in games? Because I simply do not want my initial reaction to art to be one of suspicion and scrutiny, AI slop is fundamentally damaging my relationship to art and artistry, and I am deeply resentful that it is forcing me to be guarded when I should be wowed.

I did not understand this: one of the five Europeans the US has barred from traveling to the United States...is a permanent resident who lives with his family in the US. Now he is worried about being arrested and deported for the crime of monitoring online hate. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/u...

I'm super pleased to have a short new essay live on @assignedmedia.org this morning. It's about surviving the holidays while estranged. Huge thanks as always to my wonderful editor @evanurquhart.bsky.social ... www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new... Grateful to all who read and share this one.