There had better be trials. And not just for the low-level thugs carrying out these orders, but for everyone up the chain of command. If we get past this, the solution isn’t to pretend it never happened and invite Stephen Miller to Harvard’s Institute of Politics. It’s trials w real punishments.

When people ask me how we can stop online scams, I point to THIS

Very exciting to see activists launching a new nonprofit today to keep building on the community of volunteers that came together to get Mamdani elected. Our Time is a 501(c)(4) and plans to start events in December.

Genuine question: who is advising Mamdani on tech, surveillance, AI, etc?

Engagement-based #algorithms amplify intergroup hostility + moral-emotional content, leading it to be overrepresented in your feed This leads us to falsely perceive that people want to see this kind of content and share more of it. This technology fuels false polarization: osf.io/preprints/os...

Wow it turns out the entire country is not permanently reactionary because Trump won an election by 1.5%

There are a large number of Democratic politicians who insist that Jonathan Haidt is a reliable narrator and one who they should take their legislative cues from. They should be asked why they're supporting someone the Heritage Foundation is cheering on in their efforts to censor the internet.

Read more from my fantastic team at D&S studying how people use general purpose LLMs for mental health and emotional support, including a new Big Data & Society paper:

🚨NEW PAPER ALERT 🚨 @tamigraph.bsky.social @briana-v.bsky.social and I discuss wellness chatbots, their labor implications, & "private vibes" vs "privacy". We call for critical human-AI communication scholarship that takes into account context & political economy: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Since moving to civil society, I've noticed a huge dearth of support for researchers working in the space - although there are tons of us! Come join this D&SxACLUxCDT event where we talk about the opportunities and challenges of research to support tech policy & advocacy!

KOSA KEEPS RISING FROM THE DEAD - DON'T LET THIS ZOMBIE BILL SUCCEED. It would implement widespread age verification across all 50 states and censor queer/reproductive content!

mom's group chat at my son's old school poppin' this morning because a kid sent a TikTok to the kids group chat "Where Peppa comes home to find her family slain in pools of blood, and she kills Shrek with a sword in revenge"

OK, given Harvard's news, thinking through a drastically reduced PhD student workforce: * Fewer grad student labor for TAs: Best case: new tenured positions! More likely: more adjuncts * Fewer graduates of PhD programs. Best case: More PhD candidates get jobs! More likely: Fewer jobs

Great! So great! Everything is just great!

D&S Director of Research @alicetiara.bsky.social talks to @kqedforum.bsky.social about what increasingly realistic deepfake videos mean for our ability to trust what we see online, with @jasonkoebler.bsky.social & @maxread.info. www.kqed.org/forum/201010...

🎙️ ON AIR: We're talking to journalist @maxread.info, @datasociety.bsky.social's @alicetiara.bsky.social and @404media.co's @jasonkoebler.bsky.social about the impact that increasingly realistic deepfake videos could have on our society. ❓Are AI videos changing how you use the internet? 📻 Listen:

This was such a great convo and thrilled to be part of a whole series on scams and schemes. Thanks @alixdunn.com !

Are there any AI-specific journals that publish qual work?

fantastic op-ed from my D&S colleagues Ranjit Singh and Livia Garofolo about the needs of guardrails on general purpose LLMs for mental health undark.org/2025/09/18/o...

hey y'all, working on an R&R and I need some good criticisms of CASA (computers as social actors) applied to AI. I'm having a really hard time finding good articles or overviews. Any suggestions? I already have Suchman.

First up, on September 5 @ 6 pm ET: a grounding conversation about how AI technologies are reshaping daily life, featuring ‪D&S director of research @alicetiara.bsky.social, advisors @merbroussard.bsky.social & Mimi Ọnụọha, & board member @geomblog.bsky.social. www.showclix.com/event/unders...

Hi hello @onthemedia.bsky.social is rerunning some interviews I did. One with @beccalew.bsky.social and another with Bluesky CEO @jay.bsky.team. The episode also features @mmasnick.bsky.social, and @mollyfication.bsky.social’s excellent interview with @amandahess.bsky.social. Great show! Listen:

I'm looking for smart people doing interesting work on what AI means for scientific knowledge production & epistemology.. any recs? I already know @mjcrockett.bsky.social of course

New work from @alicetiara.bsky.social‬, Courtlyn Pippert, Elaine Schnabel, and me recently published in Social Media + Society! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... (1/6)

Data Centers Aren't the Future of American Prosperity- @tamigraph.bsky.social & @mwoluchem.bsky.social bust the myths of data centers: they don't massively increase jobs, they don't increase clean energy investment, and they don't benefit local communities! OH SNAP datasociety.net/library/data...

New: As Trump prepares to unveil his "AI Action Plan," more than 80 labor, environmental, consumer and tech watchdog groups have signed on to a "People's AI Action Plan" that calls for regulations that put ordinary people's interests over those of the industry. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

I am looking for an assistant! D&S is hiring a research assistant to the director of research (ME). This is primarily a administrative position, but includes light research & editing. Fully remote. Perfect for a pre-doc. Please forward! job-boards.greenhouse.io/datasocietyr...

Villanova University, where I am currently working, has a position in digital sociology and/or STS studies. I am not on the search committee and happy to answer any questions you may have. www.higheredjobs.com/state/detail...

I am so incredibly sad to hear about the passing of Brandi Collins-Dexter, a wonderful writer, researcher, and activist. My thoughts go out to her friends, family, and colleagues.❤️

User-generated videos of aggressive ICE raids remind Director of Research @alicetiara.bsky.social of how the Black Lives Matter mvmt used eyewitness video to reveal the reality of a problem. “These videos show this isn’t business as usual,” she tells @nbcnews.com‬. www.nbcnews.com/specials/tru...

After Trans People, Trump Now Erasing Bisexual People From Stonewall National Monument www.erininthemorning.com/p/after-tran...

TIL that Usenet was invented by UNC-CH/Duke to share articles across campuses. How did I never know this?

In the new TMK, I'm joined by @alicetiara.bsky.social —research director at @datasociety.bsky.social — to chat about a new report she co-authored on how generative AI is now unleashing a new world of fraud, making it easier than ever to scam-at-scale. soundcloud.com/thismachinek...

BIG NEWS: After a long investigation we have uncovered that Axon's Draft One--a program that uses genAI to write police reports based on body-worn camera audio--is *designed* not to retain the data on which parts were written by an officer and which parts were written by AI. A looming disaster.

I chat with @jathansadowski.com about AI, scams, and conspiracy theories on the new ep of This Machine Kills. soundcloud.com/thismachinek... and don't forget to read @lanalanalana.bsky.social and I's report on ScamGPT: datasociety.net/library/scam...

Wow, the film/media/comm list of AUP was sold to Taylor & Francis (huge conglom that makes $$$$ on research that we do on our own dime, submit for free, revise for free, review for free, and pay for OA)- a bunch of editors promptly quit & I suspect more are forthcoming. Good for them

As products like Duolingo and Audible integrate more AI into their products, some customers are unhappy, feeling like “there is something about these products that was interesting or special that’s lost to AI,” D&S's @alicetiara.bsky.social says. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Now disinformation is a forbidden word the regime has to twist themselves into knots to avoid using it.

ONCE MORE FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK, I'M BEGGING YOU

Yay! It's a start at least. Better news than HUD kicking NSF out of its building.

This @talkingpointsmemo.com essay is a great example of the limits of "alignment" concepts and metrics for understanding the genuine risks of AI. They get the phenomenon entirely correct, but miss the fact that this is actually a case of successful alignment. talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/groks-w...

I can’t say enough good things about ranked choice voting and how pleasurable it made this primary- the coalition between Lander and Mamdani was wonderful; great convos with friends about the candidates; you could have a different slate than a friend and it was NBD at all (assuming no Cuomo)

I fucking love Brad Lander

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: @authorsalliance.bsky.social, with the support of @knightfoundation.org, is offering grants of up to $20,000 to catalyze research projects at the intersection of artificial intelligence, copyright law, and the public interest.

Working on platform governance? Join for PlatGovNet 2025 Free online conference Dec 1-2 Extended abstracts (800-1000 words) due Sep 2 Amazing community, opportunity to share work, get feedback, meet others working in this area. Glad to be part of organizing it Details: platgov.net/conferences/...

As we head to Election Day, for folks who voted early, thank you. I know some folks have not yet made up their minds. I am making an appeal to you. Please do not rank Cuomo. I have worked with every single one of the candidates for mayor. I will tell you he does not like us.

inspired by @classicweb.site which posts wonderful screenshots of late 90s/early 00s personal homepages and blogs, who besides @kottke.org is still homepaging and/or blogging? Hasn't turned into an influencer, journalist, YouTuber, academic, or retiree?

Incredibly moving essay, thanks @dannagal.bsky.social <3 <3 <3

It's easy to forget now but we had decades of steady advancement on trans rights. The 2016 bathroom bills invited huge backlash! It was only after the media constructed sports and youth medications as 'debates' that opposition moved from the far right to the polite center.

New policy brief: There's no reason to ban state AI regulation. Our fabulous policy team Brian Chen and Serena Oduru bust the myths underpinning the Big Beautiful Bill: datasociety.net/library/ther...