John Sands
@iohn.bsky.social
📤 1257
📥 1097
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information•society•cats Opinions my own
reposted by
John Sands
Knight First Amendment Institute
5 days ago
In a new piece for our Reconstructing Free Expression series,
@mikeananny.bsky.social
writes about the “Media Industrial Complex”—our current media environment shaped and driven by powerful individuals—and how we can move towards a media environment in line with the public interest.
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Is Individualism the Problem? Toward a System of Free Expression that Challenges the Media Individualism Complex
https://knightcolumbia.org/blog/is-individualism-the-problem-toward-a-system-of-free-expression-that-challenges-the-media-individualism-complex
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reposted by
John Sands
Stanford Law Review
19 days ago
In the first Article,
@aliciasn.bsky.social
argues that the rise of artificial intelligence has triggered an "inter-regime doctrinal collapse" between privacy law and copyright law, enabling leading AI developers to exploit data acquisition and evade legal oversight.
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AI and Doctrinal Collapse | Stanford Law Review
https://www.stanfordlawreview.org/print/article/ai-and-doctrinal-collapse/
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Uh, no
23 days ago
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reposted by
John Sands
Data & Society
25 days ago
"AI threatens to enclose what’s left of our threadbare epistemic commons — the bottom-level online communication where people still figure out what they think, together,"
@edwardongwesojr.com
writes.
www.thedriftmag.com/directing-th...
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Directing the Herd
Social media platforms don’t produce a common public; they produce competing sub-publics, each with its own sense of what everyone knows.
https://www.thedriftmag.com/directing-the-herd/
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My colleague
@ajdamico.bsky.social
wrote about our approach to funding research.
add a skeleton here at some point
26 days ago
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reposted by
John Sands
Mike Masnick
30 days ago
This is amazing.
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reposted by
John Sands
Petter Törnberg
about 1 month ago
Social media is no longer social. Most of it is passive viewing of videos and pictures from people we've never met. But we're still studying social media like it's 2010. We've entered the post-social media era — and research needs to catch up.
osf.io/preprints/so...
preprint w/ Richard Rogers
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reposted by
John Sands
Pew Research Center
about 1 month ago
Attention to local news has declined since 2016, mirroring trends in attention to national news and news in general.
www.pewresearch.org/...
#PewKnightInitative
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reposted by
John Sands
Pew Research Center
about 1 month ago
About two-thirds of Americans say they at least sometimes get news from their local TV news station – down slightly from the 70% who said the same in 2018.
www.pewresearch.org/...
#PewKnightInitative
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Why It’s Crucial We Understand How A.I. ‘Thinks’
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Why It’s Crucial We Understand How A.I. ‘Thinks’
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/magazine/ai-black-box-interpretability-research.html?unlocked_article_code=1.bFA.QXxK.PVRPwfoYYPPR&smid=nytcore-ios-share
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
John Sands
AAUP
about 1 month ago
The Trump admin’s rewriting of rules governing college accreditation “obliterates” autonomy & is is being described as “a cluster bomb being dropped on American higher education.”
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Experts: New Accreditation Rules Threaten Academic Freedom
The draft proposals, up for discussion this week, could change how accreditors oversee colleges and what they measure, but some say they violate existing federal law.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/accreditation/2026/04/13/experts-new-accreditation-rules-threaten-academic-freedom?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=34e09bc6bb-DNU_2021_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-34e09bc6bb-712368854&mc_cid=34e09bc6bb
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China’s Electrostate Is Poised to Win From War in the Middle East
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/business/energy-environment/china-energy-battery-grid.html?unlocked_article_code=1.alA.0Brn.Jw8rmPhDHpWm&smid=nytcore-ios-share
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
John Sands
Tech Policy Press
about 2 months ago
India’s internet censorship is not a centralized “Great Firewall,” says Tech Policy Press Contributing Editor Amber Sinha. He discusses research that illuminates an opaque system where ISPs enforce blocking through practices such as DNS manipulation, producing often invisible restrictions to users.
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India’s Decentralized System of Internet Censorship
Amber Sinha discusses research that illuminates India’s fragmented system of internet control.
https://buff.ly/X8EVN58
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reposted by
John Sands
Casey Newton
about 2 months ago
Anthropic's Mythos model represents a dangerous new moment for cybersecurity. Experts tell me that hackers and nation states may catch up within months — and that the cat-and-mouse game between attacker and defender is about to become much more high-stakes
www.platformer.news/anthropic-my...
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How an iconic Masters moment came to be, and has come to last (Gift Article)
When Shota Hayafuji bowed to Augusta National Golf Course 5 years ago only one camera was there to notice it.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7165197/2026/04/02/masters-caddie-bow-hideki-matsuyama-shota-hayafuji/?unlocked_article_code=1.YlA.m30x.lL_uPl63Repj&source=athletic_user_shared_gift_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta
about 2 months ago
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@knightfoundation.org
is currently accepting applications for the Knight Cities Challenge, a $5 million open call inviting individuals and organizations across its 26 communities to submit new, creative ideas for projects that can spark change and leave a lasting local impact.
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Knight Cities Challenge - Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation is launching the Knight Cities Challenge, a $5 million open call for new ideas across its 26 communities that spark change and create lasting local impact.
https://knightfoundation.org/knight-cities-challenge/
about 2 months ago
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John Sands
Carl Quintanilla
about 2 months ago
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John Sands
Mike Masnick
about 2 months ago
Interesting data point on the discussion over "addictive feeds"
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reposted by
John Sands
Garrett M. Graff
2 months ago
I wrote a lot about Bob Mueller across a lot of chapters of his career. I wanted to share two
@wired.com
pieces that I wrote about his defining life experiences—both a picture of an era of public service all but lost today: 1) His brave *voluntary* service in Vietnam:
www.wired.com/story/robert...
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The Untold Story of Robert Mueller's Time in Combat
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's job is to make sense of how Russia hacked the 2016 election. But to make sense of Mueller, you have to revisit Vietnam's bloodiest battles.
https://www.wired.com/story/robert-mueller-vietnam/
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reposted by
John Sands
Kate Knibbs
2 months ago
Chicken soup for the soul (which is apparently still around)! is suing Anthropic for pirating copies of the book to train Claude. The number of AI copyright lawsuits is inching closer to 100
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
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Complaint – #1 in Chicken Soup for the Soul, LLC v. Anthropic PBC (N.D. Cal., 5:26-cv-02333) – CourtListener.com
Complaint
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.466060/gov.uscourts.cand.466060.1.0_1.pdf
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I wrote about why
@knightfoundation.org
invested in
@bsky.app
: philanthropy can act when mission & opportunity align. We believe in
@jay.bsky.team
's vision for a better social web—& in ideas (like
@masnick.com
's) that grow out of the research ecosystem Knight has long supported.
kf.org/kfbluesky
add a skeleton here at some point
2 months ago
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2 months ago
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John Sands
Josh Marshall
2 months ago
Crazy crazy story. Times of Israel reporter ( English language Israeli news site ) gets escalating death threats to change story that’s at center of big polymarket bet.
www.timesofisrael.com/gamblers-try...
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Gamblers trying to win a bet on Polymarket are vowing to kill me if I don’t rewrite an Iran missile story
Bettors are using death threats to try to get The Times of Israel's military correspondent to change his report on a missile impact in central Israel. This is his alarming account
https://www.timesofisrael.com/gamblers-trying-to-win-a-bet-on-polymarket-are-vowing-to-kill-me-if-i-dont-rewrite-an-iran-missile-story/?utm_source=Breaking+News&utm_campaign=breaking-news-2026-03-16-3777273&utm_medium=email
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REQVIESCAT IN PACE JVERGEN HABERMAS
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Jürgen Habermas Dies at 96; One of Postwar Germany’s Most Influential Thinkers
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/books/jurgen-habermas-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.TVA.lXPF.hgMKA0LqJBMA&smid=nytcore-ios-share
2 months ago
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reposted by
John Sands
Knight First Amendment Institute
2 months ago
🗯️ Can
#middleware
save social media? Join
@noupside.bsky.social
,
@nadinefj.bsky.social
,
@lehogg.bsky.social
,
@daphnek.bsky.social
,
@ryanheadedsouth.bsky.social
,
@rreisman.bsky.social
,
@oliviersylvain.bsky.social
,
@ethanz.bsky.social
,
@ramyakrishnan.bsky.social
to discuss. RSVP:
bit.ly/3P3Uf6M
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reposted by
John Sands
Mor Naaman
3 months ago
Heroes. Quite the effort and dedication on this one. Unfortunately, not an easily repeatable process for most researchers looking for access, but can hopefully inform lawmakers.
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reposted by
John Sands
Tech Policy Press
3 months ago
Quantum is bursting with promise that feels just out of reach—much like pre-generative AI. A breakthrough 'LLM moment' may soon arrive, write DLA Piper's Danny Tobey, Ashley Carr and Michael Atleson. What hopefully won't follow: the hyped product claims that plagued AI.
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We Need to Disentangle Hype from AI and Quantum Computing
Much like AI in its pre-generative stage, quantum is bursting with promise that feels just out of reach, write Danny Tobey, Ashley Carr, and Michael Atleson.
https://buff.ly/F7q3Kiv
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reposted by
John Sands
Data & Society
3 months ago
"When fluent speech without responsibility becomes normal...it changes what it means to be human," Deb Roy writes, weighing how AI might be training us to “accept words without ownership and meaning without accountability.”
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
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Words Without Consequence
What does it mean to have speech without a speaker?
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/02/words-without-consequence/685974/
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reposted by
John Sands
Alondra Nelson
3 months ago
“Many of their commanders are especially delighted with how graphic this battle will be zeroing in on how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100% accordance with fundamentalist Christian end of the world eschatology.”
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
John Sands
Charlie Warzel
3 months ago
had a death in the family and was almost completely off the internet for a few days & my observation is that there is too much happening too fast such that basic facts abt the world are difficult to ascertain unless you are mainlining info all the time & doing that seems to drive people insane
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reposted by
John Sands
Giles MacDonogh
3 months ago
Writing earlier than we thought:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
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Patterns on mammoth tusks help to retell history of writing
Scientists believe they have found evidence of written thoughts of Stone Age people on ancient objects.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgknj7yyv2o
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reposted by
John Sands
John Gramlich
3 months ago
Teens in the US are much more likely to say AI will have a positive than negative effect on them personally over the next 20 years (36% vs. 15%).
www.pewresearch.org/internet/202...
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John Sands
Ethan Mollick
3 months ago
Human interaction is going to shift to discords and group chats, invite-only. The open web and social media are going to be left for the agents lurking amongst the ruins. Everything public will be Moltbook. It hasn’t fully hit BlueSky yet, but LinkedIn and X are just meaning-shaped comments by LLMs
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The universe of critical, fundable research is much, much bigger than gen AI
add a skeleton here at some point
3 months ago
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reposted by
John Sands
Matthew Facciani
3 months ago
This paper argues that the rush to study gen AI has led researchers to focus on the same topics and rely on the same methods. As a result, creativity is limited and the diversity of ideas needed to keep research flexible, strong, and innovative is being pushed aside.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
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AI is turning research into a scientific monoculture - Communications Psychology
The rush to study generative AI is producing a feedback loop of topical and methodological convergence, flattening scientific imagination and crowding out the pluralism needed to keep research adaptiv...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-026-00428-5
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THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS The Consequences of Abundant Intelligence
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THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS
A Thought Exercise in Financial History, from the Future
https://www.citriniresearch.com/p/2028gic
3 months ago
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reposted by
John Sands
Michael C. Dorf
3 months ago
Today I'm helping to lead the first convening of the Reconstructing Free Expression project at
@knightcolumbia.org
. I'm excited to brainstorm with the other participants (including
@genevievelakier.bsky.social
,
@jamalgreene.bsky.social
&
@ksabeelrahman.bsky.social
). Preview here 👇
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My Opening Salvo for the New Knight Institute Initiative on Reconstructing Free Expression After Trump: Supporting and Implementing Truth as a Free Speech Value
Over the course of the last 13 months, I have frequently found myself relatively clear-eyed when diagnosing the dire condition of our consti...
https://www.dorfonlaw.org/2026/02/my-opening-salvo-for-new-knight.html
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reposted by
John Sands
Kara Swisher
3 months ago
Such a great column by new
@washingtonpost.com
food dude — I hate a bossy restaurant
www.washingtonpost.com/food/2026/02...
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Column | It’s time to retire the restaurant monologue
When did dinner out start to feel like a TED Talk?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2026/02/20/chef-monologue-restaurants-storytelling/
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reposted by
John Sands
Drew Harwell
3 months ago
New: A comedian set up a fake ICE tip line as a joke. Then 100 calls flooded in: neighbors ratting on neighbors, a teacher reporting a kindergartener. Fans say the viral TikToks revealed deportation's "banality of evil." Conservatives say he should be in prison
wapo.st/4kM4qbF
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A fake ICE tip line reveals neighbors reporting neighbors
A Nashville comedian’s deportation hotline, set up as a joke, has gone viral among viewers who say it shows the “banality of evil personified” in the U.S. immigration crackdown.
https://wapo.st/4kM4qbF
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John Sands
Jameel Jaffer
3 months ago
First contribution to
@knightcolumbia.org
’s new initiative on “Reconstructing Free Expression” is from
@jamalgreene.bsky.social
—and it is exceptionally insightful and worth reading.
knightcolumbia.org/blog/free-ex...
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Free Expression in the Shadow State
https://knightcolumbia.org/blog/free-expression-in-the-shadow-state
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John Sands
Evil, Corrupt, and Weaponized Popehat
3 months ago
Can we talk a bit about the terms “First Amendment absolutist” and “free speech absolutist,” and whether they have any agreed-upon meaning? I promise to try, to the utmost of my ability, to Be Respectful Of Other Opinions. /1
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reposted by
John Sands
Pew Research Center
3 months ago
Discussing news is a key way Americans make sense of what is happening around them. At the same time, a growing share have stopped talking to certain people about political news.
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Why Americans discuss the news – or don’t – with others
Even as most Americans discuss the news with others, a growing share have stopped talking to certain people about political news.
https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2026/02/11/why-americans-discuss-the-news-or-dont-with-others/
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reposted by
John Sands
Frank Pasquale
3 months ago
“Monsters are something exceptional, an inverted miracle that comes out of nowhere with no real explanation”
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
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‘The time of monsters’: everyone is quoting Gramsci – but what did he actually say?
Line handily sums up people’s bewilderment at state of world, but it isn’t quite what the Marxist thinker wrote
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/14/the-time-of-monsters-everyone-is-quoting-gramsci-but-what-did-he-actually-say
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reposted by
John Sands
McSweeney's
3 months ago
Happy Valentine's Day?
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Cormac McCarthy’s Valentine’s Day Candy Hearts
Taken from works of the late great Cormac McCarthy. - - -
https://buff.ly/aaZXBfR
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@jkbjournalist.bsky.social
making trouble with
@postbaron.bsky.social
at
#kmf26
@knightfoundation.org
3 months ago
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John Sands
Senator Ron Wyden
4 months ago
When I wrote Section 230 I did so knowing it would be critical for protecting free speech online. 30 years later and it’s one of the last things standing in the way of Republican censorship of the internet. Here’s to many more years of defending this vital safeguard of free speech.
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John Sands
Joshua J. Friedman
4 months ago
From the bestskeeting author of the Bluesky-famous six-week Bad Bunny 101 comes this essential close reading of the halftime show! 🧵
add a skeleton here at some point
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John Sands
Mike Tolhurst 🐧🇲🇽🇺🇸🇨🇦🌐
4 months ago
I was really hoping that halftime show from a stellar Peurto Rican artist would have beem more political. Bad Bunny should have looked at the camera and said loudly in English "End the Jones Act Now"
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reposted by
John Sands
McSweeney's
4 months ago
Unpredictable Head-turning Majestic...
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Words That Could Conceivably Be Used to Describe Both the Super Bowl and a Superb Owl
Unpredictable Head-turning Majestic Fast-paced Expensive Bone-crunching Spirited A hoot
https://buff.ly/3XoFRWk
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