Zoë Jay has a new Review of International Studies article and video abstract out now 🎉 ‘If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad’: Liberal enjoyment and complicity in popular culture' Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR 🌟 Video and article here 👉 https://ow.ly/pnPf50YtgEs

I met with AI data labelers in Kenya who are organizing their colleagues to fight the brutal working conditions and horrible pay given to the workers at the "bottom of the AI supply chain." They believe the NDAs they've signed are unenforceable so are speaking out: www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...

Now as ever, to understand Israeli operations, Jasbir Puar's The Right to Maim is absolutely crucial, and has been so grimly prescient.

The Palestine Festival of Literature has launched an online publication, and the intro essay is worth your time. www.thekeymagazine.com/p/western-jo...

🇦🇹 An on-site protest against Israel's Eurovision 2026 participation on 16 May, the day of the final, has been announced by Palästina Solidarität Österreich. It will take place between 14:00 and 17:00 CET and head from Christian-Broda-Platz to Vogelweidpark/Wiener Stadthalle.

Except, this isn't a boycott. This is a mass transfer from one war loving brand to another war loving brand, enacted by a pro-AI faction of centrist effective altruists.

New today in TIW: Historian @cjdenial.bsky.social on teaching about AI. "in every iteration of this conversation I have had with students in the last two years, there is one constant: almost no one knows about the ethical issues surrounding GenAI before they delve into the readings I’ve assigned."

apropos claims that AI is “inevitable”, i just wrote something about how complicity is often driven by capitalist claims that harmful stuff is “efficient” and “convenient”. it’s about mega-events but the argument is clearly relevant to the proliferation of AI. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

This piece is disturbing because it reads like a press release that had to include a bit of journalism in it. There’s virtually no critical analysis of the danger of what’s happening. The only mention of the word “law” is a UN quote.

one of many many reasons why the only ethical response to AI is full throttled opposition

“some of you may lose your jobs to the vacuous plagiarism military snitch robot but that’s a sacrifice i’m willing to make”

if you think this or are acting upon it you don’t deserve an academic job. people who boast publicly about how they’re too lazy to do their own research and writing and by extension make it harder for anyone else to do it properly are scabs and should be shunned by any serious researchers

[moving to the Geopolitical Conflict Region] there better not be any fucking geopolitical conflict here

We published SIX new research articles and the first issue of volume 52 in February! An excellent way to start the year. Reminder that ALL our latest articles are online first: buff.ly/9uj6xnX

Really necessary set of essay about this moment: www.jadaliyya.com/Details/47192

🚨New First View Article🚨 "‘If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad’: Liberal enjoyment and complicity in popular culture" by @zoecharlottejay.bsky.social is now available #OpenAccess. It's a must read, so check it out on our website! 📄 ➡️ buff.ly/8O9Jq1S

If you're concerned about climate / environment impacts, do not listen to this random account Anthropic (a) discloses no env or energy data of any kind and (b) has been urging the US gov't to build out fossil fuel infrastructure for their data centres

might be especially useful reading if you’re following any of the national selection shows this weekend and want to think about how seemingly harmless entertainment feeds into the bigger political picture #eurovision #umk2026 #sanremo2026 #melfest www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

my article on how #eurovision fans navigate complicity re israel’s participation in the contest is out now in @risjnl.bsky.social relevant if you’re interested in the politics of mega-events, fan consumer practices, and the politics of enjoyment. read it here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

'For too long, the threat of the far right and reactionary politics has been externalised and exceptionalised. It is time to accept that the current system can indeed accommodate the far right if its survival is threatened by other crises' This is why we need Red Lines reacpol.net/why-red-lines/

Why is Ireland boycotting the Eurovision but not the Nations League?

jesus christ

david draiman is not a person i would go out of my way to claim a narrow degree of separation from

new piece by yours truly in @politiikasta.fi i put some existing ideas about culture/sportwashing in conversation with research on complicity to show how the ebu enables israel (and other countries) to exploit eurovision politiikasta.fi/en/non-polit...

Palestine's most important university used to hold classes in living rooms when Israel shut it down. A devastating essay by one of its own professors on what happens when a university keeps functioning but stops meaning anything. mondoweiss.net/2026/02/the-...

While Israel is using the Eurovision Song Contest to distract from its actions in Palestine, EBU is complicit in enabling Israel by insisting that the contest is non-political, writes Zoë Jay. #tiedetaivas #politiikasta

new piece by yours truly in @politiikasta.fi i put some existing ideas about culture/sportwashing in conversation with research on complicity to show how the ebu enables israel (and other countries) to exploit eurovision politiikasta.fi/en/non-polit...

No more protesting thanks, that's it wrap it up it's not cohesive. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...

my article on why we must boycott eurovision is one of many Raster (Anti-Racist Research Network in Finland) articles that have been stolen by a fake AI-generated website 😭😡 please make sure you only go to the wordpress site, www.rasterverkosto.wordpress.com

Winter sport needs snow-not fossil fuels Eni, one of the world’s biggest oil and gas corporations, is using the Winter Olympics to greenwash its fossil-fuelled destruction If you agree that polluters shouldn’t get a podium at the Games, share the video (Proudly human-made. No AI) #WinterOlympics

Every so often during this #Eurovision crisis a broadcaster suggests things that would actually move outside the box. 🇸🇮 wanted consultations with artists and civil society as well as broadcasters. Now this from three of 🇮🇹‘s board.

i really appreciate the clear recognition in this piece that professional opportunity is not more important than life itself. seems obvious on the face of it but in practice it’s very easy for “oh but this sucks for the players/artists” to become a justification for complicity.

“The life of a professional player is not worth more than the lives of countless people in various regions who are being directly or indirectly attacked or threatened by the World Cup host.” www.thenation.com/article/soci...

ICYMI: How do fans cope when the object of their fandom becomes problematic? Dr. Zoë Jay from the University of Helsinki returns to share insights from her research within the #Eurovision community

It’s been over three months since a ceasefire was announced in Gaza, but Israel’s destruction of the strip still continues. Since the beginning of the ceasefire, Israel has demolished more than 2,500 buildings in Gaza, per a report from @nytimes.com.

just so it's clear: this is the exact core function of genAI Fascist government and climate deniers love it because it can produce the aesthetics of knowledge without any actual tendency towards truth. It is automated denialism. Shame on every climate scientist promoting its use (there are lots)

I found this to be a very useful conversation as I continue to figure out how to navigate the 2026 season. Enjoy!

For the FINAL Eurowhat? (of 2025): let's chat about what happens when the object of your fandom gets problematic. @zoecharlottejay.bsky.social reached out to us IMMEDIATELY after all the recent kerblooey at the EBU and she was ABSOLUTELY the person I wanted to chat with about all of this. Tune in!

always a pleasure to chat with the @eurowhat.bsky.social guys, even if the topic is a tough one like this. i hope the episode is useful for anyone thinking about what to do next as their relationships to eurovision change

I think this post nails the actual problem, for researchers at least—AI hallucinations would simply not be a problem in academic work if we’d not normalized citation-as-signaling rather than actual engagement—you can only cite a fake paper if you’re not in the habit of reading the papers you cite

I’m sorry, but it is disgraceful to be an academic who uses this technology to conduct research. It should be prohibited in all of our scholarly institutions, including universities and journals.

ICYMI: With the passage of the EBU's new Eurovision rules, Israel will be in Vienna while the Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia, Ireland, and Iceland have withdrawn from the Contest. We’ll be discussing the fallout from the decision and figuring out how we’ll be navigating 2026... www.eurowhat.com/285

Jane Austen used 'however' at the beginning of a sentence, and so can you.

this focus on “fixing” the rules only legitimises israel further. if your rules clamp down on cheating but not genocide they are bad rules! the fundamental issue is, and has always been, that countries committing genocide should not get to participate in international society.

🇵🇹 #Portugal: Seventeen Musicians in Festival da Canção 2026 Will Not Compete in #Eurovision Should They Win eurovoix.com/2025/12/10/p...

tule mukaan vaatimaan Yleä boikotoimaan Euroviisuja, jos israel osallistu! huomenna Helsingissä #euroviisut #eurovision #boycotteurovision

tule mukaan vaatimaan Yleä boikotoimaan Euroviisuja, jos israel osallistu! huomenna Helsingissä #euroviisut #eurovision #boycotteurovision

www.thenation.com/article/soci... Co-wrote with @julesboykoff.bsky.social about today's nonsense