The only way to win the communications war long term is to stop using the tools owned and controlled by those that hate you and want to stack things against you.

A reminder for anyone new to Bluesky (or who just wants to follow more policy wonks here) that I've made a starter pack of all the think tanks I've spotted on the platform and the researchers working at them (if you're missing and want adding in let me know!) - go.bsky.app/Geu9Jd8

Debunking the AI food delivery hoax that fooled Reddit 'you should always be at your most suspicious online when someone is baiting you into outrage. But all of that takes time, effort, and cognitive hygiene'

As someone who's done comms for decades, I can tell you: there is no reason for any responsible, democratic government to still be posting on X. No advantages, only disadvantages.

The Free Speech Union commissioned a "security" report on us, so we tested their security. Turns out - it sucks. We've now published the names of everyone who has donated to a FSU fundraiser, along with how much they gave and to which campaign. www.transbashback.com/fsu.html xoxo BASH BACK

Given the disgusting nature of the Grok app this is a completely inappropriate response

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.

If this is the case, and the UK PM has a potentially pivotal role to play, then I guess it's our duty to hold him accountable to that. Plus, it seems very very important that Starmer has the courage to look beyond the concerns of Farage and Reform www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

The point is to destroy the international rules based order that has kept most of the world at peace for the last 80 years

So much truth. And controversial view: for me one of the key differences between radio programmes and podcasts is that radio programmes rarely make me shout GET THE FUCK ON WITH IT I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU SAID EARLIER IN THE PUB I WASN’T THERE

Reading the transcript of Jumaane Williams speech at the inauguration of Mayor Mamdami in New York, and they are so inspirational and full of hope. "I see the chance to push forward" because "hope is the embrace of possibility." advocate.nyc.gov/press/remark...

I'm still hoping to find a full transcript of NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams's speech today at @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social's inauguration ceremony. The New York Times has a brief excerpt, but the whole thing was brilliant & deeply moving. Here's the speech on YouTube: bsky.app/profile/advo...

all of energy twitter patting itself on the back for continuing to post on a website that is mostly users prompting a generative chatbot to create non-consensual sexualised imagery of children It's where the Serious Smart Experts are Posting www.cnbctv18.com/technology/g...

Mayor's Office Live Feed!

Catching up late on this from @natematias.bsky.social and Avriel Epps. As federally funded grants to study these issues disappear, another case of a company offering "measly" grants that at best will offer limited insights while hurting researcher credibility. www.techpolicy.press/beware-of-op...

The BBC is really showing its arse with its editorial guidelines recommending the use of a pseudoscientific dogwhistle in reporting that mentions trans people. It's important that they're not allowed to continue using fake-scientific insults in peace. New piece: oolong.medium.com/biological-m...

If Tsundoku is the art of having more books than you can ever read en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku then can we have Tabdoku for having more browser tabs than you can ever visit?

This has put into words something that I hate but which I think is also true. the argument “stay on Twitter to make Twitter better” is shit. But I think the argument “intelligent nuanced people need to be making video” is probably true.

Would be nice if they folded on their policy of banning my friends from peeing but no. Farmers and OAPs 👍

lol at Bari not knowing about the distribution process for foreign markets and not asking and no one volunteering the information.

"Rowling will undoubtedly receive substantial royalties from the Fortnite skins… That money will likely be funneled into her hate campaign against trans people. "… over a third of… funding for the [U.K.] case came directly from Rowling…" www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/12/fort...

Merry gentlefolk, it is time. Today is the day. Today is comma-mas. Today is the day where we contemplate the correct placing of the comma in 'God rest you merry, gentlemen'. And if we are lucky, we can have a row about it. >

Once a government gets a taste for censorship, it tends not to stop. www.ft.com/content/0ef7...

When transphobic “academics” complained about a “chilling effect” on their “research” they meant people describing their transphobic “research” as transphobic. Now there is a REAL chilling effect for trans academics of top-down establishment measures like fines & toilet bans. archive.is/oYqXS

I wrote this, a long analysis of a single line of Shakespeare and what it’s doing. How good writing is an ethical practice. And my continuing attempts to work out what it is that I’m spotting when I look at a piece of text and go “oh that was written by AI.” open.substack.com/pub/naomiald...

It is incredible to me how made up this issue is. No one gave a shit ten years ago. Sure there were your individual mad, ignorant bigots but *Theresa May* was pushing for self-ID because it was the last little bit of logistical sorting out of a settled question: we're ok with Trans people

The “Labour” Party finds itself arguing ordinary workers, carers and others are “takers”.

The Paediatric Society of NZ - representing the clinical field most relevant here - have released maybe the strongest statement of all the medical bodies: “puberty blockers are an established, safe, reversible, and life-saving treatment option”

An article in NATURE with a nonsense AI-generated graphic. NATURE. www.nature.com/articles/s41... Has everyone just stopped doing any intellectual work at all?

BREAKING: Employee who demand a trans-exclusive toilet policy loses employment tribunal. All claims, direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, and 1992 Regs, dismissed. Judgment: www.gov.uk/employment-t...

Well this is starting to feel coordinated — yet another org being bullied by transphobes to exclude some women from spaces that they had uncontroversially inhabited for decades >> Women’s Institute will no longer accept trans women as members from April www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The truth is that there are many good people in good institutions regretfully making the choice to sacrifice trans people because they fear for their own survival and their institution's survival... ...and it is incumbent on us to show them that their choice is not without consequence.

A Labour government passed the Equality Act. A Labour government was in power when the Supreme Court interpreted it to not mean what ministers at the time were clear it was intended to mean. The Labour government response should have been to legislate to fix it. Not doing so was a cowardly betrayal.

I suggest that we start using the phrase "Mr. Beast and the CEO of Salesforce will be there too." as shorthand to explain how little we want to be at any given terrible event.

So depressing to hear the note of triumph in bbc coverage of the decision to make life harder for asylum seekers who need medical treatment by taking taxis away from them because of File on Four ‘investigation’. The amounts of money involved are tiny, the harm done is significant.

New article inspired by the recent hoopla surrounding Karen Hao's book (re: water use). I argue that "no one should look to the EA community as exemplifying good habits of epistemic and moral conduct." Here's why: www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/how-effect...

Sooo many folks I’m excited to work with on Mamdani’s technology transition committee. All hands on deck to bring the Affordability Agenda to life: childcare, housing, transportation. While its easy to get swept up in personality, this is a group focused on peoples real needs. LETS KEEP THE FOCUS.

We just have to do what we can to stay sane and stand up for each other, and remind all these fuckholes that in the end they’ll be exposed for the assholes they are, and will be begging us for forgiveness.

Exciting news: throughout January BFI Southbank has a season of documentaries and early feature films linked to the publication on 8 January of Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain. First details here... www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/magic-rays-o...

If the article isn’t worth reading because a “spoiler” in the headline is revealed, it wasn’t worth writing either. Junk traffic is an addiction that’s killing the media.

Like in this case legal reasoning led to the reversal of the intention of those writing the law. There's a mechanical explanation of how that's happened, but the democratic response should be to see it as the result of a flawed process that then needs other actors to get involved.

'“Do we think that someone who has stolen a bottle of whisky from a minimart should receive the right to trial by jury?” she said.' The government apparently believes it's only removing the right to trial by jury for guilty people. www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov...

Sthg I don't specifically call out in this blog post on AI notetakers is how awful some bits of govt meeting culture appear to be. The bit about presenteeism directly reflects feedback from junior folk who talked about how important it is to turn up to meetings www.careful.industries/blog/2025-11...

Thinking that the best way to deal with racists is to try to get them to vote for you by enacting racist policies just means you become racist. The only way to deal with them is to fight back, to oppose them, and (for those who can change) to change them. And render the remainder powerless.

Why Labour's cruel Reform-style refugee policies will backfire for the Government www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/shabana-ma...

Will be interesting to see how this plays on the doorstep in the run up to the local elections in England (less than 6 months away).

To reiterate, this is about making life immeasurably more miserable and stressful for some of the most vulnerable people, in the almost certainly vain hope of winning over the votes of racists. Anything more shabby and shameful is difficult to envisage.

What does it say about my week that I am cheered that my train goes from Platform 1 at Cambridge (near the barrier) and not Platform 8 (all the way over the bridge and back again)? Such small victories over fate.

The departure of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness means the BBC is leaderless when it needs leadership more than ever. Where are the people at the head of the BBC standing up for it? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...