In May, DHS began encouraging states to check their voter rolls against immigration data with the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, even as their own privacy assessment acknowledged that could return "incomplete or false results. " @wired.com www.wired.com/story/dhs-da...

Stitching together flawed data stored in different formats to create an unconstitutional citizenship database to check voter rolls against because US leaders are in the grip of conspiracy theories is having exactly the effect you would expect. @telliotter.bsky.social reports:

WIRED spoke to 10 residents in Minneapolis about what life has been like for them since ICE seized the city. I know there's a lot of coverage out there, but spend time with this heart wrenching piece:

"An agent came to my side and said, "You are under arrest." I just held my hands in the air and I waited for instruction... At one point, one said to my friend: “You need to stop. You need to stop obstructing us. That's why that lesbian bitch is dead.” www.wired.com/story/how-ic...

ICYMI: Catch me on @npr.org's On Point, talking about the one year anniversary of DOGE (it still exists) and what comes next. And if you're a government worker or a tech worker and you want to talk, you can find me on Signal at Vittoria89.82 www.npr.org/podcasts/510...

This Thursday 1/22 at 3pm ET, join us as @alondra.bsky.social, @edwardongwesojr.com, @telliotter.bsky.social, & D&S Policy Director Brian J. Chen discuss the reality of the administration’s AI agenda. datasociety.net/events/one-y...

Penn has refused to comply with an EEOC subpoena seeking a list of Jewish students and faculty at Penn. The EEOC is now suing the university over its refusal to cooperate.

NEW: X does seem to have limited Grok’s output on X. But Grok’s website will still undress: “We can still generate photorealistic nudity on Grok[dot]com,” says Paul Bouchaud, the lead researcher at Paris-based nonprofit @aiforensics.org “We can generate nudity in ways that Grok on X cannot.”

New from my colleagues @leahfeiger.bsky.social and @makenakelly.bsky.social: The Trump administration is planning Minnesota-style ICE blitzes in California and New York, as well as other blue states. @wired.com www.wired.com/story/califo...

Also, now that I am back from vacation, a reminder that if you work for a platform or the government and you want to chat, you can reach me on Signal at Vittoria89.82. We can speak anonymously.

First new piece of the year for @wired.com. I chatted with @donmoyn.bsky.social about the cycle of policy and online conspiracy that has defined Trump 2.0 aka the "clicktatorship." www.wired.com/story/everyt...

BREAKING: We've found 40+ cases of agents using banned chokeholds & other moves that can cut off breathing People have had seizures. They passed out. “I felt like I was going to die” said 16-yr-old citizen Admin won't say whether any agents have been punished www.propublica.org/article/vide...

it's funny how often the new york times' "first entries in a live blog covering a breaking news event" are so vague as to be actively harmful. it happens almost every day. maybe don't run a live blog if you aren't willing to describe things anyone can see with their own eyes

While celebrating Maduro's capture, Venezuelan immigrants worry about deportation

Mississippi’s largest synagogue was set on fire before dawn Saturday. Fire department ruled it arson, and a suspect has been arrested. It is the same synagogue that the Ku Klux Klan bombed in 1967 because the rabbi supported civil rights. mississippitoday.org/2026/01/10/f...

January 3 marked the return of US military intervention in Latin America. While the events unfolded between Caracas and Brooklyn, social networks had already fabricated their own reality. www.wired.com/story/the-da...

Jan 22 @ 2pm ET: For our first event of 2026, we’re taking a close look at Trump administration AI policy. Join us online as @alondra.bsky.social @edwardongwesojr.com & @telliotter.bsky.social talk to D&S's Brian J. Chen about the admin’s actions & their consequences. datasociety.net/events/one-y...

they're gonna need to dunk me in this scitechdaily.com/anti-aging-i...

Thinking again today of the several middle aged Trump voting women I met during the election last year who told me they were voting for Trump so their sons wouldn’t have to go to war…

NEW: The anonymous "researcher" in Nick Shirley's viral "fraud" video--treated as a concerned citizen on Fox News and elsewhere--is actually a Minnesota state lobbyist and political activist who worked with a GOP House staffer to provide Shirley info/ theintercept.com/2026/01/03/m...

Tenet Media founder Lauren Chen, who secretly took money from two people with ties to Russian state media to involve conservative influencers in an unwitting propaganda scheme, is back in the US after being deported to Canada under President Biden. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

A year after Tenet Media was busted for funneling Russian money to MAGA pundits like Benny Johnson, a Trump administration effort involving State and the FBI has welcomed Tenet's founders back into the US. @willsommer.bsky.social www.thebulwark.com/p/lauren-che...

My beautiful friend, a nurse, died at 31 last night. Her cancer treatment was delayed because a visitor did not wear a mask and she became terribly ill for weeks with the flu or COVID and following infections. If you're wearing a mask, thank you.

Private prison company GEO Group allegedly made immigration detainees work for no pay. Now it's at the Supreme Court trying to prevent the detainees from suing. bit.ly/4pfafj2

So I have the cover story in next month's TNR. I interviewed the heads of police groups; immigration defense attorneys, ex-judges and ex-prosecutors; former DOJ and DHS officials, and the former head of Border Patrol. They're all horrified at what we've seen, and they all fear what's coming.

Alice Guo was the popular, Pomeranian-loving mayor of a sleepy Philippine town — until a casino raid revealed her business associates' involvement in Singapore’s biggest-ever money-laundering scandal and sparked allegations of Chinese espionage.

"... a former product manager at the U.S. Digital Service said the Trump administration laid off, fired, or offered deferred resignations to 'amazingly talented' engineers and data scientists earlier this year and is now searching for replacements with less experience. 'It’s comical.'"

I have been trying figure out how to summarize what this year has been, for me personally, and also for the country. This is my last piece of 2025 for @wired.com (!!!) summarizing what DOGE was and what comes next. www.wired.com/story/expire...

New from me: The storied fiddler Ashley MacIsaac wanted to play a show at a Nova Scotia First Nation. It got cancelled because Google's AI search summary incorrectly called him a sex offender. Now he's worried for his safety www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/arti...

The meat of Judge Boasberg's ruling was a reversal of his own prior decision over the summer. In light of the new facts that have emerged, Boasberg reversed course and concluded that the AEA detainees *were* in the constructive custody of the US while at CECOT. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Good @telliotter.bsky.social story on the DOGEification of the government. www.wired.com/story/expire...

Thank you!!

So when these things come up they’re often listed on the federal register so that the public can offer comment: www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

Guys, why are we letting AI make art when it needs to be doing my expenses?

Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.”

SCOOP I spoke to the leader of a doxing-for-hire group who showed me how it took just minutes for them to get sensitive personal data from Big Tech companies—with virtually no pushback www.wired.com/story/doxers...

MAGAZINER: How many veterans have you deported? NOEM: We haven't deported veterans MAGAZINER: We are now joined on Zoom by a combat veteran you deported to Korea

*uses index finger to push glasses back up the bridge of nose* if it's trained off of the stolen creative output of humankind then technically, we are *all* the architects of AI...

If you want a primer on the Network State, I spent some time with a group hoping to make one this summer: www.wired.com/story/tech-b...

Great piece connecting some of the dots on how the administration is using (and misusing) a massive network of data to increase immigration enforcement. The constant expansion of the surveillance state puts all of our privacy and safety is at risk.

As always, if you're someone working in government, tech, immigration, etc and you want to talk, you can find me on Signal at Vittoria89.82

New from me for the @wired.com Politics Newsletter. I broke down how the push to combine data across the government in the name of immigration enforcement has lots of possible unintended consequences, not just for undocumented immigrants, but for everyone. www.wired.com/story/dhs-da...

🥹 so proud of this team at @wired.com and our work this year!

In case you're wondering what Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is up to this flu season... they're policing the cookie intake of federal workers. From @leahfeiger.bsky.social for @wired.com www.wired.com/story/dr-oz-...

If you wanna know why the Trump admin gives so many shits about Honduras, Argentina, El Salvador etc… you should start with the notion of network states. (Obligatory @telliotter.bsky.social CC)

Catch me on the radio, talking about @makenakelly.bsky.social and my story debunking the myth that DOGE is dead: www.wired.com/story/what-i...

One thing I always want to ask these masculinity entrepreneurs is why men can’t look to women as role models, and can’t see in women models of human virtue and thriving that are worth emulating. After all, women look to men for these all the time.

absolutely insane www.wired.com/story/trump-...

New from me for @wired.com's newsletter this week: The Trump administration has been pushing immigrants to leave. But even those who are trying--either via the CBP Home app or through what's known as "voluntary departure"--are finding it difficult to do so. www.wired.com/story/trump-...