❗ NEW REPORT | “Barely getting by” As the government’s landmark #EmploymentRightsBill passes through parliament, our new research with @jrf-uk.bsky.social shines a light on those still at risk of slipping through the social safety net. www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

🗞️ Read coverage in the @mirror.co.uk: www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

I provided a few thoughts for Demos on the Budget's announcement of an expansion of the UK's welfare fraud and error recovery systems For more background, here’s a recent piece which highlights the risks and harms that automated welfare systems visit on vulnerable people demos.co.uk/blogs/puttin...

I'm so proud to see this research I was involved with is now out. It charts the global spread of digital border and watchlisting surveillance systems. Driven by the UN Security Council, IoM, EU and US, these infrastructures threaten human rights worldwide

A better welfare system is possible - one that treats people with dignity, compassion, and care 🤝 In our latest online listening with @demos-uk.bsky.social, we continue to see people's experience of the welfare system as inaccessible, inflexible, and inhumane. 1/2

“I’m feeling sick from fear about this transition from Employment Support Allowance to Universal Credit. I’ve lost several hundred pounds” This is one of hundreds of stories from my research into financial hardship and the welfare system with @jrf-uk.bsky.social

✍ NEW BLOG | Putting humanity at the heart of welfare @j-hancock.bsky.social reflects on 13 years of online conversations evidencing the enduring challenges that people face when navigating the #welfare system. This blog draws from our ongoing Online Listening research with @jrf-uk.bsky.social.

DEUTSCHE: NVIDIA "is currently carrying the weight of US economic growth. The bad news is that in order for the tech cycle to continue contributing to GDP growth, capital investment needs to remain parabolic. This is highly unlikely.” @fortune.com fortune.com/2025/09/23/a...

✍OPINION | From Southport to Epping, social media's failure to act is fuelling racist violence. Researcher, @naemamalik.bsky.social, warns we risk seeing more riots, division and unrest in our communities unless platforms are held to account and adopt new practices to address online misinformation.

What did we find? ➡️ Rising employment concerns – just as the @resfoundation.bsky.social predicts unemployment could hit 5% in the three months to August. ➡️ Persistent fears about the benefits system – following the recent welfare reform u-turn & uncertainty.

🚨 NEW REPORT: "It's tough out there". In partnership with @jrf-uk.bsky.social, we’ve been analysing new online listening data to understand how people are talking about financial hardship – unprompted, in their own words. demos.co.uk/research/its...

💭 BLOG | Polls apart? A novel way of understanding financial hardship Demos' Billy Huband-Thompson and @j-hancock.bsky.social reflect on new research with @jrf-uk.bsky.social and the value of online listening methods to capture the feelings of those on the sharp end of government policies.

Update: I spoke with the U.K. Environment Agency and got some numbers. they believe deleting 1,000 emails with attachments could save about 77.5 liters of water a year. they also said they're estimating data centers will consume 280 billion liters a year, world wide, by the end of the decade

like I think we perhaps have not been talking enough about the utterly staggering amount of highly sensitive information that we absolutely know people around the world are pumping into corporate LLM tools at all times nowadays

the UK’s Internet age verification law has led to the effective censorship of all LGBT content on Reddit what a shocking and unexpected turn of events!

ICYMI-- I did. A study of software developers found it took them 19% more time to do their work when they used AI tools. At the same time, they *perceived* they had saved time. They thought they would work faster and so they falsely "believed AI had sped them up by 20%."

Remember when kids were told coding is a ‘job of the future’ and told to join code camps? Jamie Bartlett on how it is hard to predict the future jamiejbartlett.substack.com/p/is-coding-...

As someone actually trained in behavioural psychology—unlike most MPs—I can tell you: financial precarity doesn’t “incentivise” sick people to work. It breaks them. Stress worsens health. Fear doesn’t create productivity. It creates collapse. #TakingThePIP

NEW: Inside Gaza’s ‘death traps’ via @FT GHF’s plan forces hungry Palestinians to trek miles to aid sites, often through the IDF’s active military areas. Hundreds have been killed and thousands injured. This is how… www.ft.com/content/6c74...

I analysed hundreds of X posts about the Southport riots which received Community Notes. They were full of racism and Islamophobic hate that fuelled far right violence Yet only 4.6% of the Community Notes we analysed were made public during the riots Community Notes are not fit for purpose

🚨 New report: Researching the Riots - evaluating #CommunityNotes during the 2024 Southport riots. Demos research explores how the abject failure of moderation systems left #misinformation and harmful content to spread unchecked during the 2024 #SouthportRiots. Read here ⬇️

🧵 Just finished reading Upgrading Democracy by @pollycurtis.bsky.social at @demos-uk.bsky.social . It’s a sharp, hopeful intervention in the face of democratic breakdown, and it aligns in profound ways with the epistemic collapse I’ve been tracking in my own work. demos.co.uk/wp-content/u...

The UK government  has found its welfare reforms may push 250,000 people into relative poverty by 2030 My new report looks at people's experiences of financial hardship and their response to welfare news online. It is critical that decision makers hear their voices demos.co.uk/research/i-f...

Join the network to: 🗞️ Receive our weekly Friday ESN newsletter 🎤 Get early invites to upcoming events 💬 Apply to join our monthly meetings to learn from one another and collaborate on shared advocacy campaigns ❗ Tell us your top concerns about today's information ecosystem

The UK government  has found its welfare reforms may push 250,000 people into relative poverty by 2030 My new report looks at people's experiences of financial hardship and their response to welfare news online. It is critical that decision makers hear their voices demos.co.uk/research/i-f...

Centralized control over key information infrastructures is a systemic risk.

It’s now clear that tech billionaires like Musk and Zuckerberg are an oligarchy Their wealth, control over information infrastructures, and political leverage threatens democracies worldwide You can read more in my piece for @techpolicypress.bsky.social www.techpolicy.press/tech-oligarc...

💬 "Today’s tech billionaires are capable of disrupting the information supply chains that underpin democracies worldwide." 🖋️ @j-hancock.bsky.social writes for @techpolicypress.bsky.social on the threat that big tech companies pose to our democracies. ⬇️ www.techpolicy.press/tech-oligarc...

🧠 🔓 What if the UK’s biggest #AI advantage isn’t scale, but openness? Our latest report, authored by Elizabeth Seger and @j-hancock.bsky.social with @mozilla.org, explores how sharing models, data & research can unlock growth, trust & global influence. Read here 👉 demos.co.uk/research/the...

"Many countries are facing democratic backsliding, a rise in extremist populism, and growing anti-democratic movements. At the heart of this crisis is the issue of foreign interference." 🖋️ @j-hancock.bsky.social unpicks risks of foreign interference for UK #democractic processes in @fullfact.org ⬇️

Ok, this is my favorite Grok post yet! In response to a question, Grok explains that it isn’t a “leftist” for pointing out Musk’s prolific misinformation. Grok’s conclusion “reflects evidence” and “not bias.” The best Grok post yet:

Superb piece by Jill Lepore on how Musk's futurism constitutes a retread of the reactionary, antidemocratic, and bizarre technocracy movement that his grandfather led. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/o...

Astonishing fact on #bbcr4today earlier, discussing the Heathrow power failure. Heathrow requires 41MW; a new data centre nearby needs 150MW. Stark illustration of the underpinning energy consequences of data storage.

WIRED tested the popular AI video generator from OpenAI and found that it amplifies sexist stereotypes and ableist tropes, perpetuating the same biases already present in AI image tools.

In a forthcoming report on Generative AI perception & use (n=1.5k), our data shows limited regular use: 31% engage daily/weekly for leisure, 28% for work, and 24% for study—indicating that sustained adoption remains low despite broad experimentation. (ETA 03/31)

A new study from @towcenter.bsky.social finds serious accuracy issues with genAI models used for news searches, highlighting a common trend: Rather than declining to respond when they lacked reliable information, the models often provided confabulations. arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/a...

Oof.

❗Labour is reportedly planning £6 billion in cuts to #benefits for people with a disability or long-term health conditions. These cuts only threaten to deepen community distress and hardship which - as new Demos and @jrf-uk.bsky.social research shows - has been steadily rising over the last decade.

This kind of rhetoric from the government repeats misleading stories about the benefits system and adds to the stigma that claimants face As my recent work highlighted, the existing benefits system can leave people to spiral in despair. Cuts will only make this worse demos.co.uk/research/i-n...

Contrary to the myth that seems to be flying around at the moment, claiming disability benefits is not an easy process that anyone who's "a bit stressed" can do. @pollardtom.bsky.social sets the record straight on Times Radio

If you want to hear from the lived experiences of people who have experienced poverty in the UK since 2010, read our latest report here: demos.co.uk/research/i-n... You can also read this write-up featuring our work in The Mirror: www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

I’m so proud to have written this report alongside @sophiaaknight.bsky.social and @hannahperry.bsky.social We analysed social media posts relating to poverty in the UK since 2010 Our findings are heart-wrenching: 14 years of austerity brought steady rises in stress, hardship, and desperation

⏰ | NEW REPORT: No child should grow up in hardship due to their parents’ immigration status, but nearly half of children in the UK with parents born abroad are living in poverty. @amreenqureshi.bsky.social and @marleymorris.bsky.social explore the solutions 👇

I’ve been hearing this from current and former TTS/USDSers for weeks at this point. Some of the stickiest “tech” issues in govt are people/policy issues. Being able to identify and address those differences with the proper toolsets (software, or just connecting the right depts) is the job.

In a different world, some entity might require Meta to explain the scale of the gore posts that were injected into users' feeds, breaking it down to show content shown to kids, and researchers would be able to compare it to baseline ("normal" gore content isn't zero.) www.wsj.com/tech/meta-ap...

Similar attacks-for-hire linked to Russia have led to a wave of threats against journalists and democratic politicians in Eastern Europe. The UK can’t afford to appease Putin or Trump www.theguardian.com/news/2025/fe...

Some interesting results on the policy goals of platform workers: “Our results suggest that the expansion of platform work will fuel demands for welfare expansion, specifically focusing on social investment.”

Some great analysis of how wealth inequality can contribute to people being unable to access daily essentials in the UK by @amnestyuk.bsky.social

Is this a wobble in the bubble?

This is the first part of Character Limit that made me laugh so hard I had to put my phone down