Since I’ve shared about him so much over the years, I wanted to share the sad news that Sage passed earlier this week 😢 He brought joy through so many life phases and adventures, and I miss him so much 💔

Do you have exceptional user research skills, strategic thinking abilities, and a collaborative mindset? If you're passionate about creating more engaging, inclusive, healthy, and impactful online communities, you might be the perfect Staff UX Researcher for our Local Lab.

This grumpy little old man turned 12 yesterday, and celebrated with a yogurt frosted chicken rice cake and an afternoon of barking out the window at neighbor kids to get off his lawn 🥰

Want to learn about computational social science *for free* and launch interdisciplinary research projects? We are so excited to announce there will be *26* Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science this year! Apply to one of them here: sicss.io/locations

One of the coolest jobs in social media right now IMHO

Reposting for morning Bluesky folks 😄 Details in the 🧵 and job description link -- please share broadly with researchers you think might be interested and a good fit!

The Local Lab team at New_ Public is hiring for a Staff Researcher! The team's at a really exciting stage of developing a new pro-socially oriented platform, focused on supporting local community & connection- with lots of opportunity for research to inform strategy! newpublic.org/jobs/staff-r...

THE RESIST LIST IS HERE. Proud my team just started this @resistlist.bsky.social, which will list actions that happened and that are slated to happen.

BREAKING: The court has granted our request for a temporary restraining order to stop the federal government from unlawfully sharing personal financial data with DOGE. This must now stop, pending a full hearing, and any downloaded data must be deleted.

What is the purpose of this neutral, no context, both sidesy framing? Who is this for? Maybe someone should buy npr a Wired subscription. 🤨

1. Show up. Go to the places Musk is taking over, bring cameras, demand to find out what's going on and where it breaks the law. 2. Refuse to allow standard business to continue unimpeded. Deny unanimous consent, delay votes, etc. 3. Be public about how illegal all of this is 4. Lay out a plan

For anyone who hates the idea of phone calls (hi, fellow millennials!), sitting on the fence about calling your representatives -- a pro-tip that if you call on the weekend/outside of hours you're likely to get a voicemail vs having to talk to a live person.

I keep thinking re: the years of blue-state residents thinking they were immune from these politics, alternately telling people living in red states to call our legislators and seeing us as a write-off, a joke or just stupid--

Uhm, what???

Trump is openly violating the law on a vast and unprecedented scale and everyone is acting like it's normal. NPR had a long story about finding a rare shrew. NYT said he was disregarding "legal niceties." This is an attack on the Constitution as profound as the attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

Trying one more time for the morning bluesky crowd. Was really hoping someone in my network would have (evidence informed) advice 🤞

I’ve spent about 2-3 hours each day on calls or chats with my US gov friends. Here’s an anonymized recap of what’s going on. First, I am so very sorry that they are living our last year at Twitter. I never wanted to think about that time again, and I hope my advice is helpful. 1/

Sending such love & care to my former Twitter colleagues being forced to re-live this chaos & heartbreak, now at higher stakes & grander scale 💙 If there's something I learned in my experience, it's that the cruelty & the chaos is the point. Take care of yourselves and try not to get lost in it.

A sincere (if uninformed 😳) question: Say I want to contact my representative with regards to *waves arms* going on, and live in an area w no elected Dem senators or representatives (thanks, gerrymandering) at the nat'l level. Who would be the most effective person/offices(s) to contact?

*stares into the void in platform safety veteran*

To balance out the higher than usual volume of tech skeets from this acct, please enjoy this update from Sage. He’s so proud he figured out his little puzzle toy 🥰

Who are the 60,000 voters being challenged by Justice Griffin in NC's state supreme court race? I did a brief analysis to find out. Available at the link below. #ncpol www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fxt46...

"Several fact-checkers over the years have suggested to Meta how it could improve this labeling to be less intrusive and avoid even the appearance of censorship, but Meta never acted on those suggestions." -- @factchecknet.bsky.social www.poynter.org/ifcn/2025/an...

And surely Meta’s going to let folks re-run all those studies that found no effect under old algos/enforcement systems now with the announced changes 🤨

Okay, so just a few* thoughts (*this got longer as I wrote 😅….long thread)-

Having a lot of thoughts & feelings today as someone who’s worked both on FBs misinfo interventions (back when they were making investments) and Birdwatch (pre-Musk Community Notes) 💔. Debating if a thread is worth the inevitable headache 😓

The local lab team at New_ Public is growing again! Come join our small but mighty team, as we work to develop a new platform to support local communities.

Definite Saruman vibes, which is honestly a little on the nose

🚨🚨Here we go🚨🚨 Tucked into a "recovery" bill for Western NC, Republicans in the state legislature are using the last days of their lame-duck supermajority to try passing some pretty crazy stuff that has nothing at all to do with Helene recovery. Let's dive in. 🧵👇

Trying again for the morning feed. 🤞 Does something like this exist? Or, Is there a way to request it exist?

Does anyone know of a custom feed that is: - ONLY people you follow, but - Ranked instead of chron ? There's too much to follow in Following now, but Discover has too many random/uninteresting recommended skeets from accounts I don't follow to be useful 😵‍💫

We’re looking for a Community Engagement Lead for our Local Lab in 2025! Help us connect with existing and potential community stewards (aka the people who start, maintain, facilitate, and care for online communities).

Looks like I stumbled my way into a starter pack, so a quick intro! I'm a sociologist turned tech researcher. I worked in platform safety a while, but am now at New_ Public - a non-profit focused on reimagining healthier SM. But I'm as likely to post about my dog or cross-stitch as anything 😊

We are seeking a Head of External Engagement to join our team! In this role, you will lead our communications, fundraising, and partnership efforts. Support New_ Public’s next stage of growth and help us build our visibility and sustainability.

Looks like I stumbled my way into a starter pack, so a quick intro! I'm a sociologist turned tech researcher. I worked in platform safety a while, but am now at New_ Public - a non-profit focused on reimagining healthier SM. But I'm as likely to post about my dog or cross-stitch as anything 😊

Felt like time to bring this back out today

🎯 See also: the systematic gutting of Trust & Safety efforts 😞

I'm hiring a project manager for New_ Public's local team. We're embarking on some product work imagining new forms of "local digital spaces" next year, alongside efforts to connect "community stewards" to resources and one another.

Come and join our small but mighty team working towards healthier local digital spaces! (& please share widely with folks who might be interested! 🙏)

Local Lab is looking to bring on a research fellow to support our work building towards healthier digital spaces for local communities! See description for details, but a few highlights: - remote, US or CAN - ~Oct-Dec (flexible) - mission driven org, focused on participatory & inclusive design

HIRING: We're seeking a researcher to research local communities and institutions, what is and isn’t working in local digital public spaces, and the needs of local leaders and the people they serve.

Dressed as Integrity Research Barbie for Halloween 😛 🎃

My 8:30am interview participant was a no show, so I guess my Halloween is starting off on theme 👻 🙃

Computational social scientists and other sociologists who play with or think about data: UNC-CH Sociology is looking for an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Data Science. Application review begins 11/3! unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/268...

Another important pupdate: it’s pumpkin onesie season 🥺

What can we do about conflict on social platforms besides moderation?  Jonathan Stray, Ravi Iyer & Helena Puig Larrauri take on conflict escalation in a new paper and recommend the public creation of clear guidelines for conflict-sensitive platform design knightcolumbia.org/content/the-...

Important pupdate: Sage has resumed his chilly morning snuggle routine 🥺

Baby's first byline!

Feeling mixed parts nostalgia and heartbreak, as today marks 1 year since the US Birdwatch launch… just a few weeks before Elon Musk bought twitter & things fell apart. 💔