BostonJoan 🏳️🌈 🦫
@bostonjoan.bsky.social
I am the founder of The Critical Internet Studies Institute and an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media Studies at Boston University
www.criticalinternet.org
www.criticalinternet.org
Pinned
BostonJoan 🏳️🌈 🦫
@bostonjoan.bsky.social
· Oct 16
donovan-2025-express-a-short-history-of-misinformation-at-scale-and-efforts-to-mitigate-it.pdf
drive.google.com
New paper alert!!! 🚨
“A Short History of Misinformation-at-scale and Efforts to Mitigate it” in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing
drive.google.com/file/d/1Klg9...
This article traces the social construction of misinformation-at-scale through changes to content moderation.
“A Short History of Misinformation-at-scale and Efforts to Mitigate it” in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing
drive.google.com/file/d/1Klg9...
This article traces the social construction of misinformation-at-scale through changes to content moderation.
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️🌈 🦫
How to help democracy in a simple way:
Peacefully not buying stuff is the safest form of protest imaginable for anyone fearful of retaliation by this regime. U don’t have to risk getting arrested, fired or deported; u don’t even have to wave a placard.
#BoycottFelonsDonorsCorporations
Thread 4/4🧵
Peacefully not buying stuff is the safest form of protest imaginable for anyone fearful of retaliation by this regime. U don’t have to risk getting arrested, fired or deported; u don’t even have to wave a placard.
#BoycottFelonsDonorsCorporations
Thread 4/4🧵
December 9, 2025 at 1:25 PM
How to help democracy in a simple way:
Peacefully not buying stuff is the safest form of protest imaginable for anyone fearful of retaliation by this regime. U don’t have to risk getting arrested, fired or deported; u don’t even have to wave a placard.
#BoycottFelonsDonorsCorporations
Thread 4/4🧵
Peacefully not buying stuff is the safest form of protest imaginable for anyone fearful of retaliation by this regime. U don’t have to risk getting arrested, fired or deported; u don’t even have to wave a placard.
#BoycottFelonsDonorsCorporations
Thread 4/4🧵
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️🌈 🦫
@dwillis.bsky.social: “They have real financial value to companies that want to provide their users with accurate local information.”
www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/loca...
www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/loca...
Local news organizations discover the value of their own archives
"They have real financial value to companies that want to provide their users with accurate local information."
www.niemanlab.org
December 10, 2025 at 12:30 AM
@dwillis.bsky.social: “They have real financial value to companies that want to provide their users with accurate local information.”
www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/loca...
www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/loca...
Networked incitement goes beyond trolling and harassment. It’s the weaponization of social media follower networks to target and attack specific people or groups.
From the victim’s perspective, any threat could end in physical violence.
From the victim’s perspective, any threat could end in physical violence.
After MTG lied about me for weeks, she said that she felt bad for my unborn child because he'd have me as a mother. Her rhetoric led to threats against my family.
No one, even her, should receive threats like those, but I'd like to see her own up to the role she played in creating them for others.
No one, even her, should receive threats like those, but I'd like to see her own up to the role she played in creating them for others.
Marjorie Taylor Greene: "I sent those deaths threats directly to him in a text message & informed him of what his name calling & words were doing - it was a direct assassination threat on my son. And he was extremely - I won't repeat what he said - but it was extremely unkind. No sympathy. No care"
December 10, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Networked incitement goes beyond trolling and harassment. It’s the weaponization of social media follower networks to target and attack specific people or groups.
From the victim’s perspective, any threat could end in physical violence.
From the victim’s perspective, any threat could end in physical violence.
🦫, I am ready.
“.. If you want to live in the best country on the earth, that is also the safest, and the one that will actually respect your work and offer you the right environment to flourish, well, come to Canada,” she said. 🇨🇦
@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/w...
@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/w...
December 10, 2025 at 12:12 AM
🦫, I am ready.
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️🌈 🦫
Lots of good argument, back and forth and nuance in this piece by @metacurity.com.
Still plenty of FUD around AI threats, but the ultimate impact of LLMs lowering the automation and knowledge barrier for hacking is a story that is still playing out in real time, so no need to be so certain!
Still plenty of FUD around AI threats, but the ultimate impact of LLMs lowering the automation and knowledge barrier for hacking is a story that is still playing out in real time, so no need to be so certain!
Ignoring AI in the threat chain could be a costly mistake, experts warn
While some researchers dismiss reports of AI-driven cyberattacks as merely marketing messages, threat intel experts counter that CISOs ignore mounting evidence of AI use in the threat chain at their o...
www.csoonline.com
December 9, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Lots of good argument, back and forth and nuance in this piece by @metacurity.com.
Still plenty of FUD around AI threats, but the ultimate impact of LLMs lowering the automation and knowledge barrier for hacking is a story that is still playing out in real time, so no need to be so certain!
Still plenty of FUD around AI threats, but the ultimate impact of LLMs lowering the automation and knowledge barrier for hacking is a story that is still playing out in real time, so no need to be so certain!
But AI is so useful… or it’s just another con by the tech industry
“TikTok and other social media platforms are hosting AI-generated deepfake videos of doctors whose words have been manipulated to help sell supplements and spread health misinformation.”
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
AI deepfakes of real doctors spreading health misinformation on social media
Hundreds of videos on TikTok and elsewhere impersonate experts to sell supplements with unproven effects
www.theguardian.com
December 8, 2025 at 4:15 PM
But AI is so useful… or it’s just another con by the tech industry
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️🌈 🦫
Punk af
I have some news: I am helping my friends at @404media.co make a zine.
I just knocked out the layout last week. It was awesome and I hope to do more stuff like it.
www.404media.co/404-media-is...
I just knocked out the layout last week. It was awesome and I hope to do more stuff like it.
www.404media.co/404-media-is...
404 Media Is Making a Zine
We are publishing a risograph-printed zine about the surveillance technologies used by ICE.
www.404media.co
December 8, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Punk af
Rage bait.
Leave Lesley alone!
Leave Lesley alone!
LESLEY STAHL: You contributed to the toxic culture. You were out there pounding, insulting people
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: You've contributed to it as well
STAHL: I want you to respond to what you have done in terms of insulting people
MTG: I'd like for you to respond to that
December 8, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Rage bait.
Leave Lesley alone!
Leave Lesley alone!
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️🌈 🦫
I published this book four years ago, drawing together a decade+ of writing. At the time I noted on Reddit that some SV types took the title as a challenge: "not *yet*; if we can just perfect the model, we'll have full-on automated luxury libertarian urbanism!"
A City Is Not a Computer
A bold reassessment of "smart cities" that reveals what is lost when we conceive of our urban spaces as computers
press.princeton.edu
December 7, 2025 at 11:04 PM
I published this book four years ago, drawing together a decade+ of writing. At the time I noted on Reddit that some SV types took the title as a challenge: "not *yet*; if we can just perfect the model, we'll have full-on automated luxury libertarian urbanism!"
What ever happened to Tom Homan and when are we going to know what happened to that $50k dollar bribe?
December 6, 2025 at 6:56 PM
What ever happened to Tom Homan and when are we going to know what happened to that $50k dollar bribe?
GenAI that can put anyone’s imagine in compromising situations is just harassment.
Someone should be arrested for collecting and handling such data.
Someone should be arrested for collecting and handling such data.
NEW: An AI image generator startup left its database exposed online, unsecured and accessible to anyone.
The "overwhelming majority" of the files inside contained nudity, with images appearing to contain children and explicit face-swaps
The "overwhelming majority" of the files inside contained nudity, with images appearing to contain children and explicit face-swaps
Huge Trove of Nude Images Leaked by AI Image Generator Startup’s Exposed Database
An AI image generator startup’s database was left accessible to the open internet, revealing more than 1 million images and videos, including photos of real people who had been “nudified.”
www.wired.com
December 5, 2025 at 10:06 PM
GenAI that can put anyone’s imagine in compromising situations is just harassment.
Someone should be arrested for collecting and handling such data.
Someone should be arrested for collecting and handling such data.
The Diddy Doc made by 50cent has some amazing early hiphop footage. Incredible parties and style from that early 1990s moment.
December 5, 2025 at 1:48 AM
The Diddy Doc made by 50cent has some amazing early hiphop footage. Incredible parties and style from that early 1990s moment.
Australia is about to ban kids under 16 from social media.
Yikes that is so shortsighted.
www.tiktok.com/t/ZTr53oET5/
Yikes that is so shortsighted.
www.tiktok.com/t/ZTr53oET5/
Australia's world-leading restrictions on social media kick in on 10 December, with children set to be booted from platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok. Communications Minister...
TikTok video by SBS News
www.tiktok.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Australia is about to ban kids under 16 from social media.
Yikes that is so shortsighted.
www.tiktok.com/t/ZTr53oET5/
Yikes that is so shortsighted.
www.tiktok.com/t/ZTr53oET5/
Harnessing pop culture memes to fight the the information war. Who could have predicted such a thing?
DOJ's newest recruitment ad features Judge Dredd, the comic satire about the dangers of lawless policing and authoritarian power
December 4, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Harnessing pop culture memes to fight the the information war. Who could have predicted such a thing?
"In another program, aimed to provide therapy for autistic children, prosecutors said providers recruited children in Minneapolis’s Somali community, falsely certifying them as qualifying for autism treatment and paying their parents kickbacks for their cooperation."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/u...
How Fraud Swamped Minnesota’s Social Services System on Tim Walz’s Watch
www.nytimes.com
December 4, 2025 at 9:22 PM
"In another program, aimed to provide therapy for autistic children, prosecutors said providers recruited children in Minneapolis’s Somali community, falsely certifying them as qualifying for autism treatment and paying their parents kickbacks for their cooperation."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/u...
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️🌈 🦫
Nauseatingly brilliant piece by @moiradonegan.bsky.social
"Sexism may be the world’s oldest prejudice and its first unjust hierarchy, but it is continually innovating, adapting to new technologies and the most recent rhetorical needs of male supremacy."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
"Sexism may be the world’s oldest prejudice and its first unjust hierarchy, but it is continually innovating, adapting to new technologies and the most recent rhetorical needs of male supremacy."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Rightwingers are trying to destroy women’s right to vote | Moira Donegan
Calls for disenfranchisement rest on a single assumption: that women’s citizenship is partial and conditional
www.theguardian.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Nauseatingly brilliant piece by @moiradonegan.bsky.social
"Sexism may be the world’s oldest prejudice and its first unjust hierarchy, but it is continually innovating, adapting to new technologies and the most recent rhetorical needs of male supremacy."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
"Sexism may be the world’s oldest prejudice and its first unjust hierarchy, but it is continually innovating, adapting to new technologies and the most recent rhetorical needs of male supremacy."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Word gets around the hill and I bet dollars to donuts that Adm. Holsey's resignation inspired the warning against following illegal orders.
Everything is Hegseth is doing is kayfabe.
Everything is Hegseth is doing is kayfabe.
Wow, Adm. Holsey didn't leave of his own accord, Hegseth pushed him out. What looked like the SOCOM head resigning rather than do war crimes now looks like SecDef canning him to facilitate war crimes.
Congress should have him testify, and would've already if war-crime-sympathetic GOP didn't run it.
Congress should have him testify, and would've already if war-crime-sympathetic GOP didn't run it.
Exclusive | Hegseth Asked Top Admiral to Resign After Months of Discord
The relationship between the Pentagon chief and Adm. Alvin Holsey had been rocky since Trump’s inauguration.
www.wsj.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Word gets around the hill and I bet dollars to donuts that Adm. Holsey's resignation inspired the warning against following illegal orders.
Everything is Hegseth is doing is kayfabe.
Everything is Hegseth is doing is kayfabe.
Forbiden knowledge
Immigrants who worked in fact-checking, dis-information or content moderation will be INELIGIBLE for H-1B visas under Trump, per Reuters www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Exclusive: Trump administration orders enhanced vetting for applicants of H-1B visa
An internal State Department memo said that anyone involved in "censorship" of free speech should be considered for rejection.
www.reuters.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Forbiden knowledge
Starbird is back baby!
This is what government censorship actually looks like: defunding entire fields, deporting researchers, and quite effectively chilling speech that helps people understand how our information systems are being exploited and calls out powerful people and platforms for their bullshit.
For the last decade, the pervasive spread of bullshit & manipulation of online platforms have been widely recognized societal concerns. Now non US citizens studying those subjects can be labeled “censors” & denied visas or deported from the US. Censorship, indeed. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
December 4, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Starbird is back baby!
Well this is quite terrifying
Why Did Trump Pardon the Former Honduran President? Follow the Tech Bros.
“Próspera is an example of the tech-right concept of the network state, a phrase coined by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan.”
by @kieraevebutler.bsky.social
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
“Próspera is an example of the tech-right concept of the network state, a phrase coined by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan.”
by @kieraevebutler.bsky.social
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Why did Trump pardon the former Honduran president? Follow the Tech Bros.
With Roger Stone taking a victory lap for having come up with the idea in the first place.
www.motherjones.com
December 4, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Well this is quite terrifying
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️🌈 🦫
The Institute of Museum & Library Services has restored all previously canceled federal grants to libraries, following a ruling by a federal judge
"Restoration of these grants is a massive win for libraries of all kinds in all states."
"Restoration of these grants is a massive win for libraries of all kinds in all states."
ALA welcomes reinstatement of all federal IMLS grants to libraries
Today, the American Library Association (ALA) greeted an announcement by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) that it had reinstated all the agency’s grants.
www.ala.org
December 4, 2025 at 4:04 PM
The Institute of Museum & Library Services has restored all previously canceled federal grants to libraries, following a ruling by a federal judge
"Restoration of these grants is a massive win for libraries of all kinds in all states."
"Restoration of these grants is a massive win for libraries of all kinds in all states."
Tag you’re part of it
🎶 Ok I just lost #Whamageddon2025 in Boston MA at a ramen restaurant. Whaaaa LMAO.
I won last year but not even 4 days in...oops
@bluthrunthru.bsky.social
@jaybird54.bsky.social
@thegodpodcast.com
@bostonjoan.bsky.social
I won last year but not even 4 days in...oops
@bluthrunthru.bsky.social
@jaybird54.bsky.social
@thegodpodcast.com
@bostonjoan.bsky.social
December 4, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Tag you’re part of it
Spreading the good word from @yobencohen.bsky.social , founder of Ben & Jerry’s, about their struggles to get free of corporate control.
And, a new flavor!
www.tiktok.com/t/ZTrP7d6ee/
And, a new flavor!
www.tiktok.com/t/ZTrP7d6ee/
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! I headed to the grocery store today to reveal our community-made Watermelon Sorbet for Peace in Palestine - Freedom Fruit! 🍉 Pint design: @_lifewithnadia_ on Instagram 🍉 Name: Lord B...
TikTok video by yobencohen
www.tiktok.com
December 4, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Spreading the good word from @yobencohen.bsky.social , founder of Ben & Jerry’s, about their struggles to get free of corporate control.
And, a new flavor!
www.tiktok.com/t/ZTrP7d6ee/
And, a new flavor!
www.tiktok.com/t/ZTrP7d6ee/