With Trump’s speech tonight about alleged foreign interference in the 2020 (!!) election, the @cip.uw.edu and @katestarbird.bsky.social can already predict tropes he may repeat. So much so we made a bingo card. Watch and play tonight! bingo.cip.uw.edu

"Rigged Election" Bingo

Spot the tropes before they spread. Recognize the common storylines behind election rumors — can you get BINGO?

bingo.cip.uw.edu

My team is working on a communication design project. We're looking to connect to someone with news, sportscasting, and/or comedy skills to help us with content production within a social media-first strategy, either as a one-time gig w/ a longer role. All pointers/recommendations welcome!

ICE at the polls! Bannon is basically yelling “fire” in a crowded theater here. His objective is to cause chaos (and suppress votes on the left). And it’s already working. This threat works on multiple levels and doesn’t have to be “real” to serve its purpose. Let me explain & offer some advice.

Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Steve Bannon says the federal government is planning to send ICE officers to patrol polling stations during the midterms. "We're going to have ICE surround the polls come November." "We're not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again." www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

What an incredible summary of our recent report on our election rumor research at UW CIP! Thank you! Cc: @katestarbird.bsky.social

Emmett O'Connell@emmettoconnell.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Last week I wrote about how these rumor disasters happen and a little comms advice on how to prep and respond. But the @cip.uw.edu recently wrote a approach that could be expanded to inoculate communities by covering in real time how rumors spread. 🧵 /1

Last week I wrote about how these rumor disasters happen and a little comms advice on how to prep and respond. But the @cip.uw.edu recently wrote a approach that could be expanded to inoculate communities by covering in real time how rumors spread. 🧵 /1

Emmett O'Connell@emmettoconnell.bsky.social · 7mo ago

1/ Ever wonder how a rumor in MN becomes a physical confrontation in WA in 72 hours? It’s a new model: Participatory Disinformation. WA's digital ecosystem is perfectly primed for these outbreaks. 🧵

Thanks for highlighting our recent report, @emmettoconnell.bsky.social! (Cc: @danielletomson.bsky.social @katestarbird.bsky.social)

Emmett O'Connell@emmettoconnell.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Last week I wrote about how these rumor disasters happen and a little comms advice on how to prep and respond. But the @cip.uw.edu recently wrote a approach that could be expanded to inoculate communities by covering in real time how rumors spread. 🧵 /1

Since 2020, our team has iterated on a model for “rapid research” to help surface, analyze, & resolve rumors about election administration. This work demonstrates an innovative role for researchers to support public sensemaking during rapidly unfolding events. uw.pressbooks.pub/rapidresearc...

Being Sensemakers: A Framework for University-Based Rapid Research of Elections, Crisis Events, and Beyond – Simple Book Publishing

A framework for university-based rapid research of elections, crisis events, and beyond

uw.pressbooks.pub

I'm proud to be a co-author on this new @cip.uw.edu report with my colleagues @danielletomson.bsky.social, @katestarbird.bsky.social @mertcanbayar.bsky.social and @emmaspiro.bsky.social. Check out Kate's 🧵 ...

Kate Starbird@katestarbird.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Since 2020, our team has iterated on a model for “rapid research” to help surface, analyze, & resolve rumors about election administration. This work demonstrates an innovative role for researchers to support public sensemaking during rapidly unfolding events. uw.pressbooks.pub/rapidresearc...

Check out this recent @seattletimes.com op-ed by @cip.uw.edu research manager @danielletomson.bsky.social ⤵️⤵️⤵️

Dr. D@danielletomson.bsky.social · 10mo ago

In today’s @seattletimes.com, I share my concept of the Authenticity Gap, when our stories and experiences don’t align. Now more than ever, we need a new generation of sensemakers willing to explain things as they are, while roadmapping where we would like to go. www.seattletimes.com/opinion/in-t...

In today’s @seattletimes.com, I share my concept of the Authenticity Gap, when our stories and experiences don’t align. Now more than ever, we need a new generation of sensemakers willing to explain things as they are, while roadmapping where we would like to go. www.seattletimes.com/opinion/in-t...

In today's world, we need real stories, not just facts | Op-Ed

Human beings want their explanations of the world to feel real. Yet that desire for authenticity, for something that feels true, can be easily exploited.

seattletimes.com

@schumer.senate.gov would be better off spending time at the Kabbalah center right now than doing a focus group

Will Jennings📉🗳️@drjennings.bsky.social · last yr.

Don't worry, Chuck Shumer is focus grouping this one right now.

The thing about living in Western PA is that you think when you go elsewhere in the world, people just know what “nebby” or “yinz” means

So many small fandoms that went MAGA eventually added up. Yet these individual constituencies don’t necessarily aligned. Im not sure incoherent groups make up a coherent ideology but let’s see..

Wrote a thing at how the Bukele/Trump meeting, full of absolute nonsense and bullshit in support of out-and-out fascism and despotism, is yet another dark day in America. www.techdirt.com/2025/04/14/t...

Trump & Bukele Plot US Citizen Detention In Salvadoran Torture Camps, While Defying Supreme Court Via Gibberish Responses To Reporters

In a stunning White House appearance that should alarm anyone who cares about constitutional rights, democracy, the rule of law or anything of the sort, Donald Trump and Salvadoran dictator Nayib B…

techdirt.com

Everybody just wants to cosplay worker.

Jeff Yang@originalsp.in · last yr.

This chart showing 80% of Americans think it’d be great if more of us worked in factories, while just 20% would actually work in a factory, applies to much of the fake populist promise They celebrate farmers but don’t want to farm, miners but don’t want to mine, soldiers but don’t want to fight etc

If politics is downstream from culture, what is culture downstream from?

Today I’m missing Todd Gitlin.

"Also terminated is a project led by economist and political scientist Christopher Blattman at the University of Chicago that aims to better understand how drug cartels in Colombia are organized and operate and how they recruit new members." www.science.org/content/arti...

Pentagon guts national security program that harnessed social science

Dozens of U.S. academics lose grants from Minerva program for studies related to terrorism, drug trafficking, and other threats

science.org

country went to hell when auto shops put these in in place of a glass carafe that had been on the burner continuously since the Truman administration

18F was doing exactly the type of work that DOGE claims to want – yet we were eliminated shortly after midnight. Read our letter to the American people: 18f.org

Dear friend and ER doctor (for veterans and during COVID in NYC) is a bit too busy saving lives than to give responses beyond this one that won’t be read and are asked for in bad faith.

@doctorgidge.bsky.social · last yr.

I was told by a few to post this on here. So Hello BlueSky! While working at the VA I’ve gotten to know, treat and help our veterans. So when I received the DOGE email, it struck a cord. But I’m a model federal employee, and to avoid a no reply = resignation. I responded. How’d I do? #doge

I was told by a few to post this on here. So Hello BlueSky! While working at the VA I’ve gotten to know, treat and help our veterans. So when I received the DOGE email, it struck a cord. But I’m a model federal employee, and to avoid a no reply = resignation. I responded. How’d I do? #doge

I wrote about the Free Press's shameful decision to publish Hanania's apologia for Nazi salutes www.unpopularfront.news/p/enough

Enough!

This Bullshit Has to End

unpopularfront.news

I don’t know if Google can top this, their finest work to date

David Icke, notorious English peddler of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about lizard people, is calling out Elon Musk on Twitter and it is fascinating to watch:

These are the same attention dynamics that feed the spread of rumors and partisan outrage, have been effectively exploited by right wing populists around the world, and are reconfiguring global politics. But sure, Facebook, go for it!

Craig Silverman@craigsilverman.bsky.social · last yr.

New from me: Meta decided to stop working with U.S. fact-checkers at the same time as it’s revamping a program to pay bonuses to creators with high engagement numbers, potentially pouring accelerant on the kind of false posts the company once policed: www.propublica.org/article/face...

A powerful talk (that should be published in a book essay someday,) going over the different “phases” of rumor and disinformation research of the past decade, with a powerful call to action. @katestarbird.bsky.social is a legend who I am honored to work with www.youtube.com/live/YnJ5o09...

A Spotlight on Rumors

YouTube video by UW (University of Washington)

youtube.com

Lots of folks are disappointed with the “Left” for being in such disarray. Yet in these moments, I’m also wondering, what about those Constitutional Conservative Textualists? Where are they? Can’t we also want them to step up more? (Danielle Sassoon aside)

This is why the paper form for the news still wins for me.

Kevin Lerner@klerner.bsky.social · last yr.

Kudos to the @nytimes.com editors who kept themselves amused by juxtaposing news about what’s going on in Wales with news about what’s going on in whales.