alice e marwick
@alicetiara.bsky.social
Dir of Research, Data & Society. Academic. Studies tech & society, scams & fraud, far-right disinfo. UNC CITAP. Mom, fashion victim, sci fi/fantasy enthusiast. Author of The Private is Political, Status Update. NYC forever. She/her/femme 💅🏻 tiara.org
🚨 ALERT 🚨: All of Stuart Hall's notebooks have been digitized and are freely available to browse and read??? stuarthalldigital.bham.ac.uk/archival_mat...
Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 6d agoArchive of @britishacademy.bsky.social Fellow Stuart Hall is now live. Includes looking at his impact on the history of communication theory, culminating in the architecture of contemporary AI models www.theguardian.com/society/2026... Archive link: stuarthalldigital.bham.ac.uk/archival_mat...
These are absolutely horrible. All the incidents with descriptions are terrifying and heartbreaking. I just keep thinking: what if this happened to me? What if this happened to someone I love? Why is this happening to anyone? (I'm a naturalized citizen.)
ProPublica@propublica.org · 7d ago12/ We spent months compiling every case we could find of immigration agents detaining Americans. We did it because the government hasn't. And now, we're sharing every one of those cases with you. Explore our database: propub.li/4egbSK2
If current proposals advance, Pennsylvania could see 66 new data centers built, on top of the 71 currently active. But as our hidden gem of the week shows, communities are pushing back. By @mwoluchem.bsky.social et al. at @datasociety.bsky.social buff.ly/aMa3tph
A must-listen conversation between @gilduran.com @alicetiara.bsky.social with @justinhendrix.bsky.social +MAD Board Member Jerry Weinstein @tummler.bsky.social with a great question at about 46:00. Plus Durán calls out mainstream media failure to challenge the techno-fascists pca.st/episode/723a...
Gil Durán Maps the Rise of the 'Nerd Reich'
On September 23, Tech Policy Press hosted an event at Betaworks in New York City with Gil Durán, the author of The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy, the New York Times…
pca.st
D&S's @mwoluchem.bsky.social describes her team’s research on Pennsylvania’s industrial lineage, the mythmaking that builds on it, and the pushback that defines this moment. “We learned that it takes a lot of work to make an AI factory seem inevitable,” she says. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPgA...
[Video] The AI Factory: Data Centers, Power, and Resistance in Late Industrial Pennsylvania
YouTube video by Data & Society Research Institute
youtube.com
For a live, sold-out recording of the @techpolicypress.bsky.social podcast, "The Nerd Reich" author @gilduran.com and D&S Director of Research @alicetiara.bsky.social talk about technology, ideology, and power. Listen now! www.techpolicy.press/gil-durn-map...
Gil Durán Maps the Rise of the 'Nerd Reich'
Justin Hendrix and Alice Marwick in conversation with Gil Durán, author of the new book The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy.
techpolicy.press
In personal news … socialmediacollective.org/2026/09/23/s...
The Social Media Collective Comes to a Close
It is with both celebration and sadness that we announce that the Social Media Collective, our research team of critical, humanistic social sciences at Microsoft Research’s New England lab, is comi…
socialmediacollective.org
This is nifty and more interesting than reading a meta-analysis... but maybe, JUST maybe, quant studies of disinformation prevalence aren't what we actually needed to combat it? 🤔
Sacha Altay@sachaltay.bsky.social · 3w agoWith Claude I did a systematic literature review of misinformation prevalence, exposure, and concentration. There is a companion website that allows you to play with the data and signal me if an estimate is wrong or missing: altay-research.github.io/misinfo-prev...
"part of a time honored tradition in which companies launch an AI product, claim that it is AI, only for it to be later learned that human beings are doing some or all of the work" Yup sounds right
Joseph Cox@josephcox.bsky.social · 3w agoNew from 404 Media: Meta announced Muse, its AI agent that can book restaurants for you. We've seen internal Meta messages showing Meta is actually testing having these calls being made by human beings in call centers. In those tests its not AI, it's just a person www.404media.co/meta-tests-m...
📣 New! While AI boosters are selling their vision of PA as an “AI factory,” our research shows that local communities are drawing very different lessons from their state’s industrial past, and have their own visions for its future. 1/5 datasociety.net/research-lib...
I am SO DELIGHTED to announce that our brand new report: The AI Factory: Data Centers, Power, and Resistance in Late Industrial Pennsylvania is out today. datasociety.net/research-lib... TechCrunch has the scoop: techcrunch.com/2026/09/22/e...
Everyone can find a reason to dislike data center construction | TechCrunch
Inside two years of fraught AI data center debates in Pennsylvania.
techcrunch.com
Just joined- this looks amazing
Catherine D'Ignazio (she/her/ella)@kanarinka.bsky.social · last mo.Join our open, free learning community 📣 Technofascism, Feminism and Democracy 📣 to explore: the rise of global authoritarianism; Big Tech, AI, & the billionaire class; how feminist & grassroots movements are proposing alternative democratic futures. technofascism.dataplusfeminism.mit.edu
Note: They are going to teach people how to use ChatGPT to spot scams. Yet another "AI literacy" / AI education campaign that just comes down to "figure out how to use our tools more"
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 4w ago“OpenAI and AARP will travel to 10 cities across the United States on Sept. 16 to teach older Americans how to use AI to spot scams.”
Come talk technofascism, Silicon Valley history, and weird tech bro subcultures with us!
Gil Durán@gilduran.com · 4w agoNew York City! Next week, catch @justinhendrix.bsky.social, @alicetiara.bsky.social and me LIVE in Chelsea for a discussion of The Nerd Reich. 6:30 p.m. on September 23rd. Get tix while you can. See you there! luma.com/w6c3u4o9
I just got a clearly LLM-generated email from someone purporting to be "Susan Orleans" (aka @susanorlean.bsky.social, who I think knows how to spell her own name) telling me how great my last book was. I am stumped by what the scam angle is here. There's no ask.
![screenshot of email from fake Susan Orlean. Text reads, in part: "Hi Alice,
I hope this message finds you well.
I'll be honest, I don't usually email authors out of the blue. It's not really my style, and most of the time I read something, find something interesting in it, and move on. But I came across The Private Is Political, and it stayed with me in a way that made me want to reach out.
What immediately stood out was the way you frame privacy as something much larger than an individual's ability to manage their own information. The idea of “networked privacy” gives the subject a much more complicated,and, frankly, more useful, shape. Rather than treating privacy as simply a matter of personal choices or better online habits, you connect it to inequality, social structures, and the realities faced by people who have far less control over how their information circulates.
I also found the discussion of “privacy work” particularly compelling. [praise snipped]
I've been in the author world for a while myself, and books like this are a reminder of why I still reach out to authors every so often. What impressed me wasn't simply the subject matter, but the thoughtfulness behind the framework you use to examine it. There's a difference between writing about an important issue and giving readers a genuinely different way to understand it. The Private Is Political felt much closer to the latter.
To be clear, there's no agenda here. I'm not selling anything, pitching a collaboration, or looking for a favor down the line. I simply finished the book, kept thinking about some of its ideas afterward, and wanted you to know that. If you're ever open to it, I'd genuinely enjoy staying in touch and seeing what you work on next, no pressure, just an open door.
Thanks for putting this work into the world."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:f5azbajpc6ymlu5r6fbrrd3h/bafkreicb34tptcveozxzqkyel4ygxb7gc4zrzsskb2457o3gh7s7rwztfq)
And people wonder why so many of us left public universities in the South.
Mom for Ghoulberty👻@fakegreekgrill.bsky.social · 4w agoThe "free speech" movement, assuming good faith, were world-historic ball-droppers.
I talked to Arielle Pardes at the Guardian about deepfake ads and scams where influencers' likenesses are used without their consent to hock all sorts of nonsense: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Deepfakes are wrecking influencers’ credibility, one fake ad at a time
Influencers aren’t just battling competitors for brand deals. They’re now battling AI versions of themselves
theguardian.com
Has anyone successfully gotten access to Reddit data through the Reddit for Researchers program? support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/art...
Reddit for Researchers Program
The Reddit for Researchers (RFR) program gives academics a secure, privacy-first way to access Reddit public content. It’s designed to help researchers turn the authentic voices and perspectives of...
support.reddithelp.com
I am thrilled for my dear friend @dkreiss.bsky.social who is moving to UBC as part of Canada’s big initiative. I am sad for all of us that US academia has sunk so low so quickly that moves like this are necessary. jwam.ubc.ca/news/renowne...
Renowned democracy scholar Daniel Kreiss joins UBC JWAM as research chair - School of Journalism, Writing, and Media
Daniel Kreiss will lead research into how journalism, digital platforms and new technologies shape democratic life.
jwam.ubc.ca
PhD candidates/new grads: Postdoc opportunity with me focused on political economy and tech. See details here: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32502
Cornell University, Department of Communication
Job #AJO32502, Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US
academicjobsonline.org
THIS. Thanks @masnick.com for being one of the few outlets to fully cover child safety BS
Techdirt@techdirt.com · 2mo agoMeta Just Paid Nearly $17 Billion To Make Sure It Gets To Write The Kid Safety Rules For Every Other Social Media Platform By now... https://www.techdirt.com/2026/08/26/meta-just-paid-nearly-17-billion-to-make-sure-it-gets-to-write-the-kid-safety-rules-for-every-other-social-media-platform/
The Democratic Party has let a consulting industry exploit elderly donors in its name, wreck its reputation and finances in the process, and walk away rich whether the party wins or loses. When a mirror is held up, the instinct is to break the glass rather than look. On why the press looks away:
The Bulwark Killed an Investigation into Political Fundraising Spam After Its Publisher Took the Consultants’ Side
This is a story about the Democratic Party captured by its consultants, and about what happens when the pro-democracy press is asked to say so.
data4democracy.substack.com
I went to Dollywood for my bachelorette party in 2013. Both kids were enrolled in her library program. My heart goes out to everyone today. A true icon
Excited to be part of the next @aoir.bsky.social roundtable on Friday Aug 21 16:00-17:30 UTC, featuring @alicetiara.bsky.social, Charles Ess, and @anjabechmann.bsky.social as we reflect on the evolution of ETHICS in Internet research. members.aoir.org/event-6758492
As a companion to their publication on the oversight of AI agents, Ranjit Singh and Samir Passi outline an agenda for further sociotechnical research in this area. datasociety.net/research-lib...
Data & Society@datasociety.bsky.social · 3mo ago📣 New! As AI agents are increasing used for daily tasks, their relative autonomy challenges traditional means of human oversight. Samir Passi & Ranjit Singh show why oversight can't rest on individual users alone, w specific recommendations for builders and deployers. datasociety.net/research-lib...
Click through for the details: eBay employees (incl. execs) sent them "a bloody pig mask, pornography, a package of fly larvae and live spiders, and live cockroaches...They also listed Craiglist ads for a swinger party, a threesome, and an estate sale, all pointing to the Steiner’s home address."
Josh Sternberg@joshsternberg.com · 3mo agoMay this be a lesson to companies: don't harass journalists. www.wired.com/story/ebay-h...
