Brandi Geurkink
@geurkink.bsky.social
Executive Director of the Coalition for Independent Tech Research
This release of Meta documents is a deeply shocking look at how tech tries to steer & control science. It's normal for crisis comms teams to ask how to counter scientists who criticize their employers. But here's what's especially shocking in these docs: cailinoconnor.substack.com/p/its-now-of...
It’s now official, tech is the new tobacco
New court documents make clearer than ever that Meta has been working hard to control the scientific narrative on their products
cailinoconnor.substack.com
Within one week, the US government pressured a disinformation conference in Europe and sanctioned the International Criminal Court. This is actually one and the same campaign for suppressing facts and voices of justice, writes Jeanne Sulzer.
Two Targets, One Tactic as US Sanctions ICC and Silences #DisInfo2026
What may appear as two separate attempts by the US to silence facts, are both part of the same tactic to supress justice, says Jeanne Sulzer.
techpolicy.press
P brilliant that Schellenberger published the State Department on the record saying they stand ready and willing to defy the court order that is currently blocking them from enforcing this policy because it violates the First Amendment
lol US gov so scared of what we have to say on a panel that they tried (and failed) to pull a China RightsCon sitch www.politico.com/news/2026/10...
EU, Canada and Lithuania pull out of disinformation conference after US pressure
The Trump administration was bothered by panels that referred to the U.S. as a disinformation threat.
politico.com
Credit to the US for making the point the conference was trying to make about US foreign interference in European democracies for them, and bringing more attention to the conference and its themes than they could have possibly hoped for. www.politico.com/news/2026/10...
EU, Canada and Lithuania pull out of disinformation conference after US pressure
The Trump administration was bothered by panels that referred to the U.S. as a disinformation threat.
politico.com
“What this amounts to is a purported defender of free speech at the state department using the enormous power of the US government to try to pressure Americans from criticizing their government.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
EU drops sponsorship of disinformation conference at Trump officials’ request
Lithuania and Canada were also pressured to withdraw, and days before #Disinfo2026, logos were wiped off website
theguardian.com
Thank you @stefanturk.bsky.social for drawing my attention to the signature of Greg Brockman. The biggest revelation in the new EO. Man babies the lot of them.
💥 @lighthousereports.com has filed a complaint against the EU Commission for withholding access to crucial environmental information on data centres. 🧐 Earlier this year, we revealed that the Commission copy-pasted a Microsoft amendment on secrecy. This complaint is a direct challenge.
Why we made a legal filing to the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee
Officials are holding key environmental impact figures for all AI data centres across Europe. They won’t let the public see them.
lighthousereports.com
activists protest Thiel receiving the Axel Springer award with a queer Gandalf costume competition is peak Berlin i love this city
netzpolitik.org@netzpolitik.org · last mo.Gegen die Verleihung des Axel Springer Awards an den rechten Oligarchen Peter #Thiel haben in Berlin hunderte Menschen demonstriert – eine Person sogar bei der Preisverleihung selbst. netzpolitik.org/2026/kreativ...
How do we find hope, persistence, & success at defending essential rights? Today in @science.org, I published a letter with @rebekahtromble.bsky.social & @ubiquity75.xyz explaining how free inquiry is threatened by government restrictions on movement. www.science.org/eprint/CBDR2...
Free inquiry depends on freedom of movement
Starting in May 2025, the US government implemented an immigration policy that targeted noncitizen researchers for visa denials, visa revocations, detention, and deportation on the basis of the topics and findings of their work (1). In response, scholars and civil society groups at the Coalition for Independent Technology Research (CITR) documented the policy’s effects on their research and sued the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Justice Department to stay the policy (2). Scholarly societies, including the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) (3) and the Association of Internet Researchers (AOIR) (4) issued public statements in support of academics’ freedom of movement. In July 2026, a federal court suspended the policy (5), marking a victory for scientific progress (6). However, threats to freedom of movement remain a powerful tool for repressive governments to force and entice scholars into submission. Scholars and administrators should continue to defend the integrity of science by defending the right to freedom of movement.
science.org
Researchers across the country are turning to side hustles to fund their work. Behind the cuts sits a bigger shift: whether American science can still sustain durable research capacity. @lindseydcameron.bsky.social and I examine the stakes in a new piece @science.org: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The wrong platform for science
Daniel Blumstein recently sat in a Colorado meadow waiting for yellow-bellied marmots to appear, as the ecologist and evolutionary biologist had done many times before, the New York Times reported. Bu...
science.org
Undercover footage verified by Channel 4 News reveals a secret plot by senior Reform UK figures to break the law on party donations. A leading legal expert is now calling for a criminal investigation. 🔗 Read the exclusive story on Substack:
Exclusive: Nigel Farage filmed undercover celebrating secret new foreign donations
Undercover footage verified by Channel 4 News reveals a secret plot by senior Reform UK figures to break the law on party donations. A leading legal expert is now calling for a criminal investigation.
channel4news.substack.com
There was no "censorship industrial compex" under the Biden administration. But the MAGA officials who continue to believe in it have done a lot of damage. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
MAGA’s Imaginary Censorship-Industrial Complex
The conspiracy theory that persists even though no evidence supports it
theatlantic.com
Absolutely incredible reporting from @sallyhayd.bsky.social The details of what happened on the boat trip are deeply harrowing, but everyone should read them and understand the reality of what is happening www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...
‘It was day 13 or 14 when people started dying’: More than 200 set sail for Europe. Only 36 survived
A harrowing story of death and survival on the Atlantic migration route from west Africa, ‘the deadliest in the world’
irishtimes.com
"The idea that an organization that is an alternative host—for email, websites, and other services—could be designated a terrorist organization simply for providing a service that a lot of people want…is scary," EFF’s @jillian.bsky.social told @reason.com.
Rubio uses terrorism law to ban secure email service
The State Department doesn’t accuse Autistici/Inventati of doing anything more than providing surveillance-free email accounts. But that’s enough to declare it a terrorist organization.
reason.com
Maybe this is a different State Department than the one that's imprisoning and deporting people for political speech, and a different Palantir than the one that's been supplying surveillance tech to ICE.
Jameel Jaffer@jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 2mo agoWhere to begin foreignpolicy.com/2026/08/20/s...
The 2027 Tech Policy Press Fellowship application is live! We’re seeking journalists, policy professionals, and researchers to pursue independent reporting and analysis on issues at the intersection of technology and democracy. Learn more and apply by September 24:
Call for Applications: 2027 Tech Policy Press Fellowship Program
2027 Tech Policy Press fellowship applications are due on September 24, 2026.
techpolicy.press
How do governments rewire science & the tech industry by threatening scholars? And how can we be more resilient? Writing for @ucs.org, I report on efforts by @thecoalition.bsky.social, @knightcolumbia.org, @acm.org, & @aoir.bsky.social to support researcher rights blog.ucs.org/guest-commen...
Protecting Science from Government Intimidation - Union of Concerned Scientists
blog.ucs.org
Big institutions should be defending scientists against the Trump admin's attempts to intimidate and control them, yet that leadership often comes from smaller orgs that “have less to lose” and are willing to fight back and organise resistance.
The belief in a non-existent "censorship industrial complex" now shapes American foreign policy. A brilliant deep dive from the MIT Technology Review www.technologyreview.com/2026/08/07/1...
How ideas of a vast censorship network moved from the online fringe to Trump policy
Narratives about a “censorship-industrial complex” spread in right-wing circles for years; then they took hold of Washington. What—and who—is behind them?
technologyreview.com
A new survey from @knightfoundation.org and @ssrsresearch.bsky.social reveals a disquieting decline in how free Americans feel to use the freedoms protected by the #FirstAmendment without government interference or punishment. 🧵
Knight Foundation-SSRS Poll: Americans Feel Free Expression is Eroding - Knight Foundation
For more than two decades, Knight Foundation has commissioned research to better understand Americans’ lived experience with the First Amendment and free expression. As the country marks its 250th ann...
knightfoundation.org
The Trump administration tried to use visa denials and deportation to silence researchers who study social media. A court just said no. Sunday Tagliasacchi and Elisabeth Snyder, former legal externs at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, break down the CITR v. Rubio ruling.
Trump Cannot Use Immigration Law to Silence Technology Researchers
Sunday Tagliasacchi and Elisabeth Snyder detail an initial court victory for the Coalition for Independent Technology Research in CITR v. Rubio.
buff.ly
Sometimes you fight and sometimes you even win. Coalition for Independent Tech Research sued the state department over a policy that weaponized immigration laws against content moderation researchers and won an injunction: arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
Judge: Trump can’t deport researchers just for working in content moderation
Disinformation researchers praise ruling blocking Trump visa denials and deportations.
arstechnica.com
So proud to be representing @thecoalition.bsky.social in this case, and so grateful for their courage—and their members’ courage—in standing up to fight this backwards and blatantly unconstitutional policy.
We have an opinion in @thecoalition.bsky.social v. Rubio! The State Department's policy of targeting misinfo, disinfo, and trust and safety researchers and advocates for visa denials and revocations is stayed pending resolution of the action. Opinion here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
.Order AND Memorandum & Opinion – #54 in COALITION FOR INDEPENDENT TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH v. RUBIO (D.D.C., 1:26-cv-00815) – CourtListener.com
MEMORANDUM OPINION re [53] Order on Motion for Protective Order and Motion for Stay and Preliminary Injunction. Signed by Chief Judge James E. Boasberg on July 14, 2026. (lcjeb4)
storage.courtlistener.com
Big First Amendment victory in @thecoalition.bsky.social v Rubio. Congrats to my colleague @carriedecell.bsky.social and to the @knightcolumbia.org & @protectdemocracy.org legal teams! knightcolumbia.org/documents/d4...
Our Coalition sued Marco Rubio, and the court is agreeing with us. Today, Judge Boasberg stayed a Trump admin policy to deny revoke the visas of technology researchers, fact-checkers and trust and safety workers. knightcolumbia.org/content/fede...
Federal Court Suspends Trump Immigration Policy Targeting Technology Researchers
knightcolumbia.org
Big win: research vs Rubio Federal Court Suspends Trump Immigration Policy Targeting Technology Researchers Court finds policy likely violates the First Amendment by targeting protected research and advocacy based on viewpoint Thanks to all fighting this fight knightcolumbia.org/content/fede...
Federal Court Suspends Trump Immigration Policy Targeting Technology Researchers
knightcolumbia.org
