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Ethan Zuckerman@ethanz.bsky.social |
8132 followers 104 following 113 posts
UMass Amherst, Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure, Global Voices, Berkman Klein Center. Formerly Center for Civic Media, MIT Media Lab.
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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YouTube is way weirder than you think. It's not necessarily a good thing that OpenAI is training their systems on it - an essay from @Antisomniac and me for @ConversationUS: theconversation.com/ai-companies...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Taylor Bledsoe has an excellent podcast called Aiming for the Moon (@Aiming4Moon@twitter), and she interviewed me about mistrust, skepticism of institutions and finding ways to make change in a dark and confusing political moment. Give it a listen! www.aimingforthemoon.com/episodes/the...
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Ryan McGrady
@antisomniac.bsky.social
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YouTube is being used to train AI, but YouTube has a ton of obscure personal, social, and incidental content alongside the popular creators and news clips. See our piece in
@us.theconversation.com today theconversation.com/ai-companies...
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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A talk from Dr. Diana Freed completely changed my understanding of computer security - how do we secure systems for domestic violence survivors and their children? I got to talk with her about these questions for Reimagining the Internet: publicinfrastructure.org/podcast/101-...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Grateful to Will Oremus for taking time to explain the Unfollow Everything suit against meta to Marketplace - much like his WaPo analysis piece, it's a terrific overview of the issues at play around middleware, section 230 and user control: www.marketplace.org/shows/market...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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My conversation with Jillian York of EFF on freedom of expression, different forms of censorship and silencing, and the importance of "small rooms" in online discourse: www.eff.org/pages/speaki...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Thanks to Paul Barrett for this insightful analysis of what we're hoping to do with a suit against Meta around Louis Barclay's Unfollow Everything: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/a-zu...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Definitely related, and certainly an exciting decision.
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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It's interesting which audiences different media reach. With an essay in the NYTimes today, I've heard from lots of faculty at universities I've studied at, and an equal amount of complaints from internet strangers that I am abusing the US legal system... www.nytimes.com/2024/05/05/o...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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No worries. Most of my friends get it wrong - I just thought it was a great moment to clarify preferred pronunciation. :-)
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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There's been some great conversation about the issues our suit against Meta brings up for middleware and other internet architecture issues. An overview of some of those conversations here: ethanzuckerman.com/2024/05/02/z...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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There's something surprisingly balanced about 230 (c)(2)(B) - after giving a very powerful set of protections for platforms, it also acknowledges that end users have a set of rights and powers as well. Maybe making this more visible gives the opportunity to level an unbalanced playing field.
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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We hope the court will give us standing, because we do think 230 (c)(2)(B) is a powerful pathway for users to gain more control over the media they're encountering. I stumbled onto the section after years of teaching the 26 words, and realizing there was more to the statute.
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Thanks, Mike, particularly for your kind words about my digital public infrastructure work - we see this suit as directly connected to those efforts. To be clear, all my work is a form of penance. My starting word on Wordle every morning is "atone". :-)
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Wait, who gets goosed in that scenario?
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New_ Public
@newpublic.substack.com
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BREAKING: Friend of New_ Public @ethanz.bsky.social is suing Meta, saying that Section 230 should allow anyone to choose to out of Facebook's ranking algorithm.
He's seeking preemptive judgement to prevent Meta from blocking a new browser extension he's launching
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Julia Angwin
@juliaangwin.com
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Thank you @ethanz.bsky.social! I am increasingly of the opinion that our relationship with social media would be so much better if we could break the platforms' stranglehold on the algorithms that control what we see.
My piece on the need for algorithmic choice: www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/o...
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Tech Transparency Project
@ttp-updates.bsky.social
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Meta doesn’t want to be held legally responsible for any of the harm caused by its algorithms – but it doesn’t want users to opt out of them, either. A new lawsuit on behalf of @ethanz.bsky.social is challenging that position, @telliotter.bsky.social reports. www.wired.com/story/meta-s...
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Daphne Keller
@daphnek.bsky.social
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This suit against Meta by @ethanz.bsky.social w counsel from @knightcolumbia.org has everything.
Section 230 interpretive fights galore!
On behalf of middleware providers!
With implications for researchers!
And copyright and DMCA 1201 claims waiting in the wings!
Plus CFAA!
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Vittori Elliott has a great overview of our case and what's at stake in her piece for Wired: www.wired.com/story/meta-s...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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With my brilliant friends at the Knight First Amendment Institute, I filed suit against Meta today, asking a federal court to find that CDA section 230 gives users rights to control what they see on social media via third party tools. See our complaint at: knightcolumbia.org/cases/zucker... .
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riwoche རི་བོ་ཆེ་
@riwoche.bsky.social
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Pity the poor billionaire who shaved more than $22 billion in valuation off his company who has to resort to taking ads directly from the Kremlin.
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iDPI at UMass Amherst
@idpiumass.bsky.social
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For the next few months, @chandrn.bsky.social and @ethanz.bsky.social are sharing drafts of every chapter in their upcoming "Field Guide to Social Media" on MIT Press. It's a really special project, and we want to invite all of you to take part by telling us what you think in each draft's comments.
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Twitter's new business model - Russian Disinformation: ethanzuckerman.com/2024/04/19/t...
For the first time, I stumbled on US-targeted Russian disinfo in the wild... and they're a Twitter advertiser.
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Alas, can't keep up with all the acts. And Alan did hire me explicitly to not be British... :-)
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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When US legislators invoke child safety, it's a good time to reach for your revolver: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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This is both terrific research and absolutely beautiful presentation of data about image generation systems. Adding this to my "recommended readings" on AI and ethical implications - super smart and affecting work: knowingmachines.org/models-all-t...
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Tracy Chou
@triketora.bsky.social
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But Reddit’s turnaround proves that content moderation is not an empty buzzword or a partisan plot. It’s a business necessity, a prerequisite for growth and something every social media company has to embrace eventually, if it wants to succeed. www.nytimes.com/2024/03/21/t...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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A highlight of my Paris trip - hearing Pablo Boczkowski previewing his new work on how technology is changing mental healthcare in Argentina (and mental health, globally):
ethanzuckerman.com/2024/03/19/p...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Understanding the current state of US politics means understanding a 50 year rise in mistrust in institutions - my conversation about by 2021 book Mistrust with the editor of the Christian Science Monitor: www.csmonitor.com/Books/Author...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Great - @chandrn.bsky.social can help you out.
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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We now support mentions, making the tool way more useful. And support for choosing, auditing and tuning the algorithms used to sort your feed in in development. Let me know if you'd like a beta account.
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Hey, if you've been meaning to try Gobo.social - our social media aggregator developed at UMass Amherst - this is a great time. It supports cross posting and reading from Mastodon and BlueSky, and we hope to bring on Twitter and Threads in the next few months.
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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40 years ago, Apple introduced the Macintosh - smart, beautiful and easy to use... but also locked down, tamper resistant and abstracted in ways that anticipate our smartphone and app future. My reflections on the anniversary in Prospect: t.co/bcszl5sN7n
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Thank you. Immodestly, I teach this piece every year because it's super helpful for sparking debate about what social media should be.
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Mark Little
@marklittle.bsky.social
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“Combine the increasing unknowability of social media and the rise of generative AI with the wave of global elections in 2024, and we may be looking at a perfect storm.” @ethanz.bsky.social on why we need to empower & protect independent researchers of social media www.kettering.org/news/social-...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Here's a gift link to Ryan McGrady's wonderful "What We Discovered on 'Deep YouTube'" article in The Atlantic: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a.... You can find out lots more about the work at tubestats.org
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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My piece is inspired by and heavily reliant on recent work by Kai-Cheng Yang, who spoke at UMass this fall. Here are my notes from his excellent talk: ethanzuckerman.com/2023/11/08/k...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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I've got a new article with the Charles Kettering Foundation on social bots and electoral disinformation - www.kettering.org/news/social-... . Key takeaway - we expect to see ChatGPT-powered disinfo bots as part of electoral disinfo in 2024.
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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The video is an explanation of this paper - journalqd.org/article/view... - which I summarized here: ethanzuckerman.com/2023/12/22/h...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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A YouTube creator named Bufferhead made a video about our YouTube "drunk dialing" paper... and it's terrific. Really wonderful summary of our work, well cited and fun to watch. www.youtube.com/watch?v=B76F...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Social media gets small - my latest for WIRED: www.wired.com/story/social...
(Steve Martin: "I was driving the other day and a cop pulls me over. And he goes, 'Hey, are you small?' I said, 'No, I'm tall, I'm tall.'")
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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My colleague @chandrn.bsky.social _ has smart, practical ideas on how we can make data portable not just once, but on an ongoing, regular basis. I love his mix of policy prescriptions and practical, programmer "just do it"...
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NYU's Center for Social Media and Politics
@csmapnyu.org
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It's easy to search social media and find examples of bad stuff (misinfo, hate speech, etc). It's harder to figure out the proportion. Read @ethanz.bsky.social's excellent post about this "denominator problem" / new paper creating random sample of YouTube.
ethanzuckerman.com/2023/12/22/h...
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@prospectmagazine.bsky.social
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Think AI could lead to the destruction of humanity? You might be a “doomer”.
Think it could save lives? You might be an “accelerationist”.
The connection between the two? They’re defining the way world-changing technology evolves.
@ethanz.bsky.social
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...
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kevin zheng
@ze.vin
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And check out the full paper in the open access @journalqd.bsky.social with @antisomniac.bsky.social, me, Rebecca Curran, Jason Baumgartner, and @ethanz.bsky.social for more on our sampling methods and analysis
journalqd.org/article/view...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Expect lots more from me on YouTube and what it means to study the long tail of the internet - the quotidian web - when I'm no longer knocked on my back with COVID.
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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And here's a blog post from me explaining why this is an interesting question and a little bit of what it took us to answer it: ethanzuckerman.com/2023/12/22/h...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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How big is YouTube? It's a hard question: it took us almost two years to solve it. But now we know, and we've published a big paper in the Journal of Quantitative Description: journalqd.org/article/view...
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Ethan Zuckerman
@ethanz.bsky.social
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Should old passwords be forgot: the annual holiday podcast episode from the team at @iDPI_umass
: publicinfrastructure.org/podcast/96-h...
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