alice e marwick
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alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick
@alicetiara.bsky.social
13K followers 470 following 380 posts

Dir of Research, Data & Society. Academic. Studies tech & society, far-right disinfo. UNC CITAP. Loves pop cult. Mom, fashion victim, sci fi/fantasy enthusiast. Author of The Private is Political, Status Update. NYC forever. She/her/femme 💅🏻 tiara.org .. more

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Alice E. Marwick is a communication scholar, academic, and author, who currently works as an Associate Professor in the Communication department and Principal Researcher at the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an affiliated researcher with the Data and Society Research Institute. Marwick has written for publications such as the New York Times, and the Guardian. Her works include the examination of politics, race, social media and gender. She has been a keynote speaker for various universities throughout the United States. .. more

Communication & Media Studies 35%
Sociology 19%
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alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · Dec 4
Wrote a big hot take for Nieman’s 2025 predictions & managed to shoehorn in a lot of pet peeves while using “epistemic” sparingly www.niemanlab.org/2024/12/the-...
The mainstream media will lose its last grip on relevancy
"The gap between mainstream media readers, people who get most of their news through influencers or partisan social media, and people who barely think about news at all will create a fundamental schis...
www.niemanlab.org

alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · 4d
@briana-v.bsky.social is our other fabulous author!!!

Reposted by Alice Marwick

springer.springernature.com
Springer @springer.springernature.com · 6d
Can #AI chatbots become sources of care and intimacy? This #OpenAccess study examines #MentalHealth and spiritual chatbots, revealing how users share deeply personal information while raising questions about privacy and regulation. bit.ly/3KI5C2p @tamigraph.bsky.social @alicetiara.bsky.social
A chatbot for the soul: mental health care, privacy, and intimacy in AI-based conversational agents - Communication and Change
Artificial intelligence-based conversational agents—chatbots—are increasingly integrated into telehealth platforms, employee wellness programs, and mobile applications to address structural gaps in mental health care. While these chatbots promise accessibility, they are often deployed without sufficient impact assessment or even basic user testing. This paper presents a case study using community red-teaming exercises to evaluate a chatbot designed for wellness and spirituality. Unlike traditional red-teaming, which is conducted by engineers to assess vulnerabilities, community red-teaming treats impacted users as experts, uncovering concerns related to privacy, ethics, and functionality. Our fieldwork, conducted with undergraduate beta testers (n = 28), revealed that participants were often more comfortable sharing private information with the chatbot than with a stranger. Prior experience with commercial AI systems, such as ChatGPT, contributed to this ease. However, participants also raised concerns about misinformation, inadequate guardrails for sensitive topics, data security, and dependency. Despite these risks, users remained open to the chatbot’s potential as a spiritual wellness guide. We further examine how algorithmic impact assessments (AIAs) both capture and overlook key aspects of the spiritual chatbot user experience. These chatbots offer hyper-personalized, AI-mediated divination and wellness interactions, blurring the boundaries between astrology, mental health support, and spiritual guidance. The chameleon-like nature of these technologies challenges conventional assessment frameworks, necessitating a nuanced approach that considers specific use cases, potential user bases, and indirect impacts on broader communities. We argue that AIAs for care and wellness chatbots must account for these complexities, ensuring ethical deployment and mitigating harm.
bit.ly

alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · 10d
to be clear, these are classes that were taught for years and were widely attended by students. This is disgraceful, disgusting, and an enormous violation of academic "freedom," which is rapidly disappearing.

Reposted by Kate Starbird

alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · 10d
I've heard anecdotal evidence from Texas colleagues across the state that even innocuous classes that touch on race (for example, journalism by and about minoritized communities) are being banned and removed under this new censorship regime.
chadstanton.blacksky.app Doghouse Reilly @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 11d
“At Texas A&M, internal emails show staff are using AI software to search syllabi and course descriptions for words that could raise concerns under new system policies restricting how faculty teach about race and gender.”

www.texastribune.org/2025/12/15/t...
Texas universities deploy AI for course audits
Records obtained by The Texas Tribune show how universities are using the technology to reshape curriculum under political pressure, raising concerns about academic freedom.
www.texastribune.org

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Joe R. Feagin, Brendan Nyhan , and 15 more

chadstanton.blacksky.app
Doghouse Reilly @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 11d
“At Texas A&M, internal emails show staff are using AI software to search syllabi and course descriptions for words that could raise concerns under new system policies restricting how faculty teach about race and gender.”

www.texastribune.org/2025/12/15/t...
Texas universities deploy AI for course audits
Records obtained by The Texas Tribune show how universities are using the technology to reshape curriculum under political pressure, raising concerns about academic freedom.
www.texastribune.org

Reposted by Alice Marwick

tamigraph.bsky.social
Tamara Kneese @tamigraph.bsky.social · 15d
This report is how I have channeled my rage as the tech industry has grown in wealth and power at the expense of workers, communities, and the environment. The old mechanisms of reform aren’t sufficient in a time of AI ascendance and data center accelerationism datasociety.net/library/turn...
Text reads: “new report: turning the tide: climate action in and against tech by Tamara Kneese, Data & Society” with an image of Data Centers in front of an orange sky with images of protestors juxtaposed with tech work happening

Reposted by Alice Marwick

rebekahtromble.bsky.social
Rebekah Tromble @rebekahtromble.bsky.social · 21d
The European Commissision announced its first non-compliance decision under the Digital Services Act, fining X €120 million for deceptive practices and lack of transparency. 1/

ec.europa.eu/commission/p...
Commission fines X €120 million under the Digital Services Act
Today, the Commission has issued a fine of €120 million to X for breaching its transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
ec.europa.eu

alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · 21d
This should scare everyone, regardless of your proximity to disinformation research. Next could be trans studies, Black studies, climate science
katestarbird.bsky.social Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 21d
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.
katestarbird.bsky.social Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 21d
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...

alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · 21d
Oh man I saw it a few weeks ago! Curious to see what you think

Reposted by Nina Jankowicz, Lisa W. Fazio, Mark A. Lemley , and 11 more

katestarbird.bsky.social
Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 21d
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.
katestarbird.bsky.social Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 21d
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...
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

alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · Nov 22
Right?! The portrayal of black women in OBAO was so fucking weird, and it was the most shallow depiction of leftist activism - incredible to me that people take this movie seriously as political critique. It’s a family drama

alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · Nov 19
Years ago I wrote a paper on "the fappening" (celeb nude photo leaks) and young men's sense of entitlement to women's nude bodies. The slogan "AI Girls Never Say No" is beyond disgusting and tells us a lot about how this user base views women: as goods, trophies, possessions, not people
jasonkoebler.bsky.social Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · Nov 19
This is one of the worst, most horrifying exposures we have ever seen. It is hard to overstate how bad the things that people are using tools like for are, and it's insane to pretend like these tools are anything other than nonconsensual porn machines

www.404media.co/ai-porn-secr...
Massive Leak Shows Erotic Chatbot Users Turned Women’s Yearbook Pictures Into AI Porn
Chatbot roleplay and image generator platform SecretDesires.ai left cloud storage containers of nearly two million of images and videos exposed, including photos and full names of women from social me...
www.404media.co

Reposted by Michael Veale, Michael D. McDonald, Alice Marwick , and 1 more

jasonkoebler.bsky.social
Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · Nov 19
This is one of the worst, most horrifying exposures we have ever seen. It is hard to overstate how bad the things that people are using tools like for are, and it's insane to pretend like these tools are anything other than nonconsensual porn machines

www.404media.co/ai-porn-secr...
Massive Leak Shows Erotic Chatbot Users Turned Women’s Yearbook Pictures Into AI Porn
Chatbot roleplay and image generator platform SecretDesires.ai left cloud storage containers of nearly two million of images and videos exposed, including photos and full names of women from social me...
www.404media.co

Reposted by Alice Marwick

datasociety.bsky.social
Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · Nov 19
In a new piece for @policyr.bsky.social, @alicetiara.bsky.social, @serena124.bsky.social, @charleyjohnson.bsky.social, and @erie.bsky.social explore the challenges of bridging empirical research and policy, and outline what’s needed to do it well. policyreview.info/articles/ana...
Troubling translation: Sociotechnical research in AI policy and governance
The common call for researchers to simply “translate” sociotechnical insights into policy overlooks the complex dynamics of policymaking. Using two case studies, the article shows how meaningful relat...
policyreview.info

alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · Nov 17
The prompts are in this report: publicinterestnetwork.org/wp-content/u... and they are even worse than whatever you're imagining. No, I don't want a stuffie explaining kink, spanking, and role-play to my five year old, JFC

Reposted by Alice Marwick

justinhendrix.bsky.social
Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · Nov 17
Authorities have launched a transnational crackdown on scam compounds in Southeast Asia, but it's leaving survivors with incomplete support, writes Laura Scherling.
As Authorities Crack Down on Scam Compounds, Victims Are Getting Left Behind | TechPolicy.Press
Survivors are concerned law enforcement isn't doing everything they can to fight scam compounds and the cartels that run them, Laura Scherling writes.
www.techpolicy.press

alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · Nov 17
Oops @weisenthal.bsky.social

alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · Nov 17
Joe @thestalwart is a friend and I've been enjoying watching him make his way through the media studies canon! He read Walter Ong over the summer and loved it.

alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · Nov 14
All parents and kids should be talking to administrators and school boards about how their districts are implementing AI. Require transparency, privacy, limits, and guardrails IF it’s allowed at all. Push back against big tech trying to sell harmful chatbots to your children.
olivia.science Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Nov 14
Some people are replying here with things already addressed in this thread and paper, so please click through bsky.app/profile/oliv...
olivia.science Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Sep 6
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n

alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · Nov 14
Continues to blow my mind how this concept has become common vernacular

Reposted by Fabián Muniesa

alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · Nov 14
New in @theverge.com - half of US scams originate on a Meta property. The company must do more. @lanalanalana.bsky.social and I weigh in www.theverge.com/tech/820906/...
Meta must rein in scammers — or face consequences
Scams are ruinous to users — but, reportedly, big business to Meta.
www.theverge.com

Reposted by Alice Marwick

olivia.science
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Nov 14
Some people are replying here with things already addressed in this thread and paper, so please click through bsky.app/profile/oliv...
olivia.science Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Sep 6
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece, we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to relevant work to further inform our colleagues. Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI (black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf. Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al. 2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA). Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe. Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles

Reposted by Marc Lynch, Paul Goldstein, Bonnie Honig , and 2 more

johnpfaff.bsky.social
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · Nov 7
There had better be trials. And not just for the low-level thugs carrying out these orders, but for everyone up the chain of command.

If we get past this, the solution isn’t to pretend it never happened and invite Stephen Miller to Harvard’s Institute of Politics.

It’s trials w real punishments.
lyndab08.bsky.social Lynda Lopez @lyndab08.bsky.social · Nov 7
A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.

Reposted by Woodrow Hartzog

alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · Nov 6
When people ask me how we can stop online scams, I point to THIS
jeffhorwitz.bsky.social Jeff Horwitz @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social · Nov 6
Meta earns $3.5 billion every six months from showing Faceboon and Instagram users 15 billion “higher legal risk” scam ad impressions a day, internal documents state.

That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...
www.reuters.com

Reposted by Alice Marwick

whitneycwimbish.bsky.social
Whitney Curry Wimbish @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social · Nov 6
Very exciting to see activists launching a new nonprofit today to keep building on the community of volunteers that came together to get Mamdani elected.

Our Time is a 501(c)(4) and plans to start events in December.
Our Time
A campaign for an affordable NYC
ourtime.nyc

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Leigh Sparks, Cathy N. Davidson , and 8 more

jeffhorwitz.bsky.social
Jeff Horwitz @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social · Nov 6
Meta earns $3.5 billion every six months from showing Faceboon and Instagram users 15 billion “higher legal risk” scam ad impressions a day, internal documents state.

That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...
www.reuters.com

alicetiara.bsky.social
alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · Nov 5
Genuine question: who is advising Mamdani on tech, surveillance, AI, etc?

Reposted by Alice Marwick

fightforthefuture.org
Fight for the Future @fightforthefuture.org · Nov 5
So what can you do? 🤔

1. Continue pressuring your lawmakers, let them know how unpopular and dangerous censorship and surveillance bills are.

2. Spread the word! Many people have no idea the internet they know and love is under threat.

🗣️ 👉https://www.badinternetbills.com/#online-id-checks
A webpage section titled "The Bills" lists and briefly describes eight proposed bills related to internet regulation and privacy in colored boxes.

Reposted by Will Jennings, Steve Peers, Cathy N. Davidson , and 7 more

mjhaugen.bsky.social
Matthew Haugen @mjhaugen.bsky.social · Nov 5
Wow it turns out the entire country is not permanently reactionary because Trump won an election by 1.5%

Reposted by Will Jennings, Julie Leask, Justin H. Kirkland , and 1 more

jayvanbavel.bsky.social
Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · Nov 4
Engagement-based #algorithms amplify intergroup hostility + moral-emotional content, leading it to be overrepresented in your feed

This leads us to falsely perceive that people want to see this kind of content and share more of it.

This technology fuels false polarization: osf.io/preprints/os...