BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫
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bostonjoan.bsky.social
BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫
@bostonjoan.bsky.social
I am the founder of The Critical Internet Studies Institute and an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media Studies at Boston University

www.criticalinternet.org
Pinned
New paper alert!!! 🚨

“A Short History of Misinformation-at-scale and Efforts to Mitigate it” in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing

drive.google.com/file/d/1Klg9...

This article traces the social construction of misinformation-at-scale through changes to content moderation.
donovan-2025-express-a-short-history-of-misinformation-at-scale-and-efforts-to-mitigate-it.pdf
drive.google.com
How much AI can you take?

Society. System. Decontrol.

youtu.be/oP04O_mY9ak
January 5, 2026 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫
Calling All Researchers: Kick-Start Your Social Media Research with Our New Toolkit. The toolkit was recently updated and includes tools used in peer-reviewed academic studies. Many of the tools listed are free to use and require little or no programming.socialmedialab.ca/2025/12/15/s...
Kick-Start Your Social Media Research with Our New Toolkit - Social Media Lab
Are you starting a new social media research project? Check out our new Social Media Research Toolkit. It is a list of 50+ social media research tools curated by researchers at the Social Media Lab at...
socialmedialab.ca
January 5, 2026 at 5:16 PM
We are so far beyond appeals to morals and ethics in tech. The only way this stops is if government intervenes and they won’t because tech bankrolls their campaigns and side hustles.

How does a Congressmember become a 10x millionaire after their election? Big tech is the answer.
Elon Musk chatbot repeatedly making CSAM on demand should be one of the single biggest stories right now and it's effectively a collective shrug instead
January 5, 2026 at 4:16 PM
Lots of the footage of Venezuelans cheering on the US are from US cities. In the streets of Caracas, people are making a run on the banks, gas and groceries out of fear.

Disinformation is rampant right now as the truth is suppressed.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
Few in Caracas are celebrating as they face an uncertain post-Maduro future
Stockpiling not partying is the priority for Venezuelans who say they fear crackdowns by the regime the US left in place
www.theguardian.com
January 5, 2026 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫
THREAD: Viral misinformation on US capture of Nicolas Maduro - 4 January

This video, shared by Alex Jones and others, falsely claims to show millions of Venezuelans in Caracas celebrating Maduro's capture.

In fact, it shows anti-Maduro protests in July 2024 over a highly disputed election.
January 4, 2026 at 7:29 PM
Grok scales misogyny at the same time that X gamifies harassment.
The end goal of Grok sexual harassment is to make women afraid to be visible. It’s a punishment for daring to exist in a way the perpetrators can’t control. There’s no one solution to this, because the problem isn’t just technological. It’s cultural. It’s misogyny. This is just one expression of it.
January 5, 2026 at 1:40 AM
The invasion and arrests in Venezuela are a test run for the next hostile takeover in Greenland.

If there are no consequences for the US from other countries, the Trump administration won’t stop.

I’m terrified at the thought of nuclear war and our government is putting our whole nation at risk.
January 5, 2026 at 12:09 AM
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫
one thought in closing. no matter what other lessons we take from the last few weeks and the next, we should all agree on this one: things can always get goofier
February 5, 2025 at 8:03 PM
CBS: Controlled By State
A CBS News staffer told me this after Tony Dokoupil kicked off his CBS Evening News tenure tonight with a lengthy Pete Hegseth interview:

"If this is what Bari and Tony’s CBS Evening News is going to look like, then the we may as well just call ourselves Trump Administration State TV. Pathetic."
January 4, 2026 at 3:01 AM
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫
The Chicago protest against the U.S. attack on Venezuela has stepped off to march through the downtown area. Hundreds have joined the march.
January 3, 2026 at 11:51 PM
Today, we found out that ideology is more powerful than law.
January 3, 2026 at 11:54 PM
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫
“To some extent, it moves stalking and harassment more easily from online to the real world, which is always the problem with wearables…”
Meta smart glasses pose a threat to women, campaigners say
Reports of covert filming have prompted privacy fears as experts are concerned that the devices would be altered to ‘nudify’ women without their consent
www.thetimes.com
January 2, 2026 at 11:07 PM
The Epstein Files roll out is a psyop.
Five million pages.
Hundreds of lawyers.
Endless “newly discovered” files.

This isn’t transparency.
It’s a slow-motion cover-up.

The Epstein case isn’t going away—and neither is Trump’s role in it.
open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...
Kevin O’Leary Is Wrong: Americans Care Deeply About Epstein
Five Million Pages and One President Who Doesn’t Want Them Seen
open.substack.com
January 2, 2026 at 10:52 PM
Racist incitement isn’t always about violence, disinformation plays a large role in confusing the public, while animating stereotypes.

www.tiktok.com/t/ZThJ3nXSn/
Heartwarming: Somali daycare owner lives out his childhood dream and buys the Minnesota Vikings. #nfl #vikings #smallbusiness
TikTok video by Pardon The Idiocy
www.tiktok.com
January 2, 2026 at 8:36 PM
This is awful. Now people are showing up to the MN daycare center and it puts the kids, families, and workers in danger.

It’s comet pingpong all over again

www.tiktok.com/t/ZThJshDBa/
Where the kids ? #viral #fyp #learingcenter
TikTok video by BigDuskii
www.tiktok.com
January 2, 2026 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫
2026 In & Out List 💅 #happynewyear
December 31, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫
"Based on Musk’s own standard of intelligence, he is a grade A moron."

#TeslaTakedown

electrek.co/2025/12/30/e...
Elon Musk's top 5 Tesla predictions for 2025 that didn't happen
Another year has passed, and with it, another collection of Elon Musk’s ambitious timelines that didn’t quite align with reality....
electrek.co
December 31, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫
Tis the season for me to do an annual gofundme to take the lean off the office rent. My digitization playground and lab costs a few bucks, but the terabytes it's uploading each year are great. Here's that link.

gofund.me/a6c552465
Donate to Jason Scott Livestream and Scanning Office Fund, organized by Jason Scott
Hello, everyone. My name is Jason Scott. I'm a historian, archivist … Jason Scott needs your support for Jason Scott Livestream and Scanning Office Fund
gofund.me
December 31, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫
Happy end of year news dump to all who celebrate
BREAKING: The House Judiciary Committee has released Jack Smith's 255-page deposition transcript: judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...
December 31, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Spreading some lulz
December 31, 2025 at 9:05 PM
These patterns of escalation are unfortunately very predictable.

I’m sure these business are also receiving harassing phone calls and threats too. It’s scary.

In the fight for civil rights, numerous elementary schools were bombed by racist segregationists to protest integration.
This is the impact of networked incitement. And now every other “citizen journalist” wannabe Nick Shirley is on the ground in Washington, Ohio, and I assume elsewhere trying to break/make the next viral story. There’s potential for this to spin further out of control, hoping it doesn’t
Somali-run day care in Minneapolis broken into, vandalized
www.fox9.com
December 31, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Not for nothing, but Nick Shirley is using Meta Ray Ban glasses to film and harass Somali families.

Not surprised.
December 31, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Enshittification of an already overhyped app is on its way.

I wish universities understood how corrupted these tools are from the jump.
“This could look like a user asking how much ibuprofen to take for a headache receiving a promoted ad for Advil in the chatbot’s response. Meanwhile, actual results on correct dosage may be brushed to the side, or buried under a mountain of ad text…”
OpenAI Reportedly Planning to Make ChatGPT "Prioritize" Advertisers in Conversation
OpenAI employees working on ChatGPT report plans to unleash sponsored advertisements above organic results.
futurism.com
December 31, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Does anyone know of an article explaining how the DOJ screwed up redacts so badly? Is there no procedure with human validators?
December 30, 2025 at 12:42 AM
You’re not kidding
A lot of people expect more from Chappell Roan than they do from their own elected officials
December 30, 2025 at 12:29 AM