Erin Kissane
@kissane.myatproto.social
Making and mending networks and knowledge. Working and thinking at wrecka.ge, building at Unbreaking.org.
Cofounded the Covid Tracking Project, previously OpenNews, old web nonsense.
Cofounded the Covid Tracking Project, previously OpenNews, old web nonsense.
Pinned
Trump Administration's Arrival on Bluesky Highlights Growing Pains for Open Networks | TechPolicy.Press
The administration’s antagonistic entry to the platform is best understood as a game of chicken, writes Erin Kissane.
www.techpolicy.press
There was already a *lot* going on with Bluesky, and now it's under even more pressure. I wrote about how I think about moderation, affordances, expectations, human needs, and powerful trolls for @techpolicypress.bsky.social
www.techpolicy.press/trump-admini...
www.techpolicy.press/trump-admini...
the funniest part of baking a whole lot of GF bread is I have to march into the grocery every couple of months and buy their largest tub of psyllium husk powder which is helpfully labeled in giant letters COLON BLASTER
November 16, 2025 at 8:26 PM
the funniest part of baking a whole lot of GF bread is I have to march into the grocery every couple of months and buy their largest tub of psyllium husk powder which is helpfully labeled in giant letters COLON BLASTER
Heads up, There Is No Antimemetics Division is a LOT tighter and better in the new published version and the audio edition is incredible
November 16, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Heads up, There Is No Antimemetics Division is a LOT tighter and better in the new published version and the audio edition is incredible
Reposted by Erin Kissane
Reminder! @solarisbooks.bsky.social has a bunch of horror and horror-adjacent ebooks for sale, including four of mine, for several more days! :D
Remember, horror is in your HEART, not a CALENDAR 💀
geni.us/Solarissale
Remember, horror is in your HEART, not a CALENDAR 💀
geni.us/Solarissale
November 15, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Reminder! @solarisbooks.bsky.social has a bunch of horror and horror-adjacent ebooks for sale, including four of mine, for several more days! :D
Remember, horror is in your HEART, not a CALENDAR 💀
geni.us/Solarissale
Remember, horror is in your HEART, not a CALENDAR 💀
geni.us/Solarissale
What a terrible, heavy loss.
Heartbroken to hear of @sfdirewolf.bsky.social ‘s transition to be a crip anscestor AND feeling so honored to have been alive in the time as this brilliant human, and gotten to learn from her.
May her memory continue to always be a blessing.
May her memory continue to always be a blessing.
November 15, 2025 at 6:12 AM
What a terrible, heavy loss.
Figuring out which things are plausible and which are reasonable to be mad about really is the main advantage of learning Too Much about a specific field or system, but what a social clusterfuck if you ever try to talk about it with people who haven't gone in.
November 15, 2025 at 5:23 AM
Figuring out which things are plausible and which are reasonable to be mad about really is the main advantage of learning Too Much about a specific field or system, but what a social clusterfuck if you ever try to talk about it with people who haven't gone in.
for the record, ”I don’t want Following, I want Discover but chronological instead of an algorithm, Facebook gives me that but Bluesky won’t because they have an agenda,” is the network take that broke me
November 14, 2025 at 5:08 PM
for the record, ”I don’t want Following, I want Discover but chronological instead of an algorithm, Facebook gives me that but Bluesky won’t because they have an agenda,” is the network take that broke me
The Following feed, which is a list of posts by people you follow, is in reverse chronological order.* If you’re in the Discover feed, you are no longer in the realm of linear time. Switch to Following for that.
and why isn't the feed here in chronological order?
November 14, 2025 at 3:15 PM
The Following feed, which is a list of posts by people you follow, is in reverse chronological order.* If you’re in the Discover feed, you are no longer in the realm of linear time. Switch to Following for that.
You know those banners on news sites that are like “This article is THREE YEARS OLD YOU WEIRDO, please act accordingly”? We need that for social but measured in hours.
November 14, 2025 at 2:42 PM
You know those banners on news sites that are like “This article is THREE YEARS OLD YOU WEIRDO, please act accordingly”? We need that for social but measured in hours.
My brain is okay at some things but then there are these peripheral things it does. Like I was today years old when I realized that Personal Shopper is a different movie from Confessions of a Shopaholic. And also Sicario is not in fact a remake of, uh. Serpico.
November 14, 2025 at 3:38 AM
My brain is okay at some things but then there are these peripheral things it does. Like I was today years old when I realized that Personal Shopper is a different movie from Confessions of a Shopaholic. And also Sicario is not in fact a remake of, uh. Serpico.
best (or just your favorite) three horror movies from the past 10 years excluding torture porn, and hurting kids, go
November 14, 2025 at 1:05 AM
best (or just your favorite) three horror movies from the past 10 years excluding torture porn, and hurting kids, go
Reposted by Erin Kissane
A must-read long form explanation of what to expect if/when antifascism is designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization—leading to "unprecedented expansion of counterterrorism authorities into the domestic political space." Written by the DOJ's former Counsel for Domestic Terrorism. 1/
Designating Antifa as FTO Could Threaten Civil Liberties
Trump's plan to designate Antifa as an FTO has implications extending beyond anti-fascist activists to the architecture of US civil society.
www.justsecurity.org
October 30, 2025 at 1:26 PM
A must-read long form explanation of what to expect if/when antifascism is designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization—leading to "unprecedented expansion of counterterrorism authorities into the domestic political space." Written by the DOJ's former Counsel for Domestic Terrorism. 1/
So many microbes, so few inspections. Food safety oversight is one of those super-basic things the government should do, and it's degrading in so many ways at once.
Our weekly briefing is out, this one touching on Medicaid but mostly looking at what we’re losing in federal food safety oversight. Spoiler, it is “things that keep our food from making us sick.”
unbreaking.org/blog/this-we...
unbreaking.org/blog/this-we...
This week at Unbreaking, November 13 — Unbreaking
Unbreaking is built to be an antidote to information overload. Since we launched, we have been meticulously documenting lawsuits, executive orders, court rulings, countermoves, and other key events.
unbreaking.org
November 13, 2025 at 11:56 PM
So many microbes, so few inspections. Food safety oversight is one of those super-basic things the government should do, and it's degrading in so many ways at once.
for the record I did not ask anyone to do this lol
November 13, 2025 at 9:30 PM
for the record I did not ask anyone to do this lol
A public apology: I misspoke earlier this week when I said I don't write about mod decisions because I don't do quick-turn analysis. That is true but the real reason is I cannot endure the state of my replies.
November 13, 2025 at 7:50 PM
A public apology: I misspoke earlier this week when I said I don't write about mod decisions because I don't do quick-turn analysis. That is true but the real reason is I cannot endure the state of my replies.
Reposted by Erin Kissane
I love that Menswear Guy has learned about kerning and he's never gonna shut up about it now because YOU CAN'T UNSEE IT
November 13, 2025 at 4:14 PM
I love that Menswear Guy has learned about kerning and he's never gonna shut up about it now because YOU CAN'T UNSEE IT
Truly it is the journalists typing fast on devices known to introduce errors via increasingly deranged autocorrect who are the major societal problem
November 13, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Truly it is the journalists typing fast on devices known to introduce errors via increasingly deranged autocorrect who are the major societal problem
What a weird week.
Real question bc there’s clearly a media culture thing here that I am not getting: Why are we not seeing citations to Sarah Kendzior, who has been on this exact beat for years? What is it about her and/or her work that has made it acceptable to ignore her?
November 13, 2025 at 3:53 AM
What a weird week.
y’all I had to order a new sleep headphone headband thing when my last one died
and I didn’t notice until after I had put it ON MY HEAD to test it that the inner fuzzy surface was covered in a dozen sticky insect cocoons with whole insects visible inside each one
and I didn’t notice until after I had put it ON MY HEAD to test it that the inner fuzzy surface was covered in a dozen sticky insect cocoons with whole insects visible inside each one
November 13, 2025 at 1:22 AM
y’all I had to order a new sleep headphone headband thing when my last one died
and I didn’t notice until after I had put it ON MY HEAD to test it that the inner fuzzy surface was covered in a dozen sticky insect cocoons with whole insects visible inside each one
and I didn’t notice until after I had put it ON MY HEAD to test it that the inner fuzzy surface was covered in a dozen sticky insect cocoons with whole insects visible inside each one
Reposted by Erin Kissane
Hmm hmmmmm hmm what's all this then
November 12, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Hmm hmmmmm hmm what's all this then
Yet better in full: "…what has been demanded from so many in this room and in this city, this state, this country has been faith. Faith that life could be more than this. Faith that we could dream of something more than simply struggle. And as James 2:14 reminds us, faith without works is death."
LIVE | NY Gov. Kathy Hochul and NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani attend ribbon cutting in Harlem
YouTube video by Eyewitness News ABC7NY
www.youtube.com
November 12, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Yet better in full: "…what has been demanded from so many in this room and in this city, this state, this country has been faith. Faith that life could be more than this. Faith that we could dream of something more than simply struggle. And as James 2:14 reminds us, faith without works is death."
I want to restate something I said in a lot of replies yesterday, which is that this move is not going to reduce replies yelling at the Bsky team—and that should not be the goal.
What it does is clarify how moderation works here so that people can assess that and act accordingly.
What it does is clarify how moderation works here so that people can assess that and act accordingly.
The account owner of @sarahkendzior.bsky.social was suspended for 72 hours for expressing a desire to shoot the author of an article. The post, made 11/10, stated: "I want to shoot the author of this article just to watch him die." 1/2
November 12, 2025 at 7:19 PM
I want to restate something I said in a lot of replies yesterday, which is that this move is not going to reduce replies yelling at the Bsky team—and that should not be the goal.
What it does is clarify how moderation works here so that people can assess that and act accordingly.
What it does is clarify how moderation works here so that people can assess that and act accordingly.
This exact same dynamic—dehumanizing fake content made entirely bc Facebook pays people to make it—played out in Myanmar in the run-up to a genocide. @karenhao.bsky.social laid it out in the starkest terms:
www.technologyreview.com/2021/11/20/1...
www.technologyreview.com/2021/11/20/1...
November 12, 2025 at 7:05 PM
This exact same dynamic—dehumanizing fake content made entirely bc Facebook pays people to make it—played out in Myanmar in the run-up to a genocide. @karenhao.bsky.social laid it out in the starkest terms:
www.technologyreview.com/2021/11/20/1...
www.technologyreview.com/2021/11/20/1...
I am watching the Home Alones 1 and 2 with my kid this year, having never seen them before, and the past is a foreign country, huh
November 12, 2025 at 3:07 AM
I am watching the Home Alones 1 and 2 with my kid this year, having never seen them before, and the past is a foreign country, huh