Ryan J. Gallagher
@ryanjgallag.com
Applied scientist trying to make the internet a little better. PhD. Trust & safety, platform manipulation, networks, fingerstyle guitar. I use my hair to express myself. He/they
Pinned
Ryan J. Gallagher
@ryanjgallag.com
· Nov 12
With more people migrating to Bluesky (and my general quietness since Twitter fell apart), I want to reintroduce myself!
I'm an applied scientist in online trust & safety. I specialize in detecting coordinated/harmful/deceptive networks, and bridging domain expertise with machine learning systems
I'm an applied scientist in online trust & safety. I specialize in detecting coordinated/harmful/deceptive networks, and bridging domain expertise with machine learning systems
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
welcome to bluesky. if the word "mapquest" means anything to you and/or you used it as a verb, you're in the right place
November 11, 2025 at 1:11 AM
welcome to bluesky. if the word "mapquest" means anything to you and/or you used it as a verb, you're in the right place
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
Content policies are usually private, one-off efforts. You build yours, I build mine, we don't share much about what works or why. This makes sense given products can (and should) set different policies based on their communities, but it leaves us reinventing the wheel. 🧵 1/5
November 10, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Content policies are usually private, one-off efforts. You build yours, I build mine, we don't share much about what works or why. This makes sense given products can (and should) set different policies based on their communities, but it leaves us reinventing the wheel. 🧵 1/5
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
📜Fresh off the press: Annett Heft, @michaelvaughan.bsky.social, Barbara Pfetsch & I attempted to find a level for defining social media affordances that permits conceptualizing differences between platforms and uses, and is thus useful for theory building.
doi.org/10.1093/ct/q...
doi.org/10.1093/ct/q...
Differential social media affordances: an actor type-centric, intermediate-level approach using the case of social movements
Abstract. Social media have profoundly changed social communication practices across a vast range of contexts. To theorize these changes, numerous authors
doi.org
November 10, 2025 at 1:54 PM
📜Fresh off the press: Annett Heft, @michaelvaughan.bsky.social, Barbara Pfetsch & I attempted to find a level for defining social media affordances that permits conceptualizing differences between platforms and uses, and is thus useful for theory building.
doi.org/10.1093/ct/q...
doi.org/10.1093/ct/q...
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
Fact-checks improve accuracy. But can they penalize spreaders of misinfo? At @polbehavior.bsky.social, Jacob Ausubel, Annika Davies and I show that the answer is yes--sometimes. Unknown misinfo producers can be penalized, but well-known figures get off. Link: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
The Reputational Penalty: How Fact-Checking Can Penalize Those Who Spread Misinformation - Political Behavior
Whether or not political leaders pay a price for spreading misinformation has profound implications for democracy. In this paper, we identify the conditions under which corrections of misinformation c...
link.springer.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Fact-checks improve accuracy. But can they penalize spreaders of misinfo? At @polbehavior.bsky.social, Jacob Ausubel, Annika Davies and I show that the answer is yes--sometimes. Unknown misinfo producers can be penalized, but well-known figures get off. Link: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
SCOOP: China's top 2 gay dating apps, Blued and Finka, became unavailable on app stores over the weekend. Apple confirmed to WIRED that it removed the two apps following "an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China."
latest with @lmatsakis.bsky.social
latest with @lmatsakis.bsky.social
Apple Pulls China’s Top Gay Dating Apps After Government Order
The removal of Blued and Finka marks another setback for China’s marginalized LGBTQ+ community.
www.wired.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:27 AM
SCOOP: China's top 2 gay dating apps, Blued and Finka, became unavailable on app stores over the weekend. Apple confirmed to WIRED that it removed the two apps following "an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China."
latest with @lmatsakis.bsky.social
latest with @lmatsakis.bsky.social
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
Incredibly bittersweet to be published in Teen Vogue this weekend after devastating layoffs, including my editor for this piece. It’s about how beauty influencers have fallen into and become part of the alt-right pipeline targeting girls and women
www.teenvogue.com/story/womano...
www.teenvogue.com/story/womano...
The 'Womanosphere' Is Coming for Teen Girls
How beauty and wellness influencers are part of a misinformation ecosystem pushing traditional values on girls.
www.teenvogue.com
November 9, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Incredibly bittersweet to be published in Teen Vogue this weekend after devastating layoffs, including my editor for this piece. It’s about how beauty influencers have fallen into and become part of the alt-right pipeline targeting girls and women
www.teenvogue.com/story/womano...
www.teenvogue.com/story/womano...
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
Sometimes when people ask me why I’m wearing a mask I say I’m traveling or have some important thing soon and can’t afford to get sick and miss it and that’s pretty much always true but I think it would be nice if it were more normalized to just say “I don’t want to get sick” and leave it at that
November 8, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Sometimes when people ask me why I’m wearing a mask I say I’m traveling or have some important thing soon and can’t afford to get sick and miss it and that’s pretty much always true but I think it would be nice if it were more normalized to just say “I don’t want to get sick” and leave it at that
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
I’ve come to believe that we need to gather considerable forces and a campaign to demand the removal of face masks by ICE, Border Patrol, FBI and police.
It is a practice in conflict with the principles of transparency & accountability that are central to the concept of democracy.
It is a practice in conflict with the principles of transparency & accountability that are central to the concept of democracy.
Video on social media shows an immigration agent pulling a gun in Little Village and holding it to the side — which is not an appropriate or safe way to hold a gun. (Among other issues.)
November 9, 2025 at 3:41 AM
I’ve come to believe that we need to gather considerable forces and a campaign to demand the removal of face masks by ICE, Border Patrol, FBI and police.
It is a practice in conflict with the principles of transparency & accountability that are central to the concept of democracy.
It is a practice in conflict with the principles of transparency & accountability that are central to the concept of democracy.
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
you put self-driving cars on the road and you kill a person, you should be scared. if you put a chatbot into kids' hands and tell them to use it and they use it and then they kill themselves, you should be really fucking scared. the idea that the wagons should circle *around you* is unbelievable.
November 8, 2025 at 8:24 PM
you put self-driving cars on the road and you kill a person, you should be scared. if you put a chatbot into kids' hands and tell them to use it and they use it and then they kill themselves, you should be really fucking scared. the idea that the wagons should circle *around you* is unbelievable.
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
🚨Special Issue Alert: Platforms, Publics, and Anti-Publics
(1/9) Introduction from our guest editors Zoetanya Sujon, Harry Dyer and Felipe Bonow Soares. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
#academicsky #socialmediasky
(1/9) Introduction from our guest editors Zoetanya Sujon, Harry Dyer and Felipe Bonow Soares. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
#academicsky #socialmediasky
November 7, 2025 at 4:35 PM
🚨Special Issue Alert: Platforms, Publics, and Anti-Publics
(1/9) Introduction from our guest editors Zoetanya Sujon, Harry Dyer and Felipe Bonow Soares. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
#academicsky #socialmediasky
(1/9) Introduction from our guest editors Zoetanya Sujon, Harry Dyer and Felipe Bonow Soares. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
#academicsky #socialmediasky
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
🚨 New paper drop!
How does a social movement once started out powerful somehow turn into a partisan battle?
In our new publication in @icsjournal.bsky.social, we answer this question by analyzing 83 million #MeToo tweets from 2017–2020. 1/
How does a social movement once started out powerful somehow turn into a partisan battle?
In our new publication in @icsjournal.bsky.social, we answer this question by analyzing 83 million #MeToo tweets from 2017–2020. 1/
November 7, 2025 at 5:28 PM
🚨 New paper drop!
How does a social movement once started out powerful somehow turn into a partisan battle?
In our new publication in @icsjournal.bsky.social, we answer this question by analyzing 83 million #MeToo tweets from 2017–2020. 1/
How does a social movement once started out powerful somehow turn into a partisan battle?
In our new publication in @icsjournal.bsky.social, we answer this question by analyzing 83 million #MeToo tweets from 2017–2020. 1/
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
On Tuesday night, you may have noticed something a little different on Bluesky. Here's a peek behind the scenes of how the election feed came together. Endlessly grateful for this collaboration with @wnyc.org/@gothamist.com & @bsky.app!
About The Other Night...
How Graze is defining the next era of a decentralized, open social attention economy.
graze.leaflet.pub
November 6, 2025 at 9:39 PM
On Tuesday night, you may have noticed something a little different on Bluesky. Here's a peek behind the scenes of how the election feed came together. Endlessly grateful for this collaboration with @wnyc.org/@gothamist.com & @bsky.app!
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
we should stop pretending people in academia are aligned with our projected political imaginations of higher ed. many CS/AI "luminaries" are obviously engaged in political projects to unravel labor power, belittle human intelligence & creativity, and enhance capacities for state & corporate violence
November 6, 2025 at 5:43 PM
we should stop pretending people in academia are aligned with our projected political imaginations of higher ed. many CS/AI "luminaries" are obviously engaged in political projects to unravel labor power, belittle human intelligence & creativity, and enhance capacities for state & corporate violence
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
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...
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
www.reuters.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:46 AM
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...
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
The secret life of an LM is defined by its internal data types. Inner layers transport abstractions that are more robust than words, like concepts, functions, or pointers.
In new work yesterday, @arnabsensharma.bsky.social et al identify a data type for *predicates*.
bsky.app/profile/arn...
In new work yesterday, @arnabsensharma.bsky.social et al identify a data type for *predicates*.
bsky.app/profile/arn...
Arnab Sen Sharma (@arnabsensharma.bsky.social)
How can a language model find the veggies in a menu?
New pre-print where we investigate the internal mechanisms of LLMs when filtering on a list of options.
Spoiler: turns out LLMs use strategies surprisingly similar to functional programming (think "filter" from python)! 🧵
bsky.app
November 6, 2025 at 2:00 PM
The secret life of an LM is defined by its internal data types. Inner layers transport abstractions that are more robust than words, like concepts, functions, or pointers.
In new work yesterday, @arnabsensharma.bsky.social et al identify a data type for *predicates*.
bsky.app/profile/arn...
In new work yesterday, @arnabsensharma.bsky.social et al identify a data type for *predicates*.
bsky.app/profile/arn...
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
Should local officials in a democracy be allowed to sign NDAs?
How NDAs keep AI data center details hidden from Americans:
Big Tech companies use secrecy agreements with local governments to keep communities from knowing who is building in their backyards.
www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...
Big Tech companies use secrecy agreements with local governments to keep communities from knowing who is building in their backyards.
www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...
How Big Tech uses NDAs to hide AI data center details from Americans
Big Tech companies use secrecy agreements with local governments to keep communities from knowing who is building in their backyards.
www.nbcnews.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Should local officials in a democracy be allowed to sign NDAs?
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
Null models for comparing information decomposition across complex systems journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
Null models for comparing information decomposition across complex systems
Author summary How do complex systems process information? Perhaps more interestingly, when can we say two systems process information in the same way? Information-theoretic methods have been shown to...
journals.plos.org
November 6, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Null models for comparing information decomposition across complex systems journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
Digital humanities researchers often care about fine-grained similarity based on narrative elements like plot or tone, which don’t necessarily correlate with surface-level textual features.
Can embedding models capture this? We study this in the context of fanfiction!
Can embedding models capture this? We study this in the context of fanfiction!
November 5, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Digital humanities researchers often care about fine-grained similarity based on narrative elements like plot or tone, which don’t necessarily correlate with surface-level textual features.
Can embedding models capture this? We study this in the context of fanfiction!
Can embedding models capture this? We study this in the context of fanfiction!
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
It’s almost like if people tell you that to win you have to turn your back on poor people, or Muslims, or trans people, or immigrants, you can just say, “no, that’s immoral, we’re not doing that,” and keep doing good old fashioned organizing and campaigning and things will be ok
November 5, 2025 at 7:03 PM
It’s almost like if people tell you that to win you have to turn your back on poor people, or Muslims, or trans people, or immigrants, you can just say, “no, that’s immoral, we’re not doing that,” and keep doing good old fashioned organizing and campaigning and things will be ok
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
Not sure about everyone else, but I’m encouraged today (elated?) that we learned last night that we can beat candidates/parties of bullshit, AI slop, corruption, and authoritarianism without emulating them and without tacking towards a false center between us and them.
November 5, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Not sure about everyone else, but I’m encouraged today (elated?) that we learned last night that we can beat candidates/parties of bullshit, AI slop, corruption, and authoritarianism without emulating them and without tacking towards a false center between us and them.
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
Zohran Mamdani says on NY1 he didn't get a congratulatory call from either Andrew Cuomo or Eric Adams last night.
He says he got a congratulatory call from Curtis Sliwa, though.
He says he got a congratulatory call from Curtis Sliwa, though.
November 5, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Zohran Mamdani says on NY1 he didn't get a congratulatory call from either Andrew Cuomo or Eric Adams last night.
He says he got a congratulatory call from Curtis Sliwa, though.
He says he got a congratulatory call from Curtis Sliwa, though.
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
Another day, hundreds more ads for #AI nudify apps across #Meta platforms...
Meta loves to talk about "new technology to detect ads for nudify apps" and "strict rules against non-consensual intimate imagery."
Funny though, because we at @americansunlight.org sure do find these ads often...
Meta loves to talk about "new technology to detect ads for nudify apps" and "strict rules against non-consensual intimate imagery."
Funny though, because we at @americansunlight.org sure do find these ads often...
November 4, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Another day, hundreds more ads for #AI nudify apps across #Meta platforms...
Meta loves to talk about "new technology to detect ads for nudify apps" and "strict rules against non-consensual intimate imagery."
Funny though, because we at @americansunlight.org sure do find these ads often...
Meta loves to talk about "new technology to detect ads for nudify apps" and "strict rules against non-consensual intimate imagery."
Funny though, because we at @americansunlight.org sure do find these ads often...
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
Good things are possible and we don’t have to settle.
November 5, 2025 at 3:35 AM
Good things are possible and we don’t have to settle.
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
😎😎😎😎 GOOD THINGS CAN STILL HAPPEN 😎😎😎😎
November 5, 2025 at 5:22 AM
😎😎😎😎 GOOD THINGS CAN STILL HAPPEN 😎😎😎😎
Reposted by Ryan J. Gallagher
Watching Mamdani's victory speech, I'm struck by his—and his campaign's—unabashed vision of the US as an immigrant society, a culture built from the ground up from diversity. It is a complete rejection and reversal of the search for a white-washed homogeneity that the political right projects.
November 5, 2025 at 4:47 AM
Watching Mamdani's victory speech, I'm struck by his—and his campaign's—unabashed vision of the US as an immigrant society, a culture built from the ground up from diversity. It is a complete rejection and reversal of the search for a white-washed homogeneity that the political right projects.