Dr Alexei Abrahams
@smokegatherer.bsky.social
Head of Digital Trace at Canada's Media Ecosystem Observatory meo.ca
Author at No Starch Press nostarch.com/social-media-observatory
القصة هي الحياة التي ما كانت و الحياة هي القصة التي ما رويت
Author at No Starch Press nostarch.com/social-media-observatory
القصة هي الحياة التي ما كانت و الحياة هي القصة التي ما رويت
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
New article out now with @smokegatherer.bsky.social and Nasir Almasri on the Palestinian movement and demobilization. We look at the protests of 2021, the unity intifada, and their aftermath on the structure of the movement. Hopefully the 1st of a few articles on this topic
doi.org/10.3167/cont...
doi.org/10.3167/cont...
November 4, 2025 at 9:35 PM
New article out now with @smokegatherer.bsky.social and Nasir Almasri on the Palestinian movement and demobilization. We look at the protests of 2021, the unity intifada, and their aftermath on the structure of the movement. Hopefully the 1st of a few articles on this topic
doi.org/10.3167/cont...
doi.org/10.3167/cont...
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
In a short span of time there has been a global rise in "fake news" laws - legislation that purports to or is designed to curb the spread of false information. @sbradshaw.bsky.social, Monzima Haque, and I wanted to understand why.
"The Global Spread of Misinformation Laws" ijoc.org/index.php/ij...
"The Global Spread of Misinformation Laws" ijoc.org/index.php/ij...
True Costs of Misinformation| The Global Spread of Misinformation Laws | Bradshaw | International Journal of Communication
True Costs of Misinformation| The Global Spread of Misinformation Laws
ijoc.org
June 20, 2025 at 4:32 PM
In a short span of time there has been a global rise in "fake news" laws - legislation that purports to or is designed to curb the spread of false information. @sbradshaw.bsky.social, Monzima Haque, and I wanted to understand why.
"The Global Spread of Misinformation Laws" ijoc.org/index.php/ij...
"The Global Spread of Misinformation Laws" ijoc.org/index.php/ij...
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
Folks at #ica25 might wanna check out @ijoc-usc.bsky.social’s Special Section on True Costs of Misinformation, guest edited by me and @bostonjoan.bsky.social. The collection critiques mainstream frameworks of disinfo studies, written during a more hopeful "peak moment": ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc
June 16, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Folks at #ica25 might wanna check out @ijoc-usc.bsky.social’s Special Section on True Costs of Misinformation, guest edited by me and @bostonjoan.bsky.social. The collection critiques mainstream frameworks of disinfo studies, written during a more hopeful "peak moment": ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
📄NEW PAPER + 📈DATASET + 🌐WEBSITE
Please to be able to share our dataset paper: "An enriched, multimodal social media dataset of a UK General Election campaign."
The paper builds off the crowd-sourced publication of candidate lists in advance of the last UK General Election...
Please to be able to share our dataset paper: "An enriched, multimodal social media dataset of a UK General Election campaign."
The paper builds off the crowd-sourced publication of candidate lists in advance of the last UK General Election...
May 16, 2025 at 3:44 PM
📄NEW PAPER + 📈DATASET + 🌐WEBSITE
Please to be able to share our dataset paper: "An enriched, multimodal social media dataset of a UK General Election campaign."
The paper builds off the crowd-sourced publication of candidate lists in advance of the last UK General Election...
Please to be able to share our dataset paper: "An enriched, multimodal social media dataset of a UK General Election campaign."
The paper builds off the crowd-sourced publication of candidate lists in advance of the last UK General Election...
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
AI-powered disinformation is flooding the 2025 election, with deepfakes and fake news posing real threats to democracy. Jennie Phillips says the spread is like a virus, and Canadians must fight it before it takes hold: www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews...
Increasingly sophisticated deepfake AI-generated political ads threaten to unravel Canada’s social order
Increasingly sophisticated deepfake AI-generated internet political ads threaten to unravel Canada’s social order, experts warn, pointing to the successful war on truth U.S. President Donald Trump is…
www.winnipegfreepress.com
April 27, 2025 at 11:40 PM
AI-powered disinformation is flooding the 2025 election, with deepfakes and fake news posing real threats to democracy. Jennie Phillips says the spread is like a virus, and Canadians must fight it before it takes hold: www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews...
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
A buy/sell Facebook group mysteriously became a pro-Elon Musk, 51st state forum, without users opting in. @smokegatherer.bsky.social says it's likely hacked or sold. @mika-jpd.bsky.social points to an underground market where groups go for $50-$250. Meta’s fine with it.
The story of ‘Canadians for the 51st state and Elon Musk for Governor’: How a thriving buy-and-sell forum turned into Facebook’s largest voice for annexation
The Facebook group now called “Canadians for the 51st state and Elon Musk for Governor” used to be Hamilton’s thriving buy-and-sell community — until it was “hijacked.”
www.thestar.com
April 11, 2025 at 5:12 PM
A buy/sell Facebook group mysteriously became a pro-Elon Musk, 51st state forum, without users opting in. @smokegatherer.bsky.social says it's likely hacked or sold. @mika-jpd.bsky.social points to an underground market where groups go for $50-$250. Meta’s fine with it.
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
Nice to see that all our speakers during this election interference and online disinformation themed month are on bluesky!
Alexei Abrahams - @smokegatherer.bsky.social
Philip Mai - @philipmai.com
Sze-Fung Lee - @imleeszefung.bsky.social
Giancarlo Fiorella - @giancarlofiorella.bsky.social
Alexei Abrahams - @smokegatherer.bsky.social
Philip Mai - @philipmai.com
Sze-Fung Lee - @imleeszefung.bsky.social
Giancarlo Fiorella - @giancarlofiorella.bsky.social
April 3, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Nice to see that all our speakers during this election interference and online disinformation themed month are on bluesky!
Alexei Abrahams - @smokegatherer.bsky.social
Philip Mai - @philipmai.com
Sze-Fung Lee - @imleeszefung.bsky.social
Giancarlo Fiorella - @giancarlofiorella.bsky.social
Alexei Abrahams - @smokegatherer.bsky.social
Philip Mai - @philipmai.com
Sze-Fung Lee - @imleeszefung.bsky.social
Giancarlo Fiorella - @giancarlofiorella.bsky.social
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
For researchers / #polisky folks: if you’re dealing with online harassment because of your research, here is a useful set of resources (potentially relevant to others too):
Researchers
Visit the post for more.
researchersupport.org
April 3, 2025 at 12:34 AM
For researchers / #polisky folks: if you’re dealing with online harassment because of your research, here is a useful set of resources (potentially relevant to others too):
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
Next Tues, @smokegatherer.bsky.social talks to us about Gray Hat Social Media – the tools and techniques being developed by researchers to restore public oversight of the social media space
1 April 7pm, in person/online
Plus our usual breakout projects and discussions!
guild.host/events/civic...
1 April 7pm, in person/online
Plus our usual breakout projects and discussions!
guild.host/events/civic...
March 26, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Next Tues, @smokegatherer.bsky.social talks to us about Gray Hat Social Media – the tools and techniques being developed by researchers to restore public oversight of the social media space
1 April 7pm, in person/online
Plus our usual breakout projects and discussions!
guild.host/events/civic...
1 April 7pm, in person/online
Plus our usual breakout projects and discussions!
guild.host/events/civic...
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
📢 مجتمع التحقق العربي في مؤتمر #RightsCon2025!
يسرنا الإعلان عن مشاركتنا في مؤتمر @rightscon.org في جلسة افتراضية.
@abdelrahman.bsky.social @monashtaya.bsky.social @alsayyad.bsky.social @michatobia.bsky.social @smokegatherer.bsky.social @timep.bsky.social
يسرنا الإعلان عن مشاركتنا في مؤتمر @rightscon.org في جلسة افتراضية.
@abdelrahman.bsky.social @monashtaya.bsky.social @alsayyad.bsky.social @michatobia.bsky.social @smokegatherer.bsky.social @timep.bsky.social
February 24, 2025 at 9:45 AM
📢 مجتمع التحقق العربي في مؤتمر #RightsCon2025!
يسرنا الإعلان عن مشاركتنا في مؤتمر @rightscon.org في جلسة افتراضية.
@abdelrahman.bsky.social @monashtaya.bsky.social @alsayyad.bsky.social @michatobia.bsky.social @smokegatherer.bsky.social @timep.bsky.social
يسرنا الإعلان عن مشاركتنا في مؤتمر @rightscon.org في جلسة افتراضية.
@abdelrahman.bsky.social @monashtaya.bsky.social @alsayyad.bsky.social @michatobia.bsky.social @smokegatherer.bsky.social @timep.bsky.social
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
📢 Arabi Facts Hub at #RightsCon2025!
We’re excited to invite you to our online session at Rightscon 2025!
@abdelrahman.bsky.social @monashtaya.bsky.social @alsayyad.bsky.social @michatobia.bsky.social @smokegatherer.bsky.social @timep.bsky.social
We’re excited to invite you to our online session at Rightscon 2025!
@abdelrahman.bsky.social @monashtaya.bsky.social @alsayyad.bsky.social @michatobia.bsky.social @smokegatherer.bsky.social @timep.bsky.social
February 23, 2025 at 4:52 PM
📢 Arabi Facts Hub at #RightsCon2025!
We’re excited to invite you to our online session at Rightscon 2025!
@abdelrahman.bsky.social @monashtaya.bsky.social @alsayyad.bsky.social @michatobia.bsky.social @smokegatherer.bsky.social @timep.bsky.social
We’re excited to invite you to our online session at Rightscon 2025!
@abdelrahman.bsky.social @monashtaya.bsky.social @alsayyad.bsky.social @michatobia.bsky.social @smokegatherer.bsky.social @timep.bsky.social
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
"a lot of automation relies on leveraging convenience. AI summaries do very little to help us learn how to listen... The short-cut on the switchback, the summary of the meeting so you don’t have to go, and in the process, you don’t have to engage with the mess that is a bigger set of relations."
February 18, 2025 at 12:28 AM
"a lot of automation relies on leveraging convenience. AI summaries do very little to help us learn how to listen... The short-cut on the switchback, the summary of the meeting so you don’t have to go, and in the process, you don’t have to engage with the mess that is a bigger set of relations."
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
This episode is now unlocked on all platforms. I learned a hell of a lot from these brilliant folks. And their courage inspired me to stop self-censoring about what I think is going wrong on the left.
Highly recommend supporting The Fire These Times and the whole From the Periphery network.
Highly recommend supporting The Fire These Times and the whole From the Periphery network.
Hey y’all our episode with Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social is finally out on our Patreon as early access
www.patreon.com/posts/119524...
@danaelkurd.bsky.social @thepodcast.bsky.social
www.patreon.com/posts/119524...
@danaelkurd.bsky.social @thepodcast.bsky.social
January 12, 2025 at 5:20 PM
This episode is now unlocked on all platforms. I learned a hell of a lot from these brilliant folks. And their courage inspired me to stop self-censoring about what I think is going wrong on the left.
Highly recommend supporting The Fire These Times and the whole From the Periphery network.
Highly recommend supporting The Fire These Times and the whole From the Periphery network.
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
Wicked proud of Alexei!
He’s been working so hard to create this code and write this book: nostarch.com/social-media...
Get early access today!
@smokegatherer.bsky.social
He’s been working so hard to create this code and write this book: nostarch.com/social-media...
Get early access today!
@smokegatherer.bsky.social
Social Media Observatory
Learn to build a web app that can monitor millions of posts across all social media platforms to chart public opinion in real time
nostarch.com
January 9, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Wicked proud of Alexei!
He’s been working so hard to create this code and write this book: nostarch.com/social-media...
Get early access today!
@smokegatherer.bsky.social
He’s been working so hard to create this code and write this book: nostarch.com/social-media...
Get early access today!
@smokegatherer.bsky.social
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
Read every word of this eloquent and thoughtful intervention by @smokegatherer.bsky.social on structural versus kinetic violence in occupied Palestine: www.972mag.com/structural-v...
How the news cycle misses the predominant violence in Israel-Palestine
The uneventful nature of structural violence renders it unfit for media coverage compared to kinetic violence. But the two are inextricably linked.
www.972mag.com
February 2, 2024 at 9:24 PM
Read every word of this eloquent and thoughtful intervention by @smokegatherer.bsky.social on structural versus kinetic violence in occupied Palestine: www.972mag.com/structural-v...
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
A moving excerpt from Adam Shatz’s new biography of Frantz Fanon (h/t @smokegatherer.bsky.social):
The Revolutionary Stranger: How Frantz Fanon Put Theory Into Practice
In November 1960, a traveler of ambiguous origin, brown-skinned but not African, arrived in Mali. Issued in Tunis two years earlier, his passport identified him as a doctor born in 1925 in Tunisia,…
lithub.com
January 30, 2024 at 3:14 AM
A moving excerpt from Adam Shatz’s new biography of Frantz Fanon (h/t @smokegatherer.bsky.social):
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
Great podcast on how to think about violence in Palestinian context, with Dana El Kurd, Diana Greenwald and Alexei Abrahams
open.spotify.com/episode/05Nd...
open.spotify.com/episode/05Nd...
148/ Understanding Seen and Unseen Violence in Israel-Palestine w/ Diana Greenwald & Alexei Abrahams
Listen to this episode from The Fire These Times on Spotify. For episode 148, Dana El Kurd and Joey Ayoub are joined by Diana Greenwald and Alexei Abrahams to talk about seen and unseen violence in Is...
open.spotify.com
December 16, 2023 at 9:10 PM
Great podcast on how to think about violence in Palestinian context, with Dana El Kurd, Diana Greenwald and Alexei Abrahams
open.spotify.com/episode/05Nd...
open.spotify.com/episode/05Nd...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... what an eloquent and insightful essay. It was a relief to read after the past few weeks 👏🏽
October 21, 2023 at 10:48 AM
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... what an eloquent and insightful essay. It was a relief to read after the past few weeks 👏🏽
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
My new piece in Foreign Affairs: An Invasion of Gaza Will Be A Disaster and Biden Should Stop It.
It’s not dark yet but it’s getting there.
www.foreignaffairs.com/middle-east/...
It’s not dark yet but it’s getting there.
www.foreignaffairs.com/middle-east/...
An Invasion of Gaza Would Be a Disaster for Israel
America must prevail on its ally to step back from the brink.
www.foreignaffairs.com
October 14, 2023 at 2:13 AM
My new piece in Foreign Affairs: An Invasion of Gaza Will Be A Disaster and Biden Should Stop It.
It’s not dark yet but it’s getting there.
www.foreignaffairs.com/middle-east/...
It’s not dark yet but it’s getting there.
www.foreignaffairs.com/middle-east/...
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
This part of the picture at the moment is receiving almost no coverage www.972mag.com/settler-atta...
Settlers take advantage of Gaza war to launch West Bank pogroms
Israeli settlers and soldiers have killed 51 Palestinians in the West Bank this past week, with two villages entirely depopulated after attacks.
www.972mag.com
October 14, 2023 at 7:27 AM
This part of the picture at the moment is receiving almost no coverage www.972mag.com/settler-atta...
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
Chotiner interview with Tareq Baconi, the president of the board of the think tank Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.
www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
Where the Palestinian Political Project Goes from Here
For decades, Hamas and Israel have maintained a violent equilibrium. How will the war change that paradigm?
www.newyorker.com
October 12, 2023 at 12:22 PM
Chotiner interview with Tareq Baconi, the president of the board of the think tank Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.
www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
"I maintain that there are crimes of abundance and there are crimes of hunger, and we have not only brought Gaza to the brink of starvation, we have brought it to a state of collapse...How much security did we get? Where will another round of revenge take us?"
amp.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
amp.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
We feel fear, anger and helplessness: all of Israel is in a state of war. But revenge is not the ans...
We are in shock as we digest the Hamas attacks and the failings of Netanyahu’s government. The worry now is what comes next, says journalist Orly Noy in Jerusalem
amp.theguardian.com
October 10, 2023 at 2:59 PM
"I maintain that there are crimes of abundance and there are crimes of hunger, and we have not only brought Gaza to the brink of starvation, we have brought it to a state of collapse...How much security did we get? Where will another round of revenge take us?"
amp.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
amp.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
Reposted by Dr Alexei Abrahams
@neilhimself.neilgaiman.com Could you help me spread the word about this reading list I curate for the Palestinian fantasy, sci-fi, and other speculative genre works (with links of where to find and support the authors? soniasulaiman.com/readpalestin...
#ReadPalestinianSpecFic Reading List
The following is a growing reading list for the #ReadPalestinianSpecFic challenge. This is a work in progress to create a list of all available Palestinian speculative fiction. Novels: Novels by Na…
soniasulaiman.com
October 8, 2023 at 6:47 PM
@neilhimself.neilgaiman.com Could you help me spread the word about this reading list I curate for the Palestinian fantasy, sci-fi, and other speculative genre works (with links of where to find and support the authors? soniasulaiman.com/readpalestin...