David Nemer
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davidnemer.com
David Nemer
@davidnemer.com
Assoc Prof of Media Studies & Anthropology at the University of Virginia. Faculty Associate at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center. Anthropology of Tech/STS Books: Technology of the Oppressed (MIT Press); Favela Digital (GSA)🇧🇷🇺🇸
https://linktr.ee/davidnemer
Reposted by David Nemer
👇🏼
Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger sent a letter to the UVA Board of Visitors on Wednesday, saying it should wait to pick a new president until after her inauguration in January.
Spanberger tells BOV to pause process to pick new UVA president
Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger says the University of Virginia should wait to pick a new president.
www.cbs19news.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by David Nemer
Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger sent a letter to the UVA Board of Visitors on Wednesday, saying it should wait to pick a new president until after her inauguration in January.
Spanberger tells BOV to pause process to pick new UVA president
Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger says the University of Virginia should wait to pick a new president.
www.cbs19news.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by David Nemer
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by David Nemer
Amelia Acker: "Each chapter introduces data archiving processes that relate to the evolution of data sovereignty...: from magnetic tape + timesharing computer models from the 1950s,... to file structures + virtual containers in cloud-based information services over the past 40 yrs" — open access!
Archiving Machines
Archiving Machines advances our understanding of memory, information, and data by charting the struggle between the computing technologies that archive data ...
mitpress.mit.edu
November 11, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Meta projected that 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads for scams and banned goods — that's $16 BILLION. And the social media giant internally estimates that its platforms show users 15 billion scam ads a day.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...
Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show
Meta projected 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads for scams and banned goods, and it internally estimates that its platforms show users 15 billion scam ads a day, company documents show.
www.reuters.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by David Nemer
Our new book, Notes Toward a Digital Workers’ Inquiry, is out today!

Use the code DIGI-WORKERS-HOMIE on the @commonnotions.bsky.social site for a 25% discount
November 4, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Os tiroteios no Rio geraram também uma avalanche de desinformação nas redes. Vídeos de Gaza, áudios promovendo o caos, imagens antigas e até conteúdo gerado por IA estão circulando como se fossem da operação no Rio. Tem muita gente grande por trás dessa produção. Explico melhor no vídeo 👇🏽
October 29, 2025 at 2:54 PM
O Senado americano aprovou a Resolução Conjunta S. J. Res. 81, uma resolução conjunta que encerra o estado de emergência nacional declarado para impor tarifas sobre artigos importados do Brasil. Republicanos que votaram a favor: Collins, McConnell, Murkowski, Paul e Tillis.
October 28, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Reposted by David Nemer
A major front of the current information war: getting your facts, frames, propaganda, disinformation, etc. into the AI systems that create so much of the content we see and are rapidly becoming the de facto “ground truth” of the internet.
October 27, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by David Nemer
Data center da Casa dos Ventos e TikTok no Ceará: em parecer jurídico (última etapa antes de emitir a licença de instalação que autoriza início das obras) a Semace autorizou intervenção em área protegida sob justificativa de "utilidade pública".
Ceará libera ponte para data center do TikTok em área protegida
Moradores, indígenas e entidades pedem ao MPF para barrar o licenciamento.
www.intercept.com.br
October 27, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by David Nemer
October 24, 2025 at 6:58 PM
🚨 New Publication 🇺🇸&🇧🇷: Technopolitics and Extremist Configurations in the Age of Digital Platforms.

In this article, we analyze how contemporary extremism is being reshaped by digital technologies, particularly through datafication, platformization, and algorithmic governance in a populist context.
Revista de Estudios Sociales
doi.org
October 24, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by David Nemer
I'm thrilled to share that my co-authored open-access article with @lealsobral.bsky.social, “Artificial Intelligence as Heteromation: The Human Infrastructure Behind the Machine,” has just been published in AI & Society.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Artificial intelligence as heteromation: the human infrastructure behind the machine - AI & SOCIETY
This article interrogates the widespread narrative of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as autonomous, intelligent, and self-sufficient, and instead centers on the largely invisible human labor that sustains these systems. Drawing on the frameworks of heteromation and human infrastructure, we analyze how AI systems are deeply reliant on distributed networks of ghost workers, crowdworkers, and microtaskers, often working in precarious conditions, to perform essential and low-paid tasks such as content moderation, data annotation, and fact-checking. Far from being fully automated, these systems operate as sociotechnical assemblages where algorithmic processes are scaffolded by fragmented, hidden, and undervalued human work. This article explores how platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk and Appen organize and obscure this labor through algorithmic management and cultural erasure, creating an illusion of machinic intelligence while extracting value from unpaid or underpaid workers. By examining examples ranging from self-driving car training to misinformation moderation, we argue that understanding AI requires acknowledging the human infrastructures that animate it. This perspective challenges dominant techno-deterministic ideologies and reframes ethical debates around AI to focus on labor, visibility, and exploitation. Ultimately, this article calls for critical attention to the political economy of AI and insists that any ethical framework for AI must begin with the recognition and fair treatment of the human labor that makes it function.
link.springer.com
October 6, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Reposted by David Nemer
“Ultimately, the collective strategy of AI companies threatens to deskill precisely those people who are essential for society to function(…) automation of knowledge and culture by private companies is a worrying prospect – conjuring dystopian and outright fascistic scenarios.” — @olivia.science
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
www.project-syndicate.org
October 17, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Reposted by David Nemer
We’re selecting postdoctoral researchers for next year’s DTD Lab cohort. Join us and explore the intersections of technology, democracy, and society through cutting-edge research.

jobs.virginia.edu/us/en/job/UO...
Digital Technology for Democracy Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America | Research at University of Virginia
Apply for Digital Technology for Democracy Postdoctoral Research Fellow job with University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America. Research at University of Virginia
jobs.virginia.edu
October 14, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Reposted by David Nemer
"Cresce o número de trabalhadores uberizados"
"Esses trabalhadores não contribuem para a Previdência"
"MEIs também contribuem menos"
"Não há mão de obra no mercado"

Mas o problema é falta de reforma na previdência sim, não mexe em escala 6x1, não incentiva trabalho remoto não, confia
October 16, 2025 at 8:59 PM
This academic tour across Brazil has been quite intense! Between roundtables, panels, & keynote talks, I’ve already participated in:

6th National Meeting on Teaching & Research in Public Policy (ENEPCP)

8th Paraná Librarians’ Meeting

2025 Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Conference +
October 16, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by David Nemer
October 15, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by David Nemer
On this day in 1906, Hannah Arendt was born. Best known for her political philosophy, Arendt also offered profound reflections on technology in, among others, The Human Condition (1958).
1/
October 14, 2025 at 7:11 PM
We’re selecting postdoctoral researchers for next year’s DTD Lab cohort. Join us and explore the intersections of technology, democracy, and society through cutting-edge research.

jobs.virginia.edu/us/en/job/UO...
Digital Technology for Democracy Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America | Research at University of Virginia
Apply for Digital Technology for Democracy Postdoctoral Research Fellow job with University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America. Research at University of Virginia
jobs.virginia.edu
October 14, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Reposted by David Nemer
This week you might see conspiracy theorists touting a new documentary that alleges a vast censorship regime is “deciding what Americans are allowed to see, say, and even think.”

They may have paid their on camera experts. 👀

wiczipedia.substack.com/p/the-grifte...
The Grifter Complex
A new censorship documentary may have paid its on-camera experts
wiczipedia.substack.com
October 14, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Hoje, realizo a conferência de encerramento do 8º Encontro Paranaense de Bibliotecários com a palestra “Entre Dados e Comunidades: O Papel do Bibliotecário na Era da IA e da Desinformação”.
October 10, 2025 at 10:11 PM
I'm thrilled to share that my co-authored open-access article with @lealsobral.bsky.social, “Artificial Intelligence as Heteromation: The Human Infrastructure Behind the Machine,” has just been published in AI & Society.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Artificial intelligence as heteromation: the human infrastructure behind the machine - AI & SOCIETY
This article interrogates the widespread narrative of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as autonomous, intelligent, and self-sufficient, and instead centers on the largely invisible human labor that sustains these systems. Drawing on the frameworks of heteromation and human infrastructure, we analyze how AI systems are deeply reliant on distributed networks of ghost workers, crowdworkers, and microtaskers, often working in precarious conditions, to perform essential and low-paid tasks such as content moderation, data annotation, and fact-checking. Far from being fully automated, these systems operate as sociotechnical assemblages where algorithmic processes are scaffolded by fragmented, hidden, and undervalued human work. This article explores how platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk and Appen organize and obscure this labor through algorithmic management and cultural erasure, creating an illusion of machinic intelligence while extracting value from unpaid or underpaid workers. By examining examples ranging from self-driving car training to misinformation moderation, we argue that understanding AI requires acknowledging the human infrastructures that animate it. This perspective challenges dominant techno-deterministic ideologies and reframes ethical debates around AI to focus on labor, visibility, and exploitation. Ultimately, this article calls for critical attention to the political economy of AI and insists that any ethical framework for AI must begin with the recognition and fair treatment of the human labor that makes it function.
link.springer.com
October 6, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Cheguei ontem no Brasil e as pessoas me falando para eu não tomar destilado por causa do metano... Como se eu fosse um grande cachaceiro. 😇 🍹
October 3, 2025 at 11:00 PM