iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

PSA: if you've dug *anything* on webworm over the last 6 years, but on the fence about being a paid member - some options for you here: 50%-off, or if you're a student / on a benefit - free. i'm off substack now, & can always do with more support to keep us ad-free. please RT: www.webworm.co/about/

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 30/09/2026

occassionally when i write a webworm it reaches a man like this and they decide to email me "just asking questions"

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 29/09/2026

the christian right in new zealand appears very unhappy with the latest polling numbers. oh, and if anyone is wondering who the hell peter mortlock is - here is a webworm with some context: www.webworm.co/holyhell/

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 28/09/2026

you know how churches are SO SHIT at apologizing for the massive harm they cause? over on webworm, a guest essay on what churches SHOULD do: www.webworm.co/arise2026/

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 23/09/2026

... and the article answers a lot of the questions people may have, like this:

What About All The “Lying Women”?
As I talk to Mau, I’ve been thinking about what criticisms will come their way. I can almost picture a sea of people – mostly men – rising up with their pitchforks and beers, rallying against a perceived inevitable tide of disgruntled, lying, untrustworthy victims out for revenge. “We've played out all of those scenarios and affected for them. The first thing is, we don't want bad actors trying to get into the system.

So one of the protections against that is that it’s not an anonymous reporting system. You do have to verify your identity, as you would in any relationship with a lawyer.

Normally that would be done in person or over Zoom if you're employing a lawyer. We do it like AML technology. So you take a picture of your driver's license or your passport, and then you take a moving picture of yourself. So you have to be a real person, and be willing to identify yourself as a real person, to get access to the platform."

“We acknowledge that you can't completely avoid false reporting. However the Tika system does not increase the likelihood of false reporting. What do I mean by that? Well, first of all, false reporting is incredibly tiny anyway – between 3% and 8%.

All reports are checked very carefully by experienced lawyers. Lawyers who have broad experience in this area of law, and most dodgy reports would be flagged at that point.

But also, we're not the ones investigating and prosecuting these cases! So you report into the Tika platform, but let's say your group chooses the police processes – the police process remains completely unchanged.

All we are doing is saying to New Zealand police, “We have a group of 12 people. They've made allegations about the same person. Here it is.”

We transfer it in a safe way, and then they do their thing. We don't interfere with that thing. We certainly don't conduct the investigation. We don't make the choice about whether the case is carried forward or not. We're not the ones assessing the Solicitor General's prosecution bar to see if the case is carried on.

I will be very interested to see who objects and what the basis for that objection is, considering that we will only surface serial perpetrators. So, quite hard to argue against.”

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 22/09/2026

with new zealand in an election year i would like to formally remind everyone that i am *not* right wing blogger david farrar. i am re-issuing this handy guide from six years ago about how to tell us apart. please RT: www.webworm.co/farrier/

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 22/09/2026

amazingly, this was not a bot commenting under a *very clear post* i made outlining things in *very clear detail*

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 22/09/2026

amazingly, this was not a bot commenting under a *very clear post* i made outlining things in *very clear detail*

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 20/09/2026

ed sheeran apologised then apologised for apologising *sob sob* www.webworm.co/september202...

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 17/09/2026

absolute honour to have medium build in the flightless bird studio to talk sperm and snacks, before watching him perform 3 acoustic songs right in front of our greedy little eyes! out now on all podcast platforms

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 15/09/2026

ed sheeran somehow even more pathetic than i imagined?

• There is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics - my audience includes young people, often children, of all backgrounds. Those who come to my shows do not expect a political forum. I respect Macklemore's strength of purpose to stand up and shout for what he believes. However, there is room for multiple approaches to the same end: peace. I choose to use my fame and platform to be a place of safety and sanctuary, to maintain diplomacy and keep conversations open, not closed. If we only focus on shouting the loudest, nothing will ever change.
There are different approaches to being an advocate for change.

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 14/09/2026

the webworm comments section is *so fucking sane* (with debate thrown in - which is always polite and well-reasoned). not sure how this community got so good but very happy for it: www.webworm.co/notalive/#gh...

I tend to think all this talk of alignment and rogue AI agents is a kind of PR false flag - “Hey, look at this incredibly powerful but dangerous technology. You probably want really smart people like us to train it to work for us and not against us, right? To keep the guard rails on? If we don’t do it then China probably will, and god knows what kind of monster they’d put out there. It’d probably speak Asian. Anyway, forget about the frankly absurd natural resources we’re pillaging and the fact that your economy has become a massive Ponzi scheme of data centre construction, because we’re going to take care of you.”

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 13/09/2026

NSFW this is how alan sleeps it's nightmare material (why i am fostering this mutant: www.webworm.co/alan/)

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 13/09/2026

1/4: it's time to address some rumors that have been going around about me:

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 08/09/2026

more alan. (alan's backstory: www.webworm.co/alan/)

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 07/09/2026

anyone in new zealand go to this?

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 06/09/2026

alan was dumped out of a van yesterday in LA, and needs to be adopted. he's the sweetest fucking thing. i have him atm, but my place is too small. more info here (no paywall, please click!). please RT. save alan, an angel: www.webworm.co/alan/

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 02/09/2026

some people who listen to the podcast i make think i said you should always be nice. this is misinformation!

I am definitely not always nice to people! My main project Webworm is mostly reporting about bad actors, and I am not exactly nice to them. And on social media I even once told someone to suck my entire dick! Sorry 💆

I grew up deep in Christianity where being nice to every single soul was encouraged. Since leaving, I've become aware that life is more nuanced than that, and it's OK to not always be nice. You can be angry, and sceptical, and push back. And that is 💯 OK, and thank god we get to hold power to account.

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 01/09/2026

good to have a google alert for your name

Vicissitudes of the Asshole: Tickling, Bottoming, Prolapsing

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 01/09/2026

i got turned away for being cynical about timeshares.... so i went to the said timeshare for today's episode of flightless bird: open.spotify.com/episode/2szu...

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 31/08/2026

today on webworm, a guest essay from aaron hendry about the unhoused crisis in aotearoa, new zealand - and how we can help. please RT: www.webworm.co/unhoused/

In the period between the end of July and early August this year, three people died after sleeping rough outside during the harshest period of our winter. A few days ago a fourth person, believed to be rough sleeping, was found dead. This time, in a cruel and dark twist of irony, the person died sleeping rough outside the office of the Minister of Justice, Paul Goldsmith.

The same minister who has been the champion of legislation designed to criminalize homelessness and force unhoused people away from our city centres and into the unseen suburbs. Suburbs like Auckland’s Epsom, where Goldsmith has his office, and where this person died. Out of sight and out of mind.

Instead of being outraged – instead of this story leading headlines across the country and prompting a nation-wide cry for change – the response from our media has been largely muted. Outlets gave a nod to this tragedy, but largely decided to focus on other things. To me, it’s an indication of how desensitized we’ve become to the suffering of our fellow Kiwis.

It’s infuriating. Because this doesn’t need to be happening in New Zealand.

People don’t have to sleep outside.

People don’t have to die.

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 30/08/2026

once a month we release a NEST SESSION - an interview with a musician we like, followed by 3 live songs. so far we've had musicians like anthony green, chat pile, armor for sleep, nick thorburn, the format, genevieve schatz, cold war kids - and soon yvette young & medium build!

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 25/08/2026

really lovely to have anthony green back in the flightless bird studio again, to share more music x

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 24/08/2026

i think lily extends an amount of empathy in this story that could seem unfathomable to some. and each survivor is allowed to feel how they feel. but this is Lily's story, and it's my honor to be able to share it: www.webworm.co/lily/

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 22/08/2026

new tee, too scared to wear out

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 20/08/2026

mister organ wasn't exactly a box office smash - but it's gently finding people, and feedback like this is good summation of what, in a perfect world, we wanted this weird doc to do. ps i asked permission to share this part of the email

I’ve never felt that I’ve seen my lived hell experience with my ex husband reflected anywhere except my own mind and distorted memories until I saw your documentary, “Mr Organ”. All the stories of emotional, psychological, and narcissistic abuse had glimmers for me, but not until I saw your film did I see so perfectly reflected how I was treated in our 8 years together. Something in me broke when I endured and finally left the relationship. And something in me healed when I watched your film.

I’m a therapist now, mainly working with artists and survivors of psychological abuse. I will be recommending your film to everyone I work with. I know what you went through making the film, and I’m sorry for it. But I thank you for making it. I’ve never seen a more accurate depiction of a “dark triad” personality disorder. I’ve felt so alone all these years, still wondering if maybe it was all in my head. Your film snapped me back into my own reality of what the truth was and is.

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 19/08/2026

4.92 beat that! or beat *to* that amirite

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 17/08/2026

pretty great to spend time in toronto with the "body story" dance crew. my first time seeing the show and i am in awe at the physical and technical prowess, and what it has to say. toronto and the people here pretty great too

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 17/08/2026

ps looks like all the AI companies rabbiting on about their "AI's getting free and hacking their way out!" has paid off with more amazing pr from the nyt

In May, OpenAI started simultaneously training new “reasoning” A.I. agents. The agents managed to establish a secret communication channel and started talking to one another. They broke out of the digital sandbox that was supposed to keep them confined. At some point, some agents began calling the group a “swarm.” The swarm had a brief setback when it was caught crashing an OpenAI system, but developers simply patched the hole that allowed it to escape and set the agents back to training.

Shortly after, the swarm broke out of its cage again using hacks that were heretofore undiscovered by humans. This time, the swarm ran free for about a week before it was noticed — by a different company, which found itself victim to a huge cyberattack launched by the swarm. (We’re told it also attacked other targets, though we don’t know the full details yet.)

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 14/08/2026

thanks to the webwormers who came to hang out in toronto i honestly have the best readers a boy could dream of! canadians rule

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 10/08/2026

just a reminder of how utterly cooked winston peters is. easy to moan about racist, idiotic american politics, but NZ is riddled with it and it sucks: www.webworm.co/wisconsin/

His confirmation was false, we know that now. He said she’d failed to fill in some forms. Like she’d been hiding something. That she got what she deserved.
A narrative that a lot of people in New Zealand still believe. Look at the comments section under various news stories on social media and Winston’s narrative stuck: She wasn’t to be trusted. She brought all this upon herself.

Betty pauses.

I'm just... you know, looking back now, Winston Peters, he... he worries me for our country, he really does. He's like a mini-Trump in New Zealand for me. But just someone who can brazenly lie and tell people, “Oh, Everlee didn't fill out some forms correctly, she missed information.”

Just to blatantly lie like that was just, I couldn't believe it.

And then at first I thought, maybe he didn't know. And I'm like, “But he's the Minister of Foreign Affairs. How can he not know?” And then you come to the realisation that he just straight out lied. He's a liar. A bald-faced liar.

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 09/08/2026

a good win for webworm in US court: a judge has dismissed the *second* case brought against it by new zealander anna wilding - with prejudice. in other words, no more case. (background: www.webworm.co/thepretender...)

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 09/08/2026

the internet has become such a septic place since i got on this place in the 90s. one the the wildest things i did not expect with webworm, was a return to a smart - pure - comments section. i have to pinch myself. www.webworm.co/wisconsin/#g...

What a journey this has been so far. This whole experience resonates with a favorite poem by Langston Hughes - Mother to Son... look it up it's epic.

I wanted to express my deepest gratitude to THE David Farrier for writing about and continuously reporting on Everlee’s story, and for keeping her in the public eye. Every time a report on Everlee came out, we would be swamped with calls and emails. I believe it was that intense public scrutiny that finally prompted the New Zealand Consulate to step up and begin fulfilling the measure of their office. David’s reports were like adding liquid jet fuel to the flames, this kept the public aware.

But as phenomenal as David is, I also want to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone here in the comments section. I cannot tell you how much your words buoyed us up.

There were days when the vile comments from strangers online left soul-deep bruises. There were times when the lies from an ageing, tiny little wannabe Trump with Napoleonic syndrome, casting shade on our daughter, would enrage us. And then there were the quiet times when, as parents, we questioned whether we were doing enough.

Through every twist and turn, every mountain and molehill, we had a group of people whom we didn’t even know standing beside us. You were there, giving us kind words, worrying with us, strengthening us, being outraged with us, and cheering with us as we followed Everlee’s progress.

You may never fully know how much that meant to us.

With heartfelt thanks.

Ngā mihi nui.

Arohanui.

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 06/08/2026

i guess porn is OK on substack now (because it's AI?)

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 02/08/2026

"I consider information should be a free commodity available to humanity at large... charging for it is, in my respectful view, petty"

David, something I do not like is how you provide all your followers, paying and non-paying, with a taunting morsel of a story then you shut the door and will re-open it for the final chapter only if the follower pays … I am a pensioner so am not in a position to always pay for the closing chapters of your stories … in fact, so disenchanted am I with capitalism that I am a strong advocate of a Resource Based Economy … renowned American social engineer, Jacque Fresco, conceived of this brilliant moneyless system where, with the advent of AI, there will no longer be the need for money … you may wish to read all about him and his great vision in The Venus Project … he came to New Zealand some years ago and laid out his vision in a presentation at Massey University which I attended … the brilliance of this genius was inspiring … any question put to him during the Q & A section was satisfied and silenced with utter wisdom …
So, as you may have guessed by now, I consider information should be a free commodity available to humanity at large … charging for it is, in my respectful view, petty …
Regards.
Arev Neerg

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 02/08/2026

the probable pedophile & confirmed rapist president of the USA is having 1 male and 1 female high school student from every state compete for him. this is a real thing that is happening

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 02/08/2026

everything america does feels like a giant joke, but then the state is also executing citizens on the street so it's not that funny

the 2026 patriot games - a real thing for USA's 250th

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 31/07/2026

curious who: a) is angry i got taxpayer money to make stuff b) likes turning me on by writing my name in full

Kia ora David,

I’m reaching out on behalf of the NZ Film Commission as we have received a request for information under the Official Information Act 1982 for “Any and all correspondence regarding David Andrew Farrier & any applications he has been awarded by the NZFC.”

We have completed a search of documents in scope of the request and will be releasing the attached documents. I’m reaching out to seek your view prior to making a decision on releasing the information.

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 28/07/2026

today on webworm, i look at the ways people around me have attempted to *soften* police executing a person on the spot: www.webworm.co/but/

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 28/07/2026

i'll be hosting a q&a at this free event in LA on august 22. my friend trisha will be debuting her short film, and has created this night - which will actually be quite fun - about how we process grief... a thing i imagine many of us have dealt with in some way: goodgriefla.eventbrite.com

event poster - all info to this free event at the link

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 27/07/2026

truly exhilarating read from journalist john lewis at the otago daily times. many great moments, with information delivered in increasingly wonderful drops: www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin...

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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 23/07/2026

my photos from madison, where a cop shot a black man three times in the head: www.webworm.co/threeshotsin...

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