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Ethan Zuckerman

@ethanz.bsky.social
27K followers 348 following 606 posts

UMass Amherst, Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure, Global Voices, Berkman Klein Center. Formerly Center for Civic Media, MIT Media Lab.

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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Proud of this one, my monthly column for Prospect: "How AI learned to love the Chinese Communist Party " - www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...
prospectmagazine.co.uk
How AI learned to love the Chinese Communist Party
Regardless of whether it might end humanity, we should worry whether AI will kill off informed democracy
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Le Presse on the move of US scholars to Canada: "Mais c’est plus que Trump. Trump est le symptôme d’un problème beaucoup plus profond. Quelque chose s’est détraqué dans le système américain, nous avons perdu notre système de poids et de contrepoids." www.lapresse.ca/dialogue/chr...
lapresse.ca
Recrutement de chercheurs aux États-Unis | Le plus beau des pieds de nez à Trump
Comme réplique à Trump, c’est plus jouissif que de boycotter le Jack Daniel’s, plus porteur que de parler fort comme Doug Ford, plus productif que d’imposer des droits de douane sur les meubles améric...
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Santiago Sanchez-Pages @sanpages.eurosky.social · 14/09/2026
Another proof that AI stands for Absent Indians and ChatGPT stands for Gujarati People Typing (@doctorow.pluralistic.net dixit).
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Damon K @dadadrummer.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I don’t know if AI can kill us all within a decade, as the Anthropic researcher said, but I do know it can kill music even quicker - I’m quoted in this music biz piece as a dissenting voice on behalf of @umaw.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/09/09/a...
nytimes.com
A.I. Music Giant Suno Tries to Play Nice With Record Labels (Gift Article)
Suno has drawn copyright lawsuits from the majors. Now it is releasing a version of its A.I. music generator trained in partnership with Warner Music.
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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
"Forgetful by design" about the "major limitations" of YouTube's Data API for academic research, by Bernhard Rieder, Adrian Padilla, and Oscar Coromina. Super useful - not sure how this one slipped by me. arxiv.org/pdf/2506.11727 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
arxiv.org
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Daphne Keller @daphnek.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I did a thing in the NYT about the Meta settlement with @juliaangwin.com and others, and they put my "win for Meta" framing in the title. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | ‘A Win for Meta’: A Debate on the Big Social Media Ruling
Unpacking the Meta ruling — how big is it, really?
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Catherine has a new book out on fighting technofascism - the alliance between big tech and global authoritarianism - and is offering an open, free course this coming year that looks like a must for activists in this space.
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Ryan McGrady @antisomniac.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
More AI agents getting blocked on Wikipedia today. Good time for reposting this from a couple months ago: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
The wisdom of clawds - AI & SOCIETY
AI & SOCIETY -
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Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This new system appears to be “designed to fail.” If allowed to proceed, it’s likely to delay the distribution of ballots, cause confusion and chaos, and lead to both disenchantment and further distrust in election results. All to solve a non-existent problem of so-called “non-citizen voting.”
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Doctora Malka Older @older.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Here's my editorial at the end of the month trying to summarize what the spotlight meant to me, as someone who was aware of the issue but had a lot still to learn!
globalvoices.org
The invisible crisis that strips people of citizenship
This issue fascinates me because of its near-invisibility: As many of our Spotlight articles observe, citizenship is easy to take for granted when you receive it automatically and never have to defend...
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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
“Canada’s willingness to support research that challenges commercial and political threats to democracy is deeply necessary at a moment where authoritarianism is on the rise around the globe” www.ft.com/content/8cc4... - @ethanz.bsky.social, who is headed to McGill University
ft.com
Canada poaches 48 top US-based academics
Trump administration’s assault on universities boosts Ottawa’s efforts to attract top research talent
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Anders Åslund @andersaslund.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
"Canada has poached 48 US-based senior academics to join its top universities, in a sign of an exodus from elite higher education institutions that have come under attack by President Donald Trump’s administration." www.ft.com/content/8cc4...
ft.com
Home - Financial Times
News, analysis and opinion from the Financial Times on the latest in markets, economics and politics
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
News so big that Donald Trump had to upstage it by renaming Lake Ontario: ethanzuckerman.com/2026/08/27/m... (TL;DR) I will be starting a new lab at McGill University in Montreal next summer as Goldenberg Chair in the Digital Public Sphere.)
ethanzuckerman.com
My personal contribution to the US/Canada trade war - Ethan Zuckerman
I've accepted a position at McGill University and will be moving my lab there from UMass in summer 2027... with excitement and some sadness.
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Alex Engler @alexengler.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I just finished this and definitely recommend the essay. A compelling narrative of information ecosystem developments since 2020, and a call for more serious reform proposals (which I strongly agree with, more to come soon). Here's the two paragraph conclusion, which I found thought provoking
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Penn Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy (MEDIATED) @penn-mediated.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
For Dædalus, @sgonzalezbailon.bsky.social has a new essay arguing for intentionally designing technologies and information architectures in the public interest, a partial response and expansion on @ethanz.bsky.social's contribution. Both very much worth your time. www.amacad.org/daedalus/har...
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Happy to share the latest issue of Daedalus, edited by the leaders of the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, which I was part of. My essay is on shifts in the media ecosystem in the past six years: www.amacad.org/daedalus/civ...
amacad.org
Civic Information Architecture
In the six years since the Our Common Purpose report was released, dramatic shifts to the information ecosystem have transformed the relationship between citizens and the media, providing serious chal...
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Why I think a sovereign wealth fund supported by shares in AI companies should be understood as a bribe and not a social good: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Should Trump set up an AI sovereign wealth fund?
For all the talk of an AI boom, Anthropic and Open AI may be seeking insurance against regulation, Chinese competition, and their struggle for profita...
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Nathan Matias of Cornell (bsky.app/profile/nate...) on fighting government intimidation in academia, building on the work we've been doing with CITR: blog.ucs.org/guest-commen...
blog.ucs.org
Protecting Science from Government Intimidation - Union of Concerned Scientists
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Insights from a Myanmar dissident artist trying to adjust to life in Marseilles - globalvoices.org/2026/07/31/a... - part of a Global Voices series on statelessness.
globalvoices.org
A Myanmar artist navigating statelessness and activism in France
Myanmar contemporary artist Yadanar Win, navigates statelessness along with cultural barrier, red tape, and isolation.
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Sometimes the body tells the mind to sit down and shut up. That's been the story of my summer, recounted here: ethanzuckerman.com/2026/08/10/t...
ethanzuckerman.com
The Eyes Have Had It: A (Mental) Health Update from the Summer of Sue - Ethan Zuckerman
The aftermath of a failed cataract surgery: a summer working in audio-only mode, and the battles of a workaholic forced onto the sidelines.
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Kate Klonick @klonick.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Sat down to write about the Hugging Face/AI incident. Ended up drawing this instead.
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Sometimes you fight and sometimes you even win. Coalition for Independent Tech Research sued the state department over a policy that weaponized immigration laws against content moderation researchers and won an injunction: arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
arstechnica.com
Judge: Trump can’t deport researchers just for working in content moderation
Disinformation researchers praise ruling blocking Trump visa denials and deportations.
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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Losing Google Search is not the loss of a public good - it’s the loss of a rent seeking extractor that enclosed our information & sold the story that it was providing a public good. But rebooting real public goods Google ate will not be easy.
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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
I have been thinking about writing about the end of Vannevar Bush’s postwar vision in “As We May Think” where science and technology serve the common good of humanity. The NSF & the Open Web are under deep risk, it’s not coincidental that it’s happening at the same time, & it’s not too late
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Comparing the Trump administration's corruption to historical US precedents: reason.com/2026/07/09/t...
reason.com
The most corrupt presidency in American history, by the numbers
Looking back through the biggest scandals in American history through the lens of Trump 2.0.
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
The case for AI sovereignty is easier to make the more the Trump administration screws with Anthropic - my latest for Prospect: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Trump’s Anthropic spat has made the case for AI sovereignty
Bans and threats against US companies will lead governments to develop their own tools, and they could use Chinese code to do it
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Global Voices @globalvoices.org · 06/07/2026
“Haiti remains gripped by armed violence [...] and a profound humanitarian crisis [and] the Supreme Court has given a green light to treat hundreds of thousands of Haitian families as disposable.” globalvoices.org/2026/07/04/w...
globalvoices.org
What the ending of the U.S.’ Temporary Protection Status could mean for Haiti
“Haiti remains gripped by armed violence [...] and a profound humanitarian crisis [and] the Supreme Court has given a green light to treat hundreds of thousands of Haitian families as disposable.”
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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
What's the story? The EU Digital Services Act requires very large platforms to submit transparency reports & provide privacy-protecting data access to independent researchers studying digital risks. digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/...
digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu
How the Digital Services Act enhances transparency online
The Digital Services Act (DSA) details a range of actions to promote transparency and accountability of online services, without hindering innovation and competitiveness.
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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Tech leaders, scientists, policymakers, & advocates often call transparency a foundation of public trust and fair, effective regulation. Yesterday, @thecoalition.bsky.social took an important step to ensure that transparency laws actually work #FAccT2026 independenttechresearch.org/citr-members...
independenttechresearch.org
CITR Members Intervene in DSA Court Case to uphold Data Access for Public Interest Research - Coalition for Independent Technology Research
Members of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research today requested leave to intervene in X v. European Commission. X’s Digital Services Act violations have prevented researchers from using p...
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Conservatives like to argue that they're okay with immigration when people follow the rules. The ruling against TPS shows that's simply not true. I've sponsored and supported Haitian immigrants to come to the US under TPS - it's a rigorous and careful program. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/25/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | This Decision Is a Slap in the Face to Immigrants Who Followed the Law
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
'We are clamping down on the harm caused by social media. 'Read all about it on the Nazi pogrom deepfake abuse website'
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
So proud of Dr. Ifat Gazia, my student and dear friend, who received a standing ovation for her keynote this morning at DiGRA 2026 (the Digital Games Research Association annual conference) in Ireland. Ifat's dissertation (defended late last year) is about digital erasure -
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
She said it, not me... :-)
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
A conversation with students at Sciences Po on why generative AI may inherently be a conservative technology: conference.sciencespo.fr/content/2026...
conference.sciencespo.fr
What does AI do to social media and information ? Interview with Ethan Zuckerman
Bienvenue sur le Memory de Conférence
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James Temple @jtemple.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
You should read this piece -- and listen to this group, if you haven't. Also, just for fun, try to count along to one of their songs and tell me what time signature they're playing in.
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Two spacetime aliens from Saguenay, QC are great arguments for Team Human in considering AI futures: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Angine de Poitrine: the alien rock band playing for Team Human
In the war between artists and AI, weirdness may be humanity’s greatest asset
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Anil offers some very good reasons to ignore NYC "Tech Week" and, indeed, anything connected with Andreessen Horowitz
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Fascinating @globalvoices.org story on the revival of part of the Aral Sea, one of the great environmental tragedies of the Soviet Union: globalvoices.org/2026/05/29/h...
globalvoices.org
How Kazakhstan resurrected the North Aral Sea
The North Aral is the only remaining heir to the once mighty and plentiful Aral Sea, deserving of every effort to save it - even without long-term assurances.
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Well that's a thorough summary. One of the best articulations of university governance for a public audience that I've seen in a while.
Screenshot of article which reads: This  is how you end up with an elite university where the president can drive his car into a group of students and be lauded by the board. The president and the trustees are on the same team. The students are on the other team. The trustees know Kotlikoff will reliably enforce their agenda, including cracking down on protests that might be bad for cashflow. It almost doesn’t matter what he does; if there’s any conceivable defense, they’ll keep him in place. (If not, they’ll replace him with someone else who can talk about loving free speech while moving to crush it in practice.) Kotlikoff, after all, has already proved his worth: It was on his watch that Cornell agreed to pay $60 million to the U.S. government to get Trump to unfreeze its research grants.
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Wendy Kloiber @wendykloiber.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Dear god it’s good to see someone demonstrate how to come for Reagan. It’s not hard! But there’s been no will.
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Doctora Malka Older @older.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Did not know until I read this that there's a protected nature area in Tobago as old as the United States, in case you would like a different 250th anniversary to celebrate globalvoices.org/2026/05/19/t...
globalvoices.org
Two-and-a-half centuries of rainforest protection in Tobago
Protecting this rainforest was a matter of survival for Tobago, but setting the forest aside for conservation also left an indelible mark on global environmental history.
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
"The loyal client" is a concept that's been important to our lab over the past five years as we've tried to make social media better: it's the idea that the tools you use to access social media should meet your needs, not those of the platform owner. Spencer Lane wrote a great paper on this as part
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Renata Avila @avilarenata.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
I love @globalvoices.org globalvoices.org/2025/03/07/g... and @apc.org AI policies. www.apc.org/en/apc-polic... Currently working on a policy to guide @okfn.bsky.social and I am learning a lot from them.
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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
@ethanz.bsky.social interviewed me on the social media lawsuits. My answer: “lawsuits can make products safer... [but] I worry that that we will jump out of Big Tech’s frying pan into the fire of untested, so-called safety products that enrich the same VCs" www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...
prospectmagazine.co.uk
The social network in the dock
Lawsuits and bans threaten social media’s future. But the case that these platforms cause addiction and harm is far from proven
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
I have the cover story this month in Prospect, titled "Social Media in the Dock". It's an examination of recent court decisions in California and New Mexico and their implications. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...
prospectmagazine.co.uk
The social network in the dock
Lawsuits and bans threaten social media’s future. But the case that these platforms cause addiction and harm is far from proven
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Peter Williams @petermwilliams.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
New Prospect out now! With @ethanz.bsky.social on the US court judgments threatening the future of social media; @isabelh.bsky.social on the new star wars; @duncanweldon.bsky.social on price shocks and the Iran war; and @mrhenrymorris.substack.com joins Reform on the Welsh campaign trail
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Students from abroad used to come to here because we respected the freedoms of speech, association, and inquiry. Now they’re not coming here because we don’t. It’s really as simple as that. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/29/w...
nytimes.com
In France, American Universities Lose Their Allure in the Trump Era
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Ethan Zuckerman @ethanz.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Enjoyed this interview with InnovEU about the possibility of taxpayer-supported social media platforms and digital public infrastructure: www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_M7...
youtube.com
🎙️ InnovEU S5E8 with Ethan Zuckerman – Are Platforms Extracting Europe’s Future?
YouTube video by Fernando C. Gaspar
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Centre for Media, Technology & Democracy @mediatechdemocracy.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Register for free to hear from leading voices including: @abridgman.bsky.social, Sally Guy, Helen A. Hayes, Emily Laidlaw, @petermacleod.bsky.social, @taylorowen.bsky.social, Ava Smithing, Tracy Vaillancourt and @ethanz.bsky.social. tinyurl.com/4hs6ywh2
tinyurl.com
Securing Canada’s Digital Sovereignty: A New Playbook - Youth Online Safety
Youth online safety is at a turning point. Learn from experts about AI, platforms, and the state of Canada’s online safety policy.
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ijoc-usc.bsky.social @ijoc-usc.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
@ethanz.bsky.social & @antisomniac.bsky.social reach into obscure parts of YouTube to present a methodologically rich exploration of what they call the "accidental archive" of online life and culture ijoc.org/index.php/ij...
ijoc.org
The Quotidian Web and the Accidental Archive | International Journal of Communication
Copyright (c) 2026 International Journal of Communication
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