Sign in

Karissa Bell

@karissabe.bsky.social
5.5K followers 795 following 506 posts

Senior reporter 🗒️ for Engadget, covering social media. Say👋 at karissa.bell@engadget.com or on Signal: karissabe.51 DMs open.

PostsRepliesMedia
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
this is so bleak
14351
Reposted by Karissa Bell
852dude @852dude.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Bro. People are cool as fuck.
274164912329
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Meta recently updated its smart glasses to deter people who break the LED. I was able to use cheap stickers and after-market covers to block the light without triggering Meta’s privacy features on two pairs of glasses. www.engadget.com/2227710/a-do...
engadget.com
A $2 sticker let me bypass the Meta Glasses' anti-creep feature - Engadget
Meta's smart glasses are supposed to alert bystanders when they're recording. Bypassing those safety features is trivially easy, unfortunately.
294
Reposted by Karissa Bell
derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
watched the odyssey last night. film ruined by everyone speaking english instead of ancient greek.
667182731589
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
I wrote about Meta's new anti-doomer ad campaign and how its first commercial, which is all about feeling good about AI, doesn't ... really have any AI in it www.engadget.com/2222159/meta...
engadget.com
Meta's pro-AI ad campaign is conspicuously light on AI - Engadget
The company wants people to be anti-doomer, but doesn't say why.
020
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
ICYMI last week, I wrote about the Meta Glasses backlash and how, for some people, it's changing how they use their glasses *even though no one I spoke with has had a negative interaction IRL related to their glasses* www.engadget.com/2212604/the-...
engadget.com
The Meta Glasses backlash is changing how (or if) people use them - Engadget
Backlash online is changing how (or if) people wear Meta's smart glasses.
121
Reposted by Karissa Bell
Devindra Hardawar @devindra.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Let’s goooo! Static owns a lot of sites you may read, like @engadget.com and @slashfilm.bsky.social. I’m looking forward to building this union with our hard-working writers and editors
1399
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
NEW: I wrote about Threads’ bizarre Mr Beast spam problem (spoiler: it’s crypto scammers) www.engadget.com/2206409/thre...
engadget.com
Threads' ubiquitous Mr Beast spam is part of a massive crypto scam network - Engadget
Fake Mr Beast "promotions" are ubiquitous on Threads — they're also part of massive crypto scam network.
021
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
As someone who has had an editor's error lead to a broken embargo on an *extremely inconsequential* story ... I feel for Nina Totenberg. It is kind of amusing how NPR has to pretend like this is some random "misunderstanding" and not what it actually is, though.
120
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
I don't know how I missed that the founder of Midjourney was the Magic Leap guy... that kinda tells me all I need to know about their med spa/body scanner concept
251
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Hello from WWDC! I’m at Apple Park this morning liveblogging everything with @cherlynn.bsky.social
080
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
As a resident of Connie Chan's district in SF I can tell you... she's not it. She has repeatedly blocked housing this neighborhood desperately needs and fear-mongered about upzoning. She thinks a *third* ballot initiative over reopening the Great Highway is a good use of her time and resources.
010
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Meta has acknowledged the Instagram account takeovers in which hackers used the AI support chatbot to change the email associated with accounts and request a password reset with this one-sentence statement.
010
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Meta suddenly really likes Becerra for CA governor!
sacbee.com
Meta boosts Becerra as it begins mass layoffs, drawing fresh attacks from Steyer
The tech company gave nearly $1 million to a campaign committee that aims to elect Becerra ahead of the June 2 primary.
010
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
NEW: LinkedIn is trying to crack down on AI slop posts. The company is tweaking its recommendations to remove obvious AI slop, including recycled copypasta, unoriginal content and other low-quality posts. www.engadget.com/2174163/link...
engadget.com
LinkedIn doesn't want your AI slop anymore - Engadget
It isn't just lazy. It's also mind-numbingly boring.
000
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Earlier today, Meta announced it was testing a Meta AI chatbot for Threads that would work a lot like Grok on X.. what the company didn't say was that it had blocked the block button for the account and people are *pissed* www.engadget.com/2171113/thre...
engadget.com
Threads users are pissed they can't block Meta's new AI chatbot - Engadget
It's the top trending topic on the platform.
100
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
kinda weird framing from KTLA here but fwiw these are the same glasses Snap has been showing off for the last year and a half... they've said the new ones coming this year will look (hopefully a lot) better
ktla.com
Snapchat bets on smart glasses as the future
LOS ANGELES – Snap is getting ready to launch new smart glasses later this year, and the company is positioning them as a major step beyond the smartphone. I recently spoke with Snap co-found…
100
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Bluesky reporting some more issues today..
0243
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Bluesky has been wonky all day bc of a DDoS that they are apparently still trying to get under control
042
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
NEW: The uncertain future facing Meta's Oversight Board isn't just about funding. The group sees a new opportunity to work w/ Gen AI companies and has even gotten some signs of interest from a few firms. But Meta needs to agree and so far, the company hasn't. www.engadget.com/social-media...
engadget.com
Meta isn't setting its Oversight Board free just yet
The Oversight Board has taken steps to formalize its long-contemplated desire to work with other companies, but Engadget has learned Meta has thus far declined to move forward with that process.
011
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
never understood the hype for Philz tbh
020
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
idk seems kinda telling that OpenAI is simultaneously saying they spent untold $$$ on TBPN to promote more "constructive" narratives about the AI industry but also they plan to let them keep editorial independence (which, lol, TBPN not exactly a hard hitting enterprise)
020
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Some amazing details here, including SBF's parents filing a legal doc that was made to look like it was mailed by SBF from prison but was very obviously sent via FedEx (which isn't accessible in prison) in Palo Alto
031
Reposted by Karissa Bell
Garth Marenghi's Catbus @catbus.phd · 26/03/2026
when u have a good idea
a capybara sitting placidly in a tank of water with a red apple balanced atop its head
18111
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
So uh Vanity Fair did a big cover story on AI and was supposed to get an interview with Dario but Anthropic blew him off so he instead.. made one up with Claude and discloses it after the made-up interview. Cool. www.vanityfair.com/news/story/d...
042
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
NEW: Meta is offering creators who have large followings on other platforms (but who don't regularly post on Facebook) up to $3k a month in bonuses if they start posting on Facebook, it's the company's latest plan to bring higher quality content and more well-known creators to the platform.
engadget.com
Meta's latest creator push comes with $3,000 bonuses for posting on Facebook
Meta is launching a new initiative aimed at popular creators who already have large followings on other platforms and offering bonuses for posting on Facebook.
001
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
welp the new, new Digg didn't last long. like 2 months after launching publicly they are laying off a bunch of people and bringing back Kevin Rose to... fight the bots?
110
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Meta is now facing a class action lawsuit over its smart glasses' privacy claims following reports that users' footage has been reviewed by human contractors in Kenya. www.engadget.com/social-media...
engadget.com
Meta hit with a class action lawsuit over smart glasses' privacy claims
Meta is facing a class action lawsuit for false advertising related to its AI glasses following reports about the company's use of human contractors to review footage captured from users' glasses.
002
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
been meaning to do this but today seemed like a good day for it
0100
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
X recently released a new open-source version of its algorithm, but researchers say it's not exactly a win for transparency. Here's my deep dive about what we can actually learn about it from the code that was shared, and allll the parts that are still missing. www.engadget.com/social-media...
engadget.com
X's 'open source' algorithm isn't a win for transparency, researchers say
Researchers say that the recommendation algorithm published by X doesn't offer the kind of transparency that would actually be useful for anyone trying to understand how X works in 2026.
011
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
but was it a "scoop of ideas" or a "scoop of explanation" 🤔
000
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
NYT White House correspondent is on X... bragging about buying a plane?
170
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
X's head of product says the platform will soon feature "starterpacks" to make it easier for people to find other users to follow.. wonder where I've heard that before
041
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
dear god
040
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
hmm this YouTuber claims that an unannounced “official” Harry Potter VR game (from .. Skydance) may have been one of the casualties of yesterday’s metaverse layoffs at Meta
youtu.be
The Meta Situation Just Got Worse.
YouTube video by Gamertag VR
110
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Here it is, our robot recap of CES 206. We saw a bunch of cute robot “pets,” humanoids, laundry-doing robots and even a new AI robot friend from will.i.am (yes he’s at it again!) www.engadget.com/ai/the-robot...
engadget.com
The robots we saw at CES 2026: The lovable, the creepy and the utterly confusing
From sassy humanoids, to AI-powered pets and chore-handling assistants, we sought out as many cute, strange and capable robots as we could find during CES.
030
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Instagram's top exec Adam Mosseri just published a little manifesto on the state of Instagram and AI going into 2026 and .. it's quite telling! He basically says Meta should give up trying to proactively label AI content and that camera companies should be in charge of verifying what's real.
engadget.com
Instagram chief: AI is so ubiquitous 'it will be more practical to fingerprint real media than fake media'
Adam Mosseri offered a notably candid assessment on how AI is upending Instagram.
4102
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
Meta describes this as a very "limited" test but there are some pretty big implications to making link-sharing a paid feature. Lots of people already assume Meta throttles posts w/ links but this suggests there may be a wider effort to reduce links across Facebook www.engadget.com/social-media...
engadget.com
A Facebook test makes link-sharing a paid feature for creators
Meta is testing out a new scheme that effectively puts link-sharing behind a paywall for creators on Facebook.
010
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
New exclusive from me: Reddit is starting a new verification program beginning w/ public figures and brands, though the company hopes to make it available more widely in the future. Verified accounts get a gray checkmark (this will also replace the "official" badge). More details over @engadget.com
engadget.com
Reddit is starting to verify public figures
Reddit is starting a "limited alpha test" of verification for public figures, who will get a familiar gray checkmark added to their username.
152
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Pew just published its first look at how teens are using AI chatbots and there are some 👀 stats here.. close to a third of US teens say they are using AI chatbots daily or more and ChatGPT is the most widely used among teens by a fairly sizable margin. More ⬇ www.engadget.com/ai/nearly-on...
engadget.com
Nearly one-third of teens use AI chatbots daily
Nearly one-third of US teens report using AI chatbots daily or more, according to a new report from Pew Research.
020
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
The Oversight Board is looking to expand its scope, starting w/ a pilot to explore account-level decisions (suspensions, etc.) which could allow it to take appeals related to account suspensions. The board also tells me it's had "very preliminary" conversations about working w/ other platforms.
engadget.com
Meta's Oversight Board wants to expand its powers in 2026
The Oversight Board is getting ready to tackle a new pain point for Facebook and Instagram users as it looks to expand its purview in 2026.
000
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
That SF kinda cold is no joke 🥶
000
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
It's kind of incredible how much YouTube content there is that's just tutorials for engagement farming/monetizing accounts on social media. Most of the ones I've seen also heavily rely on gen AI tools for streamlining this too.. it's literally never been easier to make fake content for fake accounts
092
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
one thing that anyone who has studied the psychology of conspiracy theories will tell you is that it’s very de-stabilizing when you finally are forced to confront that you were wrong
119133
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
X's handle marketplace is open for business. I discovered that I could request "elonfarts" (a "priority" handle) but not my own name ("karissa" is apparently a "rare handle?). Lots of meme potential here but there are *some strings* attached
engadget.com
X's handle marketplace is open and there are some... interesting names if you're willing to pay
After previewing its plans to open a marketplace to "redistribute" dormant handles last month, X has made the feature available to all Premium+ subscribers on the platform.
020
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
the most charitable explanation I can think of for this is that at some point during interview prep he was told to pivot questions about safety to the "opportunity" to improve in other ways, but didn't quite actually figure out how to make that particular mental leap in a coherent way
000
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Elon now claiming that Grok was "unfortunately manipulated by adversarial prompting" as xAI seems to be nuking the posts that claimed Elon was more fit than LeBron James, smarter than Einstein, etc.
072
Karissa Bell @karissabe.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Went to a screening of A24’s Eternity last night and I really enjoyed it! A quirky rom con that was genuinely funny and managed to not feel formulaic in the way so many rom cons do
010