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Katy Glenn Bass

@katygb.bsky.social

2.8K followers 715 following 167 posts

Research Director, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University

Posts Replies Media

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Knight First Amendment Institute @knightcolumbia.org · 17/08/2026

Read the full memo written by @serenamayeri.bsky.social and Amanda Shanor urging Yale’s leadership to reject a settlement deal put forth by the Trump administration, noting its likelihood to chill freedom of expression and academic inquiry on campus. knightcolumbia.org/blog/the-ful...

knightcolumbia.org

Memo to Yale's President and General Counsel Opposing a Trump-Yale Deal

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Knight First Amendment Institute @knightcolumbia.org · 20/07/2026

How can higher education better withstand political attacks? In a new essay, @bakerdphd.bsky.social argues that power must be shifted away from governing boards and governments, and toward faculty, staff, students, and accreditors.

knightcolumbia.org

Reducing the Concentration of Power

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Knight First Amendment Institute @knightcolumbia.org · 14/07/2026

Breaking: A federal court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing an immigration policy targeting noncitizen researchers, advocates, fact-checkers, and trust and safety workers based on their work. knightcolumbia.org/content/fede...

knightcolumbia.org

Federal Court Suspends Trump Immigration Policy Targeting Technology Researchers

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

As I write here, it's totally incoherent to immunize the president from prosecution on the theory that he can be held accountable through the political process — and then to suppress the information that might allow Congress and the public to actually hold him accountable.

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

But when it comes to preventing dangerous capabilities from being widely accessible, export controls are far less effective. Open-weight models and widespread API access from frontier labs mean that the gap between frontier and publicly available capabilities is at most a few months, not years.

If the most that nonproliferation can buy us is a few months, the urgent priority should be investing in resilience so that we are better prepared when those capabilities inevitably become widely available, as we discuss below. On the other hand, if governments try to maintain nonproliferation as a way to deter the availability of advanced AI capabilities for misuse, their interventions will necessarily get more demanding.

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

But when it comes to preventing dangerous capabilities from being widely accessible, export controls are far less effective. Open-weight models and widespread API access from frontier labs mean that the gap between frontier and publicly available capabilities is at most a few months, not years.

If the most that nonproliferation can buy us is a few months, the urgent priority should be investing in resilience so that we are better prepared when those capabilities inevitably become widely available, as we discuss below. On the other hand, if governments try to maintain nonproliferation as a way to deter the availability of advanced AI capabilities for misuse, their interventions will necessarily get more demanding.

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Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Seems like a good morning to re-up @randomwalker.bsky.social @sayash.bsky.social 's recent piece for us: knightcolumbia.org/blog/do-ai-r...

knightcolumbia.org

Do AI Risks Require Extraordinary Government Intervention?

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

AI as social technology - I gave the Astor Lecture at Oxford's Blavatnik School last week. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSE6...

AI as Social Technology: Astor Lecture by Professor Henry Farrell

YouTube video by Blavatnik School of Government

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Three things said about AI and social science: it's a topic to study, a thing to critique, a tool to use. My new Daedalus essay argues these aren't three conversations; they're one. A 🧵 on "Field Theory: AI as Social Science Question, Object, and Tool." www.amacad.org/publication/...

Field Theory: AI as Social Science Question, Object & Tool

Uses of advanced artificial intelligence are changing how societies organize labor, govern, produce knowledge, and make meaning. In light of these developments, this essay argues that AI models, tools...

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

New from @randomwalker.bsky.social and @sayash.bsky.social: Responding to AI risks requires building broad resilience to harms through normal policymaking, rather than allowing the executive branch to exert extraordinary power over AI access and development. knightcolumbia.org/blog/do-ai-r...

knightcolumbia.org

Do AI Risks Require Extraordinary Government Intervention?

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Mike Ananny 🇨🇦 @mikeananny.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Does rampant individualism make public media virtually impossible? New from me in @knightcolumbia.org "Reconstructing Free Expression" series, with thanks to @katygb.bsky.social, @jameeljaffer.bsky.social. knightcolumbia.org/blog/is-indi...

knightcolumbia.org

Is Individualism the Problem? Toward a System of Free Expression that Challenges the Media Individualism Complex

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 13/05/2026

Writing for Columbia's Knight First Amendment Institute, political scientist Henry Farrell and statistician Cosma Rohilla Shalizi have produced the *definitive* account of how AI psychosis has infected our political classes: knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-a... 24/

knightcolumbia.org

AI as Social Technology

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Knight First Amendment Institute @knightcolumbia.org · 15/05/2026

Episode 2 of "Lawyering Without Law" is out now. @katygb.bsky.social and Madhav Khosla speak with @hls.harvard.edu's @lessig.bsky.social about institutional corruption, economic dependence, and what happens when courts, Congress, law firms, and corporations drift from their founding purpose.

Principle vs. Profit: How Institutions Lose Their Way - Lawyering Without Law

Bribery is the corruption we prosecute. But according to Lawrence Lessig, it's institutional corruption that poses the most danger to American democracy. Hosts Katy Glenn Bass and Madhav Khosla speak ...

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

@alondra.bsky.social's work has been foundational to how I think about AI and democracy - her thread below ties a lot of things together, all worth reading! A key quote: "The Declaration of 1776 did not describe the country that existed. It named what was being demanded of the future."

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14/05/2026

this truly is the thing that makes the united states exceptional, and right wingers hate it so much they want to destroy it

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

This fall @knightcolumbia.org will host a workshop on the role of the legal profession in resisting authoritarianism. Authors will present draft essays to be published as part of our "Lawyering Without Law" project. The participants are an incredible group: knightcolumbia.org/blog/knight-...

knightcolumbia.org

Knight Institute Lawyering Without Law Workshop and Essay Series to Feature Leading Scholars and Jurists

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

By sheer coincidence of timing, my and @cshalizi.bsky.social new @knightcolumbia.org piece on how bad ideas about AI helped fuel the DOGE madness knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-a...

knightcolumbia.org

AI as Social Technology

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Excited about our newest @knightcolumbia.org essay from @himself.bsky.social and Cosma Shalizi, AI as Social Technology. Read Henry's 🧵 below for an overview - this piece offers a new way of thinking about AI's place in the longer Industrial Revolution, and how it will interact with bureaucracies.

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

This podcast series is part of @knightcolumbia.org's project on lawyering in an age of authoritarianism. If you're a lawyer, want to be a lawyer, or care about the rule of law, please listen to it and send it to all of your friends. It's really good. knightcolumbia.org/content/lawy...

knightcolumbia.org

Lawyering Without Law

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Genevieve Lakier @genevievelakier.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

This was a very interesting convo with @kimlanelaw.bsky.social on @knightcolumbia.org 's new podcast about the challenges of being a lawyer when law is being used for authoritarian ends, and what lawyers and law SCHOOLS should be doing about it. Recommended! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

podcasts.apple.com

What Does Legal Authoritarianism Look Like?

Podcast Episode · Lawyering Without Law · May 1 · 39m

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

We've launched a new @knightcolumbia.org podcast about lawyering and authoritarianism, and how law can function both as a safeguard for democratic governance and as a tool of its erosion. First episode is out 👇 and more to come, exploring the legal profession's duty to the rule of law itself.

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Knight First Amendment Institute @knightcolumbia.org · 09/03/2026

🚨NEWS: @knightcolumbia.org & @protectdemocracy.org just filed a lawsuit on behalf of @thecoalition.bsky.social challenging the Trump administration's policy targeting social media researchers and trust & safety workers for visa revocation and deportation. More: knightcolumbia.org/content/tech...

knightcolumbia.org

Technology Researchers Challenge Trump Policy Threatening Deportation for Work on Social Media Platforms and Online Harms

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

We @knightcolumbia.org have started to post short essays from some of the scholars and advocates participating in our "Reconstructing Free Expression" project. I'm going to post the essays in this thread, as we publish them. They're really good! knightcolumbia.org/research/rec...

knightcolumbia.org

Reconstructing Free Expression

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Knight First Amendment Institute @knightcolumbia.org · 03/03/2026

For our Reconstructing Free Expression series, @akapczynski.bsky.social proposes a People’s College offering govt-funded 2-year degrees to all U.S. adults, with institutions required to agree to standards that would make #highered more democratically accountable. knightcolumbia.org/blog/the-peo...

knightcolumbia.org

The People’s College

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Knight First Amendment Institute @knightcolumbia.org · 02/03/2026

In a new contribution to our Reconstructing Free Expression series, @rlevinsonwaldman.bsky.social writes about how courts and Congress can curtail the government’s use of social media to surveil people’s First Amendment-protected activities. knightcolumbia.org/blog/ending-...

knightcolumbia.org

Ending the Social Media Surveillance Loophole

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Just published the first post for our Reconstructing Free Expression initiative, by @jamalgreene.bsky.social: Free Expression in the Shadow State, proposing the creation of alternative "shadow" govt institutions as mechanisms to express & fight for public values: knightcolumbia.org/blog/free-ex...

knightcolumbia.org

Free Expression in the Shadow State

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

This is the single most effective pro-vaccine piece I've ever read. Especially if you are also active on other, bigger social media platforms, share the gift link below. You might save a life. (I am already extremely pro-vaccine and I suspect most others on this platform are too.)

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Erica Chenoweth @chenoweth.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

My team at the Crowd Counting Consortium (@djpressman.bsky.social, Soha Hammam, & Chris Shay) has shared a big data update, covering all recorded US protests through Jan 2026. Some key takeaways 🧵:

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Looking forward to working with a lot of smart, committed people on this. One of the things that keeps me motivated is the belief that the post-Trump period (and there will be one) may be a time when genuine rethinking/rebuilding of democratic institutions is possible. We should be ready for it.

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

The arrests of Lemon and Fort are intended to deter journalists from doing work we need them to do, and that the First Amendment was meant to protect. DOJ should drop these prosecutions or the courts should throw them out. knightcolumbia.org/content/knig...

knightcolumbia.org

Knight Institute Condemns Arrest of Journalists Reporting on Minneapolis Protests

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Leah Greenberg ❌👑 @leahgreenberg.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

No Kings is hosting what is shaping up to be the largest ICE Watch training in history tonight. Join here: www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...

Eyes on ICE: Document and Record · No Kings

On Saturday, federal agents horrifically shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who cared for veterans, in the Eat Street neighborhood of south Minneapolis after brutally beating him in...

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Evelyn Douek @evelyndouek.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Apropos of the TikTok news last week, I have a piece coming out abt how the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the ban-or-sale law belongs in the First Amendment anticanon. It's not just wrong, but so wrong we should hold it up as an exceptional symbol of wrongness. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

papers.ssrn.com

TikTok v. Garland and the First Amendment Anticanon

<p><span>This essay argues that last term’s decision in <i>TikTok v. Garland</i>, which unanimously upheld the federal law that sought to ban TikTok in the Unit

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

www.mobilize.us?tag_ids=29132 Find your local ICE Out For Good event👇 and get out there this weekend. It is really important to peacefully demonstrate how angry we are right now. Make them feel it. I believe we will.

Volunteer Opportunities, Events, and Petitions Near Me · Mobilize

Create change in your community. Find events, petitions, volunteer opportunities, and fundraisers in your local area, organized by charities, campaigns, political organizations, grassroots groups, and...

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

As someone who edits a lot of essays (including the one by Yoel that this book incorrectly quotes) - a good cite check process should have caught this. If I’d published a piece where an error of this magnitude somehow slipped past the checker, I would feel obligated to issue a correction.

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Jamal Greene @jamalgreene.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

NB: When I, a professor of law, profess that an act is unlawful, I am not doing it to inform the lawbreaker, but rather to inform you, the reader. So the question “what, like you think he cares?” is inapposite. The question is whether *you* care. I think you should, which is why I bother.

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

How can scientists make a difference when democratic norms, institutions, & rights are under threat? Weds @ 12:30 ET join me, Jon Penney, Sarah Brayne, & @katygb.bsky.social for a @knightcolumbia.org panel on science, the courts, & chilling effects. WE NEED YOU 🫵🏽 knightcolumbia.org/events/the-s...

knightcolumbia.org

The Science of Chilling Effects

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Next Wednesday 12/10, 12:30 ET: Join our @knightcolumbia.org webinar to hear @natematias.bsky.social @penney.bsky.social @sarahbrayne.bsky.social talk about using social science to study chilling effects, and how courts use this kind of evidence: knightcolumbia.org/events/the-s...

knightcolumbia.org

The Science of Chilling Effects

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Dec. 10: Join me online @knightcolumbia.org to talk with social scientists and legal experts about studying chilling effects: How can we use science to detect and measure chill? We'll get into study design, existing findings, & how courts look at social science: knightcolumbia.org/events/the-s...

knightcolumbia.org

The Science of Chilling Effects

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Dec. 10: Join me online @knightcolumbia.org to talk with social scientists and legal experts about studying chilling effects: How can we use science to detect and measure chill? We'll get into study design, existing findings, & how courts look at social science: knightcolumbia.org/events/the-s...

knightcolumbia.org

The Science of Chilling Effects

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Em, midly @lefttheprairie.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

The joy this man has doing his patriotic duty

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Monday 12:30 ET: The chilling effects of the Trump administration's policies (and jawboning) are widespread - how are they being challenged in court, and what is the state of 1A doctrine on chilling effects? An expert panel will discuss, including current cases AAUP v. Rubio and UAW v. State Dept:

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Call for proposals 👇 for our @knightcolumbia.org project on the legal profession in an age of authoritarianism: What is the role of lawyers in defending democracy? What factors contribute to lawyers’ role in either resisting authoritarianism or accommodating it? knightcolumbia.org/blog/call-fo...

knightcolumbia.org

Call for Proposals: Lawyering Without Law: The Legal Profession in an Age of Authoritarianism

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

We @knightcolumbia.org are doing two online events on chilling effects: First on 11/17 on the state of 1A doctrine and current cases involving chilling effects claims, and 2nd on 12/10 on using social science to study the chill caused by particular laws and policies. RSVP links below & in next post:

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Katherine Alejandra Cross @quinnae.com · 06/11/2025

A striking feature of Trump 2.0 is that while elites capitulated immediately, ordinary citizens are using democratic institutions--e.g. the right to trial-by-jury--to the absolute hilt in defence of democracy. Robber barons and sincecured pundits gave in; the citizenry fights back harder than ever.

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Thinking about how important the First Amendment right to record is to getting strong findings of fact like this from judges. The government will lie, so having footage - esp. from multiple views/angles - is crucial. And it's why journalists and those recording are targeted by law enforcement.

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

We @knightcolumbia.org are doing two online events on chilling effects: First on 11/17 on the state of 1A doctrine and current cases involving chilling effects claims, and 2nd on 12/10 on using social science to study the chill caused by particular laws and policies. RSVP links below & in next post:

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Come have lunch and listen to a terrific group of experts discuss the future of press freedom on Wednesday Nov. 5 at @columbiajournalism.bsky.social, RSVP details below:

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Appropriate moment for an info session on chilling effects and the First Amendment - details and RSVP here: knightcolumbia.org/events/litig...

knightcolumbia.org

Litigating Chilling Effects

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Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Investigative reporting is so important! Charges dropped a day after @philinvestigates.com interview with the sheriff aired.

Reposted by Katy Glenn Bass

Katy Glenn Bass @katygb.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Want to learn more about chilling effects and why they matter to the First Amendment? Join our webinar with litigators and experts on Monday, Nov. 17, including @carriedecell.bsky.social @evelyndouek.bsky.social @penney.bsky.social @stacylivingston.bsky.social: knightcolumbia.org/events/litig...

knightcolumbia.org

Litigating Chilling Effects