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Robyn Caplan

@robyncaplan.bsky.social
6K followers 735 following 487 posts

Assistant professor at Duke University. Tech policy, platform governance, mom. I make bad jokes sometimes.

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Reposted by Robyn Caplan
Livia Garofalo @livgar.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
After two years of work, the AI factory is out! We spent months in Pennsylvania understanding how the "AI race " is landing on communities and how they are fighting back.
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Reposted by Robyn Caplan
Nancy Baym @nancybaym.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
In personal news … socialmediacollective.org/2026/09/23/s...
socialmediacollective.org
The Social Media Collective Comes to a Close
It is with both celebration and sadness that we announce that the Social Media Collective, our research team of critical, humanistic social sciences at Microsoft Research’s New England lab, is comi…
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
There is something very “what if the company behind Kool-Aid funded Heaven’s Gate” about the current AI doomsday discourse.
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Reposted by Robyn Caplan
DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy @duke-dwc.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
New book: De Gruyter Handbook of Technology, Media, & Democracy Co-edited by DWC faculty @pmnapoli.bsky.social, @robyncaplan.bsky.social & Ken Rogerson About the @degruyterbrill.bsky.social Handbook: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi…
The cover of 'De Gruyter Handbook of Technology, Media, and Democracy' and portraits of co-editors: Philip Napoli, Robyn Caplan, and Ken Rogerson.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
It's baby's first edited volume! Check out the now-published Handbook of Technology, Media, and Democracy, edited by Philip Napoli, me, and Ken Rogerson. www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Thank you!
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Today I randomly won a $500 gift card for being a WUNC sustaining member. I've never won anything before and I definitely thought this might be a scam but it was not.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
A question for my lawyer friends: When a law review publishes a "note," what does this mean? Who wrote it? How does it get cited? Example here: harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13...
harvardlawreview.org
Section 230 as First Amendment Rule - Harvard Law Review
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 has been lauded as “the most important law protecting internet speech” and called “perhaps the...
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Ooooh that is awesome to learn!
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
This post is going to make me sound high (I'm not), but if the "computer" was once just a metaphor for the mind, and then sometimes hardened into an ontological claim, are we now just seeing the reverse? i.e. the "mind" as a metaphor for AI that's being taken too literally?
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
I got one paper in but that panel’s average was lower than the round table that I had rejected. I’m just confused that a panel on the fastest spreading internet legislation in a while got rejected from internet conference…
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Ugh so sorry :(
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Flummoxed as to why our #AoIR2026 round table proposal on age verification legislation was rejected even though all of our reviews strongly recommended acceptance. Anyone else in this boat?
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Yay!! Go us!
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Made it through third-year review, so I'll be on my junior sabbatical next fall. Can folks recommend writing workshops/retreats they have enjoyed? I've applied to a few, but I'm looking for more.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
In a very strange twist, TMZ (at least on TikTok) is now a news channel.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
And because of that, it’s not clear if this could be solved by changing features, since it’s not clear which are being tied to the negative effects.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
I suppose. Though truthfully there’s no consensus here on the addiction part - behavioral addictions are hard to pin down, especially when we’re talking about communication systems so embedded in everyday life.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
There’s no way this proceeds without these companies going full speed ahead with age verification…and I cannot underscore how little we know or understand about how age verification will be implemented and its impacts.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
I don’t care what you think about the companies themselves, but that K.G.M. vs Meta decision is a bad one and it will have very bad consequences regardless of appeals.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
lol oh no! This is why you don’t post while distracted. Go Mets.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
My kid just asked me what the “you” and “tube” meant (respectively) in “YouTube.” I have literally prepared my whole life for this moment.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Will do!!
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Yay thank you!!!!
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Pretty please @jacklerner.bsky.social! You will be immortalized in a talk about identity and verification for the Duke alumni network.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
SOS: Desperately need a photo of someone with a conference lanyard for a talk I'm giving (I am not someone who keeps lanyards, and I am deeply regretting that in this moment).
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Why do people go on threads? Every time I click on a post on my insta feed out of morbid curiosity, it seems to be entirely populated by rage bots or people acting like rage bots (often in response to those rage bots).
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Happy “am I getting sick or is it allergies” season to all who celebrate.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Hmmm it’s a good question…I don’t think I’ve ever thought through the mechanics of it.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
The amount of times I have navigated away from the #AOIR2026 CFP only to have to re-google it to look at the guidelines today has been bananas. Why is this the one tab in my life I insist on closing?
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
same!!!
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
The best part of paper writing is listening to a podcast while you do the works cited.
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Reposted by Robyn Caplan
Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
the actual story of what happened at the National Endowment for the Humanities last year is even more infuriating than we thought
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
It does not matter how many times I have done this in my career, I will *always* feel like a weirdo sending out interview requests.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Is there anything more overwhelming than reaching out to research participants you interviewed several years prior
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Wild to be told that nothing can be done about the pedophilic cabal running our institutions because it's "too big to fail/jail."
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Spoke about this in my identity/verification class today: What does it mean that, instead of creating an internet where we want children to be, that we are just creating a child-free internet? techcrunch.com/2026/02/17/s...
techcrunch.com
These are the countries moving to ban social media for children | TechCrunch
Australia was the first country to issue a ban in late 2025, aiming to reduce the pressures and risks that young users may face on social media, including cyberbullying, social media addiction, and ex...
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Oh wow, yikes, but Karla Hamolka (obviously predated me by many many years). #infamous
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
How are there so many podcasts now but also still somehow not enough podcasts?
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
My students this year are so aware of their lack of privacy that almost none of them have social media accounts, none of them are out protesting, and they all seem hypervigilant in class. Their concerns aren't unfounded, but damn, this is the most scared I have been about the future in a long time.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
Same!
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
We are mourning the loss of a brilliant scholar and a wonderful partner and friend. Please give what you can to help Fobazi’s wife, @elenamaris.bsky.social with medical and other bills following Fobazi’s passing. Please share the go fund me link with your community as well: gofund.me/4092df86f
gofund.me
Donate to Honoring the life of Fobazi Ettarh: Funeral & other costs, organized by Ysabel Gerrard
NEW UPDATE Dear readers, This isn’t the update I was … Ysabel Gerrard needs your support for Honoring the life of Fobazi Ettarh: Funeral & other costs
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Reposted by Robyn Caplan
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 06/02/2026
this is very funny www.foxnews.com/media/jd-van...
foxnews.com
JD Vance should have been sold by his mother for drugs, NYT columnist says
New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie suggested Vice President JD Vance's mother was reasonable when attempting to sell him for drugs during his childhood.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
lol our instincts overlapped. Love this.
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Reposted by Robyn Caplan
Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
“I do not think that 50 year old men should be having sex with 16 year old girls. But “
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Truly embarrassing how many times I’ve listened to the Grammy version of Yukon at this point. And it’s only on YouTube so I am just driving around blasting YouTube on my phone.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Yeah I just can't get into the flow of it for some reason.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
This is correct.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
I'm really mourning the loss of a place on the internet where I can both say earnest things and incredibly stupid things.
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Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Quinoa was to the 2010s what sundried tomatoes were to the 1990s.
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