Maura Conway

Ofcom urged to clarify if Palestine Action content should still be removed online Rights groups and experts say situation is unclear as ruling that quashed ban faces challenge from home secretary

UK police will no longer arrest people at protests who express support Palestine Action, but the signatories of a letter to Ofcom say it is unclear what it will mean for platforms which have duties to remove terrorist content under the UK Online Safety Act. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

'ISIS has young people exactly where it wants them': Inside the terror networks operating on Instagram | LBC An LBC investigation looking into the networks of Islamist terror accounts on Instagram has discovered at least 125 accounts with a combined follower count of more than 136,000 posting content sympath...

"Using an [Instagram] account set up for a teenager, with access to content aged 13+, LBC uncovered the official media branches of at least two Islamic State sub-groups, as well as countless other accounts sharing content that blatantly supports the organisation." www.lbc.co.uk/article/isis...

Indonesia will ban social media for children under 16, communication minister says Indonesia will ban social media for children under 16, the communication and digital affairs minister says.

Indonesia's Comms & Digital Affairs Minister has signed a government regulation that means from 28 March under 16s can no longer have accounts on "high-risk digital platforms," incl. YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox. apnews.com/article/indo...

Legal action against Gerry Adams set to begin in London A legal action which claims former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was a senior member of the IRA is due to get under way in London.

A legal action which claims former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was a senior member of the IRA is due to get under way in London/

Newport man jailed after posting pro-IS propaganda on social media Shazad Ali posted hundreds of videos online in an attempt to promote the banned organisation.

UK 21-year-old who published hundreds of videos on Instagram and TikTok promoting ISIS and tried to recruit a 17-year-old to ISIS on social media has been jailed for five years. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Why women have to queue for the toilet – and what it says about how cities are designed Even when both sides occupy the same area, men’s facilities can serve more users.

Even when both sides occupy the same area, men’s facilities can serve more users.

someone at the pentagon frantically typing “Claude, open the strait of Hormuz for me, quickest possible strategy, make no mistakes.”

AI-generated Iran war videos surge as creators use new tech to cash in The US-Israel war with Iran is being monetised by online creators with AI-generated misinformation.

Latest commentary from me in BBC Verify on the surge of AI-generated war misinformation.

tl;dr the barrier to creating convincing synthetic conflict footage has collapsed, while engagement-driven monetisation is accelerating its spread.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

High Court trial in London against Gerry Adams set to begin Adams denies that he had any role in the IRA and is opposing the claim.

A civil trial between three men injured in IRA bombings and Gerry Adams is set to begin at the High Court in London later.

The trio are seeking just £1 in damages and claim Adams “acted together with others in furtherance of a common design to bomb the British mainland”.
jrnl.ie/6979072

Quietly, calmly and forensically, BBC just dismantled the Trump communications shitshow on Iran.

No hyperbole, just laying out an unprecedented military, diplomatic and reputational shambles.

Worth a watch.

(🎥 BBC News/BBC Verify)

I’ve spent years, decades, obsessing over the Bush Administration’s Iraq WMD lies, writing about them, debunking them.

I can think of no lie about Iraq WMDs told by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al that comes even close to the enormity and absurdity of this lie from Donald Trump.

I am advertising two postdoctoral researchers to join the team on the ERC-funded Live Platforms project - one in online creation and the other in location-based work. See the thread for more information. Do share and apply. Deadline is March 20 1/3 #jobfairy #postdoctoralresearch #platformwork

I have seen a lot of cursed stuff in my time in academia but this is among the *most* cursed.
Grammarly is generating miniature LLMs based on academic work so that users can have their writing ‘reviewed’ by experts like David Abulafia, who died less than two months ago.

Front-Stage Politics: Visual Identity and Discourse on the Far Right This article investigates how visual and textual practices together sustain collective identity in contemporary movements, shifting attention from ideology and identity to the mechanisms of collect...

NEW PAPER DROP: I used a vision transformer (ViT) and PCA to analyze avatar content from the white nationalist web forum, Stormfront.
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ZRKQY...

🚨Event Alert - The Only Way is Ethics: Next Gen Networks Unite🚨 Please Join Us on Mon 27 April, 5-6.30 BST For a Session Connecting #ECRs #PHDs With the Leading Networks Helping Navigate Ethically Complex, Sensitive Research 😍 Sign Up Here 👇👇
forms.office.com/e/enPWBSWeBa

Did you know that if you buy my book on Amazon, Jeff Bezos makes 5 times as much as I do on each copy sold? Sharing some behind-the-scenes book math on why buying directly from presses is best for EVERYONE (except Bezos) in my newsletter today! aubreyhirsch.substack.com/p/book-math

Why democracies ban extremist organisations Many extremist organisations exist and operate in democratic societies. Some get banned by democratic authorities; others don’t. Why? Using data on far-right organisations from Germany, Michael…

🌀
🪧 Many #extremist organisations operate in democratic societies. Some get banned; others don’t. Why?
📜 Using data from Germany, Michel Zeller of @ecpr-ead.bsky.social explains why governments ban only some of the organisations working to undermine constitutional democracy

⤵️ bit.ly/3YuECH0

Trump campaign peace promises loom large over wartime presidency The "anti-war" candidate has bombed seven countries and launched a new regime-change war in Iran.

💥 No president in the modern era has ordered more military strikes against as many different countries as Donald Trump.

He's attacked 7 nations, three of which had never been targeted by U.S. military strikes. He authorized more individual air strikes in 2025 than Biden did in four years.

American money is destroying the Irish economy from the inside Ireland is dangerously overdependent on a small number of companies for far too much revenue

"But that’s like saying in 1841 that Ireland’s burgeoning population of close to 8 million, almost completely dependent on one crop, the potato, was a sign of strength rather than fragility. If the crop failed, the country failed. We all know what happened." www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

Child soldiers take Sudan's civil war to TikTok - The World from PRX Videos of children in Sudan are going viral on social media sites, but the TikTok stars appear to be child soldiers caught up in the country’s civil war. The videos show adolescent boys wearing camouf...

This is a story that sits with you: Child soldiers are taking Sudan’s civil war to TikTok. @bellingcat.com identified 12 accounts linked to child soldiers, some with millions of views.

@theworld.org learned more from Bellingcat's @sebkilli.bsky.social. theworld.org/segments/202...

What’s the Point of School When AI Can Do Your Homework? The creator of the AI agent “Einstein” wants to free humans from the burden of academic labor. Critics say that misses the point of education entirely.

The creator of the AI agent “Einstein” wants to free humans from the burden of academic labor. Critics say that misses the point of education entirely.

Russia launches terror probe into Telegram chief Pavel Durov Moscow claims the messaging platform has been used in thousands of cases of sabotage, terrorism and extremism.

Durov’s problem is that while the claim that Telegram has been used in c.33K cases involving sabotage, terrorism or extremism since 2022 is probably inaccurate. And most of the 150K takedown requests from Russia’s media regulator are bogus. The basic premise is true. www.politico.eu/article/russ...

Delays, failures, and 'half-funded' plans put Ireland's security in jeopardy Despite all the incidents and all the analysis and warnings, we don’t have an actual structure in Ireland to counter hybrid threats

The Taoiseach said the presidency would see the largest political summit ever held in Ireland: “We have obligations obviously to protect the security of the meetings.” Better yet, they have obligations to protect the security of this state. www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlig...

Senator Alice Mary Higgins asked the CnaM Chairman why his organisation didn’t take action under the Irish Online Safety Code against Grok generating CSAM.

Apparently, it didn’t appear to them to be a breach of the code.

What , then, is it good for?

Headline - students deserve more than a hollowed out student experience

My response to the Minister - and his suggestion that universities compress lectures into fewer days so students commute less. No way he’d agree for affordable and available student housing so students could have the full third level experience! #spéirgorm

Meet Diarmuid Tourney, Director of the Institute for Climate and Society at Dublin City University and DCU lead for the Co-Centre for Climate + Biodiversity + Water. Diarmuid talks about his… Diarmuid Tourney | Green Careers

🌱 Green Careers Series | Ep 8

Meet Diarmuid Torney, Director of DCU Institute for Climate & Society and DCU lead for the Co-Centre for Climate + Biodiversity + Water.

From politics & economics to fair transitions, he explains why inclusive decision-making matters.

Watch here: buff.ly/IVO4hkP

Are AI-generated summaries suitable for studying and research? Despite didactic, ethical, and environmental concerns, the use of GenAI is on the rise in academia. For most applications, the jury is still out on whether and how they will benefit education and rese...

Tired of AI hype posts? You might like my sober assessment of whether AI-generated summaries are suitable for studying and research. Spoiler alert, they are not.

The text is primarily aimed at students and researchers, but has much broader relevance. So share freely!: www.tue.nl/en/our-unive...

Deepfake celebrity videos used to pressure Europe over Ukraine Edited videos of Hollywood actors are being used to push a pro-Kremlin narrative targeting European leaders. Researchers say the campaign is coordinated. #TheCube

"Edited videos of Hollywood actors are being used to push a pro-Kremlin narrative targeting European leaders. Researchers say the campaign is coordinated." www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...

Global (Dis)Order Evidence Hub In this hub you will find collections of discussion papers commissioned by the British Academy and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on topics and themes relevant to the programme’s workstrea...

Some projects are long in the making because the questions are complex, the process iterative, and the answers not simple. The first batch of interventions from @britishacademy.bsky.social 'Global Disorders' is here - feat. a paper by yours truly 👇: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/programmes/g...

How rightwing rhetoric has risen sharply in the UK parliament – an exclusive visual analysis In the past five years, MPs’ attitudes in the House of Commons towards immigration have swung harder to the right than at almost any other time in the last century Labour and Conservative MPs are speaking in a more hostile way about immigration than at almost any other time in the last century, the Guardian can reveal. An unprecedented analysis of 100 years of parliamentary speeches has shown a sharp shift to the right on the issue – with the biggest swing from positive to negative attitudes coming in the past five years. Continue reading...

How rightwing rhetoric has risen sharply in the UK parliament – an exclusive visual analysis