@sarahagilbert.bsky.social
Research Director, Citizens and Technology Lab, Cornell University, r/AskHistorians moderator I study how to make the internet freer and safer— and how to help the helpers on the ground making that possible. She/her https://citizensandtech.org/
Amidst overwhelming Epstein revelations, I've heard from many scientists, especially women, about the deafening silence from so many corners. Many ask "how could things be different?"
In this post, I answer with three metaphors, grounded in the science he tried to own
medium.com/p/61a537ee8e...
Funnily enough, this is pretty much exactly what I pictured going on behind the scenes when our grant was cancelled last year
20.02.2026 13:36 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
My research featured in @advocate.com “People who don’t fit into these standard boxes in terms of gender or race are going to be skeptical of a technology that’s forcing everything into boxes.”
w/ @mayworms.info, @shoreingber.bsky.social, @naz-andalibi.bsky.social
www.advocate.com/technology/c...
we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad
10.02.2026 20:18 — 👍 31322 🔁 13785 💬 971 📌 1692
With Discord announcing the rollout of age verification, I want to re-up this @techpolicypress.bsky.social story laying out how this technology can be a security threat to trans people online + how age estimation tech might not even work for trans people. www.techpolicy.press/age-verifica...
10.02.2026 20:16 — 👍 6 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0
Wikipedia says that's the reason! (the direction pad thing, not the messing with your 2FA thing) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Num_Lock
10.02.2026 15:04 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Banner image with screenshot of scientific article from nature Medicine, as well as two panels from the study method and results
⚠️ Despite all the hype, chatbots still make terrible doctors. Out today is the largest user study of language models for medical self-diagnosis. We found that chatbots provide inaccurate and inconsistent answers, and that people are better off using online searches or their own judgment.
09.02.2026 17:07 — 👍 358 🔁 167 💬 7 📌 33
Q: Why will football be featured during the Bad Bunny concert?*
A: The Bad Bunny concert is fantastic exposure for the NFL and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put the game of American football in front of fans of the biggest musical artist in the world.
Laying off 1/3 of the post isn't just budget cuts. That's an intentional and willful dismantling of one of the top journalism institutions in the US.
Democracy dies at an empty desk.
This is huge news. I have spent the past 6 months wondering wtf was up with Amazon: they filed 380,000 AI-related CyberTipline reports to NCMEC in the first half of 2025.
Turns out ALL of it was known CSAM they found by screening their AI training data. It's NOT AI-generated or AI-morphed CSAM.
screen shot of trumpcensorship.com dashboard including timeline, map, and bar charts in red, white, and blue
‼️ Today @americansunlight.org launches TrumpCensorship.com, a public dataset visualizing 200+ censorship actions by the Trump Admin against journalists, researchers & citizens since his 2nd term began.
From our weekly "Last Week in Censorship" monitoring → one interactive archive you can't ignore.
Did you have a qualitative paper rejected from #chi2026? As you're revising for your next submission, check out this crowdsourced document containing common critiques of qualitative research and ideas for responding -- and add any new critiques you've encountered:
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
In testimony from a CBP official obtained by 404 Media, the official described how Mobile Fortify returned two different names after scanning a woman's face during an ICE raid. Both were wrong. @evystadium.bsky.social has more.
Scoop by @josephcox.bsky.social: www.404media.co/ices-facial-...
Ich thynke but litel of a Mondaye bleake
Tuesday grey and Wednesdaye eke
Thursdaye Ich care nat for thee
Yet Fridaye - Ich am yn love
Mondaye thou kanst fall awaye
Tuesdaye, Wednesdaye, myne herte slaye
No mirthe ys founde upon Thursdaye
Yet Fridaye - Ich am yn love
that's the thing they don't actually want sexy pictures they want to rob her of her consent
16.01.2026 18:58 — 👍 965 🔁 177 💬 15 📌 3
Sec. 2. Organizations from Which the United States Shall Withdraw. (a) Non-United Nations Organizations: (i) 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Compact; (ii) Colombo Plan Council; (iii) Commission for Environmental Cooperation; (iv) Education Cannot Wait; (v) European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats; (vi) Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories; (vii) Freedom Online Coalition;
The Trump Administration, which claims to care about free speech, has just withdrawn the US from:
-a multilateral organization that counters adversarial hybrid threats, among them disinformation
-a coalition of 42 govts "working to advance free expression" online
along with 64 other intl orgs.
I’m going to say the same thing I said when the Kirk video was going around. Unless it’s your job to watch this kind of stuff you do not, under any circumstances, have to subject yourself to it for the sake of “the struggle” or to “bear witness”
07.01.2026 19:14 — 👍 47 🔁 14 💬 2 📌 1
Should scientists apply to OpenAI's fund for research on AI & mental health? Should policymakers consider it a credible safety effort?
Avriel Epps & I see it as "grantwashing," and it's an insult to anyone whose loved one's death involved chatbots. We explain:
www.techpolicy.press/beware-of-op...
We have just updated our Social Media Research Toolkit, a curated collection of over 50 research tools compiled by researchers at the Social Media Lab. The kit only features tools that have been used in peer-reviewed academic research. socialmedialab.ca/apps/social-...
16.12.2025 13:40 — 👍 36 🔁 15 💬 0 📌 0
Screenshot of a paper entry: Fictional Failures and Real-World Lessons: Ethical Speculation Through Design Fiction on Emotional Support Conversational AI Authors: Faye Kollig, Jessica Pater, Fayika Farhat Nova, Casey Fiesler (There are tabs with "abstract" and "summary" and "summary" is selected.)
The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.
16.12.2025 23:31 — 👍 646 🔁 335 💬 30 📌 90Close enough
11.12.2025 15:36 — 👍 5488 🔁 767 💬 72 📌 52
A flowchart describing a digital harms research center. A full description of the process is available at the following link: https://osf.io/3ebj2/files/fzkgm
With mounting deaths that involve generative AI & social media in some way, the public is increasingly asking science for answers. Did these technologies play a role? Is this a wider trend? And if so, what can we do to prevent such deaths in the future?
New pre-print: osf.io/3ebj2/files/...
My latest article "Why Marginalized Areas Bear the Brunt of the Disinformation Crisis" in @techpolicypress.bsky.social
It is time to stop treating disinformation as a user behavior problem and start seeing it for what it is: a structural, infrastructural, and systemic problem engineered by design.
OK, so for the next few hours, I will be answering questions on Reddit's AskHistorians forum about my new book -- feel free to pop over there if you are so inclined! reddit.com/r/AskHistori...
05.12.2025 14:51 — 👍 46 🔁 12 💬 2 📌 1Get ready for the transatlantic battle over "free speech" to start in earnest.
04.12.2025 21:39 — 👍 79 🔁 17 💬 0 📌 1Our School of Information Sciences is running four searches, and we can hire more than four candidates. Here’s the first link, for a job that might appeal to people working in history of information, history of science, or digital humanities. +
06.11.2025 16:58 — 👍 100 🔁 71 💬 4 📌 8The UW Center for an Informed Public is looking for postdocs (for 2026-2028) from across diverse disciplines whose research sheds light on the challenges of our modern information environment, promotes civic health, and/or helps people/communities navigate online spaces: apply.interfolio.com/177901
24.11.2025 18:26 — 👍 142 🔁 117 💬 1 📌 7Thank you for your advocacy work. Mabou Beach is one of my family's favourite spots & my late grandparents were there most summer weekends. It would be heartbreaking to lose access to the beach, but even more the connection to memories. I wish the "no" was "no forever" but am so grateful for the now
19.11.2025 21:49 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
