Ben Collins

@oneunderscore__
30.3K Followers
726 Following
18 Posts
Senior Reporter, Dystopia Beat, NBC News

A very good guide to our brand new internet from my friend Brandy.

https://embedded.substack.com/p/my-internet-brandy-zadrozny

My Internet: Brandy Zadrozny

The NBC reporter has always hated Twitter.

Embedded

Was thinking about trying out pine tar soap and read some reviews on Amazon. I’m even more confused than before.

"Smells like an electrical fire." 4/5 stars.

New Mandiant report today assesses with moderate confidence that the GRU directed the pro-Russian "hacktivist" DDoS attack on Mississippi's Secretary of State, keeping it offline most of election day. I expect this to be a huge concern come 2024.
https://www.mandiant.com/resources/blog/information-operations-2022-midterm-elections
Information Operations Targeting 2022 U.S. Midterm Elections Include Trolling, Narratives Surrounding Specific Races, Politicians | Mandiant

Mandiant
Hello Mastodon!
Behind Argentina’s World Cup Magic, an Army of Witches

France might have its star Kylian Mbappé, but Argentina has hundreds of “brujas” casting spells to protect Lionel Messi and the rest of its national squad.

The New York Times
If it behooves you, instead of thinking any more about Twitter—hit us with some PDFs, some incomprehensible sociology, a fact about your town, some poetry no one cares about, political theory that will never land, obscure social history, climate links, math things, some tech so obscure 20 people use it. We want your inner noise. Just push the gas on your own ephemeralism and launch us into the future.
❤️
I heard I'm supposed to do an #introduction.
lol

Woah. Watching Twitter misuse our research by putting warnings on links to Mastodon.

Here for example is the warning that @georgetakei "may be unsafe."

In a study led by Ben Kaiser at Princeton, we tested the effect of interstitial warnings on user behavior.

https://www.lawfareblog.com/warnings-work-combating-misinformation-without-deplatforming

Warnings That Work: Combating Misinformation Without Deplatforming

Both President Biden and Facebook have taken steps to dial down the temperature since last week’s dustup, but the fundamental problem remains: How can platforms effectively combat misinformation with steps short of takedowns?

Lawfare