Newsletter
How authoritarian governments are using generative AI
A new report finds at least 16 countries using synthetic media to mislead their citizens — and the number is growing fast
Casey Newton
Founder and editor of Platformer, a publication about the intersection of tech and democracy. Prior to founding Platformer in October 2020, Newton was the longtime Silicon Valley editor of The Verge.
Newsletter
Why fact-checking fails to stop deepfakes
Labeling posts only goes so far — but that doesn't mean platforms should give up
Newsletter
The synthetic social network is coming
Between ChatGPT’s surprisingly human voice and Meta’s AI characters, our feeds may be about to change forever
Newsletter
The campaign against government’s influence over tech
An effort to stop agencies, academics and platforms from speaking to each other is finding success outside the courts — and has implications for next year’s presidential election
Newsletter
Generative AI is already testing platforms’ limits
A phony Tank Man, and a flood of garbage books, hint at the challenge to come
Newsletter
How Google taught AI to doubt itself
Can you stop chatbots from making stuff up using search?
Newsletter
What I learned in year three of Platformer
Has the Substack revolution come and gone? PLUS: What's changing in year four
Newsletter
The FTC takes aim at X
Company documents reveal how a stalled data deletion project and inadequate data protections could put X in the agency’s crosshairs
Newsletter
Nine wild details from the new Elon Musk biography
Walter Isaacson brings new tales of Jack Dorsey, that Sergey Brin selfie, and more
Newsletter
Is the First Amendment making a comeback online?
How a major appeals court ruling — and a new lawsuit in California from Elon Musk — could limit the US government’s content moderation agenda
Newsletter
Google goes to court
On the eve of a major antitrust trial — and its 25th birthday — the company is bracing for a fight
Newsletter
A return to Kiwi Farms
A year after the Cloudflare controversy, the site's resilience speaks to the limits of deplatforming
Newsletter
Did YouTube solve its rabbit hole problem?
A new study on the power — and limits — of changing a recommendation algorithm
Newsletter
The unbearable slowness of Meta's Oversight Board
A 234-day wait to get a ruling in a case about incitement to violence suggests that something important is broken
Newsletter
How platforms can make our politics resilient to AI
OpenAI isn't enforcing its rules — but other platforms may protect us from its mistakes
Newsletter
Why note-taking apps don't make us smarter
They're designed for storage, not sparking insights. Can AI change that?