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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Notable Links

Exploiting Meta’s Weaknesses, Deceptive Political Ads Thrived on Facebook and Instagram in Run-Up to Election

[Craig Silverman at ProPublica and Priyanjana Bengani at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism] "The network, which uses the name Patriot Democracy on many of its ad accounts, is one of eight deceptive Meta advertising operations identified by ProPublica and Tow. These networks have collectively controlled more than 340

31 Oct 2024

Technology

Democratising publishing

[John O'Nolan] This is a genuinely inspiring post from John O'Nolan about the foundation behind Ghost and how it operates. It feels like a blueprint for so many open source projects. "The business model was simple: We would make a great open source product that

30 Oct 2024

Tech is interesting, but democracy deserves our attention

I’m aware that a lot of my linkblog posts have been about the state of America this week. That’s because — well, I’m sure you can figure out why. There is nothing bigger to talk about than this election. So much is at stake, and it really, truly

30 Oct 2024

Notable Links

Josseli Barnica Died in Texas After Waiting 40 Hours for Miscarriage Care

[Cassandra Jaramillo and Kavitha Surana at ProPublica] The deeply tragic stories of how abortion bans lead to preventable deaths continue. "The fetus was on the verge of coming out, its head pressed against her dilated cervix; she was 17 weeks pregnant and a miscarriage was “in progress,” doctors noted

30 Oct 2024

Notable Links

A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for school shootings and measles

[Nilay Patel at The Verge] This is, uh, the opposite of this year's trend of a bunch of newspapers refusing to endorse anyone: "Donald Trump is a dangerous maniac who can barely complete a sentence, and it is lunacy to believe he can even recognize the existentially

29 Oct 2024

Notable Links

Videos Reveal Trump Adviser’s “Shadow” Plan for Second Administration

[Molly Redden and Andy Kroll, ProPublica, and Nick Surgey, Documented] "A key ally to former President Donald Trump detailed plans to deploy the military in response to domestic unrest, defund the Environmental Protection Agency and put career civil servants “in trauma” in a series of previously unreported speeches that

28 Oct 2024

Media

Nothing, not even news, can be exempt from accountability

[Heather Bryant] A characteristically sharp piece on the Washington Post's spiked Presidential endorsement and ensuing fallout from Heather Bryant: "Good journalism is not unique to the Washington Post. Or the L.A. Times. Or the New York Times. Or any other specific organization. Their historical reach and

28 Oct 2024

Fediverse

Bugs, breakthroughs and BlueSky

[Ghost] "Last week we officially started the ActivityPub private beta and sent invitations to our first 3 publishers to start testing things out. This was the first big milestone we've been working toward for months, and it felt great to get there! 🚀" The Ghost team continues

27 Oct 2024

There's an election coming up and I can't believe we're still debating it.

Heads up: this one’s for American citizens. The rest of you can pass this one over, or peek at it for a shot of either schadenfreude or fear, depending on your predilictions and assumptions. It’s your call. The election, at the time of writing, is in ten days.

26 Oct 2024

Media

The Washington Post says it will not endorse a candidate for president

[Manuel Roig-Franzia and Laura Wagner at The Washington Post] "An endorsement of Harris had been drafted by Post editorial page staffers but had yet to be published, according to two people who were briefed on the sequence of events and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they

26 Oct 2024

Notable Links

The United States of Abortion Mazes

[Jan Diehm and Michelle Pera-McGhee at The Pudding] "To illustrate how difficult it is to get abortion care, we built a maze for each state where the difficulty is calculated by the state’s abortion policies." What an incredible use of the web as a platform. These stories

25 Oct 2024

Media

"The Kids Are Too Soft"

[Anne Helen Petersen] "The best indication of the health of an industry like journalism isn’t who excels there, because the answer is obvious: work robots who come from some sort of family money. To understand just how broken media is, look at who leaves the field — or who

25 Oct 2024
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Werd I/O explores the intersection of technology, democracy, and society. It's independently published by Ben Werdmuller, reader-supported, and always free to read.