I spent a weekend at Google talking with nerds about charity. I came away … worried.

Nixon official: real reason for the drug war was to criminalize black people and hippies

Vox is a general interest news site for the 21st century. Its mission: to help everyone understand our complicated world, so that we can all help shape it. In text, video and audio, our reporters explain politics, policy, world affairs, technology, culture, science, the climate crisis, money, health and everything else that matters. Our goal is to ensure that everyone, regardless of income or status, can access accurate information that empowers them.

Advocacy groups and Metric Media collaborate on local ‘community news’

<p>This is the second part of a two-part investigation. The first piece can be found here. Metric Media launched “Community Newsmaker” in 2020 using the language of citizen journalism. However, what appeared to be  grassroots news is part of a sprawling network that promotes political agendas and corporate interests, without disclosing those ties to the […]</p>

The Metric Media network runs more than 1,200 local news sites. Here are some of the non-profits funding them.

<p>This is the first part of a two-part investigation. The second piece can be found here. As local news outlets across the US struggle to stay afloat, pop-up newsrooms are filling the void. Organizations with ties to political parties, special-interest groups, and lobbyists have emerged under the guise of news. One of the biggest such […]</p>

Giving What We Can, 80,000 Hours, and Meta-Charity - Less Wrong

Disclaimer: I’m somewhat nervous about posting this, for fear of down-voting on my first LW post, given that this post explicitly talks in a positive light about organisations that I have helped to set up. But I think that the topic is of interest to LW-ers, and I’m hoping to start a rational discussion. So here it goes…

Newsmast Foundation - Social Community App

Bring your people and content together in a safer, calmer, independent space supported by an education charity.

VoxPort (@voxport.bsky.social)

-Working on VoxPort: ATProtocol–driven platform where podcasters truly own their voices. -Building for independence, discovery, and community. -If you’re a podcaster, dev, or just curious about open media - let’s connect.

Hundreds of ‘pink slime’ local news outlets are distributing algorithmic stories and conservative talking points

<p>Editor’s Note: This is the first of our four pieces on this network. In August 2020, we found that the size of the network had nearly tripled to over 1200 sites. In October 2021, we found that the network had received funding from multiple dark money groups as well as collaborated with advocacy groups on topics to […]</p>

Positech@CSCW2026

People care about climate change, injustice, and humanitarian crises. The challenge is not apathy but capacity: sustained engagement with large-scale problems is psychologically costly, and social media architecture often amplifies awareness while providing few pathways to meaningful action.

The Digital Life Collective

The Digital Life Collective is an enabler. If you think we should be doing something we're not currently doing, we're here to help you and your project make the change you want to see in the world.

Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors

“With fewer visits to Wikipedia, fewer volunteers may grow and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors may support this work.”

Fractured reality

The report examines the evolving impact of digital technologies on European democracy. In an era of a global struggle to control the information space, this report offers critical insights into the fracturing of perceived realities, the rise of the ‘fantasy-industrial complex’, and the systemic risks posed by the attention economy. It exposes how platforms algorithmically prioritise engagement over accuracy, reinforcing ideological echo chambers and amplifying mis- and disinformation that erode democratic resilience. The report highlights how structural incentives and foreign control of the most important players in the information space undermine information integrity, collective knowledge and civic discourse. In response, the report presents a number of recommendations from fostering alternative public spaces and crowd-sourced knowledge systems to reforming business models, restoring user agency, and advancing EU digital sovereignty through decentralised infrastructure

Opinion: Losing the Local Journalism Initiative leaves communities in the dark

With more outlets vying for federal funding, why are national outlets opening up new bureaus in communities with healthy media ecosystems?

Activist Blogging Platform Shuts Down After Terrorism Designation - UNICORN RIOT

Washington DC — On August 26, 2026, the U.S. Departments of State and the Treasury designated a volunteer tech collective behind a popular activist blogging platform a terrorist organization.  Autistici/Inventati (A/I), the Italian collective behind NoBlogs.org, now joins such organizations as the Islamic State group and al Qaeda on the list of Specially Designated Global […]