Renee DiResta

Renee DiResta

@noupside.bsky.social

🌐Studies influence, propaganda, platform design@Georgetown ✍🏼Lawfare,The Atlantic, Substack/Ghost Newsletter (signup on my site if you want Ghost) 📕Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality (invisiblerulers.com) 🦹🏻‍♀️Twitter Files supervillain

184.7K followers1.2K following6.2K posts

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Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

Six AI notewriters run by X itself made ~90% of AI Community Notes submissions and 55% of successful Notes last month. Here’s my piece on the theory vs reality of crowdsourced community fact-checking, midterms edition. agentsofinfluence.substack.com/p/i-built-an...

agentsofinfluence.substack.comI Built an AI Bot to Fact-Check the Midterms. Here's What I've Learned.Many websites hate bots, consensus has its limits, and the six AI notewriters dominating Community Notes are run by X itself.
Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

Annual pumpkin patch trip. We had 5 kids with us in total. Only one needed first aid (head wound acquired during hide & seek). Everyone had apple cider donuts. Now waiting for my husband to bring the car around for 3 wheelbarrows full of pumpkins. I got the weird long one called a “candy roaster”.

Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

“I’m not sure what a ‘cab’ is but it’s some kind of relative of a taxi or an Uber. I don’t know if I’ve ever been in one.” There is no one I enjoy talking to as much as my 6yo.

Renee DiResta reposted

Julia Curlee
@juliacurlee.bsky.social

Replying to @juliacurlee.bsky.social

July was the rehearsal: cherry-picked CIA reports alleging Chinese meddling they never showed. Forewarned is forearmed. I broke it down on Lawfare Daily with Natalie Orpett, @mollyroberts.bsky.social, @lorenvoss.bsky.social and @noupside.bsky.social:

lawfaremedia.orgLawfare Daily: What We're Worried About for the ElectionsLawfare contributors highlight different potential threats to election security and integrity.

Renee DiResta reposted

Mark Histed
@markhisted.org

If Bhattacharya is now suddenly on the chopping block for saying no to Vought last month, that would imply Bhattacharya did not say no to Vought before — while Vought was tearing down NIH from 2025 until last month.

Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD@prasad.bsky.social

“But allies of Jay Bhattacharya, the head of the NIH, fear he could be on the chopping block after his clash with WH Budget Director Russell Vought in the Oval Office last month over political control of the NIH's multibillion-dollar grant process.” but that would be government censorship?!

Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

Darren Beattie literally ran this exact narrative playbook in 2020. With Mike Benz. Beattie got it onto Fox then via Tucker. SIO exposed how it worked. Ask the lying influencers pushing this bs what color the 2020, 2022, and 2024 Color Revolutions were.

Matthew Gertz@mattgertz.bsky.social

I have some question about the latest conspiracy theory the right is using to try to scare their voters to the polls www.mediamatters.org/laura-ingrah...

Renee DiResta reposted

Dave Willner
@dwillner.bsky.social

We're shipping CoPE-B-S1, an open-weight decision model tuned for safety use cases. It's a significant step forward for our CoPE family of models in a few ways. A thread: blog.zentropi.ai/meet-cope-b-...

blog.zentropi.aiMeet CoPE-B-S1: A Decision Model Tuned for SafetyToday we're launching CoPE-B-S1, a safety-tuned decision model that speaks the System One spec, answers many policy questions in a single pass, and can be self-hosted. TL;DR * CoPE-B-S1 is a new me...

Renee DiResta reposted

Anna Bower
@annabower.bsky.social

The woman responsible for the Civil Rights Division at the United States Justice Department says she’s “indictment maxxing”

Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

This story is now on Fox News and Glenn Beck, right on schedule. Influencers and crowds make “sense” of some “evidence” -> political elites and legacy media pick the rumor up once it’s clear it can be put to work as effective political propaganda. From the rumor mill to the propaganda machine.

Renee DiResta@noupside.bsky.social

Ohh hey it’s “the left is plotting a Color Revolution” time again — right on schedule w/this election rumor that recurs year after year. This time it’s brought to you by govt-paid midwit DataRepublican. The “XYZ is plotting a Color Revolution” trope plays well. It goes viral every time.

Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

You have to think of it like Mad Libs: DataRepublican strung random bs together with video clips that don’t show what she claims, but they serve as “evidence” merely because they exist. She slots novel details into a familiar story. It’s the DSA this time. It’s Antifa. It’s in NY. Now it’s in TX…

Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

Familiarity + novelty, and then repetition. Stock villains in community lore just get repurposed. I want to know what color the Color Revolutions were in 2020, 2022, and 2024. How many times does this trope not have to come true before the frame makes them look paranoid?

Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

Shot | Chaser Kelly Bevan of CSET and I have a survey coming out soon, referenced in the Noema article below. People are very wary of personhood credentials for social media but support them for finance and health.

Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

This is an important convo for anyone who sees the nudifier apps and wonders, "How is that legal?" or who's rethinking what it means to have their kids' pictures online. Riana and Cyndie wrote a great paper called "Yes, It's Already Illegal" covering prosecutions of AI-CSAM. Linked below.

Lawfare@lawfaremedia.org

On Lawfare Daily, @noupside.bsky.social sat down with @riana.bsky.social and Cyndie Demeocq to discuss their new research examining how existing federal criminal law applies to AI-generated child sexual abuse material. youtu.be/kmY8s-MROGQ

Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

This mf thought it was fine for his Twitter Files cEnSorshIp hoax to serve as pretext to investigate me and my colleagues for 3+ years, tho. Eat shit and wait for your subpoenas, Elon. www.forbes.com/sites/antoni...

forbes.comMusk Vows To Come For Those 'Pulling The Strings' As Democrats Weigh ProbesDemocrats have indicated they will investigate Musk and his businesses if the lawmakers are able to gain congressional power after next month’s midterm elections.
Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

I need to issue a correction. DataRepublican is now just a midwit, not a “govt-paid midwit” as I said. She resigned from her Dept of War job on Oct 2. She is now free to accuse random people of launching Color Revolutions. Do read the replies.

Renee DiResta@noupside.bsky.social

Ohh hey it’s “the left is plotting a Color Revolution” time again — right on schedule w/this election rumor that recurs year after year. This time it’s brought to you by govt-paid midwit DataRepublican. The “XYZ is plotting a Color Revolution” trope plays well. It goes viral every time.

Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

Ohh hey it’s “the left is plotting a Color Revolution” time again — right on schedule w/this election rumor that recurs year after year. This time it’s brought to you by govt-paid midwit DataRepublican. The “XYZ is plotting a Color Revolution” trope plays well. It goes viral every time.

Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

Six AI notewriters run by X itself made ~90% of AI Community Notes submissions and 55% of successful Notes last month. Here’s my piece on the theory vs reality of crowdsourced community fact-checking, midterms edition. agentsofinfluence.substack.com/p/i-built-an...

agentsofinfluence.substack.comI Built an AI Bot to Fact-Check the Midterms. Here's What I've Learned.Many websites hate bots, consensus has its limits, and the six AI notewriters dominating Community Notes are run by X itself.
View full thread
Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

Whose notes are performing the best? Well, it turns out X runs six of its own, and they absolutely dominate. X deserves credit for being transparent — releasing both a paper & their code. But it also suggests structural issues w/the program: it’s expensive to run bots at the scale they do.

Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

I’ll be writing more ab Notesbot’s efforts over the next few weeks, incl on election day. If you hate Substack you can read/subscribe here. But if you’re on Substack pls restack so it reaches more ppl. It’s not a partisan critique. The system just has issues. www.reneediresta.com/ai-community...

reneediresta.comI Built an AI Bot to Fact-Check the Midterms. Here's What I've Learned.Many websites hate bots, consensus has its limits, and the six AI notewriters dominating Community Notes are run by X itself. With the midterms approaching, I've been spending most of my time on an e...
Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

Six AI notewriters run by X itself made ~90% of AI Community Notes submissions and 55% of successful Notes last month. Here’s my piece on the theory vs reality of crowdsourced community fact-checking, midterms edition. agentsofinfluence.substack.com/p/i-built-an...

agentsofinfluence.substack.comI Built an AI Bot to Fact-Check the Midterms. Here's What I've Learned.Many websites hate bots, consensus has its limits, and the six AI notewriters dominating Community Notes are run by X itself.
Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

Writing a note involves retrieving information, drafting it into a Note that might best achieve consensus, and then waiting for ratings so it shows up.  But authoritative domains like state and local election websites are often hard to retrieve! They block bots.

Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

After you have the facts for citation, it’s time to write up the note — in a way that is maximally palatable. Raters will reject biased language. (I I have a drafting lab that tries multiple types of language). But I also often see Notes that are clearly neutral & factual get rejected as “opinion.”

Renee DiResta reposted

Philipp Markolin
@philippmarkolin.eurosky.social

"But the system is optimizing for the likelihood of achieving consensus, not establishing factual accuracy." A fascinating and worrying deep dive from @noupside.bsky.social into community notes. agentsofinfluence.substack.com/p/i-built-an...

agentsofinfluence.substack.comI Built an AI Bot to Fact-Check the Midterms. Here's What I've Learned.Many websites hate bots, consensus has its limits, and the six AI notewriters dominating Community Notes are run by X itself.
Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

I’m going to a masquerade party tonight and my 9yo made my nails. She did so good. 🍓🍰 The design and making the little berries and everything was all her. She even applied them. ❤️

Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

Who is writing X's Community Notes? In Sept 2026, six AI writers run by X wrote 90% of all AI-written notes, and 55% of all notes that were rated helpful and showed up as factchecks on posts.

Renee DiResta@noupside.bsky.social

X's Community Notes are increasingly submitted by AI writers. In a new preprint, X open-sourced its Community Writer tool. A dive into the data underpinning it revealed that in Sept, six AI writers run by X's team wrote 90%+ of all AI-written notes, and 55% of notes that showed up on posts.

Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

Here’s the takeaway: “intelligence officials were unable to establish a secure virtual connection to the election personnel, the people said. While such briefings were routine in previous election cycles, Thurs would have been the 1st of its kind in more than 2 yrs” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/16/u...

nytimes.comRussia Appears to Step Up Efforts to Influence U.S. Voters (Gift Article)One campaign has created social media posts focusing on U.S. support for Israel to sow discord ahead of the midterm elections.
Renee DiResta
@noupside.bsky.social

The threat has evolved even as USG allowed a bullshit cEnSorShiP narrative, spread by useful idiots to assuage the wounded ego of an election loser, to justify cutting its response capacity www.lawfaremedia.org/article/prod...

lawfaremedia.orgProduction, Persuasion, and Power: How Generative and Agentic AI Are Transforming Influence OperationsGenerative AI can increase the quantity and quality of malign foreign influence campaigns. However, questions remain as to whether these campaigns influence public opinion.