2022 was a great year of firsts for me: my first front page story for ✂️, my Depop investigation featured on the homepage and my first time as an assistant producer on a documentary & podcast series for Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit 🎥
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Lydia Morrish @lydmorrish@journa.host
@lydmorrish
Freelance journo | internet bits, investigations, mis-/disinfo, health, inequality & more et al 
Lydia Morrish @lydmorrish@journa.host’s Tweets
So the balloon that blew over Montana is actually a "civilian airship" that blew off course, according to Beijing 🎈🍿
- thanks so much for sharing your insights with me!
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Chatbots like ChatGPT have made the battle against disinformation even harder, but fact checkers hope their own AI-driven tools can stop the gap widening too fast
New from me
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My recent piece for chronicled how Twitter's recent policy shifts have amplified the "sudden deaths" conspiracy theory
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The body double conspiracy theory about Damar Hamlin "underscores the lengths to which anti-vaccine activists will go to further the false narrative that Covid vaccines cause widespread injury and death..."
on point as always
nbcnews.com/tech/internet/
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Looking forward to watching this important doc at a crucial time for challenging online violence, especially against women
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"I felt like it was just slowly chipping away at me"
Thank you @EmAtack for sharing your story of online abuse and talking to us about why the #OnlineSafetyBill can and must address this violence against women and girls.
Watch from 9pm on BBC2 tonight
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-643330
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Trump on Truth Social amplified a literal Q drop earlier this month.
twitter.com/AlKapDC/status
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telling that Meta has to specify that QAnon posts are not acceptable in the statement announcing Trump’s restoration to Facebook
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Twitter has suspended the verified account of US white nationalist commentator Nick Fuentes again, only one day after his July 2021 ban was reversed by the platform.
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We need more MEN to fill in our survey. Come on lads - do you not want to have your say on childcare, parental leave, flexible working, and issues at work? Show us you care and that this impacts you -
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The mocking of those videos via clips of people dancing frantically (which are everywhere on Twitter right now) is not necessarily helpful though. It risks trivialising genuine vaccine side effects, of which serious ones are rare but real, and further dividing people twitter.com/lydmorrish/sta…
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The mocking of those videos via clips of people dancing frantically (which are everywhere on Twitter right now) is not necessarily helpful though. It risks trivialising genuine vaccine side effects, of which serious ones are rare but real, and further dividing people
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Videos of people convulsing uncontrollably, allegedly post-vaccination, are going viral again exactly two years after first making a splash online.
I spoke to @Gmvolpi two years ago to the day about the phenomenon
wired.co.uk/article/covid-
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Videos of people convulsing uncontrollably, allegedly post-vaccination, are going viral again exactly two years after first making a splash online.
I spoke to two years ago to the day about the phenomenon
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Google NYC employees who arrived at the office early this morning stood in a line to test their badges-- if light turned red, it meant you had been laid off. if green, you were safe. 👎
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Job Alert: is looking for an exceptional journalist to help cover West and Central Africa.
Location: Dakar, Senegal
Applicants must have at least three years of professional journalism experience
Apply by Feb. 3. buff.ly/3iNLHkD
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GB News: "a rich breeding ground for conspiracy theories"
"I was in a very fragile state and I just couldn’t believe people could do that to someone who was grieving" -
When a loved one's death gets mixed up with vaccine conspiracy theories, the result is abuse and harassment as well as disinformation
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A fake CNN headline is circulating claiming to cite a doctor who treated Damar Hamlin saying that a COVID-19 vaccine led to his cardiac arrest.
The real headline (R) reported on Hamlin's discharge from hospital last week.
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I was among many interviewed for this very comprehensive and disturbing piece by . The anti-vaxxers are doing harm to real people as this piece explains and explores.
Twitter Is a Megaphone for ‘Sudden Death’ Vaccine Conspiracies
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This is good example of showmanship over science as (Wakefield MK2) - exploits a mildly unclear headline and misdirects his eager following to a false conclusion - this an exemplar of misinformation techniques … a 🧵 … please share/ retweet as I expose them …
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Recently The Times headlined with ‘Mild covid linked to heart disease & strokes’
Is this true ? No! The actual research revealed the COMPLETE OPPOSITE.
Mild covid associated with a LOWER risk of heart attack.
Our media is completely captured by Big Pharma.Enough now.ENOUGH!
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The double standard that really scientists have to hedge and not exaggerate (at least they should) but those like can make declarative statements - like below “without any doubt”
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Speaking of sudden deaths, Lisa Marie Presley's prompted vaccine misinfo.
A screenshot of a Facebook account belonging to a blogger named Lisa Marie, who spoke about getting vaccinated, also spread widely as if Presley's
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This is also an excellent, heartfelt piece by on the logical fallacies that contribute to the cycle of sudden deaths disinformation — and the abuse she faced after Grant Wahl’s passing. Thank you for writing this
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Most saliently, the phenomenon is provoking abuse and harassment of loved ones left behind
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Bought blue ticks and the notorious Died Suddenly misinfo movie have also added to the problem says
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It’s an old tactic but new analysis by shows the problem is worsening since platform changes under Musk, including reinstating banned accounts and ending the enforcement of its COVID misinfo ban
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Twitter axes remaining Australian staff.
“Culling employees who have particular expertise in trust and safety functions … potentially undermines the company’s ability to combat abuse, misinformation and harms” - eSafey Commissioner
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This appears to be Andrew Bridgen MP's offending post before losing the whip, offensively invoking the Holocaust.
It's one in a stream of COVID and vaccine misinformation messaging he's shared for months
news.sky.com/story/mp-andre
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BREAKING
Simon Hart has removed the whip from Andrew Bridgen over Covid tweets
He says he has crossed a line
'Misinformation about the vaccine causes harm and costs lives. I am removing the Whip from Andrew Bridgen with immediate effect, pending a formal investigation'
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Awkward
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Spot the difference, @GrantShapps-style!
(thanks to @garius for spotting this one, and made extra special by the fact that the launch completely failed)
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24. and I created a FREE guide to all things to do with running your creative freelancing business, which has info that should help you with this stuff (and lots more). It's completely free to download here - thanks to
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V helpful on looming tax returns! 🧵
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Freelancers!
It's the time we're all freaking out about self assessment tax returns, which means it's time for my now annual (and updated) thread about how it's not actually that bad. Here are some things that should help:
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We provided mental health support to about 4,000 people — using GPT-3. Here’s what happened 👇
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If you do nothing else this week, for God's sake turn on two-factor authentication on your Twitter account, especially if you've got a lot of followers/a blue tick/a seat in Parliament/at the cabinet table. That will stop hackers even if they have your password.
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It was also another productive year for continuing my reporting & features on disinfo, tech & regulation, health and of course fact checking the growing barrage of mis- and disinfo swirling online with the brill team 💡
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Here’s to a greater and even more productive, impactful year to some of the fantastic editors I've worked with and hope to continue to work with in 2023 and beyond ✨
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