Top all-time · #1005
Ethan Zuckerman
Personal blog · ethanzuckerman.compoliticsculture
Ethan Zuckerman's personal blog at ethanzuckerman.com covers politics and culture. Since 2007, 69 different Hacker News readers have linked it 92 times, most often “On me, and the Media Lab”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-26, and you can follow it by feed.
Most-linked posts?
- On me, and the Media Lab11 people · 18 mentions · first linked 2019-08-21
- The Cute Cat Theory Talk at Etech5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2008-09-02
- Mastodon is big in Japan. The reason why is uncomfortable (reason: lolicon)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-04-26
- Helen Nissenbaum on resistance through obfuscation and weapons of the weak(2014)2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2014-10-13
- Zuckerman vs. Meta Platforms2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-05-02
- To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-08-15
What Hacker News says?
The life concept here is so different from the recent post about the MIT media lab. "I watched two brilliant students organize two massive hackathons to improve the breast pump, challenging assumptions about who gets to invent the future and what problems are worth solving. Another student launched a remarkably successful movement against facial recognition technologies by demonstrating that they often embed signifi…
Comment linking /blog/2020/08/15/to-the-future-occupants-of-my-office-at-the-mit-media-lab/
on “Modeling a Wealth Tax”Submitted How big is YouTube? as a story · 814 points
HN discussionEthan Zuckerman explicitly resigned due to MIT’s and the Media Lab’s involvement with Epstein and is thus the reason why he is leaving his office. So the comment you replied to is not unrelated nor a tangent. http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-...
Comment linking /blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-media-lab/
on “To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab”Submitted To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab as a story · 459 points
HN discussionHere's Ethan's own explanation of why he left: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-... He's landed on his feet very well. He has a temporary position at Columbia this fall, and then will be starting a tenured job at UMass Amherst next year.
Comment linking /blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-media-lab/
on “To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab”Submitted On me, and the Media Lab as a story · 184 points
HN discussionI think you are just missing the backstory. Of course if you are approaching what Facebook does with naivety you end up sounding.. naive. The whole reason this report was put out by Facebook in the first place is because people used their own tool Crowdtangle to point out how the most popular pages of all were pushing political and medical misinformation to billions and were run by foreign spam mills. So they gutted…
Comment linking /2021/08/18/facebooks-new-transparency-report-is-really-strange/
on “Unmasking the most viral page on Facebook”Submitted Facebook’s Widely Viewed Content Report is strange as a story · 162 points
HN discussionClaude Shannon defined information in part by its ability to distinguish from noise. Certain objects are so ubiquitous and their signaling so minimal, it’s to the point of background noise and contextlessness. The Casio F-91W is one such object. The monobloc chair is another[1]. The community jokes a CIA analyst looking at a gritty Polaroid of a monobloc will have no ability to discern if the picture was taken in Dj…
Comment linking /blog/2011/04/06/those-white-plastic-chairs-the-monobloc-and-the-context-free-object/
on “How Did the Casio F91W Become a Terrorist Icon?”Submitted What if Tunisia had a revolution, but nobody watched? as a story · 126 points
HN discussionFor literally anyone who wants to setup a mastodon instance but hasn't yet, read this please: https://ethanzuckerman.com/2017/08/18/mastodon-is-big-in-jap...
Comment linking /2017/08/18/mastodon-is-big-in-japan-the-reason-why-is-uncomfortable/
on “Mastodon – A Federated Twitter Alternative”Submitted Stalking the Statistically Improbable Restaurant with Data as a story · 84 points
HN discussionThis reminds me very much of the TCP Evil Bit [1]. That is, it seems like the issue of whether anybody would actually set this is essential to the question of whether or not it would work. One could even imagine that governments would want people to live in ignorance of the existence of restrictions. It's 100% the Ethan Zuckerman Cute Cat Theory of Internet Censorship [2]. The government would rather that you have a…
Comment linking /blog/2008/03/08/the-cute-cat-theory-talk-at-etech/
on “A New HTTP Status Code to Report Legal Obstacles”Submitted Who Filters Your News? Why We Built Gobo.social as a story · 50 points
HN discussionhttps://ethanzuckerman.com/2017/08/18/mastodon-is-big-in-jap...
Comment linking /2017/08/18/mastodon-is-big-in-japan-the-reason-why-is-uncomfortable/
on “The Many Branches of the Fediverse”Submitted The worst thing I read this year, and what it taught me (2016) as a story · 44 points
HN discussionThis is accurate. Ethan Zuckerman has more commentary on the topic here: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2011/12/28/exploring-the-...
Comment linking /blog/2011/12/28/exploring-the-chinese-internet-with-weiboscope/
on “Living in China, let me tell you what life is like with restricted internet”Submitted China, porn and unintended consequences as a story · 21 points
HN discussionEthan had a followup a couple days later at http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2011/01/14/brocks-insight... Josh Shahryar also had a great piece on Enduring America on Friday, after Ben Ali fled the country: "Today, as dismayed as I was, I got an answer to my question: What happens when the media ignores a revolution? Sometimes,the answer is: Nothing. The media can help mobilize support for victims of earthquakes li…
Comment linking /blog/2011/01/14/brocks-insights-on-the-tunisia-media-attention-disparity/
on “What if Tunisia had a revolution, but nobody watched?”Submitted Mastodon is big in Japan. The reason why is uncomfortable (reason: lolicon) as a story · 15 points
HN discussionhttp://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-... "Joi asked me in 2014 if I wanted to meet Epstein, and I refused and urged him not to meet with him."
Comment linking /blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-media-lab/
on “My Apology Regarding Jeffrey Epstein”Submitted Ethan Zuckerman: On Me, and (Leaving) the Media Lab as a story · 15 points
HN discussionIf you were raising money from Epstein, investing with him and visiting his houses, it's safe to say you were one of the people that were aware of his background. Ethan Zuckerman explicitly stated he warned Ito about Epstein and Ito chose to ignore it: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-...
Comment linking /blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-media-lab/
on “My Apology Regarding Jeffrey Epstein”Submitted The complexity of sharing scientific databases as a story · 8 points
HN discussionRaising money from, coinvesting with and visiting the multiple homes of someone isn't "impersonal business transactions". It's a deep relationship with someone who was already convicted of raping a child. You should read Ethan Zuckerman's resignation post as it offers much more information: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-... Ito was warned against getting involved with Epstein and he ign…
Comment linking /blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-media-lab/
on “My Apology Regarding Jeffrey Epstein”Submitted Elon Musk’s Compelling Case for Worst Human of 2023 as a story · 7 points
HN discussionNot to mention that, if you believe Ethan Zuckerman’s account of events ( http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-... ), he specifically warned Ito about Epstein’s history in 2014.
Comment linking /blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-media-lab/
on “My Apology Regarding Jeffrey Epstein”Submitted Turmeric, pygmies and piracy as a story · 7 points
HN discussionIto did know Epstein was a child sex rapist. Ethan Zuckerberg urged Ito not do deal with Epstein at the time and he ignored him: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-...
Comment linking /blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-media-lab/
on “My Apology Regarding Jeffrey Epstein”Submitted The Cute Cat Theory Talk at Etech as a story · 6 points
HN discussion
