❗ NEW REPORT | “Barely getting by”
As the government’s landmark #EmploymentRightsBill passes through parliament, our new research with @jrf-uk.bsky.social shines a light on those still at risk of slipping through the social safety net.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
🗞️ Read coverage in the @mirror.co.uk: www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
I provided a few thoughts for Demos on the Budget's announcement of an expansion of the UK's welfare fraud and error recovery systems
For more background, here’s a recent piece which highlights the risks and harms that automated welfare systems visit on vulnerable people demos.co.uk/blogs/puttin...
I'm so proud to see this research I was involved with is now out. It charts the global spread of digital border and watchlisting surveillance systems. Driven by the UN Security Council, IoM, EU and US, these infrastructures threaten human rights worldwide
A better welfare system is possible - one that treats people with dignity, compassion, and care 🤝
In our latest online listening with @demos-uk.bsky.social, we continue to see people's experience of the welfare system as inaccessible, inflexible, and inhumane. 1/2
These initiatives have a history of poor outcomes for vulnerable people. For example, in 2024, it was revealed that an internal DWP assessment found an AI fraud detection system it used featured significant bias according to age, disability, marital status and nationality
The scandals keep coming
Rather than make the system work for those who need it most, the UK government is doubling-down on policies which could make things worse - like AI fraud detection tools and automated decision making systems to assess claims
My latest blog looks at what has gone wrong with the welfare system - and how things could be done differently
“I’m feeling sick from fear about this transition from Employment Support Allowance to Universal Credit. I’ve lost several hundred pounds”
This is one of hundreds of stories from my research into financial hardship and the welfare system with @jrf-uk.bsky.social
✍ NEW BLOG | Putting humanity at the heart of welfare
@j-hancock.bsky.social reflects on 13 years of online conversations evidencing the enduring challenges that people face when navigating the #welfare system.
This blog draws from our ongoing Online Listening research with @jrf-uk.bsky.social.
DEUTSCHE: NVIDIA "is currently carrying the weight of US economic growth. The bad news is that in order for the tech cycle to continue contributing to GDP growth, capital investment needs to remain parabolic. This is highly unlikely.”
@fortune.com
fortune.com/2025/09/23/a...
✍OPINION | From Southport to Epping, social media's failure to act is fuelling racist violence.
Researcher, @naemamalik.bsky.social, warns we risk seeing more riots, division and unrest in our communities unless platforms are held to account and adopt new practices to address online misinformation.
What did we find?
➡️ Rising employment concerns – just as the @resfoundation.bsky.social predicts unemployment could hit 5% in the three months to August.
➡️ Persistent fears about the benefits system – following the recent welfare reform u-turn & uncertainty.
🚨 NEW REPORT: "It's tough out there".
In partnership with @jrf-uk.bsky.social, we’ve been analysing new online listening data to understand how people are talking about financial hardship – unprompted, in their own words.
demos.co.uk/research/its...
💭 BLOG | Polls apart? A novel way of understanding financial hardship
Demos' Billy Huband-Thompson and @j-hancock.bsky.social reflect on new research with @jrf-uk.bsky.social and the value of online listening methods to capture the feelings of those on the sharp end of government policies.
Update: I spoke with the U.K. Environment Agency and got some numbers.
they believe deleting 1,000 emails with attachments could save about 77.5 liters of water a year.
they also said they're estimating data centers will consume 280 billion liters a year, world wide, by the end of the decade
like I think we perhaps have not been talking enough about the utterly staggering amount of highly sensitive information that we absolutely know people around the world are pumping into corporate LLM tools at all times nowadays
Post on /r/transgenderUK entitled “Reddit now censors LGBTQ+ content under OFCOM’s new ‘Online Safety Act’”
post text: “I honestly can't even think of words to describe how vile this is. Here's a screenshot of what I now see when I search "lgbt" with my VPN switched off. Occasionally a banner appears at the top of the screen saying something about needing to verify ID to access "mature content" but the button doesn't even work. The fact that we're now considered "mature content" makes me feel sick.”
The screenshot referenced in the previous image, showing the results of a search on Reddit for the term LGBT. No results from LGBT-specific subreddits appear; instead, posts from /r/Conservative, /r/Islam, /r/JustUnsubbed, etc are highlighted.
the UK’s Internet age verification law has led to the effective censorship of all LGBT content on Reddit
what a shocking and unexpected turn of events!
ICYMI-- I did.
A study of software developers found it took them 19% more time to do their work when they used AI tools.
At the same time, they *perceived* they had saved time. They thought they would work faster and so they falsely "believed AI had sped them up by 20%."
Back in 2013 - when most of us were still excited about computers - the UK's coalition government introduced a bold new initiative. From September 2014, it became mandatory for all kids from year 1 on to learn coding. We were the first in the world. Michael Gove said at the time that 'It will raise standards across the board - and allow our children to compete in the global race." It was henceforth a core academic discipline. Everyone had to get with the program (ming). Then Education Minister, Liz Truss, said it was "one of the essential skills of the 21st Century". These politicians just cannot help themselves. They should know that predicting anything is risky - especially the future. But the lure is too strong: every politician wants to look future-savvy and for some reason, total tech embrace is the only idea they ever have.
Remember when kids were told coding is a ‘job of the future’ and told to join code camps?
Jamie Bartlett on how it is hard to predict the future
jamiejbartlett.substack.com/p/is-coding-...
As someone actually trained in behavioural psychology—unlike most MPs—I can tell you: financial precarity doesn’t “incentivise” sick people to work. It breaks them. Stress worsens health. Fear doesn’t create productivity. It creates collapse. #TakingThePIP
NEW: Inside Gaza’s ‘death traps’ via @FT
GHF’s plan forces hungry Palestinians to trek miles to aid sites, often through the IDF’s active military areas. Hundreds have been killed and thousands injured. This is how…
www.ft.com/content/6c74...
I analysed hundreds of X posts about the Southport riots which received Community Notes. They were full of racism and Islamophobic hate that fuelled far right violence
Yet only 4.6% of the Community Notes we analysed were made public during the riots
Community Notes are not fit for purpose
🚨 New report: Researching the Riots - evaluating #CommunityNotes during the 2024 Southport riots.
Demos research explores how the abject failure of moderation systems left #misinformation and harmful content to spread unchecked during the 2024 #SouthportRiots.
Read here ⬇️
🧵 Just finished reading Upgrading Democracy by @pollycurtis.bsky.social at @demos-uk.bsky.social .
It’s a sharp, hopeful intervention in the face of democratic breakdown, and it aligns in profound ways with the epistemic collapse I’ve been tracking in my own work.
demos.co.uk/wp-content/u...
The UK government has found its welfare reforms may push 250,000 people into relative poverty by 2030
My new report looks at people's experiences of financial hardship and their response to welfare news online. It is critical that decision makers hear their voices
demos.co.uk/research/i-f...
Thanks to @jrf-uk.bsky.social and Grassroots Poverty Action Group for all their support with this work
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In posts on online forums, people described the government’s announcements as “terrifying”, “devastating” and “awful”
MPs vote on the welfare reform bill in the next few weeks. It is vital that the voices of the people most affected by welfare policy are heard
The UK government has found its welfare reforms may push 250,000 people into relative poverty by 2030
My new report looks at people's experiences of financial hardship and their response to welfare news online. It is critical that decision makers hear their voices
demos.co.uk/research/i-f...
