Ben Collins, Nieman Lab

Ben Collins

Nieman Lab

New York, NY, United States

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Recent:
  • Unknown
Past:
  • Nieman Lab
  • The Daily Beast
  • SLAM Magazine
  • Esquire

Past articles by Ben:

We need to learn how to talk to (and about) accidental conspiracists » Nieman Journalism Lab

"We're going to have to learn to create a vocabulary to talk about how their friends fell down the wrong YouTube hole and came out speaking another language." → Read More

Exclusive: Reddit Says It’s Cooperating With Russia Investigations. They’ve Handed Over Zero Documents.

Reddit’s CEO said the ‘front page of the Internet’ is working with Congress to uncover Russian propaganda. But it’s turned over no material to investigators. → Read More

The Russian Troll Tumblr Post So Stupid It Went Viral

None of the troll-farm posts earned as much mockery across the web as Hustle in a Trap’s conspiracy theory about black people being kidnapped and ‘consumed’ for nearly $30 million. → Read More

Reddit Rises Up Against CEO for Hiding Russian Trolls

He ‘fessed up days after The Daily Beast confirmed a Russian troll farm had used his platform, and on the same day that Senate investigators asked for new information from the site → Read More

Russians Used Reddit and Tumblr to Troll the 2016 Election

The internet giants are staying mum after a leak from the Kremlin-backed troll farm confirmed that they were key nodes in the Russian disinformation campaign. → Read More

Exclusive: Secret Documents From Russia’s Election Trolls Leak

An online auction gone awry reveals substantial new details about how the Kremlin-backed troll farm ginned up IRL protests and targeted specific Americans to push their propaganda. → Read More

Someone Is Sending Amazon Sex Toys to Strangers. Amazon Has No Idea How to Stop It.

Getting unsolicited packages from unknown strangers is creepy. Being unable to stop it only makes them creepier. → Read More

Fox News Hypes 'Questionable' Texts From Mark Warner That Republicans Read Months Ago

A week after the Wikileaks founder tried to DM Sean Hannity with “news about Warner,” another Fox star tried to gin up scandal about the Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman → Read More

Border Agents Make Amtrak Riders Prove They’re Citizens

Far from the border, passengers aboard Amtrak trains are now being asked for their status—and Amtrak is not saying whether a rider can be ejected for failure to produce papers. → Read More

Facebook Pushes 'False Flag' Amtrak Conspiracies in Trending Section

Facebook once again surfaced wild conspiracy theories about “commie-lib resisters” and Hillary Clinton staging terror attacks on Amtrak in a part of its Trending News section. → Read More

Julian Assange Thought He Was Messaging Sean Hannity When He Offered ‘News’ on Democrat Investigating Trump-Russia

The head of Wikileaks told @SeanHannity__ to seek ‘other channels’ for information on Sen. Mark Warner. Turns out ‘@SeanHannity__’ was a woman in Texas. → Read More

House Democrats Are Trying to Reveal 1,000 New Russian Troll Accounts

The release of the 1,062 accounts could shine light on how significant Russia’s influence campaign was in the run-up to Donald Trump’s victory. → Read More

HQ, The World’s Most Popular Trivia App, Just Got Hacked by a Bot

‘I haven’t done this for any other games,’ said the developer. ‘This one was just to see how it works.’ → Read More

Source: Twitter Pins #ReleaseTheMemo on Republicans, Not Russia

Despite claims the Kremlin is driving a campaign to disclose an anti-FBI memo, a source says an early in-house analysis concludes the hashtag has been mostly pushed by Americans. → Read More

Too Racist for Russian Propaganda?

But a flagrantly antisemitic post on Russia Insider has RT publicly denouncing a pro-Kremlin blogger. → Read More

MartinLutherKing.Org is Owned by Neo-Nazis

The page by the Neo-Nazi Stormfront calls King a “sexual deviant” with a “propensity for violence,” and is a top result for searches of “Martin Luther King” on Google. → Read More

Mike Cernovich Hounded on Rape Allegation in Reddit AMA

Asked about the many times he has been dangerously wrong in the aftermath of news events and tragedies, he offered no real regrets. → Read More

The Congressional Intern Secretly Vandalizing Wikipedia

‘I mean, I only edit Wikipedia from within the hallowed halls of Congress,’ she told The Daily Beast. → Read More

Top Dem Warns: Firing Robert Mueller Would Be a ‘Red Line’

Sacking the special counsel or leading DOJ officials ‘would have immediate and significant consequences,’ warned the Senate intel committee’s Mark Warner. → Read More

Conspiracy Theorists: Government Released UFO Video to Cover Up Pizzagate and Las Vegas Shooting

The denizens of InfoWars and Reddit’s Conspiracy subreddit were right all along: The government had secret video evidence of a UFO. Now it’s time for another conspiracy. → Read More