Simon Willison’s Weblog

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4 items tagged “conspiracy”

2025

I still don’t think companies serve you ads based on spying through your microphone

One of my weirder hobbies is trying to convince people that the idea that companies are listening to you through your phone’s microphone and serving you targeted ads is a conspiracy theory that isn’t true. I wrote about this previously: Facebook don’t spy on you through your microphone.

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2020

One academic who interviewed attendees of a flat-earth convention found that, almost to a person, they'd discovered the subculture via YouTube recommendations.

YouTube’s Plot to Silence Conspiracy Theories

# 20th September 2020, 1:27 am / youtube, conspiracy

Why Your Christian Friends and Family Members Are So Easily Fooled by Conspiracy Theories (via) I think the title undersells this: this is a really great piece of writing on conspiracy theories, why people fall for them and why it’s so hard to dig people back out again—regardless of any particular religion, despite being written for a Christian audience.

# 31st July 2020, 6:28 pm / conspiracy

2007

Is Facebook Really Censoring Search When It Suits Them? Apparently MoveOn’s group “Petition: Facebook, stop invading my privacy!” stopped showing up in search results for “privacy”—the search claimed 17 results but suspiciously only showed 16.

# 23rd November 2007, 7:50 am / facebook, censorship, conspiracy, moveon, privacy