Eric Liu: The details of this are surprising to a lot of people just because it seems like such a mismatch. Usually when you have a leak of military intelligence, it's coming from someone with an axe to grind or a point to prove. And it just seems so strange that it emerged in this discord chat Thugshaker central where these gamers were hanging out trading insults and memes. Liu: So think of it as like a more intimate group chat, I guess you could say rather than like, you know, a discord server,. which makes it sound like it's a lot more official than it really was.
Aric Toler untangles the web of teens, gamers and memes at the heart of the latest intelligence scandal.
Then, an update on Twitter — where things have gone from bad to worse.
Plus: How A.I. is bringing us closer to “Westworld.”
On today’s episode:
Aric Toler is the director of research and training at Bellingcat, the Dutch investigative site. He worked with journalists at The New York Times to identify the man who allegedly leaked top secret documents on Discord, a social media chat platform.
Twitter took steps to block Substack newsletters from circulating on the platform after Substack, a publishing start-up, started a Twitter-like service.