J
Jack Poulson
jackpoulson.substack.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2023
Jack Poulson, a former Google researcher with a math PhD, writes investigative reports on surveillance, defense contractors, and propaganda campaigns.
What HN saysHN commenters cite it as the original source for stories on pro-Israel information campaigns and gig-work surveillance, and praise a write-up on the former.
22HN people shared it
10linked it in comments
17stories submitted
363story points
3 months agolast shared
2023people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1The pro-Israel information war5 people · 23 points · first shared 2023 · 4 comments on HN
- 2The covert gig work surveillance3 people · first shared 2025
- 3When DEF CON partners with the U.S. Army2 people · 214 points · first shared 2025 · 297 comments on HN
- 4Lockheed is now tracking phones and walkie-talkies from space2 people · 77 points · first shared 2023 · 14 comments on HN
- 5Figure AI threatens lawsuit to suppress reporting2 people · 6 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 6The dirty tricks of reputation management: from PI to sabotaging Google Search1 people · 14 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 7Israel expanded propaganda contract with Trump's former campaign manager1 people · 7 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
- 8British gov funded a plan for international censorship of critiques of NATO1 people · 6 points · first shared 2024 · 1 comments on HN
- 9AI drone warfare contract 'Project Maven' silently erased from public record1 people · 5 points · first shared 2024 · 2 comments on HN
- 10Google suspends ad account of Influencer used to recruit Iranians for Mossad1 people · 2 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
- 11Head of CIA OSINT emphasizes centrality of Twitter and Telegram surveillance1 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 12SEC acquiring AI agents to monitor phone locations, social media, credit headers1 people · 2 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
- 13Tech companies are becoming increasingly responsive to wiretap demands1 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · 1 comments on HN
- 14Premise Data confirms secret intelligence contracts in court filing (2023)1 people · 1 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 15'The Apps Are Not What They Seem'1 people · 1 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
m_a_g · 2023-12-08
A great write-up related to that:
https://jackpoulson.substack.com/p/inside-the-pro-israel-information
defrost · 2025-10-07
Forget The Grayzone, the story was first broken by:
Dr. Jack Poulson ... completed his PhD in Computational and Applied Mathematics at UT Austin in 2012 before serving as an Assistant Professor of Computational Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech then as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics as Stanford University. After two years as a Research Scientist in Google’s AI division working on recommendation systems and natural language processing, he resigned in protest of the company rolling back its international human rights protections and transitioned (back) into the nonprofit sector. ~ https://tcij.org/person/jack-poulson/
who commented upon
A widely noted dataset of purportedly leaked emails from former Israeli minister of defense Benjamin Gantz appears to show that David Ellison, the new head of media conglomerate Paramount, was coordinating with the recently retired commander-in-chief of the Israeli military on a nascent campaign to sabotage critics of the Israeli military’s activities in Palestine. The previously unreported emails appear to show David Ellison being recruited in December 2015 as a core American supporter of a nascent Israeli government effort which Gantz labeled the “Counter-BDS Initiative.” ~ https://jackpoulson.substack.com/p/david-ellis-benny-gantz-anti-bds-bl…
The questions to be asked are
1/ whether Israel would fund and seek coordination to push back against the BDS movement, and
2/ whether this email trove is…
talm00d-bad · 2023-12-08
there's a lot of z!onists on hacker news
if you want to see why their tribe was kicked out of nations over 200 times, just read the talmud
it states clearly multiple times: non-tribe people are cattle (below and worth much less than the tribe people in every way), to be enslaved once their messiah returns.
its quite disgusting. once you read excerpts from the talmud, you see the (J) ...ewws in a different light and you start to see why so many nations had a problem with them
*** Perfect example of their collusion, nepotism, and group-think---
https://jackpoulson.substack.com/p/inside-the-pro-israel-information
"As the Israel-Hamas war began to heat up in late October, Courtney Carey, a Dublin-based employee of the Israeli website building company Wix, posted the Irish words “SAOIRSE DON PHALAISTIN” -- “Freedom for Palestine” -- on her LinkedIn page.
Within 24 hours of Carey’s LinkedIn post appearing, Alon Ozer, a Miami-based investor, took a screenshot of the post and shared it with a WhatsApp group of more than 300 like-minded investors, tech executives, activists, and at least one senior Israeli government official. Ozer took care to note that Carey worked for Wix.
Wix terminated Carey the following day."
"The WhatsApp group, spreadsheet, and various video discussions offer a rare public glimpse of how Israel and its American allies harness Israel’s influential tech sector and tech diaspora to run cover for the Jewish state as it endures scrutiny over the…
seattle_spring · 2026-03-23
BigTTYGothGF · 2025-12-05
For the record, this is in regards to someone named "Maury Blackman" and the ur-article is here: https://jackpoulson.substack.com/p/the-covert-gig-work-surveillance
fnands · 2025-06-18
I've heard this story so many times, and I really want to know if anyone is actually using this technique to actually make decisions, or is it just basically the "hello world" of satellite data analysis (along with identifying aeroplanes)?
The company that famously touted they were doing it, Orbital Insights [1], almost went bankrupt, and were sold for cents on the dollar [2]
I'm in the EO industry, and it's a use case you hear a lot, but I am not sure anyone is actually doing this profitably.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/gv-backed-orbital-insights-images-from… [2] https://jackpoulson.substack.com/p/exclusive-google-backed-intelligenc…
Ecstatify · 2025-04-12
It’s not only about suppression; it’s about cultivating fear around expressing your opinions. There are groups actively working to have individuals fired for voicing support for Palestine.
For instance, a woman wrote “Freedom for Palestine” in Gaelic on LinkedIn, prompting a group of Israelis in a WhatsApp chat to actively coordinate efforts to get her fired.
The General Manager of Wix, Batsheva (Levine) Moshe, responded in a WhatsApp chat saying:
“Hi yes we know. Being taken care of since it was published. I believe there will be an announcement soon regarding our reaction.”
Wix were orderd to pay €35K for unfair dismissal.
ref(s):
https://jackpoulson.substack.com/p/inside-the-pro-israel-information
https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/israeli-tech-firm-ordered-to-pay-e…
buyucu · 2025-01-26
It would be such a shame if this went viral.
Before today I did not know who Maury Blackman was. I now know that he was arrested for domestic violence in 2021.
Here is the original news report: https://jackpoulson.substack.com/p/the-covert-gig-work-surveillance
Sayrus · 2024-03-16
I think that's the one: https://jackpoulson.substack.com/p/lockheed-is-now-tracking-phones-and
jpollock · 2023-12-25
aa.com.tr - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anadolu_Agency
"is a state-run[1][2] news agency headquartered in Ankara, Turkey.[3]"
The original source might be better?
https://jackpoulson.substack.com/p/inside-the-pro-israel-information