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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.

Additional reading:

• A 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard was arrested for his alleged role in the leak of military intelligence on Discord.

• A Discord member shared details with The Washington Post about how the hundreds of pages of classified material were leaked.

• Twitter took steps to block Substack newsletters from circulating on the platform after Substack, a publishing start-up, started a Twitter-like service.

• NPR announced it was suspending all use of Twitter.

• Researchers at Stanford used generative A.I. agents to simulate human behavior.

Credits

“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton and produced by Davis Land and Rachel Cohn. The show is edited by Jen Poyant. Engineering by Alyssa Moxley and original music by Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop, Marion Lozano, Sophia Lanman and Rowan Niemisto. Fact-checking by Caitlin Love.

Special thanks to Paula Szuchman, Nell Gallogly, Kate LoPresti, Pui-Wing Tam and Jeffrey Miranda.