The Bizarre Truth Behind the Biggest Pro-Trump Facebook Hoaxes
I tracked down the Romanian creator of one of the most ubiquitous disinformation sites during the 2016 presidential election.
Tess Townsend
Freelance writer, climate activist, news literacy educator
Bylines: Sac Bee, Sac News & Review, Water Deeply, NY Magazine, Vox, Inc., elsewhere
(Profile image by @cybersoybean)
Read my work
These are some of my favorite bylines. Explore the drop-down menu under the "Clips" tab in the menu to view additional work grouped by theme or beat. You can also visit the Search page to browse articles by publication, date, and other criteria. Ghostwriting clips and references available upon request.
Sacramento council ignored climate activists. Will they listen now that California is burning?
This opinion column calls on the City of Sacramento to declare a climate emergency.
The Pro-Antitrust Congressman From Monopoly-Friendly Silicon Valley
In a 2017 profile of Rep. Ro Khanna for New York Magazine's Intelligencer vertical, I explored the Silicon Valley congressman's positions on antitrust issues.
Vacationing green: Can individual choices help save the planet? Or is the system too rigged?
A personal essay about the challenges and ironies of trying to vacation sustainably.
Get Married, Save Thousands on Tuition
My scoop from 2011 on students getting married in order to qualify for larger financial aid packages.
Google has bigger challenges with Home than just recognizing different voices
Google came late to the voice interface game. This piece from 2017 analyzes challenges for the company in catching up.
Silicon Valley’s rank and file prepare to fight Trump
I wrote about a 2017 "secret meeting" of tech employees trying to organize in anticipation of actions by the Trump administration.
Bus stop hospitality
I shadowed two activist grandmothers as they greeted Central American asylum seekers at a Greyhound bus station.
Snap looks like it’s Google Cloud’s biggest customer
Snap Inc. is one of Google’s biggest cloud customers. The question is, just how big?
