Join us on Feb. 17 for a seminar with Robin Nabi of UCSB! Sharing evidence of how digital media content can support desirable outcomes, Robin will highlight the need for better understanding of how to empower users to make media choices that can support their psychological well-being. RSVP ⤵️

@technologyreview.com profiled a new study by TIP Center Postdoctoral Scholar Matt DeVerna and co-authors examining the generative #AI platform Civitai and its “Bounties” feature, which allows users to commission the generation of content in exchange for payment.

Join us today at noon PT, in person or online!

🚨New WP: Can an AI voter guide (grounded in information from a nonpartisan, fact-checked source) help voters’ decision making? 🚨 We built and evaluated an LLM-based chatbot that provided voting info in CA & TX (N=2,474) right before the 2024 election. 🧵👇

Is #blockchain technology delivering on its promise to redistribute authority away from centralized institutions? A forthcoming report by @flogsell.bsky.social analyzes the legal and regulatory challenges posed by decentralized blockchain systems.

A new paper by Tech Impact and Policy Center Postdoctoral Fellow Angela Lee, Director Jeff Hancock, and co-authors explores the public perception of #AI and how it informs people’s #trust and willingness to adopt AI technologies. Read via Communications Psychology ⤵️

📢 Call for proposals for #TSRConf 2026 📢 Mark your calendars! The Trust and Safety Research Conference returns on October 1–2, 2026, bringing together 500+ professionals from academia, industry, civil society, and government to tackle the most pressing questions in #TrustAndSafety research.

Join us on February 10 to explore one of the key questions around tech impact and policy in today’s K-12 schools: the educational effects of #SchoolCellphoneBans. Guilherme Lichand will present evidence that phone restrictions in schools *causally* boost K–12 learning outcomes. Details & RSVP ⤵️

Will #AI replace human workers or will it empower them? Join us for a talk by @robreich.bsky.social, who will examine the distinction between #automation & #augmentation and discuss how design choices, policy decisions, and adoption patterns will determine AI's effects on labor and society. RSVP ⤵️

The Stanford Report profiled the Empowering Diverse Digital Citizens research project, which is spearheaded by Tech Impact and Policy Center Director Jeff Hancock and supported by @stanfordimpactlabs.bsky.social. #AILiteracy #DigitalLiteracy

“That’s going to be the big challenge, is that for a while people are really going to not trust things they see in digital spaces.” Jeff Hancock spoke with NBC News about the shifting dynamics of trust and media literacy as deepfakes and other AI-generated images flood digital ecosystems. Read ⤵️

Is making more time and space for being *human* the key to making #AI work in the workplace? In a follow-up to their groundbreaking article on AI #workslop, Jeff Hancock & co-authors share insight on what's driving the rise in workslop—and how organizational leaders can prevent it. Read @hbr.org ⤵️

Starting soon—join us online! 👉 stanford.io/49ott0x

How can we shift from seeing #AI as a cheating tool to a pedagogical partner that fosters creativity, critical thinking, and personalization? Join us in person or online for the next talk in our #WinterSeminarSeries, featuring Peter Norvig of @stanfordhai.bsky.social! RSVP ⤵️ stanford.io/49ott0x

Next was an excellent talk by Jon Krosnick on the history of tech-enabled survey research at @techimpactpolicy.bsky.social. I loved the review of industry and academia's fraught relationship with honestly communicating methodological limits. Highly recommend www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y4B... (7/8)

In light of Grok's ongoing deepfake nude scandal, Riana Pfefferkorn of @stanfordhai.bsky.social wrote an op-ed for @nytopinion.nytimes.com sharing research she published with Tech Impact and Policy Center last year that found legal risk is impeding AI companies from better safeguarding their models.

Coming up today at 12PM PT — join us!

Join us on Tuesday for the launch of our #WinterSeminarSeries! Award-winning Stanford professor, research psychologist, and public opinion expert Jon A. Krosnick will discuss the role of #SurveyResearch in modern life and its evolution in the digital era. RSVP: stanford.io/4qHo626

Join us today at 12pm PT as our #FallSeminarSeries wraps up with a discussion on school smartphone bans. ⤵️

@robbwiller.bsky.social, Director of our #AI and the Future of #SocialScience program, spoke with the Stanford Report about his recent research showing that AI-generated political messages can be as persuasive as those developed by humans. Learn more ⤵️

What does the early evidence tell us about school #SmartphoneBans? Don’t miss the final seminar in our fall series, featuring Hunt Allcott, professor at @stanforddoerr.bsky.social. RSVP to join us in person or online on Tuesday, December 2! 🔗 stanford.io/47Sb7o3

One week left! Submit your paper for the Journal of Online Trust & Safety’s Spring 2026 general issue. ⤵️ 🗓 Key Dates ➤ Peer-reviewed research articles due: December 1, 2025 ➤ Commentaries due: March 1, 2026 ➤ Publication date: April 2026 👉 Submit Your Paper bit.ly/4oi8b97 #JOTS #TrustAndSafety

The Tech Impact and Policy Center is proud to celebrate Dr. Angela Lee, who successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, “Beyond the Digital Town Square: Identifying and Correcting Social Media Distortion Effects,” last week! 🎉

Read about our workshop on #AICompanions bringing together academic researchers, civil society experts, and members of industry to consider guidelines for the responsible deployment of #AI roleplaying chatbots and companions. ⤵️

I gave a talk at Stanford @techimpactpolicy.bsky.social on Tuesday, about my book "The Secret Life of Data" (written w @jesgilbert.bsky.social). Check it out here:

Many social media users are stuck in a social trap: they would prefer not to use social media but could only do so if others stopped using it too. Join us to hear from Leonardo Bursztyn about his research on the #SocialMediaTrap and potential tools to address it. 🎟️ stanford.io/4qWz05d

Cannot wait to meet with the Stanford folks to discuss “The Secret Life of Data"

Join us on Tuesday, November 11 for a seminar with @aramsinn.bsky.social, co-author of "The Secret Life of Data," to explore the unpredictable and often surprising ways in which data surveillance, #AI, and algorithms impact our culture and society. 🎟️ RSVP: stanford.io/3X6b8hM

New to the #TIPCenter team, 2025-26 Predoctoral Researcher Yuewen Yang spoke with us about her work, her journey into the world of Human-Computer Interaction, and what she hopes to accomplish through her research. Read the interview ⤵️ #MeetOurScholars

In the first in a series of posts about data scraping & researcher rights under the EU’s #DigitalServicesAct, Director of Platform Regulation @daphnek.bsky.social outlines who can take advantage of the DSA’s protections, comparing three categories of researchers. Read @techpolicypress.bsky.social ⤵️

Why do older adults engage more with #misinformation online, even when they often identify falsehoods correctly in surveys? In our next #FallSeminarSeries talk, @benlyons.bsky.social of the University of Utah will investigate that paradox. RSVP to join us in person or online on Tuesday, Nov. 4!

My latest with @techpolicypress.bsky.social piece on a key theme from the @techimpactpolicy.bsky.social's Trust and Research Conference. Includes @dwillner.bsky.social's keynote and presentations from @gligoric.bsky.social, @thejusticecollab.bsky.social's Matthew Katsaros and more.

Here is the first piece in a series of short articles I'm doing about the DSA and researcher access to publicly available information. It focuses on categories of researchers under the DSA, and what data they are each authorized to use. 1/ verfassungsblog.de/dsa-platform...

The European Commission just announced that, under the new DSA rules, researchers will gain access to data from large online platforms. Here's Daphne Keller's take on what the rules have said thus far and what it means for platform accountability research in Europe.

Join us today at 12PM PT! 👉 stanford.io/3WQP9v6

One week left! Submit your abstract for the #JOTS special issue on Digital Intersectionality and Marginalization in the #MajorityWorld. 🗓️ Deadline: October 31, 2025 🔗 Learn more: bit.ly/4mZDjtb #TrustAndSafety

“It could mean that there might not be as much demand for this as we think because people actually like seeing authentic, real images of real people.” Director Jeff Hancock spoke with @wired.com about how the #AI video app #Sora fits into the current social media landscape.

Are today’s #EdTech policymakers overlooking student expertise and civic interests? Join us in person or online on Tuesday, October 28 for a seminar with @anterobot.bsky.social, who will examine current ed-tech policymaking around school buses, cell phones and generative #AI. 👉 stanford.io/3WQP9v6

I am forgetful about it self-promotion, so dropping a last minute link to note that I’m giving a talk Berkman Klein today. Come check it out if you’re free, or catch the recording later: cyber.harvard.edu/events/autom...

Pre-Doctoral Fellow Zac Smith-Russack, one of the newest members of the TIP Center team, spoke with us about his background in public health, his work on the Australian social media minimum age legislation evaluation, and what he does when he’s not at work digging into data. #MeetOurScholars

Join us today at Stanford or online! RSVP: stanford.io/43nrplQ

Are you the master of your digital life, or its slave? In our first #FallSeminarSeries talk, leading scholar Mariek Vanden Abeele tackled this central paradox of our "always on" society, revealing how our quest for #DigitalWellbeing is a complex interplay of forces. Watch the full video 🎥

Join us on Tuesday, October 21 for a #FallSeminarSeries talk by David Markowitz, who will draw on #NLP research to discuss how language patterns reveal underlying values in legacy and predict collective action, and how #AI can make science more accessible. RSVP: https://stanford.io/43nrplQ

'Workslop' is on the rise, and it's starting to cause serious issues with productivity. Researchers from @techimpactpolicy.bsky.social and Betterup Labs look at why this is happening and what can be done to keep poorly applied AI from running amok in the workplace. ow.ly/PFp550XbQQl

📢 Call for Proposals: #JOTS Special Issue on Digital Intersectionality and Marginalization in the Majority World 📢 We invite original research papers exploring #TrustAndSafety topics within the #MajorityWorld context. Learn more and submit your abstracts by October 31. 🗓️ 🔗 bit.ly/4mZDjtb

Join us today at 12PM PT for a talk by Fred Turner, who will argue that the recent moves of Silicon Valley companies and CEOs from California to Texas reflect a wider embrace of a set of beliefs anchored in the history of the Lone Star State: the Texas Ideology. Details & RSVP: stanford.io/47dkpt9

Coming up today at 12PM Pacific—join us in person or online! 🔗 stanford.io/3ISmlPu

Why and how should we build an infrastructure for #LocalNews? Join us on Tuesday, October 7 for a seminar with Cheryl Phillips of #BigLocalNews, a data-sharing platform and computational collaborative in support of local journalism. RSVP to join us at Stanford or online! 🔗 stanford.io/3ISmlPu

Join us today at 12PM PT! 🔗 stanford.io/4nT9qfd

I've been looking forward to this panel on AI companions with @meetalijain.bsky.social all day. This one is going to be spicy 🔥 #TSRConf