Last year on this day we won a hackathon to uncover the use of AI in political campaigns. Since then we tracked AI content during two elections and more are in planning :)

Last summer I was knocked out with Covid and some friends and I cooked up an AI powered online party-game idea and you can now play it too! 🎰 Prompt Roulette 🎰 You copy-paste a prompt into an LLM, it generates a game, and your job is to beat it. Try it out here: favstats.github.io/prompt_roule...

I am quoted in @euobserver.com about the self-imposed Meta political ad ban and why ads are not gone despite the “ban”.

Happening now! :) 👉 Register here to join: lnkd.in/eUZZDCk4

I posted it here before, but @favstats.eu and I wrote an entry about LLMs in the encyclopedia below 👇 Final version is out now at www.elgaronline.com/display/book... Or read the preprint: doi.org/10.31219/osf...

Here is the chapter by @favstats.eu and me 😃 www.elgaronline.com/display/book...

After 3 years and 5,322 emails (and counting) our Encyclopedia of Political Communication is finally out at @elgarpublishing.bsky.social 📚 Three volumes ⭐ 431 entries 🎓 581 wonderful authors from across the world A very short 🧵

The persuasive impact of AI chatbots on voters. The effects found are large but likely also an effect of the design. Regardless, AI is part of election campaigns now. My comments include reference to recent @algosoc.org data @ernesto-deleon.com @favstats.eu www.newscientist.com/article/2507...

A critique of our (w/ @bertous.bsky.social) paper “Instrumentally inclusive” has just been published. Our response is under review (see below on process) but we feel obliged to share our draft for balance since the comment has been released without the response. osf.io/rn6h3/files/...

We’ve assembled a stellar line-up of scholars to discuss how digital trace data donations can help us study elections across a wide variety of platforms and contexts! @claesdevreese.bsky.social @favstats.eu @algosoc.org Register here and join: lnkd.in/eUZZDCk4

The Swedish Social Democrats are being criticized for a website which looks like general information website about politics. But it is run by a media company that is owned by the Social Democrats. This is stated in the About Us page only. www.politikkollen.se

no.

Meta’s “political ad ban” in action: a Nazi ad calling for protest & Nazi symbols is classified as not political & still running (has been for days). The consequences of the self-imposed ban were clear from the start: bad actors continue, Meta profits, and those following the rules are punished.

“België breekt met alle Europese tendensen. [...] Over het algemeen is het zo dat Europese partijen relatief weinig geld uitgeven. Ook zien we dat vooral centrumpartijen gretig gebruikmaken van Meta-advertenties. In België is exact het omgekeerde het geval.” @favstats.eu apache.be/2025/11/25/b...

Voor wie de huidige stand van zaken in politiek digitaal adverteren wil weten: een reeks artikels van internationaal niveau bij @apache.be. Onder de indruk dat ze niet alleen @favstats.eu konden strikken, maar ook Clare O’Donoghue Velikić voor input. apache.be/2025/11/24/v...

A short thread of observations using Max Andrew's tool to explore the network of relationships revealed in the Epstein estate email cache. @thatsjustlikeyouropinionman.com 🧵 1. There is a tight inner circle, densely connected. Trump is in the near outer rim. epstein-doc-explorer-1.onrender.com

Any takes on why the Epstein files are triggering such a strong political backlash against Trump, when the vast majority of other scandals didn’t?

After many months work, we launched a major new version of our Trends political ad tracking platform this morning. Take a look (and let us know your feedback - we'd love to hear from you): trends.whotargets.me/reports

Fabulous online seminar organized by @algosoc.org Algorithmic Effects on #Elections: Using Social Media Data Donations to Study Elections 🗓️ Fri 12 Dec, 14:00–15:30 CET @ernesto-deleon.com @favstats.eu @antmandan.bsky.social @simonchauchard.bsky.social Registration ⬇️ algosoc.org/events/algos...

"No" Ned said with sadness in his voice. "Now it ends.'

🎯 @favstats.eu about Meta / Google's EU political advertising ban: "the self-imposed political ad ban is a complete failure of platform responsibility that will make our elections less transparent, less fair, and more vulnerable to the whims of algorithms" www.techpolicy.press/what-data-re...

Thank you @techpolicypress.bsky.social and @ramshajahangir.bsky.social for giving me the space to rant about the “end” of political advertising on social media in the EU!

I took an Uber with another furry from the con to the airport and I exited there, while he stayed for another stop. The driver made him pay additional 150€ to the 70€ Uber trip to exit the car and Uber is not understanding the issue here.

"The week that AI hit Europe’s elections" With insights from @claesdevreese.bsky.social, @favstats.eu & yours truly! Thanks to @pieterhaeck.bsky.social & @evahartog.bsky.social.

“In a study of some 20,000 election-related posts in the Netherlands, researchers [..] found that over 400 posts were AI-generated. The party of far-right leader Geert Wilders, the Party for Freedom (PVV), came out on top in its use of AI.” www.politico.eu/article/elec...

From far-right AI imagery to AI chatbots offering vote advice. Weighing in in @politico.eu on the role of AI in the Dutch elections with great colleagues @favstats.eu and @hannescools.bsky.social www.politico.eu/article/elec...

Thanks for having us, it was the perfect way to spend the election night!

Excitement, tension, bingo and great insights from my fellow PolComm colleagues - think that describes our election event in CREA quite well. Great way to count down to the exitpolls! @markboukes.bsky.social @favstats.eu @ulrikeklinger.bsky.social @lindabomm.bsky.social @corinnaoschatz.bsky.social

Today is the day 🎁 The #dsa regime for researchers to get access to platform data to study societal impact and risks starts TODAY. This has been a loooooong time coming. And the proof of the pudding will be in the eating … #dataaccess #commsky digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/new-...

I have always exaggerated with dashboards, but this 🇳🇱 Dutch election campaign I did not make 1, I did not make 2, but I made 3 dashboards 😅 1. tracking the use of AI (campaigntracker.nl/en) 2. tracking campaign spending (lnkd.in/eUKgeV9V) 3. tracking targeting on Meta (lnkd.in/eXrp454E) #tk2025

584 AI posts tijdens de Nederlandse verkiezingscampagne, met 60% van verrechts, en met name op Facebook.

🚨 CampAIgn Tracker Update: we now identify 584 AI posts found in our campaign monitoring. 60% from far-right accounts, mainly PVV MPs' "Geen Aangifte" page (now, ironically, facing charges). We find: AI was more succesful on Facebook but flopped elsewhere. #tk2025 🇬🇧: campaigntracker.nl/en

Check out Campaign Tracker NL, looking at the use of AI in the Dutch election campaign (and here are some particularly egregious examples from Geert Wilders' PVV and aligned pages) www.campaigntracker.nl/explore/

As a scholar I rarely offer electoral guidance. But today I do: DO NOT USE AI CHATBOTS AS YOUR VOTE ADVICE APPLICATION AHEAD OF (THE DUTCH) ELECTIONS Full of errors, bias and lack of transparency. @ernesto-deleon.com @favstats.eu @theoaraujo.bsky.social and🙋unpack why algosoc.org/results/1-in...

🤖 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓 𝐃𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐀𝐈𝐠𝐧 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫 🇳🇱 Less than one week before the Dutch elections, @meinungsfuehrer.bsky.social & I looked at over 20k posts to reveal patterns in the usage of AI-generated visuals across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X. #tk2025 🧵Thread

Guess who is on national TV tonight

I think this Facebook page is a terrifying case study in how gen AI slop has enabled the creation of an automated hate machine, churning out endless caricatures of made-up enemies, immigrants and politicians, optimized for engagement. In many ways, it embodied the very nightmare many of us feared.

The Facebook page behind these images was the most active spreader of political AI content, posting multiple times a day and becoming the most engaged-with pages on Facebook among all those we track. Even surpassing Geert Wilders in total engagement during October. The page has now been deleted.

🇳🇱 Track political ad spending in the Netherlands! My new dashboard visualizes €9M+ in campaign spending for #TK2025. 👉 favstats.github.io/reclamer/ Powered by my -also new- {reclamer} #rstats package to retrieve ad spending on traditional media sources: github.com/favstats/rec...

Elections in the Netherlands On social media, no other top candidate even approaches the dominance of radical right PVV leader Geert Wilders. Even taking into account how much longer he's been around, it's an alarming chasm. (And if Baudet still headed the extremist FvD list, he'd easily be second)

🤖 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓 𝐃𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐀𝐈𝐠𝐧 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫 🇳🇱 Less than one week before the Dutch elections, @meinungsfuehrer.bsky.social & I looked at over 20k posts to reveal patterns in the usage of AI-generated visuals across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X. #tk2025 🧵Thread

I was interviewed by @winfriedbaijens.bsky.social on @nieuws.nos.nl @nporadio1.bsky.social Met het Oog op Morgen, to talk about my research on voting behaviour of Muslims. It was such a pleasure to be there again!

Spoke to @bloomberg.com about how the decision to halt political advertising across the EU by Meta and Google is likely to reshape the campaign landscape, especially for the upcoming Dutch election. 🔗 Read the full Bloomberg article here (gift link): www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

As I have been writing slides with quarto and reveal.js I found myself writing similar styling code. I have finally gotten myself together and extracted some of those classes out into an Quarto extension. Heavily inspired by tailwindcss github.com/EmilHvitfeld...

Chatbots offer explicit vote advice ahead of elections. A simple prompt leads to receiving an advice for the Dutch October 29 elections ⬇️ The Dutch Data Protection Authority concluded: AI chatbots are not transparent, they are not auditable, and providers should prevent use as vote advice.

Met link naar rapport www.autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl/actueel/ap-w...

It's probably supposed to be AI-generated Pim Fortuyn but looks like Jeff Bezos to me.

A few notes on recent UK political ad spending: - Tory spend is high post-conference (i.e. over the last week), but lower than through the late summer - Reform spending has dropped off after a busy summer - Labour has YouTube to itself - Labour spends nearly 2x more than others

💡 Hoe kijken politieke partijen aan tegen onderzoek, onderwijs en internationalisering? In aanloop naar de TK verkiezingen van 2025 analyseerden we met De Jonge Akademie de verkiezingsprogramma’s van alle deelnemende partijen. 👉 Bekijk het Dashboard hier: dejongeakademie.nl/publicaties/...