This paper benefitted enormously from the very involved and insightful editorial team @nature.com, led by @meharpist.bsky.social.

1/ Excited to report we have a new paper out @nature.com today! The bottom line: training data for LLMs does not just fall from the sky - it is created in the context of existing social political institutions - and that has consequences for LLM output. nature.com/articles/s41...

New in Nature: LLMs give "the party line" in the languages of authoritarian regimes. This works when they control the media, which feeds pretraining data. We show more state control over the media means less critical LLMs. 6 studies spanning 38 languages & 13 models. Details ↓

I’m excited to share a new paper in Nature that shows how large language models launder the strategic rhetoric of authoritarian states. Paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... A thread.

New study out in Nature Human Behaviour: 37 million US users were exposed to deceptive networks on Facebook & 3 million on Instagram during the 2020 elections—roughly 15% and 2% of active users. 🧵

Orban concedes in Hungary. Good reminder that incumbents can lose even in competitive authoritarian regimes if there is enough a wave of popular support for the opposition. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/w...

🚨New paper alert🚨 What happens when a polarized democracy bans a social media platform? New work with @cbarrie.bsky.social, Molly Roberts, Chris Schwarz, and @jatucker.bsky.social. We study Brazil's 2024 ban on X and find it created what we define as a "partisan sorting ratchet ." 1/

I thought this was an interesting and balanced contribution to the AI discussion here. As an old dog trying to learn the new tricks, let me make a few observations from my own experience using Claude (not Claude code, just the chatbot). 🧵

Are you a social scientist who has been hearing about Claude Code but hasn't checked it out yet? Or are you a social scientist who has been playing with Claude Code and has been wondering what it means for the future of social science research? www.brookings.edu/articles/the... 1/

Thoughtful piece from @jatucker.bsky.social and @solmg.bsky.social about agentic AI and social science.

Brookings article: www.brookings.edu/articles/6-p... Website and full list of signatories: www.ascona-principles.org

Digital platforms shape markets and public debate at a scale that would have been hard to imagine a decade ago. At the same time, independent researchers face obstacles when trying to study them. As a result, much of the digital economy remains difficult to examine from the outside.

Was excited to get a chance to talk about the TikTokification of social media in recent years this morning on @cnbc.com's Squawk Box. Full clip available here: www.cnbc.com/video/2026/0...

It doesn’t say it as directly, but at its core all of this stuff is Calhounism and Dred Scott: An assertion that the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were conceived in purely racial terms and to include exclusively the white race.

Honored to be invited to contribute to the NYU Law @democracyproject.bsky.social "100 ideas" series. democracyproject.org/posts/embrac...

🌐 📲 With international collaborators, the Observatory’s director @andreucasas.bsky.social revisited recent “TikTok censorship” claims after the TikTok USDS takeover ➡️ Detailed information about the analysis available: goodauthority.org/news/was-the... 🧵[1/5]

Was TikTok blocking certain political posts last week? We investigated & found no systematic evidence of political censorship on TT post-restructuring at this point. A server outage better explains the data. But the story isn't over, and platforms need to provide the public more transparency.

Last week the story was that TikTok censored anti-Trump/ICE/Pretti videos after the U.S. ownership change. We investigated with a large set of US TikTok data and found some interesting results, short thread...

⬇️ Please repost in your networks, thank you! @csmapnyu.org @jatucker.bsky.social @solmg.bsky.social @henryhenryhenry.com @benansell.bsky.social @nachristakis.bsky.social @dingdingpeng.the100.ci @claesdevreese.bsky.social @dgrand.bsky.social @ecpr.bsky.social @fil.bsky.social

CSMaP is now the Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics (CSMAP). Our research has expanded beyond social media to include digital media more broadly—especially generative AI and large language models and their role in politics and public life. Learn more at csmapnyu.org

We acknowledge that no one has the bandwidth for this, but if it helps: - It’s ‘voilà,’ not ‘wallah!’ - It’s ‘a lot,’ not ‘alot.’ - It’s ‘further ado,’ not ‘farther adieu.’ - It’s ‘flesh out,’ not ‘flush out.’ - It’s ‘sneak peek,’ not ‘sneak peak.’ No worries if not!!!

Is there anyone out there who actually likes the newest version of Overleaf with the comments to the left of the text? And the panel where you now have to toggle between comments and the file tree?

Is Joe Rogan really just a voice of the right? Our new @csmapnyu.org piece for @goodauth.bsky.social shows he’s just as much a space for the left and the center, too. A look inside today’s surprisingly complicated podcast information ecosystem. 🎙️ goodauthority.org/news/podcast...

Check out our newest piece on @goodauth.bsky.social! Especially if you are someone who thinks the left needs a "Joe Rogan of the left". Exciting analysis from our new podcast dataset👇. Huge kudos to project leads @melinamuch.bsky.social & Kylan Rutherford!

@jennyallen.bsky.social and @jatucker.bsky.social add a fantastic Perspective piece on the importance of platform-independent experiments on social media's impact on us: science.org/doi/10.1126/... Strongly agree!

Joint work with @tiziano.bsky.social, @jiachenyan.bsky.social, Jeff Hancock, Jeanne Tsai, @mbernst.bsky.social Link: doi.org/10.1126/scie... And a very thoughtful perspective by @jennyallen.bsky.social and @jatucker.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1126/scie... /1

New in Science: Reranking partisan animosity in algorithmic social media feeds alters affective polarization www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Key from @jennyallen.bsky.social @jatucker.bsky.social: (1) important new paradigm (2) but not clear why results differ www.science.org/doi/full/10....

As generative AI becomes more accessible, synthetic political images are reshaping how people see and interpret events. One question remains: Do AI labels help the public navigate this environment? Our new preprint, It Works When It Works, tests exactly that. 🔗 osf.io/preprints/so...

Two happy updates: 🎓 Defended my PhD at @eui-sps.bsky.social. Grateful to committee @eliasdinas.bsky.social, Dominik Hangartner, @jatucker.bsky.social, and to my supervisor @mgoldenprof.bsky.social! 🇺🇸 Now in Palo Alto, starting my postdoc at Stanford CDDRL @stanfordcddrl.bsky.social

So incredibly proud of my immensely talented daughter, who got a short story published! whatiwanted.org/tucker.html

1/ 🚨 What if intro political science textbooks were better and cheaper? We built one: ✅ $1/chapter ✅ Modular & flexible ✅ Written by top scholars ✅ Full (free!) instructor resources 🌐 www.politicsexperiment.com Help us spread the word! @rudalev.bsky.social & I are the editors!

#OpenAccess from @jepsjournal.bsky.social - How Language Shapes Belief in Misinformation: A Study Among Multilinguals in #Ukraine - cup.org/4myrgDM - @aaronerlich.bsky.social, @kevinaslett.bsky.social, Sarah Graham & @jatucker.bsky.social #FirstView

AAUP President Todd Wolfson denounces planned academic cuts at the University of Oregon, laying out several concerns. @uauoregon.bsky.social 🧵

Fascinating work from @jatucker.bsky.social and @csmapnyu.org looking at the effect of labeling images as AI on people’s beliefs about the provenance + veracity of that image. They also explore the implications of AI images not being labeled after seeing labeled images #PaCSS2025 #polnet2025

📣Out on #FirstView 📣 In "When Does Fame Not Matter?" @maarja.bsky.social, Stiene Praet, Sebastian Adrian Popa, @yannistheocharis.bsky.social, Pablo Barberá, @zoltanfazekas.bsky.social & @jatucker.bsky.social conduct a cross-national study on online incivility. polisky gendersky buff.ly/vkcPI2Y

1/ Tired of overpriced political science textbooks? We were too. So we built A Political Science Experiment—a low-cost, high-quality, modular text for intro and comparative courses - edited by me and @rudalev.bsky.social 💻 All digital 📘 Just $1 per chapter 🌐 www.politicsexperiment.com #HigherEd

1/ Tired of overpriced political science textbooks? We were too. So we built A Political Science Experiment—a low-cost, high-quality, modular text for intro and comparative courses - edited by me and @rudalev.bsky.social 💻 All digital 📘 Just $1 per chapter 🌐 www.politicsexperiment.com #HigherEd

‪@tiagoventura.bsky.social‬ + CDS-affiliated Jonathan Nagler & @jatucker.bsky.social tested a WhatsApp deactivation during Brazil’s 2022 election—blocking auto-downloads of images & videos reduced misinformation recall by ~0.4σ, but didn't change beliefs or polarization. www.nyu.edu/about/news-p...

It was an honor and privilege to be part of this project. If you are teaching introductory courses in political science or any undergraduate courses, this is the textbook for you!

Congratulations to Dr. David McGrath!!

My textbook with Gwen Sharp and Patrick Sharkey is on its third edition. This fall our team is launching a Political Science book, edited by Josh Tucker and @rudalev.bsky.social Thrilled to have this out in the world! Check it out (sociologists might find some of the chapters useful for teaching)

1/ 🚨 What if intro political science textbooks were better and cheaper? We built one: ✅ $1/chapter ✅ Modular & flexible ✅ Written by top scholars ✅ Full (free!) instructor resources 🌐 www.politicsexperiment.com Help us spread the word! @rudalev.bsky.social & I are the editors!

Congrats to the authors @tiagoventura.bsky.social, @rmajumdar.bsky.social, Jonathan Nagler, and @jatucker.bsky.social. The paper, which is accepted for publication at @The_JOP, can be found here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....

🔠Labeling multimodal social media data is costly. ➡H Chen, J Bisbee @jatucker.bsky.social & J Nagler propose five metrics to assess the costs/benefits of multimodal versus text only labeling, illustrated through a tweet labeling experiment www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

🧵1/ 🚨 A new kind of political science textbook has arrived—and it might just disrupt the entire textbook industry. It’s called A Political Science Experiment, and here’s why you should care. 👇 🔗 politicsexperiment.com

So excited to see this article in print! Incredibly proud of all the amazing work done on this article by my incredible co-authors, but extra special shout out to @hwaight.bsky.social & @solmg.bsky.social, co-first authors on the piece. See the 🧵 👇

I am thrilled to share a new article in Sociological Methods & Research, “Quantifying Narrative Similarity Across Languages”. My co-first author Sol Messing and our collaborators developed a new approach to measuring “narrative similarity” between texts: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The consequences of JCPOA withdrawal in graph form www.ft.com/content/193f...

“I think people should know that research that they probably would support is being canceled,” said Eden Tanner, a chemist at the University of Mississippi... "“I would like to cure brain cancer,” Dr. Tanner said. “I think that's not particularly controversial.”