🚨 New working paper 🚨 Can LLMs with reasoning + web search reliably fact-check political claims? We evaluated 15 models from OpenAI, Google, Meta, and DeepSeek on 6,000+ PolitiFact claims (2007–2024). Short answer: Not reliably—unless you give them curated evidence. arxiv.org/abs/2511.18749

🌍 Are you new to @icwsm.bsky.social or JQD:DM and based in a low- or middle-income country? 💡 Submit a project idea, get matched with a mentor, present virtually at ICWSM'26, and prepare a submission for Sept 2026! 📢 Call icwsm.org/2026/submit.... 🚀 Apply by Jan 15 forms.gle/A9GkJboP7qi3...

𝗗𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝘁𝘀 & 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗮𝘁𝘇 will give their first-ever 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗸𝗲𝘆𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲 at NetSci 2026! Their groundbreaking work has shaped how we understand networks, & this session will be a highlight of NetSci’s 20th anniversary. Call for abstracts: tinyurl.com/3tbj2v83 Call for satellites: tinyurl.com/42sru6kz

ICYMI, our DomainDemo dataset, which describes how different demographic groups share domains on Twitter, is now available to download! 📄 Data descriptor: doi.org/10.1038/s415... 📈 Interactive app to explore the data: domaindemo.info 💽 Dataset: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We are excited to share that this paper has been published in Scientific Data. The whole dataset is now available to download. Please see the paper for details! Link: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Now live: “Declining information quality under new platform governance” by Burak Özturan, Alexi Quintana-Mathé, Nir Grinberg, Katherine Ognyanova, and David Lazer. misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/decl...

Wrote a new blog post on my experience using Claude Code to do data analysis with lessons I learned. I think it's a paradigm shift. Link: open.substack.com/pub/yang3kc/...

Great report on the worldwide news landscape 2025. reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news...

An astronomical theme is emerging for this great #ica25 session as I'm also looking forward to presenting one of the new tools from our own @internetobservatory.org.au. Please come and join us this afternoon as we chart the constellations of public communication 🔭🌠. Note this is in the GRAND Hyatt

Our introduction to the National Internet Observatory, a platform for collecting and sharing online activity data designed for researchers, is happening this afternoon at #ica25

Attending #ICA this week. Let’s catch up 😀

A command I found particularly useful in data analysis: data_frame.sample(10). Repeat it a few times, and you can get a sense of what's in your data frame.

Search Google AI model directly: google.com/search?q={qu... . Key is the "udm=50" part, not sure what it means.

The age of mass data access is gone with the sunset of major social media APIs. DSA-mandated data access programs sparked optimism, but do they provide adequate data access? We conducted a survey (180) + interview (19) study & the preprint is available on arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2505.09877

[New WP] With the closure of major social media APIs and the new data access mandates under DSA, we enter what we call the "post-post-API" era. But have researchers obtained the data they need? Our recent survey (180) + interview (19) study suggests a stark reality. 🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2505.09877 1/3

We will be at #WebSci2025 next Tuesday to give a thorough introduction to NIO. Come and check it out if you are interested!

I'm releasing the v2.0 version of my guide on using LLM (mainly OpenAI models) for computational social science tasks. Major changes: - Adopt the new Responses API. - Better handling of the structured output. Link: github.com/yang3kc/llm_... Please star if you find it useful~

UPDATE: We have data on >1000 terminated #NSF grants at grant-watch.us. Thanks to all who have been contributing data the past few days. We've also added a "Reports" section with some analyses. For NSF, we see that the STEM education directorate has been absolutely pummeled.

Paper alert! 🚨 We investigate Bluesky’s journey from an invitation only platform with a few thousands of users to reaching 30 million users in terms of user activity and network growth. 📄 Full paper: arxiv.org/abs/2504.12902 💻 Codes: github.com/osome-iu/ris... 💾 Dataset: zenodo.org/records/1506...

Vibe paper writing

🚨Extended CySoc deadline is tomorrow! 🚨 Get your submissions in while you still can and join us at @icwsm.bsky.social!

📣 Deadline is approaching fast, last two days.. We are looking forward to your submissions to #CySoc2025 Workshop and sharing it with our research community! 📅 Deadline: April 10, AoE #CyberSocialThreats #AIforSocialGood #ICWSM2025

📢 Deadline Extended for submissions to #CySoc2025 to ensure broader participation. 💡Share your research on generative AI, online safety, harms and threats, or political conflict in online platforms, with the leading minds in the field. We’d love to see your submissions. 📆New Deadline: April 10 AoE

If you study networks, or have been stuck listening to people who study networks for long enough (sorry to my loved ones), you may have heard that open triads – V shapes – in social networks tend to turn into closed triangles. But why does this happen? In part, because people repost each other.

🚨🚨Due to multiple requests, the deadline for the #CySoc workshop has been extended until April 10!🚨🚨 Make sure to get your submissions in!

Well deserved 👏🎉🍾

🚨 #CySoc2025 Program Shaping Up Nicely! We’re excited to announce key highlights from the International Workshop on Cyber Social Threats at #ICWSM2025 @icwsm.bsky.social 📢 and Call for Papers is still open! 📆 Submission Deadline: March 31, 2025 🔗 More: cy-soc.github.io/2025/ For more: 🧵 1/6 👇

Can't even secure Twitter's servers -- but sure, give him control over Govt servers in social security, IRS, Justice, Medicaid and Medicare .. and let him 'update' the air traffic control system. I mean, c'mon folks. @wired.com doing the work, again. www.wired.com/story/x-ddos...

📢 Meet the keynote speakers of the upcoming #ICWSM Workshop on #Data for the Wellbeing of the Most #Vulnerable 👉 Paddy Brock at World Bank & UNHCR Joint Data Center 👉 @robysinatra.bsky.social at University of Copenhagen Join us! Submission deadline: March 31 sites.google.com/view/datafor...

CSS job alert, Computational Social Scientist for Tenure Track faculty position in AI Media at Penn State: psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/PSU_Academic...

All of a sudden, everybody is talking about MCP. If you are interested, here are some pointers: 1. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQmX...: intro to MCP by the creator, long but very good 2. modelcontextprotocol.io: official (?) website for MCP, everything you need to know about MCP

IU's Observatory on Social Media defends citizens from online manipulation – the opposite of censorship osome.iu.edu/research/blo...

@adambonica.bsky.social showed ideology predicts which agencies experience DOGE layoffs. But what other factors could be driving this? Using a generative LLM-derived measure, I find agencies perceived as knowledge institutions are more likely to experience layoffs, even controlling for ideology. 🧵

Deadline for the Cyber Social Threats workshop at ICWSM 2025 is coming up quickly! Learn more about submitting/joining us for the workshop here: cy-soc.github.io/2025/

Join us for two insightful talks this week with Andreia Sofia Teixeira and Dean Eckles! Don’t miss out on these engaging discussions, available in-person at our Institute or virtually via Zoom. Zoom link: northeastern.zoom.us/j/93421052481

Hahahha

📢 New Paper in Nature Human Behavior! A perspective on the field we have been working in the last 10 years: how using urban mobility behavioral data can better describe experienced inequalities in urban areas. 👉 Journal link: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 👉 Open-access version: rdcu.be/eabf4

I'm joining Binghamton University School of Computing as an assistant professor this Sep. I'm recruiting two PhD students to work on topics related to AI and information ecosystem. If you are interested in joining me, send your CV and a short statement of purpose to my email [email protected]

After talking to many fellow researchers about their experiences with the academic API products from Meta, TikTok, etc., I think we didn't give enough credit to the original Twitter team for their API product, which was way more reliable and provided huge value.

ICYMI. We are also looking for PC members. The responsibilities include reviewing a couple of papers for the workshop. We encourage junior researchers to participate. Please let me know if you are interested.

With both RFK Jr and Gabbard confirmed, two people who rose to prominence spreading conspiracy theories about public health and national intelligence will now run the U.S. government agencies in charge of those areas. For someone studying these conspiracy theories for a decade... this is nauseating.

Been thinking about the leaked NSF keyword list. We all know keyword matching is not going to work well. What if I write a proposal for an advanced LLM-based solution? Will I get funded? 😅

The NIH cuts are being spun as a way to eliminate bloated university bureaucracy. And looking at the sheer numbers, I get it. But in fact the story is the exact opposite. The federal research grants system is highly efficient. And it super charges American innovation. 🧵 1/

Are you talking to colleagues impacted by executive branch targeting? Here’s a thread 🧵 w/ simple tips about how to show support—what to say that is likely to help, rather than make things worse. (The tips are simple, but I try to explain the rationale behind them. So please follow to the end.) 1/

First results back from YouGov (n=2392 US adults). Widespread distrust of Elon Musk. Considerable majorities of voters absolutely hate this.

At this rate, I'm going to review 100+ papers this year.

Have talked to some misinfo researchers lately - 100% pessimistic about the future - 90% believe no new federal funding for this line of research - 70% plan to change topic, or at least reframe it to avoid the term - 30% worried about retaliation

Check out our new paper 👇 Or listen to the podcast (notebookML): notebooklm.google.com/notebook/33e...

🔊 Don’t miss our next OSoMe Awesome Speaker: Dr. Deen Freelon! 📅 Feb 6, 12 PM ET | 💻 Online 📢 Computational Research in the Post-API Age 🔗 Register: iu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

"Gordon Ramsay Follows"