Guests @zevesanderson.com, CDT Research Fellow @mluria.bsky.social, and guest host @aliyabhatia.bsky.social unpack what users really think about age checks, how they shape online behavior, and what’s at stake for balancing child safety with digital rights.

My last piece while at NYU 👇

In our paper, we show massive substitution of compliant sites for non-compliant sites in the US. Not only does this reward noncompliance, but (worse) it also pushes kids towards less regulated corners of the internet osf.io/vp9z6/

"The misinformation paradigm, for all its limitations, has shown that rapid, large-scale coordination around democratic challenges is possible."

Scott & I with a new piece in @noemamag.com We argue the “misinformation paradigm” has: – Overstated online misinformation’s role in politics – Ignored much of what we know about communication – Directed attention to strategies ill-suited to today’s environment

“The last decade has made clear that we aren’t going to fact-check or inoculate our way toward a healthier civic culture.” — @zevesanderson.com & Scott Babwah Brennen #misinformation #disinformation #democracy

some good & important questions in a terribly framed article www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/m...

Since I entered this space as a grad student, @mmasnick.bsky.social has been one of my favorite thinkers and writers on a range of topics. And so it was an honor & blast for me to spend the afternoon with him yesterday discussing algos, AI, and what we can do about potential harms - link below 👇

Do age-verification laws for online adult content work? Based on Google search data, not really. New WP from me and & co-authors up now on OSF: osf.io/z83ev

Regardless of whether TikTok will be sold to a non-Chinese owner, @zevesanderson.com, @solmg.bsky.social, and Scott Babwah Brennen argue that researchers need access to independent data to understand the platform’s democratic effects in the U.S. and abroad.

You can read the full piece here from @zevesanderson.com, Scott Babwah Brennan, and Cristina de la Puerta:

That translates to nearly 1 in 6 women in Congress being targets of nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes.