I cannot think of a democracy anywhere in the world where this sort of thing could happen. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/b...

Back from a successful #APSA25 in Vancouver 🇨🇦 – full of inspiring projects, great discussions, and reconnecting with colleagues. I presented two of my co-authored dissertation papers: one at the Political Communication Preconference and another at APSA (American Political Science Association).

📣 We’re launching the London Social Media Observatory! 🎉 ➡️ We are a new multidisciplinary research centre, directed by @andreucasas.bsky.social & funded by the @ukri.org Future Leaders Fellowship 🧵 [1/4]

Again: they found absolute monsters to run gov social media accounts. People who at some point lost or never had the idea that the things you say online might have real world connections. Literal psychopaths.

In many countries, mainstream politicians are adopting rhetoric and policies that typical of the far-right. Our new paper (w/ @dziblatt.bsky.social and E Dinas), out now in the @bjpols.bsky.social, finds that doing so erodes norms more than when far-right politicians make similar statements. 1/3

NEW - Media Platforming and the Normalisation of Extreme Right Views - cup.org/4mmVIAL "exposure to uncritical interviews increases agreement with extreme statements and perceptions of broader support in the population" - @dianebolet.bsky.social & @florianfoos.bsky.social #OpenAccess

Mit freundlichen Grüßen an die Redaktionen von ARD und ZDF und all diejenigen, die weiterhin denken, man könnte die radikale Reche in Interviews entzaubern...

You can already submit your paper and panel proposal for EPSS next year. Looking forward to seeing many people in Belfast. I will be there.

“Most users do not want unregulated spaces. They view moderation as essential to sustaining democratic discourse.” Read a compelling analysis by Coalition members and allies challenging the narratives of large tech companies and shining light on the public desire for free and fair digital spaces.⬇️

🔗📃 Link to he paper now published in the ICWSM conference proceedings (ojs.aaai.org/index.php/IC...) co-authored with @nilsweidmann.bsky.social, @friederikeq.bsky.social, @sebnagel.bsky.social, @yannistheocharis.bsky.social & Molly Roberts

🛫 Off to Madrid for this year’s EPSA conference, where I’ll be presenting co-authored work with @yannistheocharis.bsky.social , @spyroskosmidis.bsky.social , and Molly Roberts. 💡You’ll find me in the panel “Insights into Countering Misinformation” on Friday, June 27, at 09:30 in Room 1A.13.

📢New Paper Alert 📢

🚨🚀 Looking for a comparative dataset on social media platforms? We’re excited to launch COMPARE! This is a collaborative effort by @nilsweidmann.bsky.social , @friederikeq.bsky.social , @sebnagel.bsky.social , @yannistheocharis.bsky.social & Molly Roberts. 🧵⤵️ (1/5)

New interview out! I spoke with Lars Lubienetzki for ver.di—one of Germany’s largest trade unions—about our much-anticipated report "Content Warning: Public Attitudes on Content Moderation and Freedom of Expression." 📢 🔗 Only available in German: mmm.verdi.de/aktuelle-mel...

US least supportive of content moderation vs. hate speech and misinformation versus nine other countries tumthinktank.de/wp-content/u...

According to our survey (@yannistheocharis.bsky.social @friederikeq.bsky.social & team) 1 in 5 Americans experience sexual harassment online. (This includes many people who are not even using dating apps) The way companies deprioritize user safety is alarming as @themarkup.org's investigation shows

Also, terrible behaviors have become normalized online, many people get attacked, yet we... seem to be keen to use social media anyway? In a new report w/ @yannistheocharis.bsky.social, @friederikeq.bsky.social @spyroskosmidis.bsky.social, @franziskapradel.bsky.social we document these experiences:

Thrilled that our report "CONTENT WARNING: Public Attitudes on Content Moderation and Freedom of Expression", launched today, has received a very warm reception by the media! 📖 Read the coverage: www.zeit.de/news/2025-02... More info below on some of the questions we tackle 🧵👇

🚨 New Preview of Our Upcoming Report 🚨 Leaked Meta guidelines suggest harmful speech like "Immigrants are filthy pieces of shit" or "Gays are freaks" may soon be allowed. Does this policy shift reflect public opinion? Our survey across 10 countries finds no evidence of support for such content.

Leaked documents show the highly political & inconsistent nature of Meta's new hate speech policy. "Christian men are totally useless" is NOT allowed but "Mexican immigrants are trash" is acceptable!? "Gays are freaks", "trans people are immoral" - all allowed. 👉 theintercept.com/2025/01/09/f...

📄An interesting contribution by Matti Schneider from Open Terms Archive on the new #Meta community guidelines. Using our Platform Governance Archive, Matti analyzes how Meta removes many protections against #HateSpeech: opentermsarchive.org/en/memos/met...

Following Meta’s latest announcement and adding to the debate, we want to share first insights from our a new study. Check it out and stay tuned for more! ⬇️ #Meta #ContentModeration #SocialMedia #FreeSpeech

1) Maybe it seems small potatoes, but blaming politicized fact-checkers and ops people for content moderation systems not working and over censoring is a total lie. Don't blame poor trust & safety workers for implementing the convoluted politics and messy policicies that come from the C-suite! 2/

Laws, norms, and users' preferences are indeed important constraints! @friederikeq.bsky.social, @yannistheocharis.bsky.social, @nilsweidmann.bsky.social et al. are doing amazing work, literally observing people as they perform content moderation tasks in the lab *after* reading community guidelines

Albania 🇦🇱 shuts down TikTok for at least a year starting early 2025. This follows the canceled elections in Romania 🇷🇴 due to potential interference (via TikTok) and the EU🇪🇺’s formal investigation www.euractiv.com/section/tech...

✨EXCITING NEWS✨ We've successfully migrated the content of the poli_com Twitter account to Bluesky! You now have access to historical posts on conferences, publications, etc. No need to go to that other place anymore (unless you really want to)! 🥳

Scholars are under attack. Also those who study #disinformation, #elections, #democracy and #socialmedia. The changing political climate in many places makes it important to know what you can do. As funders. As institutions. As colleagues. Share and support this resource: researchersupport.org

Happy to be presenting two important projects at APSA24. ⬇️

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Very exciting position!

Submit Proposals! APSA invites proposals for the 120th APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition, September 5-8, 2024, held in Philadelphia, to address the latest scholarship in political science. Theme: “Democracy: Retrenchment, Renovation, & Reimagination” Deadline: 1/17/2024 connect.apsanet.org/apsa2024/

Does anyone have recommendations for a great series for political scientists? (Besides Borgen) 📺

What the Polish elections might mean for Poland (and Europe), by yours truly: goodauthority.org/news/how-his...

Very much looking forward to this!