📕 Review of “Seeing like a Platform” “What makes this book essential reading is its recognition that digital technology’s democratic potential and authoritarian dangers are not separate phenomena but two faces of the same coin.” albertoblumenscheincruz.substack.com/p/review-see...

I’m about a quarter of the way through this open access* book and it’s SO GOOD, so far at least lol, I really want to talk about it with someone * www.taylorfrancis.com/reader/downl...

This paper is now out in Artificial Intelligence Review Bottom line: using LLMs to "simulate humans" sits in a no-man’s-land between theory and empirics—too opaque to function as a model, too ungrounded to count as evidence. Validation remains the core challenge. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

📘 Book launch: Seeing Like a Platform (with Justus Uitermark) 🗓 10 Dec | Amsterdam A conversation on platforms, politics, power, and digital modernity - followed by drinks. Hope to see you there! 👉 Details & RSVP: globaldigitalcultures.uva.nl/content/even...

Featured article by Anton Törnberg and @pettertornberg.com: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Pretty wild: I just learned that, in terms of Altmetric, this paper became the most impactful Political Science article of the past five years, and the 4th most impactful EVER. 😳 Altmetric is... well, Altmetric. But still, kind of surreal.

[email protected]'s keynote in Oxford was fantastic. What comes after the traditional model of social media ends? 1) Algorithmic broadcasting platforms (everything turning into TikTok and Instagram reels) 2) Private and semi-private spheres (like group chats) 3) Chatbots and LLMs as new media

LLMs are now widely used in social science as stand-ins for humans—assuming they can produce realistic, human-like text But... can they? We don’t actually know. In our new study, we develop a Computational Turing Test. And our findings are striking: LLMs may be far less human-like than we think.🧵

Most people study what misinformation says. We decided to study how it looks. Using novel multi-modal AI methods, we study 17,848 posts by top climate denial accounts - and uncovered a new front in the misinformation war. Here's what it means 🧵 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Is social media dying? How much has Twitter changed as it became X? Which party now dominates the conversation? Using nationally representative ANES data from 2020 & 2024, I map how the U.S. social media landscape has transformed. Here are the key take-aways 🧵 arxiv.org/abs/2510.25417

@jerusalem.bsky.social Will The Argument bring back 'Good on Paper' in some form? Please do, its loss has left a huge hole in my podcast app! And there are a lot of persuasive papers out there!

🚨 New #SingularityFM 🎙 What do Facebook, Google & TikTok really see when they look at us — and what do they miss? My latest interview with @pettertornberg.com explores algorithmic tyranny, digital modernity & the future of power. 👉 snglrty.co/4mDn1Gb

Not just one but two podcasts featuring @pettertornberg.com who wrote some of the most interesting papers in recent years. 1: @seanmcarroll.bsky.social, below 2: Singularity Weblog: Algorithmic Tyranny, the Rise of Digital Modernity and Seeing Like a Platform www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJrV...

Such a crazy and amazing experience to be on a podcast of which I'm a huge fan!

www.flamman.se/valfardsstat... It was great to talk to @flamman.se about the link between weak welfare state protection and the expansion of online platform work in Europe. @pettertornberg.com

And I now received an automatic request to review a revised version. This is depressing. Academia is becoming AI slop.

New article! The aesthetics of climate misinformation: computational multimodal framing analysis with BERTopic and CLIP by Anton Törnberg & Petter Törnberg / @pettertornberg.com doi.org/10.1080/0964...

The one-plot summary of what Elon Musk did to Twitter.

How much did Elon's takeover reshape Twitter/X? How did the partisan tilt of social media use change from 2020 to 2024? The ANES 2024 data is out — and this thread answers all your burning questions! 🔥

I was interviewed on New Books Network Podcast with Nicholas McCay on Justus and my book "Seeing Like a Platform" (available open access!) newbooksnetwork.com/seeing-like-...

I was interviewed on Justin Hendrix's TechPolicy podcast about 'Seeing Like a Platform: An Inquiry into the Condition of Digital Modernity', that sets out to address the “entanglement of epistemology, technology, and politics in digital modernity." www.techpolicy.press/seeing-like-...

Algorithms are not necessary for the creation of echo chambers. All that is required is people muting or leaving when they have a bad interaction. Then an echo chamber arises with minimal preferences. From @pettertornberg.com #psych arxiv.org/pdf/2508.10466

Destabilisieren #Musk & Co. durch die Algorithmen sozialer Netzwerke die liberale Demokratie? So einfach ist die Sache nicht, zeigen @maiklarooij.nl und @pettertornberg.com von der Universität Amsterdam. Spannend, wie sich Sozialforschung durch #KI weiterentwickelt. www.faz.net/aktuell/feui...

🥳🥳🥳 Huge achievement and an amazing project on AI & the politics of welfare! Follow her work if you're interested in how we can manage the mess that's coming!

I flagged to the editor that the paper I reviewed looked AI-generated. Immediately received a generic AI-generated email from the editor. The AI future is here!

The "digital" never exists in isolation. The platform society is always part and parcel of deeper transformations in capitalism.

Gig labor is often understood as the expression of digital disruption. But our new study suggests a deeper story: 👉 The rise of platform labor is inseparable from the retreat of the welfare state. 🧵 w/ @pettertornberg.com journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

🚨 PhD Position at the University of Amsterdam 🚨 Join my team as a computer scientist / computational social scientist working on LLMs, social media, and politics. We offer freedom, impact, and an inspiring environment at one of Europe's leading universities. 🔗 werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Don’t blame the algorithm: Polarization may be inherent in social media | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti... @pettertornberg.com

Somehow, Marx is suddenly popular with tech bros talking about AI. I just wished they would actually read him. Because Marx did have a lot to say about automation -- and it's eerily relevant to today’s debates. 🧵

In the literature, there are two competing explanations for "echo chambers": 1️⃣ Algorithms curate what we see (“filter bubbles”) 2️⃣ People choose like-minded peers (“selective exposure”) Our new study suggests something surprising: both explanations might be wrong. 🧵 arxiv.org/abs/2508.10466

I'm really stoked about this paper! Builds on amazing MSc thesis work by @maiklarooij.nl‬

We built the simplest possible social media platform. No algorithms. No ads. Just LLM agents posting and following. It still became a polarization machine. Then we tried six interventions to fix social media. The results were… not what we expected. arxiv.org/abs/2508.03385

1/ 🧵 What if your exhaustion isn’t personal, but political? What if the endless noise, rage, and chaos every time you open your phone isn’t accidental, but the product of a system designed to destabilize democratic focus? #Voices4Victory #DemVoice1 #USDemocracy #ProudBlue

💥New paper💥 1)LLMs achieve superb accuracy detecting negative campaigning ACROSS languages and countries - enabling a new paradigm of comparative political research 2)We use this to carry out the largest cross-country study to date: 18M tweets from MPs across 19 countries arxiv.org/abs/2507.17636

(Chueri & Törnberg 2025b) So happy to continue coauthoring our life together, @julianachueri.bsky.social ❤️

PhD position out at University of Amsterdam We’re looking for a computer scientist interested in LLMs, social media, and politics Offer a lot of freedom and an exciting environment! Please share! werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Beneath the rise of AI lies a deeper transformation: Power now flows through networks, emerges in patterns, & governs not by edict, but by architecture, @pettertornberg.com & @uitermark.bsky.social argue

What if Big Tech’s power is built on narrative? @pettertornberg.com argues that hype in #surveillancecapitalism isn’t just noise—it drives investment & creates self-fulfilling prophecies. A cultural turn in political economy. ‪#OnlineFirst journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

As we transition from industrial to digital modernity, business tycoons no longer view humans as cogs in machines. Now, as platforms become all-powerful, a new, stealthier form of domination is emerging, @pettertornberg.com & @uitermark.bsky.social argue.

“Financial narratives [are] a central mechanism of economic power in surveillance capitalism. Rather than reflecting real technological progress, these narratives … reorient capital flows to firms promising revolutionary AI breakthroughs” www.devdiscourse.com/article/tech...

“Hype” seems to have become a core feature of Big Tech – seen in the rise of hype men like Elon Musk and Sam Altman. But why? What is the role of hype in contemporary capitalism? My new paper answers these questions, and argues the creation of a Critical Hype Studies. 🧵 doi.org/10.1177/0163...

🤖💡 Are LLMs really developing social behaviors—or just reproducing familiar patterns from training? In our new paper, @pettertornberg.com and I take a closer look at recent claims of emergent conventions in AI and offer a different perspective... 🧵

From Elon Musk's DOGE to the UK's AI Action Plan, states are rapidly adopting AI as key tool of governance What happens when states see their populations through AI? Is AI quietly redefining the very nature of the state? Our new paper sets out a research agenda journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Why does everything suddenly feel so unsettled? The economy, technology, geopolitics—everything seems to change It's more than a vibe shift. It's epistemic. In our new book, @uitermark.bsky.social and I explore this shift— and argue we're entering Digital Modernity 🧵 www.seeinglikeaplatform.com

Seeing Like a Platform has arrived in physical form! 😮 Of everything I've ever written, this is probably the work I'm most proud of. And it's free to read! www.seeinglikeaplatform.com Would love to hear your thoughts!

🌐📲 What kind of power drives our digital world? In their book "Seeing Like a Platform", @pettertornberg.bsky.social and @uitermark.bsky.social explore how #platforms are reshaping how we see, understand, and govern society. Join the book talk on April 16, 17:00! Register here: tinyurl.com/4buh2p76

Large Language Model-based social simulation has emerged as an exciting new research method. But do LLMs actually resolve the problems that have historically limited use of Agent-Based Models? What do they bring? We review the literature to find out! with Maik Laaroij arxiv.org/abs/2504.03274

Platform workers want social protection! @mbusemeyer.bsky.social and I wrote a contribution for Social Europe based on our research on the social preferences of platform workers. www.socialeurope.eu/platform-wor...

Many feel that politics globally has become toxic and hostile over recent years. But is this actually the case? And if so, who's to blame? What issues are driving toxicity? We analyze 18M tweets from politicians in 17 countries to find out! w/ @julianachueri.bsky.social arxiv.org/pdf/2503.22411