The real story is that foreign govts try to "interfere" all the time. In 2020 and 2024 we had mechanisms to catch them, call them out, & mitigate damage. Now, those mechanims are gone & the Trump admin would prefer to exploit "foreign interference" to justify a federal take-over of elections.
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...
Essential research, a great place to work, extremely cool colleagues - if I had any relevant technical skills (and did not already work next door) I'd apply.
We are seeking a Fellow to lead cutting-edge research on short-form video content and its societal implications. Bridging the gap between computer vision, causal inference, and computational social science, the Fellow will focus on the large-scale analysis of TikTok data (using an existing, massive dataset). The position involves developing novel multimodal methods to understand how short-form algorithmic content shapes public opinion, political polarization, and online culture. This is a unique opportunity to work at the forefront of the field, combining rigorous social science research designs with state-of-the-art computational techniques.
The Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellow to work with an interdisciplinary team (me, @bstewart.bsky.social, and @manoelhortaribeiro.bsky.social).
Link: puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...
Please apply by THIS SUNDAY, Dec. 14!
📣 Yale workshop, Oct 16-17! 📣 How could/should content ranking work? What's new in content moderation? How can platforms promote civility? Hosted by Yale's Institute for Foundations of Data Science (FDS). Great speakers! Submit posters by 9/22! Spread the word! yalefds.swoogo.com/socialalgori...
Today, @catiebailard.bsky.social and I take the reins at GW's Institute for Data, Democracy + Politics! We'll work to make IDDP a one-stop shop for research on misinfo, platform manipulation, and threats to democratic ideals. To follow our work + learn about opportunities, visit: bit.ly/45GLggi
Very cool looking Ass Prof job posting from the great group at Copenhagen Business School
www.cbs.dk/cbs/jobs-paa...
FTC and Musk are working to sue Media Matters out of existence. A real canary in the coalmine moment for civil society.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/u...
Deeply reported story by @stephaniemlee.bsky.social, on the impact of grant terminations — even for those who have managed to get their awards reinstated
“I do not trust 100 percent,” one researcher said, “that there won’t be another termination.”
Anyway, I know it's not news that Trump is hypocritical, but here's my story reminding people that MAGA world insisted that the Biden admin sending impolite notes to Facebook was the greatest threat to free speech, but are completely silent on Trump calling up Murdoch and demanding he kill a story
Will Meet The Press ask random other white politicians to condemn Trump's antisemitic language this weekend? Or does that only apply to Mamdani?
It’s weird how the white conservative guys at the NYT get to say whatever they want but anyone else has to watch what they say because it’s “too political”
A nice complement to this paper by @aecoppock.bsky.social and @andyguess.com alexandercoppock.com/guess_coppoc..., which found no evidence of backlash from one-sided counter-attitudinal information
Not surprising that an administration that rose to power on the spread of bullshit and propaganda is terminating the funding of researchers studying these phenomena. We are just receiving word about funding cancellations re: existing grants to members of our team and our colleagues.
Out now! "GERDA: The German Election Database." GERDA provides comprehensive municipal, state, and federal election results at the municipality level between 1990 and 2021.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We hang together or we hang separately. Could not be clearer what is happening and how universities must respond.
Every single university president should be asked, in public, why they are not speaking out this way to support all the students currently detained without due process, and all those terrified that they will be next, on every campus in this country. Yes, including Columbia's acting president.
If we were conquered and under hostile occupation, what would the government do differently? Would an occupation government that wanted to crush the United States as a vibrant, prosperous country with influence around the world do anything differently?
Former Columbia president Lee Bollinger, interviewed by the Chronicle earlier this month, said universities should think in centuries and consider what they might look back on in shame; apparently Columbia’s current leadership considered the question and decided they’re content submitting to a king.
Reminder that 'savvy' political fact checkers spent the entire campaign telling voters that Trump was not going to do the things he obviously was going to do.
I'm sure this is the last time they'll ever threaten Columbia's funding. So rest easy. It's not like Donald Trump to keep on threatening the same person or entity over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. I don't think the sets any precedent. 🙄
me for the next 4 years
As Vance 'lectures' Europe on free speech, it is good to be reminded that the United States ranks 55 (!) on the World Press Freedom Index.
The top 10 countries are ALL in Europe.
#journalism #democracy #freepress
rsf.org/en/index
I really wish Americans would stop treating the continued existence of Canada as the sort of thing they can do amusing thought experiments about.
ACADEMIC WORKERS UNITE! DEFEND PUBLIC RESEARCH FUNDING JOIN THE NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION FEBRUARY 19, 4:00PM WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK
ACTION THIS WEDNESDAY: Researchers from New York universities are holding a rally to protest the funding cuts at Washington Square Park at 4 pm.
This will be part of a national day of action, with rallies at HHS in DC and all around the country.
RSVP HERE: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
It is vitally important that journalists speak to comparativists who study authoritarian takeovers, like @kimlanelaw.bsky.social, and not just to people whose expertise is in US domestic law and politics.
A pretty wide range of people is interviewed in that piece, and it encompasses numerous critiques — some of which I think are consistent with points raised in the thread. Which parts specifically do you consider to be nonsense?
Excited to share my new #JEPS paper with @xiaoxiaoshen.bsky.social introducing ReChat, a research tool for live-text interaction studies! Makes it easy to embed live chats in surveys, opening new possibilities for research on social interaction. Check it out! 🧵👇
#AcademicSky #PoliSciSky #PoliSky
At long last, my stupidly long post on how Brendan Carr is aiming to be America's top censor.
www.techdirt.com/2024/11/27/b...
ICYMI yesterday: Sen. Markey called on Meta to recommit itself to transparency, data sharing, and ongoing research to study its platforms' effects on elections and democracy.
www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
