I'm pretty sure the CJEU in Russmedia just casually dismantled 80% of the DSA with one ill-considered judgment. As I read it, it substitutes in GDPR rules -- not notice and takedown rules -- for any platform where a user is likely to post content about people. 1/
curia.europa.eu/juris/docume...
AI presents a fundamental threat to our ability to use polls to assess public opinion. Bad actors who are able to infiltrate panels can flip close election polls for less than the cost of a Starbucks coffee. Models will also infer and confirm hypotheses in experiments. Current quality checks fail
💥My report out now💥
📗 *VLOPs - how big is your Polarization Footprint? Towards a metric to give EU citizens transparency about an online systemic risk driving conflict in our societies*
Connecting #polarizationfootprint concept to systemic risk framework of Digital Services Act (#DSA)
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
GreenEarth is creating open source AI-driven recommender infrastructure for BlueSky. Type a prompt, see your feed change. We are here for the users, the builders, the dreamers. Join us.
greenearthsocial.substack.com/p/introducin...
Macron remarks are notable- some quotes: "We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies."
🚨 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...
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
Ever since I started thinking seriously about AI value alignment in 2016-7, I've been frustrated by the inadequacy of utility+RL theory to account for the richness of human values.
Glad to be part of a larger team now moving beyond those thin theories towards thicker ones.
Thanks to co-organizers @jasonburton.bsky.social,
@naomishiffman.bsky.social, and @jbakcoleman.bsky.social!
The whole conference looks great this year too! Talks from Cory Doctorow, Kate Starbird, + Glen Weyl; a workshop on futarchy w. Robin Hanson (straight after ours); and lots of papers on using AI to scaffold human coordination and collective decision-making.
ci.acm.org/2025/
🔔
Often our tech policy interventions operate from linear, top-down assumptions that don't account for the complexity they seek to govern.
To dig into this I'm co-organizing a workshop at ACM CI 2025 with Jason Burton, Joe Bak-Coleman, + Naomi Shiffman. You should come!
ci-x-tp.github.io
Proposals for Build Peace (arguably the main conference on digital peacebuilding) are now open. This year it's near Barcelona in November. Consider applying!
https://howtobuildpeace.org/attend-the-conference/register/
🚨 WEBINAR ALERT 🚨 Join KGI on March 25th for a live discussion on designing algorithmic feeds that put people first. As legislation and litigation around algorithms heats up, it’s never been more important to learn how they can be improved.
EVENT: Join us for Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Freedoms on April 10-11 at
@columbiauniversity.bsky.social & online. Hosted with Senior AI Advisor @sethlazar.org. Co-sponsored by the Knight Institute & @columbiaseas.bsky.social. Panel info in 🧵. RSVP: knightcolumbia.org/events/artif...
Connected by Data are seeking examples of participatory digital governance to map out such projects around the world.
https://connectedbydata.org/blog/2025/03/05/participatory-digital-governance
This was very much a joint effort with Andrew Konya, Wasim Almasri, Oded Adomi Leshem, Ariel Procaccia, Lisa Schirch, Michiel Bakker @mbakker.bsky.social, and many others.
Looking forward to seeing these kinds of technologies mature!
Link for the full paper below, which documents the whole process, including all the ethical precautions we took.
arxiv.org/abs/2503.01769
This level of agreement is particularly noteworthy because, at the beginning of the process, the substrate of trust that makes dialogue (and Track II diplomacy) possible among peacebuilders in the region had (understandably) grown fragile.
The process resulted in a joint letter to the international community with a set of five demands, each of which has at least 90% of support from participants on each 'side'.
In April – July 2024, in collaboration with the Alliance for Middle-East Peace (ALLMEP), we conducted a series of online collective dialogues with civil society peacebuilders in Israel and Palestine, and used LLMs and bridging-based ranking to surface ideas that had broad support across groups.
A diagram of the process used in the paper that this thread announces. The effort consisted of four dialogue cycles with peacebuilders: three uninational dialogues cycles conducted respectively with Israeli Jews, Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, and Palestinian citizens of Israel, followed by a final joint dialogue involving all three groups. Each dialogue cycle involved a process to find common ground among participants followed by a deliberation on the results of that process. The common ground process started with a collective dialogue, then bridging-based ranking was used to identify common ground ’bridging statements’ that were distilled into articulate ’collective statements’ via LLM and reviewed by human experts before being shared back with participants for a final vote.
🔔 (new paper!)
You might have heard of the "Habermas Machine", an AI-human pipeline that is really good at finding common ground between ideologically diverse groups, at least in lab settings.
But can this kind of approach help in real world conflicts?
Thanks to TIME and Tharin Pillay for this great coverage of our work with @audreyt.org, @mchangama.bsky.social, @lukethorburn.com, Divya Siddarth and Emilie de Keulenaar: time.com/7258238/soci...
Read the full paper here: www.arxiv.org/abs/2502.10834
This is joint work with @jonathanstray.bsky.social (Berkeley), @juliehawke.bsky.social (Build Up), and Emillie de Keulenaar (UN).
Live near Chicago? Or going to ISA 2025? Want to geek out on conflict theory + coauthor a landmark paper?
We're finding all the ways people distinguish between "good conflict" and "bad conflict" — but we need help, so we're hosting a workshop! You should come!
https://forms.gle/BKxziu8zbZ1oZZqU8
Re-aligning SOCIAL MEDIA & AI: "Whom does it serve? That is the overarching issue as we confront "enshittification" & threats to democracy. Subject of 4 publications covered in this thread. 🧵
Most recent applies to PERSONAL AI AGENTS - "Have your AI call my AI"
www.techpolicy.press/new-perspect...
Register your interest in our LLMs & Public Discourse: Convening & Workshop by mid-December.
This exclusive, invite-only event will occur in Berkeley, California, February 27-28, 2025.
Complete the interest form here:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Build Up are hiring a Digital Peacebuilding Associate! You should apply. They're the best.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WH9-zE7tt7EsFe-W_DFAhX3MGuhloiSSAhf0c_y4G_w/edit?usp=sharing
Today the European Commission proposed how Art.40 of the Digital Services Act (#DSA) could work in practice.In a worldwide first, this article in the DSA mandated very large platforms to grant researchers access to a wide range of previously undisclosed data.Some key points - now also on Bluesky :)👇
Reframing the issues of governing social media.
Human discourse is a social process that depends on three pillars: agency, mediation, & reputation. Without these three strong pillars, + middleware enabling open innovation and interoperation, social media will struggle to balance chaos and control.
