Anarchy 🔥

x is populated by people who failed 11th-grade english, drove three startups into the ground, make mid-six-figures, and own two cybertrucks. bluesky is full of folks who hold two phds, have won prestigious awards in their field, can't quite consolidate their hold on fulltime work, and ride a bicycle

Teen happiness falls in western countries as social media hours rise The 2026 World Happiness Report links heavy social media use to a sharp decline in young people's wellbeing, with teenage girls in English-speaking countries and Western Europe among the most affected. 

There are major wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran; we’ve pushed well past 1.5° in global heating; the world economy is melting down; and the US is now a fascist bar – but sure, continue to sell us the fiction that it MUST be social media making kids unhappy, ABC. 😠😡🤬

Workshopping in Prague

Quick PSA for all mid-career academics and above: people may be citing articles with your name on them that don't exist.

Loosing patience with X 📉

New poll shows 70+% support for taking further actions against X and amongst those supporting action, many consider not only fines but also a ban.

The investigations by the @ec.europa.eu into X are backed and poll corroborates public support for platform regulation.

🚀 dashboardr is out!

An #rstats package for building interactive dashboards with tidyverse-style syntax.

Launched with a fun hackathon at @ascor.bsky.social (🍕 included).

📦: favstats.github.io/dashboardr/

Big thanks to the dashboardr team, Digicomlab, and @vivifabrien.bsky.social for the logo 🎨

My colleague Kevin Munger asked me and a bunch of editors to sit and think through AI and peer review. Our take:

osf.io/9sxnc/files/...

We envision an increased (!) involvement of humans in the evaluation of social science.

A bird's-eye view of a former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp showing a wide dirt pathway flanked by parallel rows of barbed-wire fences. Groups of visitors walk along the path, surrounded by the remnants of brick structures and barracks, now reduced to foundations. Green grass contrasts with the somber history of the site, as the path leads toward a guard tower in the distance.

Auschwitz was at the end of a process. We must remember that it did not start from gas chambers.

This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder.

Auschwitz took time.

The United States is now a country where the President’s goons kill civilians on the streets.

There’s no sugarcoating it.

Which country dares send supporters and citizens to such a country?

#worldcup #fifa26 ⚽️

Excited to share our new report on Dutch election integrity!

As an academic researcher, one of the most rewarding aspects of my work is when our research can directly inform public debate. That's exactly what happened with the Hybrid Election Integrity Observatory (HEIO).

Full report: www.heio.nl

AMSTERDAM ❤️ ALSO BEAUTIFUL IN WINTER 😍 🎿🧀

One more week to apply to this postdoc position in Political Communication @ascor.bsky.social

Thank you for sharing 🫶

Please reach out if you have any questions.

@polcomm.bsky.social @fgkommpol.bsky.social @alessandronai.bsky.social

#toread #paper “Meet the new boss – Same as the old boss”: A longitudinal study of political post sentiment and Facebook engagement by Anders Olof Larsson https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v31i1.14448

Today's mood, in a nutshell.

New year, new (job) opportunities: Full professorship in Digital Society and Democracy.

What: excellent conditions, start-up and transition packages, interdisciplinary and supportive environment, wonderful colleagues.

[1/2]

fa-eosd-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

In the new year, political ads on Google and Meta continue to run in the EU despite both platforms having policies that supposedly ban them.

The rules are so badly enforced that official political party accounts (even self-labeled with the category "political party") can run ads without problems.

Elon reposting Brendan Carr as a first reaction.

But no, X is not taxed for being successful.

And yes, X is fined for breaking simple DSA requirements regarding deceptive design, ad transparency, and data access for researchers

How big tech is creating its own friendly media bubble to ‘win the narrative battle online’ At a time when distrust of big tech is high, Silicon Valley is embracing an alternative ecosystem where every CEO is a star

„At a time when the majority of Americans distrust big tech and believe artificial intelligence will harm society, Silicon Valley has built its own network of alternative media where CEOs, founders and investors are the unchallenged and beloved stars.“

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Campaigning in the Age of Platforms: A Longitudinal Analysis of German Parties & Politicians Social media platforms now play a central role in election campaigns for parties and politicians. Yet comparatively little research has compared how these actors use these platforms during and outs...

🚨🎉New Publication Friday 🎉🚨

Campaigning in the Age of Platforms: A Longitudinal Analysis of German Parties & Politicians

w/ @ulrikeklinger.bsky.social & @andersoloflarsson.bsky.social

Out now in Political Communication.

#polisky #commsky

doi.org/10.1080/1058...

🎉 The PolComm Database Dashboard is live!

The database content is now available in an interactive dashboard: a milestone since launching submissions at #ICA25 in Denver.

Explore this resource here
👉 politicalcommunication.org/resources/

Conferencing at the Museum of Literature Ireland, @molimuseum.bsky.social

What if people appreciate having an abundance of content and communication, more than they feel overloaded by it?

@annisch.bsky.social et al decided to have a look. Their results? "We found that appreciation for abundance was about twice as common as overload".

Paper: journalqd.org/article/view...

Excitement, tension, bingo and great insights from my fellow PolComm colleagues - think that describes our election event in CREA quite well. Great way to count down to the exitpolls! @markboukes.bsky.social @favstats.eu @ulrikeklinger.bsky.social @lindabomm.bsky.social @corinnaoschatz.bsky.social

This is the final 'poll of polls' before the Dutch elections. Three parties at the same level, and two more not much smaller. Given the high percentage of late deciders and voters in doubt, the outcome is still very much uncertain. 🧵

I think this Facebook page is a terrifying case study in how gen AI slop has enabled the creation of an automated hate machine, churning out endless caricatures of made-up enemies, immigrants and politicians, optimized for engagement. In many ways, it embodied the very nightmare many of us feared.

Geert Wilders failed in government, but the far right retains its grip on the Netherlands | Cas Mudde A media in thrall to Wilders’ party ensures its agenda is entrenched in Dutch politics and will dominate Wednesday’s election, says political scientist Cas Mudde

Cas Mudde: „despite the far right’s evident failure in governing the Netherlands, it retains a magnetic hold over the country. Party politics remains fragmented yet dominated by the mainstreaming and normalisation of far-right frames and politicians.“

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Facebook page behind these images was the most active spreader of political AI content, posting multiple times a day and becoming the most engaged-with pages on Facebook among all those we track. Even surpassing Geert Wilders in total engagement during October. The page has now been deleted.

Twee PVV-Kamerleden vallen met nepbeelden anoniem Timmermans aan, GroenLinks-PvdA doet aangifte Twee Kamerleden van de PVV plaatsten met AI gemaakte beelden van Frans Timmermans op een populaire Facebookpagina die ze heimelijk beheren. Tientallen doodswensen richting de politicus zijn het gevolg...

Two members of Parliament of Wilders' PVV party created AI generated images of party leader Timmermans and circulated these on social media.

Threats, death wishes and intimidation followed.

This shows how AI content can amplify existing rhetoric and emotions.

www.volkskrant.nl/politiek/twe...

Campaigning in the Netherlands: No posters, only this on central squares… 🧐

🤖 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓 𝐃𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐀𝐈𝐠𝐧 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫 🇳🇱

Less than one week before the Dutch elections, @meinungsfuehrer.bsky.social & I looked at over 20k posts to reveal patterns in the usage of AI-generated visuals across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X. #tk2025

🧵Thread