Overall social media use is also declining.
Between 2020 and 2024, more Americans — especially the youngest (18–24) and oldest (65+) — report using no social media at all.
A small group of heavy users remains, but the middle is thinning out.
📉 Visiting and posting on X and Facebook has collapsed: nearly 50% drop!
On X, it is mostly Democrats who have become inactive.
Many still occasionally log on, but rarely and quietly.
In a nutshell, the ANES data shows:
📉 Social media use is shrinking; engagement collapsing
💥 Twitter/X posting has moved ~70 POINTS to the right
🧩 Platforms are splintering
🔊 Fewer people are talking — but those still talking are more politically extreme
Have a nice evening everyone!
Two productive days in Kaunas, Lithuania, on 19–20 March 2026 at the COST Action ReLink² WG2 meeting and joint workshop hosted by Vytautas Magnus University.
Great discussions on research methods, the Ethics Guidebook, the Methodological Toolkit, and collaboration across Working Groups.
What a beautiful day and location to talk about #AI and #democracy. I will focus on efficacy and technology acceptance in my talk. #UV #Valencia @ramonv.bsky.social @giuliasandri.bsky.social @michalmaly.bsky.social
Sofia is calling 📍
Applications are open for the @relink2.bsky.eu Training School — 29 June to 3 July 2026 at New Bulgarian University, Sofia.
Up to 15 funded spots for ECR working on digital democracy and civic engagement.
🔗 relink2.eu/news/call-for-applications-relink²-training-school-2026/
📢 @relink2.bsky.social WG2 Meeting & Joint WG Workshop
🗓 19–20 March 2026
📍 Kaunas (hybrid)
Advancing the Methodological Toolkit on civic technology .
🔗 relink2.eu/news-events/
#DigitalDemocracy
🚀 Our Open Research Europe collection @relink2.bsky.social “RELINK for Democracy” is live!
3 peer-reviewed papers published & submissions open.
✅ No APCs for COST participants
✅ Open peer review
🔗 relink2.eu/news-events/
#OpenScience
A simpler life...
@ecas-europe.bsky.social
I’m participating with @ecas to #CivSocWeek 2026 in Brussels this week 🇪🇺We’re organising panel discussions and hosting a booth to exchange on citizen engagement and democratic innovation. If you’re attending, come say hello and join the conversation!
🌀 🌀 🌀
This month, we’re spreading the love with @ecprtheloop.bsky.social by highlighting blog posts that speak directly to EJPR research.
Watch for our 🌀 posts all through March—and don’t forget to explore our archive as well!
buff.ly/FcakDWM
On Saturday I facilitated a workshop at the @eu-ciembly.bsky.social #ColchesterCitizensAssembly together with my @ecas-europe.bsky.social colleague Claire Morot-Sir. Using empathy mapping, participants explored lived experiences of housing and translated them into concrete policy ideas.More to come!
We’re diving deep into solutions at the #ColchesterCitizensAssembly! 🛠️
Today’s workshops focus on Empathy Mapping, stepping directly into the shoes of our community to truly understand their lived experiences and tackle the real issues head-on.
EU CIEMBLY
The first-ever Colchester Citizens' Assembly has officially begun! 🎉
We are excited to get these vital conversations underway today.
Keep an eye on this feed and make sure to check out our other EU Ciembly social accounts for updates!
#ColchesterCitizensAssembly #EUCiembly
Happy to be @Univ. of Essex to facilitate the local citizen assembly pilot on housing issues within the framework of our @eu-ciembly.bsky.social Horizon Europe project.The pilot will implement our intersectional design for citizens’ participation in public decision-making @ecas-europe.bsky.social
Nice video on the ACTEU (Towards a new era of representative democracy- Activating European Citizens' Trust in Times of Crises and Polarization) Horizon Europe project results !
🔬 After three years of research and as the #ActEU project draws to an end, the project researchers look back on some key successes, but also on what made them possible: the methodology, the organisation of the consortium, and the innovations introduced ⤵️
youtu.be/mLYW9TfuDQM
And there are many other sources that surface and discuss different uses and experiences with AI (see
@katieharbath.bsky.social, @msifry.bsky.social, aiandelections.substack.com, Higher Ground Labs). 12/
Deceptive AI uses (e.g., deepfakes, impersonation, interactive astroturfing) are consistently seen as violating norms of legitimate political competition, while operational and outreach uses are evaluated more ambivalently. 4/
Our first contribution is conceptual: we identify three analytically distinct types of AI use in election campaigns
- Campaign operations
- Voter outreach
- Deception
This set accounts for the wide variety of AI use in campaigning and moves the debate beyond its myopic focus on deepfakes. 2/
Political campaigns worldwide experiment with AI. But how do people see different electoral uses of AI and with what consequences?
In a new study in @polcommjournal.bsky.social with @adrauc.bsky.social and @kunkakom.bsky.social, we address these questions. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 1/
We are starting to see strong work identifying how and to what effect AI is used in campaigns. See work by @florianfoos.bsky.social , @giuliasandri.bsky.social, @meinungsfuehrer.bsky.social, @pjost.bsky.social, and @profkatedommett.bsky.social. 11/
And @sarahledoux.bsky.social's main story in this month's newsletter 🗞️ is on regulating copyrighted data for AI training and how India 🇮🇳 is taking on this task, with a comparison to limited efforts in the EU 🇪🇺 and US 🇺🇸
Link to the newsletter again: technologypolicy.substack.com/p/the-tip-ne...
As usual, we love to share our members' achievements 🏆
In this newsletter we give shoutouts to @niamhcashell.bsky.social, Khadiza Laskor, @sharonhalevaamir.bsky.social and @ingaulnicane.bsky.social!
Our newsletter is really packed this month!
We also give you the scoop 🍦on our last two events, with a summary of our conference with @psampg.bsky.social in Bournemouth and the recording of our last book talk on content moderation across jurisdictions! technologypolicy.substack.com/p/book-talk-...
Our January newsletter is out! ❄ technologypolicy.substack.com/p/the-tip-ne...
We're particularly excited to invite you to our upcoming event with @ceciliarikap.bsky.social on 25 Feb 3pm GMT, where she will present her findings on the Cloud ☁️ in the age of AI 👉
www.tickettailor.com/events/techn...
The MPG x TIP conference in Bournemouth is a go! We've already had a fantastic keynote by Susan Banaducci and now we're onto the first wave of panels!
@psampg.bsky.social
The @ec.europa.eu will soon present “a combination of funding and policy measures” to support European open source projects in becoming commercially viable alternatives to proprietary US tech.
Read my article at @euractiv.com:
www.euractiv.com/news/commiss...