A photo of Péter Magyar with a supporter in 2024.
Democracy is about the possibility to imagine and build more solidaric ways of living together. In Hungary, this has been suppressed.
I have my doubts about Hungary's new prime minister. But right now, I celebrate the hope for political alternatives.
The photo shows my father with Magyar in 2024
A screenshot from an explainer video on Slopaganda. The title card says "Johan Farkas, Associate Professor".
What is 'slopaganda'?
My university has made a short explainer with me on the topic:
www.instagram.com/reels/DWYmNC...
www.facebook.com/share/v/17JT...
P.S. I’m still an Assistant Professor, but it’s nice to know that my institution thinks I’m ready for the next step 😉
A picture of the two books: 'Mass Communication and American Social Thought' and 'Social Theories of the Press'
So many current debates about media suffer from presentism, repeating old tropes and technological determinism.
There's so much to learn from the history of media and communication studies. Recently expanded my own collection (after reviewing two proposals from Bloomsbury).
A screenshot of the event description for a free public lecture with Johan Farkas in Malmö on 25 March 2026
I'm giving a free public lecture in Malmö next week!
Will talk about the relationship between democracy and trust.
The talk will be in English, with a Q&A in 'Scandinavian' 😊.
Looking forward to being back in Malmö!
malmo.se/Uppleva-och-...
Just out: the new @vdeminstitute.bsky.social is clear:
"The speed with which American democracy is currently dismantled is unprecedented in modern history"
V-dem uses a global dataset on democracy with over 32 million data points for 202 countries, from 1789 to 2025.
www.v-dem.net/documents/75...
Weekend! 😊
Thank you. I think most academics would like to do it. But it takes a lot of work to actually make it happen 😊
A screenshot from the segment 😊
Made my daughter proud today: Was on Ultra Nyt, the news program for 9-14-year-olds on DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation).
The context is AI-generated content in the Danish elections.
Available here (in Danish): www.dr.dk/drtv/episode...
An occassional reminder that almost all my research is freely available on my website 😊.
This includes recent work on propaganda, fact-checking, platform companies, and discourse analysis.
www.johanfarkas.com/research/
The data from your Meta Ray Bans is used to train Meta's AI, which most people don't understand means that humans are looking at the most intimate details of their lives. www.svd.se/a/K8nrV4/met...
"Det, vi skal holde øje med, er, hvor meget partierne og kandidaterne laver AI-slop med sig selv, og om de kommer til at bruge det imod politiske modstandere. For det kan hurtigt blive meget polariserende."
#fv26 #dkpol
AI-slop has entered the Danish election campaigns.
I contribute to a new article from DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation) on the rise of such 'slopaganda'
www.dr.dk/nyheder/poli...
Entry on 'Propaganda' in the 'IPSA Companion to Political Science: A Practical Introduction to the 200 Most Important Concepts'
What is propaganda? And what can the 20 most cited texts in political science from the past decade teach us about it?
I address these questions in a new open access entry to IPSA Companion to Political Science.
Freely available here:
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Several European countries are considering social media bans for children. We must regulate platforms, not children.
I urge caution:
✅ Focus on "safety by design"
✅ Demand algorithmic transparency
✅ Enforce the #DSA & #HumanRights standards
Read my Shout Out👇
www.coe.int/en/web/commi...
The review is available here:
journalofcommunication.ro/index.php/jo...
The introduction chapter of the book is available here:
www.johanfarkas.com/post-truth-f...
Book cover for Post-Truth, Fake News and Democracy: Mapping the Politics of Falsehood
Our book, Post-Truth, Fake News and Democracy, just received a new review:
"By restoring the political stakes behind appeals to facticity, reason, and expertise, the authors expose how the rhetoric of truth can narrow, rather than expand, democratic participation."
When tech companies anthropomorphize AI, they also dehumanise people. Case in point: Sam Altman just said that we shouldn't worry about the climate impact of AI because humans eat food.
techcrunch.com/2026/02/21/s...
New research!
Mette Bengtsson and I examine how European fact-checkers rhetorically defend partnerships with platform companies such as Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and ByteDance (TikTok).
Published version:
doi.org/10.1177/0267...
(Free) pre-print: www.johanfarkas.com/wp-content/u...
In Danish: Contributing to this story on how several news outlets wrongly linked a Danish politician to the Epstein files after confusing her with a Norwegian ambassador of the same name.
www.berlingske.dk/kultur/mona-...
A screenshot of the article 'Stop Fake Hate Profiles on Facebook': Challenges for Crowdsourced Activism on Social Media
Sad to learn that the open access journal First Monday will cease to exist after 30 years of internet research.
I published one of my very first articles there in 2017.
Kudos to the editorial team.
Hopes for an open access future.
firstmonday.org/ojs/index.ph...
Tech billionaires fuel Donald Trump’s $429mn haul ahead of midterm elections: www.ft.com/content/5038...
RIP Sly Dunbar! What a legend.
Will put on Ini Kamoze's debut album and pay respect.
www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzYq...
It's the famous kettle logic:
- The victim was a terrorist
- The victim was wielding a weapon
- Nobody wanted to see the victim dead
- We already know what happened
- We are currently investigating everything
Resharing this one year later.
THREAD: 404 Media has been covering ICE and the technology they've been using to surveil and raid "targets", detain people based on a flawed facial recognition app, and lie about violence on the streets.
They have established itself as an agency that cannot be trusted to live in or present reality.
To explain authoritarian movements through echo chambers, filter bubbles, and misinformation is to deny their deliberateness.
