Demos

Making citizens’ voices heard: accountability in a healthy democracy Join the Collaborative Democracy Network to explore how we can strengthen our democracy to ensure citizens’ voices are heard.

🗣️ EVENT | Making Citizens’ Voices Heard: Accountability in a Healthy Democracy

Join the next #CollaborativeDemocracyNetwork event as we explore how democratic systems can better listen, respond and ensure civic participation truly shapes power.

📅 8 Dec, 6pm
💻 Online & in-person
🎟️ Register below ⬇️

Explore our series on tax reform:
➡️ Solving the tax puzzle: lnkd.in/emuJn9jt
➡️ The story to tell on tax rises: lnkd.in/ena7V8si
➡️ Taxing Decisions: lnkd.in/e_k3GEXv

#AutumnBudget2025 #Budget2025

🧰 💭 AUTUMN BUDGET VERDICT | A more balanced tax system?

Demos Lead Researcher and author of our latest series on tax reform, Dan Goss, responds to the changes announced at today’s #Budget - our policy wins, what these reforms mean for the public and what challenges remain.

🧰 It's #AutumnBudget week, and the stakes couldn't be higher.

🎥 Watch Demos Lead Researcher, @dan-goss.bsky.social, set out three priorities for a Budget that can actually fill the fiscal hole *and* rebuild trust in the state.

New live-stream link here!

www.youtube.com/live/xl_ahUt...

Votes at 16 in an age of disinformation: How can the UK strengthen whole-society media literacy? YouTube video by Demos

🚨 STARTING SOON | Votes at 16 in an age of disinformation

Join this #EpistemicSecurityNetwork event, with @milalliance.bsky.social, as we explore how the UK can strengthen whole-society media literacy at a time of rising misinformation - and what votes at 16 means for democratic education.

Hundreds of TikTok UK moderator jobs at risk despite new online safety rules Cuts in trust and safety team part of switch towards artificial intelligence by social media app firm

⚠️ TikTok Facing Scrutiny Over Moderation Cuts

TikTok has been asked to explain plans to reduce its UK Trust & Safety team, which monitors misinformation and harmful content. Committee chair Dame Chi Onwurah says the cuts raise “alarming questions” about user safety, but TikTok has yet to respond.

The Era of Answer Engines: Generative AI’s impact on search experiences and online safety For decades, traditional search tools have helped people locate web pages to answer their questions. Today, generative AI (‘GenAI’) search tools are changing that model: rather than only directing use...

🤖 @ofcom.bsky.social Warns on GenAI “Answer Engines”

Ofcom’s new discussion paper says AI search tools like chatbots could reinforce user bias, reduce visibility for journalism and reshape how people access information.

www.ofcom.org.uk/internet-bas...

How Sky News investigated X's algorithm for political bias In recent months, X has become a focus of political conversation in the UK, with social media experts and politicians saying Elon Musk's platform is sowing political division across the country.

📈 X Algorithm Found to Boost Right-Wing Content

A @news.sky.com investigation using test accounts shows X’s algorithm amplifies right-wing content more than twice as often as left-wing material - raising concerns about algorithmic influence on UK political debate.

news.sky.com/story/how-sk...

Our Mutual Friend: The BBC in the Digital Age The upcoming BBC Charter Review is an opportunity to transform the BBC into a public service mutual, founded on a genuinely democratic relationship with the public.

📺 Following resignations over a misleadingly edited Trump speech by the #BBC, there's growing calls for systemic reform as we approach the Charter Review - with @mediareformuk.bsky.social and @psbfuture.bsky.social sharing their ideas 👉 britishbroadcastingchallenge.com?mc_cid=487de...

🧵LATEST POLICY THINKING ON INFORMATION ECOSYSTEMS 💭

Our bi-weekly newsletter on information ecosystems & democracy spotlights fresh research and policy insights from across Demos’s Epistemic Security Network, from around the world and in the UK.

✍️ Sign up here: demos.co.uk/epistemic-se...

Making citizens’ voices heard: accountability in a healthy democracy Join the Collaborative Democracy Network to explore how we can strengthen our democracy to ensure citizens’ voices are heard.

🗣️ EVENT | Making Citizens’ Voices Heard: Accountability in a Healthy Democracy

Join the next #CollaborativeDemocracyNetwork event as we explore how democratic systems can better listen, respond and ensure civic participation truly shapes power.

📅 8 Dec, 6pm
💻 Online & in-person
🎟️ Register below ⬇️

Inside the mind of a 16-year-old: From Andrew Tate to Bonnie Blue to Nigel Farage - what do first time voters think about social media, politics, the state of Britain and their futures? Demos is Britain’s leading cross-party think-tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events.

Read the full paper: demos.co.uk/research/ins...

This is a generation not defined by cynicism, but by curiosity, optimism and a desire for honesty and connection.

🧠 ‘Inside the Mind of a 16-year-old’ calls for more meaningful conversations with this sophisticated, smart, and generous generation, struggling to find their way in the world.

Yet despite frustrations, most remain proud of Britain, and believe they can build better lives than their parents.

🏫Schools are closing down space for debate and discussion.

This ‘cancel culture’ is fuelled by an outdated ‘boys are being corrupted by Andrew Tate’ narrative and lack of training on sensitive facilitation. Young people are forced to air their feelings in dangerous online echo chambers instead.

➡️ Andrew Tate’s influence is fading – young people’s media worlds are broader than headlines suggest
➡️ They don’t take TikTok at face value – most cross-check information elsewhere
➡️ Knife crime is a repeated concern
➡️ Politics feels distant – Farage is “admired not liked”, Starmer is “invisible”

75% of 16-18-year olds surveyed said these archetypes - co-created with young people - felt accurate, and that they offered a useful way to start real conversations with their generation, provided we remember they’re not fixed labels.

There is no Gen Z. The report challenges this lazy label and instead introduces five archetypes co-created with students themselves, which show just how diverse and nuanced this generation really is:

🪧 The Activist
💡 The Entrepreneur
🎮 The Critical Realist
👑 The Traditionalist
💬 The Connector

Report authors ran workshops with students across the country - from Sheffield to Sunderland, Manchester to Bristol - to hear directly about life online, politics, gender and their hopes for Britain’s future.

What they found might surprise you. 👇🧵

🗳️ 16-year-olds are about to get the vote - but how well do adults *really* know what they think?

A new Demos report sets out to answer this question by talking to more than 700 students aged 16-18 across Britain.

Programme Manager - Waves Demos is Britain’s leading cross-party think-tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events.

🚨 CLOSING ON MONDAY | Waves Programme Manager

Join Demos and lead the ground-breaking Waves programme - starting with our first 3-month digital democracy trial with Camden Council, and then guiding the project through to its completion in December 2026.

Apply here ⬇️
demos.co.uk/programme-ma...

🎉Congratulations to all our finalists for the inaugural Innovation Award!

@centreforcities.bsky.social
@britainleads.bsky.social
@demos-uk.bsky.social
@moneyandmentalhealth.org
@nestauk.bsky.social
@resfoundation.bsky.social
@smfthinktank.bsky.social

#SmartThinkingAwards

Programme Manager - Waves Demos is Britain’s leading cross-party think-tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events.

🚨 HIRING NOW | Manage the UK’s largest trial in digital democracy at Demos

We’re seeking a Programme Manager to steer Waves - our €1 million project trialling new technology in local democracy - as test the process with Camden Council and South Staffordshire Council.

📌 Applications close 10 Nov ⬇️

The Demos guide to pragmatic, pro-growth tax reform Demos is Britain’s leading cross-party think-tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events.

📈 NEW BLOG | Must the government choose between a broken promise and a broken economy? Or is there another way?

With the Budget only 34 days away, Lead Researcher, Dan Goss summarises Demos’s recommendations for a tax system that is fair, pro-growth *and* in line with public and business opinion.

..delighted to have contributed to this report with @eliothiggins.bsky.social and a huge thanks to Polly Curtis and all @demos-uk.bsky.social for their help and support…..m/f

Verification, Deliberation, Accountability: A new framework for tackling epistemic collapse and renewing democracy Demos is Britain’s leading cross-party think-tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events.

Authors consider the case for democratic repair: what practices generate legitimacy, help build democratic resilience and restore institutional trust.

Read the full paper here: demos.co.uk/research/ver...

When verification, deliberation and accountability are simulated, democracy itself becomes a performance.

The VDA framework - authors argue - must be embedded across the whole of society, inc. education, civic empowerment and investigative infrastructure.

The paper introduces the Arc of Democracy to visualise how systems move between functional and disordered states:

✅ Substantial - truth tested, voices heard, power constrained
⚙️ Performative - institutions go through the motions
⚠️ Disordered - democracy appears functional, but substance is inverted

Together, they form the VDA Framework: the minimum structure democracy needs to survive.

The framework allows us to identify when a functioning democracy has hollowed, and when it’s completely collapsed into simulation.