Prosocial Design Network

Seriously impressed with the two high school students who built an ML-driven app to short-circuit teens' smartphone dopamine loop.
www.primeopenaccess.com/scholarly-ar...

Instagram Tests Reels Algorithm Control Options Instagram's got a new Reels algorithm control tool — but will people actually use it?

Instagram rolls out giving users more control over their Reels algorithm:
www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagr...

According to new Pew data, mass social media continues to be central to our national public square - with over 50% of Americans getting at least some of their news from social media sites, and YouTube & TikTok taking a larger share. (Only 2% of us here at Bsky.) www.pewresearch.org/journalism/f...

Prosocial reactions: a new way to surface high-quality content Sparkable is pioneering a new way to evaluate the prosocial effects of a post.

The reactions platforms choose aren't neutral; they can cue division or inspire curiosity and understanding. So it's great to see Sparkable put "prosocial reactions" front and center. blog.sparkable.cc/prosocial-re...

Anonymity as a catalyst for good: Linking social media anonymity to prosocial behavior Social media anonymity is associated with cyberbullying and aggressive behavior. By the same token, such anonymity can promote positive outcomes. The …

New study challenges the conventional wisdom that anonymity and prosocial behavior are at odds.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Meta Updates Community Notes, Shares Stats on Usage Meta says that it now has over 70k Community Notes contributors.

Meta update on Community Notes. Interestingly they've added a feature to alert users who previously engaged with a post that a Community Note was later added. That's important because Notes most often don't appear until well into a post's life-cycle.
www.socialmediatoday.com/news/meta-ad...

Pinterest Expands Alerts To Get Teens off the App During School Pinterest has been testing the prompts in North America.

Pinterest is expanding its school-hour prompt to "take a break" from the app. We're not aware of internal tests, but research suggests these interventions can be effective at reducing time on distracting apps (www.prosocialdesign.org/library/digi...).
www.socialmediatoday.com/news/pintere...

A paper from over a year ago: research participants were only able to correctly identify AI agents from humans in an online discussion 42% of the time (even when told to expect AI agents). Odds are that percentage would be much lower today.
arxiv.org/html/2402.07...

Thanks for calling our attention to Semble, @newpublic.org. What a great use of ATProto to harness expert knowledge!

An RCT with 269 Danish teens shows that two smartphone interventions - forcing a brief breathing exercise or asking teens to plan the length of their session - dropped social media phone use 36%. A third intervention, asking them to reflect on their use, had no effect.
en.kfst.dk/media/5t4dsc...

LinkedIn Outlines New Measures To Combat Fake Engagement LinkedIn has officially noted that it will reduce the visibility of comments made via automation tools.

One platform is taking steps to keep its engagement authentic and bot-lite:
www.socialmediatoday.com/news/linkedi...

Introducing the First Cohort of AI x Truth-Seeking Grant Winners Meet the 27 builders advancing open inquiry and intellectual freedom in AI

More ways GenAI is working for the public good:
blog.cosmos-institute.org/p/introducin...

Developing a Measure of Community Health in Games Let’s talk about (digital) community health.

It comes up a lot in conversations at PDN: how would you create a measure of platform prosociality? It looks like Rachel Kowert has been thinking for a while along the same lines, but in games. A thoughtful read from an expert gaming T&S.
rachelkowert.substack.com/p/developing...

We love a literature review. This one looks at how tech interventions - everything from social media reduction to conversation robots - can reduce loneliness and isolation. 40 RCTs with mixed results - and group psychological interventions (below) for the win.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Japan’s Yahoo News site has AI feature asking commenter to reconsider vulgar words, phrases Offensive comments posted on the site declined by over 20% since the feature was introduced.

Update: Yahoo Japan now reports seeing a 24% drop in offensive comments since instituting the feature: asianews.network/japans-yahoo...

The dream of the Fediverse is alive on Threads Decentralized media is off to an agonizingly slow start — but there are glimmers of progress

Casey Newton charts one small - but promising - step in building the fediverse (which - in concept - could free users from platform fiefdoms).
www.platformer.news/threads-fedi...

The New Digg’s Plan to Use AI for Community Moderation Humans weigh in.

Something to keep an eye on: According to CJR, Digg is reinventing itself using AI/LLM-fueled content moderation that look like they could include some prosocial interventions, like intervening to de-escalate tense conversations, "allowing users to dig deeper."
www.cjr.org/analysis/new...

Healthier Personalization with Surveys Leif Sigerson | Senior Data Scientist, Data Platforms Science, Stephanie Chen | Staff Quantitative Product Researcher, Product Research…

We've shared before about efforts to foster "Better Feeds" that create long-term value - as opposed to short-term dopamine hits - for users. One strategy is to rely on user surveys (over, say, clicks) - an approach Pinterest recently wrote about from their experience: medium.com/pinterest-en...

A year in the making, the Council on Technology and Social Cohesion's Blueprint on "Prosocial Tech Design Governance" is out - and gives platforms and policy makers a guide to building spaces that foster social cohesion, "the glue that holds society together."
toda.org/assets/files...

X Implements New Measures To Detect Manipulation of Community Notes X has added a new method to detect coordinated notes activity.

One of the critiques of Community Notes is that they can be gamed - and so can be biased. It looks like X has taken note: www.socialmediatoday.com/news/x-forme...

Yahoo! News Japan Introduces AI-Powered Comment Review System Yahoo! News Japan introduces AI-powered "Comment Review Model" to promote healthier discussions by suggesting revisions to potentially offensive comments.

Japan may be ahead of the curve in using AI to foster healthy discussions. Yahoo! News, one of Japan's most popular sites, suggests ways users can rephrase their comments to be more constructive - going back to last fall.
www.thepickool.com/yahoo-news-j...

Expanding TikTok's Mental Health Education Fund and well-being features - Newsroom | TikTok Today, we're launching new initiatives to champion well-being and enhance reliable mental health information from trusted sources on TikTok. We're launching in-app guided meditation exercises for our ...

TikTok looks like it's taking teen sleep seriously - by adding default guided meditation for anyone under 18 opening their app after 10pm. Even more surprising: in tests they say 98% of teens keep meditating. (18+ can also turn on default meditation after hours.)
newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/tiktok...

TSF Matchmaking Pilot Program For the past few years, TSF has convened groups and connected both people and organizations on an informal basis as part of our goal to share knowledge and facilitate advancements in trust and safety....

If you work in the Trust & Safety field in academia, industry, civil society (nonprofit) or government (policymaker) and are looking for informal or formal cross-sector collaborations - the Trust and Safety Foundation just started a pilot "Matchmaking" program to help connect you:

Addressing excessive social media use: effects of perceived intrusiveness and psychological reactance on compliance with Douyin healthy use reminders Purpose Excessive social media use has emerged as a pressing issue in recent years, prompting concerns about its adverse effects on users’ physical and mental well-being. In response to these concerns...

Douyin, like its international counterpart TikTok, uses "health use reminders" to cut down on phone addiction. A new survey of Chinese college students suggests why they may not be working...
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Pinterest Tests Alerts To Keep Teens off the App During School Hours Pinterest is backing several measures to curb potentially harmful app usage.

It looks like Pinterest is testing an intervention that prompts teens not to use the app during school hours. We hope they make their test results public!
www.socialmediatoday.com/news/pintere...

CLR:SKY CLR:SKY is a Bluesky interface enhancement designed to shift the tone of public discourse within the platform. Whether you need a quick rewording suggestion, a tone check, or help seeing a different...

Just discovered CLR:SKY, a Bsky add-on that builds on SO many promising trends in prosocial design: (1) using LLMs and (2) middleware to (3) empower us all to (4) have more productive - and healthier - conversations on line.
www.clrsky.ai

Great new report from Devika Malik and the Toda Peace Institute on the state of prosocial regulation in the Global South. techandsocialcohesion.org/wp-content/u...

Is it prosocial design’s time to shine? With some platforms retreating from a reactive, enforcement-driven approach to Trust & Safety, there’s a stronger case than ever to lean into proactive and prosocial practices that prevent toxicity fr...

Great to see Alice Hunsberger @ Everything in moderation ask the question "Is it prosocial design's time to shine?" You know our answer!

New preprint takes a creative approach to reducing the spread of disinformation (and possibly outrage-laden posts) - by drawing people's attention to the emotional content of a post. Extra plus: it's non-Western study (this one's from Japan). arxiv.org/pdf/2503.24037

[PUBLIC] Communities Research_02.25.2025_Final_Published 1 REMODELING THE INTERNET

The Verge asked 2,000 people what they wanted from digital spaces. Their answer: (small) communities and (human) connection.
docs.google.com/presentation...