WHAT-IF

In addition to the original UK results, we have now ***replicated*** this (TWICE) in the US.

The main findings hold strong: information diets are a lot more diverse in attention than in engagement.

New version here: osf.io/preprints/os...

Interested in how social simulations can be used in democracy research? Check out our sister project #TWIN4DEM at #IC2S2 👇

Screenshot of our paper "Missing the Margins: A Systematic Literature Review on the Demographic Representativeness of LLMs"

Details about what we annotated in our systematic review

Do LLMs represent the people they're supposed simulate or provide personalized assistance to?

We review the current literature in our #ACL2025 Findings paper and investigating what researchers conclude about the demographic representativeness of LLMs:
osf.io/preprints/so...

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dark blue background. on it, there is text saying "The Delegated Act on 40.4 DATA ACCESS is here", "Delegated Act on 40.4 DATA ACCESS" is yellow, the other text is white.

📢 Big news for platform researchers across Europe and beyond:

Today, the @ec.europa.eu adopted the Delegated Act for Article 40 of the Digital Services Act (DSA) – a long-anticipated milestone enabling researchers to request access to non-public platform data under Article 40.4.

FINALLY 😌

The Delegated Act is here.

The Act clarifies rules for data access under the Digital Services Act #DSA

#dataaccess #research #eusky #commsky #polisky #csssky

digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/d...

About the challenges of platform data access and our approach to data donation Accessing data from social media platforms remains a major obstacle for researchers studying digital media. Despite existing EU legislation on data access, “the actual delivery of data by platforms…

Questions?? Ask @andreucasas.bsky.social @vanatteveldt.com, Andreu Rodilla, Nienke Visscher, @maxvandrunen.bsky.social and Kasper Welbers from our team.

Read more: what-if-horizon.eu/2025/06/26/a...

As the Digital Services Act creates new data access rights, regulators must ensure tools meet researchers' practical needs. We need reliable, standardized, well-documented data—not just access!!
The future of independent digital media research depends on this.

This cross-platform, cross-country research has never been done at this scale. Our dynamic workflow handles structural variations between donations and platforms, which is cool and crucial for field research where code can't break.

**But** technical fixes obviously aren't enough...

The technical challenge: Each platform uses different formats (HTML, JSON, JS) with structures that change without notice. Only X documents its format. Our solution automatically identifies data fields, maps variables in nested structures, and extracts info while avoiding sensitive data.

About the challenges of platform data access and our approach to data donation Accessing data from social media platforms remains a major obstacle for researchers studying digital media. Despite existing EU legislation on data access, “the actual delivery of data by platforms…

Accessing social media data is currently tricky for researchers. Even if we get access, platforms deliver inconsistent, poorly documented data in different formats. Our WHAT-IF team found a way to handle Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube & TikTok donations dynamically across 4 countries.

A thread 🧵

On my way to Madrid-EPSA! Please join in if you want to hear about (political biases? in) content moderation on YouTube during the 2024 US Election, and/or about using open-source Large Visual Language Models (VLMs) for supervised multimodal classification in political science research.

PostDoc (Computational) Communication Science - TWON Project Do you enjoy engaging in cutting-edge research as part of a larger European team? answering theoretically and societally important communication science questions? applying computational approaches yo...

I have a postdoc vacancy - www.academictransfer.com/nl/jobs/3528... at the TWON-project (twon-project.eu). Because the project runs only until 2025-03-31, the contract is limited - but maybe of interest for somebody who is just about to finish a PhD and needs something temporary?

@vanatteveldt.com, @aytalina.bsky.social, @cboussalis.bsky.social, @rupertkiddle.com, @maxpe.bsky.social, @anniewald.bsky.social, @dgarcia.eu
@compcommlab.bsky.social

WHAT-IF team members met in Konstanz last week to design the WHAT-IF machine—an agent-based simulation with LLM-driven agents. It models media ecosystems to test 'what if' policy scenarios. Curious how? Read more: what-if-horizon.eu/2025/05/16/o...

Watch this video of @arodilla.bsky.social to learn more about WHAT-IF!

Democracy in the Digital Age: Introducing the TWIN4DEM Approach
🗓 Date: 14 May 2024
📍 Location: Online
⏳ Duration: 2 hours
🌍 Language: English

Fill out the online form forms.gle/XD6aLQeNV9wB... to express interest.

More information here: twin4dem.eu/call-for-par...

The future of the internet is likely smaller communities, with a focus on curated experiences As brands look to hold onto the internet of the past, the term “community” will become a loaded word.

The future of the internet is likely smaller communities, with a focus on curated experiences

Better Feeds: Algorithms That Put People First – Knight-Georgetown Institute

🚨 NEW REPORT – Better Feeds: Algorithms That Put People First 🚨
As policymakers around the globe grapple with addressing concerns about algorithms, KGI’s new report offers guidance on improving the design of algorithmic systems that shape billions of users’ digital lives.
bit.ly/3QzxVzq

Academic Misinformation Researchers are Still Under Attack Researchers analyzing misinformation deserve to be defended — and the campaign to end their work threatens the right to free speech.

MAGA forces are once again attacking researchers studying online misinformation and social media manipulation. In this article for Just Security, I write about what's going on at Indiana University, University of North Carolina, and other schools: www.justsecurity.org/109030/acade...

Great opportunity for those interested in (LLM-based) agents! Don’t miss the *extended* deadline for SemGenAge at ESWC 2025!

The workshop is organized by our collaborators from the project TWON –– for questions, reach out to the organizing committee: Achim Rettinger, @damiantrilling.net, and Marko Grobelnik

🚀 Attention social simulation enthusiasts!

Working with LLM agents in social simulations or exploring how to bridge LLMs & semantic web technologies? Join this interdisciplinary workshop in Portorož, Slovenia (June 1-2)

📢 SemGenAge @ #ESWC2025
📅 CfP DL: March 6
🔗 www.twon-project.eu/semgenage25/

We are excited to be part of the WHAT-IF project! Looking forward to work with the incredible people and achieve great things!

🙌✨

We’re thrilled that the CCL is part of this incredible project! 🎉 @anniewald.bsky.social & @aytalina.bsky.social will contribute to agent-based modeling and simulations, while @hajoboo.bsky.social & @julaluehring.bsky.social will be engaged in science communication. Exciting collaborations ahead 🚀

We’re grateful to have you 🙌

Great vibes at the kick-off of WHAT-IF, our new Horizon project to explore how we can use synthetic data for policy simulations. Really looking forward to working with this great group of people!

🙌

WHAT-IF is led by Wouter van Atteveldt and powered by the excellent people in the photo, including @cboussalis.bsky.social as well as Auksė Balčytienė, Ana Sofia Cardinal, Nicoleta Corbu, @astaze.bsky.social, @eavi-medialiteracy.bsky.social and @internewshq.bsky.social 🇪🇺

Big thanks to you all! 🙌

Lastly, Stefania Milan's work package evaluates the legal, ethical, and normative aspects of the project and @hajoboo.bsky.social and @marikenvelden.bsky.social & team focus on sharing project outcomes with diverse stakeholders, including policymakers, NGOs, researchers, and citizens.