Stanford Tech Impact and Policy Center

Join us today at 12pm PT as our #FallSeminarSeries wraps up with a discussion on school smartphone bans. ⤵️

AI rivals humans in political persuasion New research reveals that people find AI-delivered political arguments convincing. This could help bridge political divides – or fuel polarization.

@robbwiller.bsky.social, Director of our #AI and the Future of #SocialScience program, spoke with the Stanford Report about his recent research showing that AI-generated political messages can be as persuasive as those developed by humans.

Learn more ⤵️

What does the early evidence tell us about school #SmartphoneBans?

Don’t miss the final seminar in our fall series, featuring Hunt Allcott, professor at @stanforddoerr.bsky.social.

RSVP to join us in person or online on Tuesday, December 2!
🔗 stanford.io/47Sb7o3

One week left! Submit your paper for the Journal of Online Trust & Safety’s Spring 2026 general issue. ⤵️

🗓 Key Dates

➤ Peer-reviewed research articles due: December 1, 2025
➤ Commentaries due: March 1, 2026
➤ Publication date: April 2026

👉 Submit Your Paper
bit.ly/4oi8b97

#JOTS #TrustAndSafety

Angela Lee of the Stanford Social Media Lab Earns Doctorate for Social

At the core of Angela’s doctoral research is an exploration of the ways we talk about social media's role in society—especially through metaphors like the "digital town square," and how different framings influence well-being and perceptions of overall social cohesion.

Learn more on our blog:

The Tech Impact and Policy Center is proud to celebrate Dr. Angela Lee, who successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, “Beyond the Digital Town Square: Identifying and Correcting Social Media Distortion Effects,” last week! 🎉

Read about our workshop on #AICompanions bringing together academic researchers, civil society experts, and members of industry to consider guidelines for the responsible deployment of #AI roleplaying chatbots and companions. ⤵️

I gave a talk at Stanford @techimpactpolicy.bsky.social on Tuesday, about my book "The Secret Life of Data" (written w @jesgilbert.bsky.social).

Check it out here:

Many social media users are stuck in a social trap: they would prefer not to use social media but could only do so if others stopped using it too.

Join us to hear from Leonardo Bursztyn about his research on the #SocialMediaTrap and potential tools to address it.

🎟️ stanford.io/4qWz05d

Cannot wait to meet with the Stanford folks to discuss “The Secret Life of Data"

Join us on Tuesday, November 11 for a seminar with @aramsinn.bsky.social, co-author of "The Secret Life of Data," to explore the unpredictable and often surprising ways in which data surveillance, #AI, and algorithms impact our culture and society.

🎟️ RSVP: stanford.io/3X6b8hM

Meet our Scholars: Yuewen Yang 2025-26 Pre-doctoral Fellow We’re thrilled to introduce one of the newest members of our team, pre-doctoral researcher Yuewen Yang. RT Rogers sat down with Yuewen to learn more about her work, her journey into the world of Human...

New to the #TIPCenter team, 2025-26 Predoctoral Researcher Yuewen Yang spoke with us about her work, her journey into the world of Human-Computer Interaction, and what she hopes to accomplish through her research.

Read the interview ⤵️

#MeetOurScholars

Determining Which Researchers Can Collect Public Data Under the DSA | TechPolicy.Press The DSA opens important opportunities for researchers collecting publicly available data, but leaves key questions unresolved, writes Daphne Keller.

In the first in a series of posts about data scraping & researcher rights under the EU’s #DigitalServicesAct, Director of Platform Regulation @daphnek.bsky.social outlines who can take advantage of the DSA’s protections, comparing three categories of researchers.

Read @techpolicypress.bsky.social ⤵️

November 4 | Dubious News and the Aging American: Understanding Discernment

Why do older adults engage more with #misinformation online, even when they often identify falsehoods correctly in surveys?

In our next #FallSeminarSeries talk, @benlyons.bsky.social of the University of Utah will investigate that paradox.

RSVP to join us in person or online on Tuesday, Nov. 4!

My latest with @techpolicypress.bsky.social piece on a key theme from the @techimpactpolicy.bsky.social's Trust and Research Conference. Includes @dwillner.bsky.social's keynote and presentations from @gligoric.bsky.social, @thejusticecollab.bsky.social's Matthew Katsaros and more.

Using the DSA to Study Platforms

Here is the first piece in a series of short articles I'm doing about the DSA and researcher access to publicly available information.

It focuses on categories of researchers under the DSA, and what data they are each authorized to use. 1/

verfassungsblog.de/dsa-platform...

Determining Which Researchers Can Collect Public Data Under the DSA | TechPolicy.Press The DSA opens important opportunities for researchers collecting publicly available data, but leaves key questions unresolved, writes Daphne Keller.

The European Commission just announced that, under the new DSA rules, researchers will gain access to data from large online platforms. Here's Daphne Keller's take on what the rules have said thus far and what it means for platform accountability research in Europe.

Join us today at 12PM PT!

👉 stanford.io/3WQP9v6

Sujata Mukherjee, @monaelswah.bsky.social, and Crystal Abidin are the guest editors of the special issue, which will explore the complex and contradictory challenges of content moderation in the Majority World.

#TrustAndSafety #JOTS #MajorityWorld

One week left!

Submit your abstract for the #JOTS special issue on Digital Intersectionality and Marginalization in the #MajorityWorld.

🗓️ Deadline: October 31, 2025
🔗 Learn more: bit.ly/4mZDjtb

#TrustAndSafety

The Blurred Truths of Sora Many will assume that OpenAI’s Sora app represents a new era of social media. But that’s wrong—all it does is reanimate our current one.

“It could mean that there might not be as much demand for this as we think because people actually like seeing authentic, real images of real people.”

Director Jeff Hancock spoke with @wired.com about how the #AI video app #Sora fits into the current social media landscape.

Are today’s #EdTech policymakers overlooking student expertise and civic interests?

Join us in person or online on Tuesday, October 28 for a seminar with @anterobot.bsky.social, who will examine current ed-tech policymaking around school buses, cell phones and generative #AI.

👉 stanford.io/3WQP9v6

Automating Content Policy AI is no longer just moderating individual posts — it is learning how to interpret and enforce policy itself. Dave Willner — who has led trust and safety teams at Facebook, Airbnb, and OpenAI — joins ...

I am forgetful about it self-promotion, so dropping a last minute link to note that I’m giving a talk Berkman Klein today. Come check it out if you’re free, or catch the recording later:

cyber.harvard.edu/events/autom...

Meet our scholars: Zac Smith-Russack 2025-26 Pre-Doctoral Fellow We're excited to introduce one of the newest members of the Tech Impact and Policy Center (TIP) team, pre-doctoral scholar Zac Smith-Russack. TIP Policy Analyst RT Rogers recently sat down with him to...

Pre-Doctoral Fellow Zac Smith-Russack, one of the newest members of the TIP Center team, spoke with us about his background in public health, his work on the Australian social media minimum age legislation evaluation, and what he does when he’s not at work digging into data.

#MeetOurScholars

Join us today at Stanford or online!

RSVP: stanford.io/43nrplQ

September 30 | Thwarted Values? The Quest for Digital Well-being in a Datafied Society YouTube video by Stanford Tech Impact and Policy Center

Are you the master of your digital life, or its slave?

In our first #FallSeminarSeries talk, leading scholar Mariek Vanden Abeele tackled this central paradox of our "always on" society, revealing how our quest for #DigitalWellbeing is a complex interplay of forces.

Watch the full video 🎥

Join us on Tuesday, October 21 for a #FallSeminarSeries talk by David Markowitz, who will draw on #NLP research to discuss how language patterns reveal underlying values in legacy and predict collective action, and how #AI can make science more accessible.

RSVP: https://stanford.io/43nrplQ

'Workslop' is on the rise, and it's starting to cause serious issues with productivity.

Researchers from @techimpactpolicy.bsky.social and Betterup Labs look at why this is happening and what can be done to keep poorly applied AI from running amok in the workplace. ow.ly/PFp550XbQQl

📢 Call for Proposals: #JOTS Special Issue on Digital Intersectionality and Marginalization in the Majority World 📢

We invite original research papers exploring #TrustAndSafety topics within the #MajorityWorld context.

Learn more and submit your abstracts by October 31. 🗓️

🔗 bit.ly/4mZDjtb

Join us today at 12PM PT for a talk by Fred Turner, who will argue that the recent moves of Silicon Valley companies and CEOs from California to Texas reflect a wider embrace of a set of beliefs anchored in the history of the Lone Star State: the Texas Ideology.

Details & RSVP: stanford.io/47dkpt9