Ehsan Dehghan

On May 28, I'll be the keynote speaker at the Inaugural conference of Congreso H (Hermes) in Spain, online edition. I'll talk about the reinvention of journalistic verifiability across platforms and AI ecosystems. My first time presenting my research in Spanish! www.congresoh.com/schedule/con...

Brilliant comments/thread! Very well put, Tim

Made it to my final seminar (thesis pre-defence) today - thanks to the efforts and support of my supervisors, research participants, and many others.

Kateryna Kasianenko presenting her opening slide.

Wonderful to see another excellent @qutdmrc.bsky.social PhD student reach her final seminar milestone – @kkasianenko.bsky.social with a thesis on cosmopolitan responses to the Russian war on Ukraine. 🇺🇦 🫶

Abbiamo pubblicato un nuovo bando nella sezione PhD - Dottorati di Ricerca / SU. Per informazioni, clicca qui. Avviso pubblicato il giorno 8/5/2025 con scadenza 10/6/2025

Serving on the PhD admission committee this year. We're offering two scholarships in Digital Culture and Communication—one specifically for international candidates.

Know talented candidates passionate about digital culture? Send them our way!

Details: www.uniurb.it/concorsi/9085

"At the root of our problems with social media is... a mistake: that we delegated to profit-seeking businesses what I call “the space of the world”."

Read @couldrynick.bsky.social s piece for @lsereviewofbooks.bsky.social

blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities...

Giovanni Boccia Artieri, Axel Bruns, Ehsan Dehghan, Laura Iannelli Fringe Democracy and the Platformization of the Public Sphere ABSTRACT This article introduces the concept of «fringe democracy» as a multidimensional phenomenon emerging in the contemporary public sphere when alternative digital platforms (spaces/affordances/governance patterns), marginalized actors (groups/practices/ideologies), and heterodox narratives (contents/imaginaries/representations) challenge liberal democratic processes. Fringe democracy is not merely about the rise of non-mainstream platforms but arises from complex interactions between fringe and mainstream platforms, actors, and narratives (as shown by recent changes in mainstream platform moderation practices, which reduce fringe actors’ dependence on alternative, freer spaces). While some marginalized actors may propose heterodox narratives driven by democratic values, fringe democracy functions as a form of pseudo-democracy from the margins, [...]

🗽 Big day for new publications: the special issue of _Comunicazione Politica_ that @gboccia.bsky.social, @essideh.com, Laura Iannelli, and I edited has now come out, and includes our introduction on Fringe Democracy and the Platformisation of the Public Sphere.

www.rivisteweb.it/do...

The lives and afterlives of community-created bots on Twitter: A minor history - Dominique Carlon, Jean Burgess, Kateryna Kasianenko, 2025 This article presents a minor history of the beneficial community-created bots that once flourished on Twitter, showcasing their important but overlooked role i...

Remember when social media was sometimes good, thanks to users and what they built? We do! Please check out this 'minor history' of Twttr and its community-created bots from @domcarlon.bsky.social @kkasianenko.bsky.social & me, out now in Convergence journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Untangling the Furball: A Practice Mapping Approach to the Analysis of Multimodal Interactions in Social Networks - Axel Bruns, Kateryna Kasianenko, Vish Padinjaredath Suresh, Ehsan Dehghan, Laura Vod... This article introduces the analytical approach of practice mapping, using vector embeddings of network actions and interactions to map commonalities and disjun...

💡 NEW ARTICLE ALERT 💡

My article with @qutdmrc.bsky.social colleagues @kkasianenko.bsky.social, @vishneww.bsky.social, @essideh.com, and @voddenlaura.bsky.social is now out in Social Media + Society.

We introduce a new analytics method: #PracticeMapping.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

"It is not about whether such technology will be good or bad for society... those who control the production and use of information technology will shape it in ways that are good for some and destructive for others" (Mosco, 1982, p. 8)

Our @techpolicypress.bsky.social article is based on our recent paper examining Community Notes through the lens of humour. We find that CN enacts a narrow conception of disinformation that is ill-equipped to address hate and harm. eprints.qut.edu.au/254907/1/Mat...

Our piece on Community Notes and its narrow understanding of the disinformation problem is now live on @techpolicypress.bsky.social. It is based on our paper on the topic, which can be found here: eprints.qut.edu.au/254907/1/Mat...

Our article 'The discursive function of the Meta Newsroom' is out!

In it, me, @essideh.com, @voddenlaura.bsky.social, and @antmandan.bsky.social examine how Meta's blog framed issues to do with mis/disinfo, hate speech, etc on Meta platforms during 2016-2021.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

(3/3) This, as we show using Meta's newsroom as an example, has significant implications for policy.
In light of recent developments in Meta, and how they used the news room to frame them, this article is even more timely and important than we imagined when we started the project.

(2/3) That is, only parts of a problem (existing or imaginary) that the platform thinks they can 'solve' using their technological arsenal are cherry-picked, and the whole problem is then re-framed via the newsroom. The more real and pressing problems, though, are often kept out of the frame.

(1/3) Platform news rooms, prima facie, are spaces where they tell the world what they're doing or plan to do. However, ultima facie, they are far more than that. They set the boundaries of the discursive by defining the problems constrained to (often limited) solutions.

🚨🚨 New publication with @eddyhurc.bsky.social, @antmandan.bsky.social, and @voddenlaura.bsky.social:

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

(thread below)

Age of Doubt - Monash University Publishing Today, trust seems harder to find than ever before. It's hardly surprising we feel that way. Our politics is polarised, our online world is awash with misinformation, and we’ve lost faith in our bedro...

Pre-orders are now open for AGE OF DOUBT. Edited by Tracey Kirkland and Gavin Fang, this book is a collection of essays by global experts on trust in the world today.

My essay looks at bots and moral panic as we hurtle into the future of Generative AI.

publishing.monash.edu/product/age-...

Amidst Meta's content moderation changes, @nadiajude.bsky.social and I have a new paper in press on how the 'Community Notes' model corrects narrow understandings of the disinformation problem eprints.qut.edu.au/254907/1/Mat... We're also preparing a piece for Tech Policy Press that we'll share soon

Meta is abandoning fact checking – this doesn’t bode well for the fight against misinformation Numerous studies have shown that fact checking has helped reduce the spread of misinformation and disinformation online.

Some reflections with colleagues @nedwatt.bsky.social and @riedlinm.bsky.social at @theconvo-bot.bsky.social on Meta's decision to end its professionally funded fact-checking model in its platforms and adopt the X crowdsourcing model with a new 'community notes'👇 theconversation.com/meta-is-aban...

A poster titled “The 5 Ws of Online Safety” with photos of presenters and a written abstract.

If you’re at Woodford this year, come listen to @essideh.bsky.social @antmandan.bsky.social, Benson Rajan and me talk about online safety!

29 December, 6:15-7:15pm at the Arbour

@qutdmrc.bsky.social

Fact-Checkers Around the World: Regional, Comparative, and Institutional Perspectives Thematic Issue, Vol 12 (2024)

What are the main challenges for the global fact-checking movement?

Our new open access issue explores the institutional dynamics and regional variations of fact-checking organizations worldwide.

Issue: shortt.link/mac458bsky

Politicization and Radicalization of Discourses in the Alt-Tech Ecosystem: A Case Study on Gab Social - Ehsan Dehghan, Ashwin Nagappa, 2022 With the increasing popularity of some alternative social media platforms, the flow of information has to some extent shifted from the periphery to the core, wh...

This was imported from the other platform, so the thread is now broken. You can find the article here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

We made a starter pack of researchers affiliated with the QUT Digital Media Research Centre

So happy to be taking home the Top Paper award in Intergroup Communication, #ICA24. Many thanks to the best collaborators: @KKasianenko , @dom_carlon , and @ashwinnag, and generous funding from @qutdmrc. We analysed 16 years worth of submissions across 11 political subreddits.

EU warns Musk over 'illegal' disinformation on X after Israel attack Everything from video game and movie clips to old images of conflicts are being used to push false narratives across Elon Musk's platform.

🗞️ Very happy to see my excellent @qutdmrc.bsky.social colleague and PhD student @kkasianenko.bsky.social cited in the Japan Times today, commenting on the deluge of conflict mis- and disinformation on Xitter:
www.japantimes.co.jp/business/202...

Title slide for News Sharing and Partisanship: Tracking News Outlet Repertoires on Twitter over Time

Full slides for my #FoJ2023 paper with @flxvctr.bsky.social @essideh.bsky.social Laura Vodden are here – and much more analysis of these datasets is still to come:
snurb.info/node/2846

A screenshot of the post at snurb.info.

Canada's Facebook news ban, the #Voice referendum, #Robodebt, and that Facebook study: I've just updated the blog with some recent podcasts and opinion pieces (also featuring QUT DMRC colleagues @antmandan.bsky.social and @essideh.bsky.social)...
https://snurb.info/node/2808

The rise of #Robodebt: how Twitter activists pushed a government scandal from hashtags to a royal commission Twitter activists played a key role in the robodebt scandal, driving social pressure to end the unlawful welfare scheme.

In light of @robodebtRC 's report into #Robodebt, let's have a reminder about the crucial role of activists like @Asher_Wolf. We've tracked their pivotal role in the campaign since 2016. Some findings here by @snurb_dot_info & me, via @ConversationEDU

theconversation.com/the-rise-of-ro…

I had a chat with Steve Austin in yesterday’s Brisbane Drive @ABCaustralia , about the recent shifts in news consumption by young people, and challenges for journalists and news organisations.My bit start at around the 00:41:00 mark)

abc.net.au/brisbane/progr…