Leticia Bode

Why Commercial Tools Can Scrape Social Media But Researchers Can't | TechPolicy.Press Brandon Silverman explains how researchers face barriers to social media data under the DSA, while corporations can buy full access.

Despite new EU transparency laws, researchers are still blocked from vital social media data, while corporations buy the same information freely, argues Brandon Silverman. The result: a two-tier system that shields platforms from scrutiny and weakens democratic oversight.

Why Platform Data is Essential to Public Health Efforts in Tobacco Control | TechPolicy.Press Social media platforms are a key avenue for tobacco control research, but as George Pearson argues data access barriers hinder efforts to monitor impacts.

Think platform data from social media only matters for election or disinformation research? Think again. George Pearson, a researcher at the Truth Initiative, shows it’s vital for public health—revealing how tobacco companies can target youth, dodge regulations, and influence policy.

📣Announcing our new series with @techpolicypress.bsky.social "Seeing the Digital Sphere: The Case for Public Platform Data". Should we be able to understand the risks kids face online? How businesses target consumers? How politicians communicate? These qs depend on access to public platform data. 👇

There is More Online Election Discourse than Ever, But Researchers See Less | TechPolicy.Press Josephine Lukito and Kaitlyn Dowling explore why public social media data is vital for transparent elections and accountability in the digital campaign era.

Another in our series, Seeing the Digital Sphere: The Case for Public Platform Data. This week’s elections show how central social media has become to campaigns with politicians on nearly every platform. But as Josephine Lukito and Kaitlyn Dowling explain, access to this data is shrinking.

📣 Online platforms shape what we know, how we connect, and who gets heard, yet researcher access to public platform data is shrinking, while platforms monetize this data. Our new report "Better Access" offers a framework for accessing this critical data: kgi.georgetown.edu/research-and...

Online platforms shape what we know, how we connect & who gets heard. In partnership with KGI, we are launching a new series, Seeing the Digital Sphere: The Case for Public Platform Data. The series starts today, with an essay from Leticia Bode & Peter Chapman.
www.techpolicy.press/seeing-the-d...

Come work with us! We are a fun and scrappy team. :)

It must be weird to be a kid in DC ("free lemonade until the government shutdown is over!") . 😂

How common are “survey professionals” - people who take dozens of online surveys for pay - across online panels, and do they harm data quality?

Our paper, FirstView at @politicalanalysis.bsky.social, tackles this question using browsing data from three U.S. samples (Facebook, YouGov, and Lucid):

Come hang out with us and talk about data access! #tsrconf

From funding gaps to legal threats, the report shows what blocks public interest research - but also affirms our shared belief: that independent technology research is key to a just, transparent, and equitable digital future.

Read and share! (2/2)

independenttechresearch.org/citr-report-...

Chapter 8 of our book is all about science communicators, happy to share if you think it would be helpful!

Totally agree. We have some forthcoming work that looks at bot corrections but it's really just scratching the surface.

Great question! The answer is no not really. We talk some about LLMs in the conclusion but most of the research predates their proliferation.

And if Chapter One convinces you, use discount code AUFLY30 for 30% off the paperback here global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Introduction Abstract. This chapter introduces the core concept of the book, observed correction, which occurs when direct public corrections of misinformation are witn

Want to get a sense of my book with @ekvraga.bsky.social but not ready to commit? @oxfordacademic.bsky.social has released Chapter One free and downloadable for the next month. academic.oup.com/book/60489/c...

How was the Texas SB8 abortion bill reported in the news? A content analysis of headlines across news organizations In 2021, the Texas state legislature passed a bill (SB8) prohibiting abortion after six weeks and facilitating lawsuits against providers and aiders of abortions. In order to understand the nature ...

50 free eprints at this link - www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TQQB5...

How was the Texas SB8 abortion bill reported in the news? A content analysis of headlines across news organizations In 2021, the Texas state legislature passed a bill (SB8) prohibiting abortion after six weeks and facilitating lawsuits against providers and aiders of abortions. In order to understand the nature ...

There's nothing better than seeing a student project all the way through to publication! 🤩

Check out How was the Texas SB8 abortion bill reported in the news? A content analysis of headlines across news organizations www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Writing Through My Policy Depression It's been a bad week on top of a bad month on top of a bad year. What to do?

danieldrezner.substack.com/p/writing-th...

Feel this in my bones (via @dandrezner.bsky.social ). "it’s been a shitty week on top of a shitty month on top of a shitty year."

h/t @cmfrumin.bsky.social 's newsletter.

Any DC friends thinking about adopting a pet? Fees are waived this Saturday!

Leylah Fernandez’s marathon of an upset sends her to the DC Open final The young Canadian sweated out a rally past Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina to advance in three sets. She’ll face Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya in Sunday’s final.

Tennis player Emma Raducanu on DC heat: "Different level...I think the humidity here as well, it just makes it feel completely like you have just opened an oven and it just stayed open and your head is in there.”

Yep.

wapo.st/4fi8bTM

Anyone have a great system for incorporating more work-related books into your life? (I do fine making time for fiction...)

I really want to make progress on my towering stacks of books to be read this fall (partly just because at some point they will fall over and crush me and while that would be a totally appropriate way for me to die, I'd still prefer to avoid it).

Stupid questions for folks in information integrity spaces. Where did the 3 D's concept (downrank, deplatform, demonetize) originate? @mantzarlis.com @craigsilverman.bsky.social @bgoldberg.bsky.social @alexleavitt.bsky.social @commscholar.bsky.social @brendannyhan.bsky.social @jianingli.bsky.social

This book wouldn't exist without Andy's support way back in 2017!

@alissacooper.bsky.social, upon hearing I used to have a pet snake: "Yea, that's on brand." 😆

Special issue of Political Communication CFP on "the political communication dynamics at work in democratic decline—and in democratic resilience" - full manuscripts due December 15.
think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...

One of the fun parts of my job as research director at KGI is occasionally briefing my colleagues on exciting new research. What are y'all seeing/doing lately on platform design, tech competition, or other related topics?