Is Britain really an Island of Strangers? #Migration and #racism in a global authoritarian moment
2025 Social Scientists Against the Hostile Environment in person conference, 19-20 jun in London #socialScience
https://ssahe.net/2025/05/16/2025-ssahe-in-person-conference-june/

How do we feel about channel.org ??? I just blocked their whole domain after their bot @ socialsciences @ channel.org boosted two of my posts, my most recent post about a neat research article and my intro post pinned on top of my profile.

I looked at the channel.org faq and they claim they are not scraping or indexing the Fediverse, just boosting hashtag use and sometimes following people.

Boosting my intro post from November smells like scraping or indexing.

They describe themselves, “Channel.org is a non-profit membership service that helps you take ownership of your presence, content and communities on the web.” But I don’t see any evidence of community on their site.

Anybody have some insights or experiences to share? Thoughts on the block?

If you try to post this on Facebook, FB will put your comment/post in moderation. [This happened to me and others in a FB group.] So I am posting here.
American Government: Constitutional Foundations: Learn how early American politics informed the U.S. Constitution and why its promise of liberty and equality has yet to be fully realized.
Free course from Harvard.
https://pll.harvard.edu/course/american-government-constitutional-foundations
#USConstitution #Harvard #OpenAccess #SocialScience #PoliticalScience

Article: Generative AI agents can simulate the attitudes of 1,000 real people using LLMs and interview data—achieving 85% alignment with original survey answers. A powerful tool for testing theories, but not without ethical risks.

#AI #SimulatedSocieties #GenerativeAI #SocialScience #Policy

https://hai.stanford.edu/policy/simulating-human-behavior-with-ai-agents

New #wjds paper published:

Author Xin Ye explores how online platforms use manipulative, attention-grabbing tactics that undermine user autonomy. Current #EU laws fall short - this study offers 3 key policy fixes.

Read more: https://doi.org/10.34669/wi.wjds/5.3.2

The paper is part of a special issue on "Well-being in the Digital World"

@dougaparry #DarkPatterns #AddictiveDesign #TechEthics #DigitalRights #PlatformRegulation #GDPR #DSA #research #law #socialscience #computerscience

Neue Publikation:

Wie beeinflusst alltäglicher #SocialMedia Konsum politische Einstellungen und Beteiligung?

Mit dieser Frage befasst sich das neue Buch von WI-Forscherin Merja Mahrt in der gemeinsamen Publikationsreihe des Weizenbaum-Instituts mit @BeLapoBi

https://www.weizenbaum-institut.de/news/detail/neue-publikation-meinungsbildung-und-soziale-medien/

What if we viewed digital economies not just as systems, but as labor-atories - sites of active class struggle and experimentation? In his new #wjds paper, Rafael Grohmann (@uoft) explores how digital labor in Latin America reflects this dynamic.

https://doi.org/10.34669/wi.wjds/5.1.6

#research #socialscience #work #DigitalLabor #DigitalEconomies #PlatformWork #LatinAmerica #GlobalSouth #DigitalSovereignty #AI #DataColonialism #TechGovernance #WorkerOrganizing
@DAIR @towardsfairwork

"Conventional educational strategies in combatting post-truth seem to emphasize merits of truth, evidence, and reason. Such focus misses key elements of the post-truth era. It ignores the political dynamics that engulf science as well as the antiscience campaign that is deliberately carried out and amplified in the public domain. Post-truth demands a cultural shift in science education to ensure that sociological and political contexts of science are explicitly taught and understood."

Easier and more plausible with delivery of some remedial education in relevant #SocialScience-- for the educators themselves.

#PostTruth
#Misinformation
#ScienceEducation

https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.adx5458?af=R

The Weizenbaum Report 2025 is now available in English. The study features key figures on political participation in Germany, showing that 2024 was a year marked by protest. At the same time, the upper middle class is retreating from social engagement.

More: https://www.weizenbaum-institut.de/en/news/detail/protestjahr-2024-mehr-demonstrationen-weniger-engagement-der-bessergestellten/

@freieuniversitaet @WZB_Berlin @tuberlin @CAISnrw @zevedi @unipotsdam @FOKUSpublic
@ECDF @HumboldtUni #research #media #socialmedia #socialscience

How do recommendation algorithms shape science content on social media? Weizenbaum scholars Clarissa Walter & Sascha Friesike have investigated this question in a two-year ethnography at a German Public Broadcast Service.

Read their paper via JCom: https://jcom.sissa.it/article/pubid/JCOM_2402_2025_A02/

Which structural features are important in shaping countries' vulnerability & resistance to disinformation amid democratic decline?

A #wjds paper by Antonia Peißker, Mike Cowburn, @ulrikeklinger highlights factors to consider when assessing #disinformation resilience. The paper examines countries that are experiencing various degrees of democratic backsliding, like Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.

https://doi.org/10.34669/wi.wjds/5.2.2

“Meta’s recent changes are part of a larger shift by US tech companies to align with conservative leaders, which will have implications for global efforts towards information integrity.”

New #wjds paper by Ned Watt, Silvia Montaña-Niño, and Michelle Riedlinger:

https://doi.org/10.34669/wi.wjds/5.2.1

#AcademicJob | #PostDoc

Postdoctoral Scholar – Visual and Digital Cultures

University of Antwerp, Belgium

Full-time 3-year postdoc in #ERC project ReWorkChange on remote work and social change. Ethnographic research in #Mexico required. PhD in #Anthropology, #Sociology, #CommunicationStudies or related fields. Fluency in English and Spanish essential. Start: 01/10/2025.

Deadline: 22/05/2025

https://jobs.apeng.uantwerpen.be/psc/apeng/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM_FL.HRS_CG_SEARCH_FL.GBL?Page=HRS_APP_JBPST_FL&Action=U&FOCUS=Applicant&SiteId=310&JobOpeningId=3937&PostingSeq=1

CC @academicjobs

White Americans in areas with higher Black poverty more likely to attribute racial disparities to lack of effort: Study

https://phys.org/news/2025-04-white-americans-areas-higher-black.html

Do commercial content moderation APIs over- or under-moderate group-targeted #HateSpeech? David Hartmann (WI & @tuberlin) takes on this question in a paper to be presented at the renowned @chi Conference.

He & his colleagues @ Hertie School, @CAISnrw & @uni_wuppertal recommend that API providers offer better guidance on API implementation & more transparency on their limitations.

More: https://www.weizenbaum-institut.de/news/detail/lost-in-content-moderation/

Join us on June 4 & 5, 2025 for the 7th Weizenbaum Conference “Empowering People in Online Spaces: Democracy and Well-being in Digital Societies”

Register now: https://www.weizenbaum-conference.de/

#Democracy #Empowerment #Community #Power #DigitalResearch #WIConf25 #research #science #socialscience #humanities #economy #psychology

@freieuniversitaet @WZB_Berlin @FraunhoferFOKUS @unipotsdam @zevedi @CAISnrw @BerlinUAlliance

The ANU HASS Digital Research Hub is advertising a research software engineering position, to contribute to the Social Science Research Infrastructure Network (SSRIN) project, funded by ARDC and led by University of Queensland. It would be a great role for someone interested in computational social science and/or research software engineering.

https://jobs.anu.edu.au/jobs/research-software-engineer-social-science-research-infrastructure-network-canberra-act-act-australia

Please circulate to your networks.