The campus discourse would be far less shallow and volatile if folks were honest:

1. Protesting for Palestinians — Palestinian liberation or for a ceasefire — doesn’t make you a terrorist sympathizer or an antisemite.

2. Antisemitism, however pervasive, exists.

1/3

If you support the Palestinian people’s right to freedom and self-determination, please stop talking about “globalizing the Intifada” – I lived through the Second Intifada in Gaza, and I swear it was deadly, violent, painful, scary and I, along with many others, almost lost our

The Social Media & Society in India conference University of Michigan is on Apr 8-9, 2024, the largest conference of its kind featuring talks and workshops on culture, politics, industry, policy, and misinformation.

Register free to attend:

influencers.conference.si.umich.edu

Today World Central Kitchen lost several of our sisters and brothers in an IDF air strike in Gaza. I am heartbroken and grieving for their families and friends and our whole WCK family. These are people…angels…I served alongside in Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, Bahamas, Indonesia. They

It’s a fair question Pags.
There is something to agree and disagree about with both Trump and Biden and what they have done. Neither missed on everything, or, got it all right.

What this comes down to is leadership and trust. I look at it as who would I hire.

Having

Everyone has heard that there are serious problems with optimizing for engagement. But what are the alternatives?
New paper: we gathered folks from eight platforms for an off-the-record chat to share best practices -- and document them from public sources.
arxiv.org/abs/2402.06831

How is social technology affecting human connection and loneliness?

I wrote a long-form blog on this interesting topic together with the brilliant Matt Motyl:

psychoftech.substack.com/p/social-techn…

We propose 4 ways in which tech is drastically changing human sociality…

1/n

I will be presenting preliminary findings on the link between social media activity using 5 months of the entire Persian Twitter (750mil tweets) and on-the-ground dynamics—unveiling insights into street-level traffic, protest frequency, arrests and executions. #WomanLifeFreedom

NEW: My office spent months researching the impact of social media on young people. The results are alarming.

Many problems are caused by something called 'dark patterns' in platform design.

Here's a 🧵 on what these are, why they're harmful, and what can be done. #mnleg

Opinion | The next Harvard president must bring back the meritocracy.

by Jared Kushner and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Tech companies, policymakers, news providers, & community-based organizations can work together for a better internet– that’s what our group of experts concluded after the Convergence-facilitated Collaborative dialogue. Find their consensus solutions here: convergencepolicy.org/our-work/democ…

Tonight, Penn President Liz Magill signaled that one of our nation's most prestigious institutions is willing to abandon its commitment to freedom of expression.

“For decades, under multiple Penn presidents and consistent with most universities, Penn’s policies have been guided

Why does out-group animosity go viral, even though most people say they don't want it to go viral?

Gordon Heltzel, PhD finds that extreme partisans (who engage more with politicians online) prefer tweets that express out-group animosity, but moderates don't:

open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/col…

Ravi Iyer, managing director of The Neely Center, presents a case for prioritizing legislation challenging platforms to eliminate models that incentivize divisive misinformation rather than focusing on moderation after the fact.

Read more here: time.com/6330318/online…

'Moderation is a tool to use after you have reduced the incentive to compete for attention.'
Removing or labeling posts is not enough in times of war. Speech isn't obviously 'ok' or 'not okay.' We also need platform design changes, writes Ravi Iyer time.com/6330318/online…

.Ravi Iyer in TIME on fear-inducing posts that are hard to moderate:

1️⃣ You can’t prove a general negative
2️⃣ You don’t want to censor important content
3️⃣ People are motivated to spread such content
4️⃣ People are eager for the latest information

time.com/6330318/online…

Our paper on *bridging systems* has just been published by Knight First Amendment Institute! Joint work with Aviv Ovadya 🥦, it gives a framework for translating offline peacebuilding practices into algorithmic settings. Lots of examples + open questions.

knightcolumbia.org/content/bridgi…

A Design Code for Big Tech: this week's Tech Policy Press podcast features a discussion with Ravi Iyer about how to design better social media platforms:
techpolicy.press/a-design-code-…

I'm so excited to share my first TEDx talk with everyone! I talked about my research on social connection and how to fight the loneliness epidemic. Thank you in advance for watching. (I'll post the full script with research references in the comments.)

youtube.com/watch?v=J509AZ…

Have you signed the @USCNeely Design Code?

FWIW leading advocates for accountable / responsible social media have (i.e., Jonathan Haidt & Ravi Iyer), so you should probably do the same.

marshall.usc.edu/posts/neely-ce…