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Laia Castro

@laiacastro.bsky.social
650 followers 452 following 4 posts

Associate Professor, Political Science Department, University of Barcelona; Digital Media & Politics | www.laiacastro.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Laia Castro
WHAT-IF @what-if-horizon.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
🤖 🔥 New preprint is out The paper, co-authored by Taehee Kim and @dgarcia.eu, demonstrates that AI-generated conversations can be remarkably convincing. 💡 For more insights check out the preprint: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The collective turing test: large language models can generate realistic multi-user discussions - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - The collective turing test: large language models can generate realistic multi-user discussions
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Lukas Otto @lukotto.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Do people watch the news they do not trust? We tried to bring nuance to this question in a new paper (w Frank Mangold, Michaela Maier). Like others before us, we argue that “media distrust” comes in two flavors: skepticism and cynicism. journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....
journals.sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Petter Törnberg @pettertornberg.com · 23/04/2026
Social media is no longer social. Most of it is passive viewing of videos and pictures from people we've never met. But we're still studying social media like it's 2010. We've entered the post-social media era — and research needs to catch up. osf.io/preprints/so... preprint w/ Richard Rogers
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Dino Wildi @dnwildi.eurosky.social · 19/06/2026
I am proud to have presented my work with @eborbath.bsky.social on automating core sentence coding yesterday evening at @epssnet.bsky.social. Thank you to everyone there for a great panel and especially to @laiacastro.bsky.social for discussing our paper!
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Reuters Institute @reutersinstitute.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
🚨 Our Digital News Report 2026 is out! Authored by Jim Egan, Craig T. Robertson, Amy Ross Arguedas, Nic Newman, Rasmus Nielsen, Mitali Mukherjee and Richard Fletcher, it is based on 100K interviews in 48 markets Full report reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news... 7 findings in thread
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GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften @gesis.org · 10/06/2026
From surveys to data donations: “Search and Stream” offers new research data on 🔍Google Search, 🎧Spotify streaming, and digital participation — linkable to the German ISSP 2024 survey. Now available at GESIS: 🔗ZA9079: doi.org/10.4232/1.14700 🔗ZA9080: doi.org/10.4232/1.14701
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Andreu Casas @andreucasas.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
🚨 I'm recruiting 2 postdoctoral researchers for the @ldnsocmedobs.bsky.social, to be based at the University of Oxford (@ox.ac.uk). These are both full-time positions for 2 years. Deadline for applications: June 23. Expected start date: September 2026. 🔁 Please share and help me spread the word! 🚀
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 24/02/2026
when people talk about AI used in moderation of social media posts, you must remember there is always the human-in-the-loop, often a woman, often in the Global South, always dehumanised and forgotten 1/n www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
theguardian.com
‘In the end, you feel blank’: India’s female workers watching hours of abusive content to train AI
Women in rural communities describe trauma of moderating violent and pornographic content for global tech companies
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Media Psychology & Methods @mepsyme.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Have you conducted a content analysis and want to share your variable operationalizations? Or are you about to start one? If so, check out DOCA: a great openscience initiative offering a shared database of content-analytical variables for communication science. ➡️ www.hope.uzh.ch/doca
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Dr. Sabrina H. Kessler @shkessler.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Call for Authors 📣 Contribute to the Database of Variables for Content Analysis (DOCA) – thematic call on Digital Publics! We invite variable entries for the analysis of digital publics (manual & automated approaches). 🔗 Full call: t.uzh.ch/1Wn #DigitalPublics #ContentAnalysis #CommResearch
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Johannes B. Gruber @jbgruber.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
After a long time in development, {traktok} #rstats is now finally on CRAN! Whether you have access to the Research API or just want to scrape some pages, traktok has you covered jbgruber.github.io/traktok/
jbgruber.github.io
Collecting TikTok Data
Getting TikTok data (<https://www.tiktok.com/>) through the official and unofficial APIs—in other words, you can track TikTok.
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Jason Reifler @jasonreifler.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
The Public Opinion Analytics Lab (POAL) is a collaboration by Southampton, Reading, and the LSE to leverage our strengths in public opinion research for academia and beyond. Today we've published our first methods brief— a short primer on conjoint experiments by the fantastic Thomas Robinson (LSE).
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Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 08/10/2025
NEW - 'The Power of the Crowd: How the Public Can Both Spoil and Improve Social Media as a Source of Information' This Cambridge Element by F. Stöckel, S. Stöckli, B.A. Lyons, H. Kroker & @jasonreifler.bsky.social is free to read for 2 weeks. cup.org/4344Tyl #cambridgeelements #politics #Polisky
Cover titled "The Power of the Crowd" by Sabrina Stöckli, Benjamin A. Lyons, and Hannah Krekler, published by Cambridge Elements in Political Science. The cover features a vibrant, multicolored geometric background.
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Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Social media users adopt the toxic behaviors of ingroup members An analysis of 7 million tweets from over 700,000 accounts finds that exposures to toxic behavior by ingroup members is the primary driver of contagious toxicity online academic.oup.com/jcmc/article...
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Tiago Ventura @tiagoventura.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
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):
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rasmuskleis.bsky.social @rasmuskleis.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
How do people think different sectors’ use of generative AI will change their experience of interacting with them? More optimists than pessimists for e.g. science and search engines, but more pessimists than optimists for news media, government, and – especially – politicians 1/3
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Andreas Jungherr @ajungherr.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
🧵 New publication: How do people feel about regulating #AI in election campaigns? 🧵 In a new article, @adrauc.bsky.social, @kunkakom.bsky.social, and I examine when and why people support stronger AI regulation in political competition. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 👇
sciencedirect.com
Explaining public preferences for regulating Artificial Intelligence in election campaigns: Evidence from the U.S. and Taiwan
The increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in election campaigns, such as AI-generated political ads, automated messaging, and the widespread …
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Teresa Völker @tevoelker.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
New paper out with @dasalgon.bsky.social: “Far-Right Agenda Setting: How the Far Right influences the Political Mainstream” doi.org/10.1017/S1475676525100066 #openaccess in @ejprjournal.bsky.social🧵
Abstract
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MEDem @medem.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
They say: once there’s a paper 📝, it’s real… 🎉 #MEDem in #EPS @ecpr.bsky.social The paper outlines how MEDem will strengthen #OpenScience by making data #FAIR in #DemocracyResearch – and how scholars across Europe are joining forces to build a truly open #ResearchInfrastructure ⚙️
Screenshot of the article “Open science in democracy research: the research infrastructure ‘Monitoring Electoral Democracy’ (MEDem)” published in European Political Science. The header shows the journal name, DOI link, and the label “DEBATE.” Below, the title is followed by the author list: Hajo Boomgaarden, Alexia Katsanidou, Sylvia Kritzinger, Georg Lutz, Johanna Willmann, and Jakob-Moritz Eberl. The abstract explains the aims of MEDem as a European research infrastructure to make democracy research data FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable). Keywords listed include open science, FAIR data, ESFRI roadmap, research infrastructure, democracy research, data harmonization, data linking, and data set search. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-025-00534-8
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Carol Galais @galais.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Proud to be part of such a productive research group! 🔎Looking for a panel survey? Feel free to use ours!
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Yuan Zhang @yuan1227.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
New publication with @abovet.bsky.social @esserfrank.bsky.social @laiacastro.bsky.social With today’s political environment becoming increasingly complex, how can political selective exposure be measured beyond the traditional ‘left vs. right’ lens? Read more: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
journals.plos.org
A multilevel network approach to revealing patterns of online political selective exposure
Selective exposure, individuals’ inclination to seek out information that supports their beliefs while avoiding information that contradicts them, plays an important role in the emergence of polarizat...
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David Garcia @dgarcia.eu · 25/09/2025
🚨Call for papers for the 2026 Inequality conference in Konstanz. I'm co-organizing it and we welcome submissions from Computational Social Science. The deadline is approaching quickly! inequality-conference.de
inequality-conference.de
In_equality Conference 2026
The "Politics of Inequality” research center invites interdisciplinary & international researchers to Konstanz, Germany, for the In_equality Conference, 15-17 April 2026.
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Eva Anduiza @evaanduiza.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
🧲 We are hiring! ✨ PhD position to join @dec-gr.bsky.social 🏁 4-year FPI contract 🎓 Pol Sci / Social Sci background + Master’s + English 📧 Send expression of interest with CV and motivation letter to gr.dec@uab.cat 🔗 tinyurl.com/yc3epmv2
tinyurl.com
Call for expressions of interest for a PhD scholarship within the project GPOL – Democracy, Elections and Citizenship
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Oxford Social Media Observatory @oxsocmedobs.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
📣 We’re launching the London Social Media Observatory! 🎉 ➡️ We are a new multidisciplinary research centre, directed by @andreucasas.bsky.social & funded by the @ukri.org Future Leaders Fellowship 🧵 [1/4]
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Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte @turnbulldugarte.com · 05/09/2025
Radical right accommodation really does not work. New paper out with this exceptionally talented team @katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk doi.org/10.31235/osf...
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New_ Public @newpublic.org · 14/08/2025
How much can we blame social media for our polarized political climate? @danwphilosophy.bsky.social argues that the narrative that the platforms cause polarization “overlooks deeper political and institutional problems that are reflected on social media, not created by it.”
asteriskmag.com
Scapegoating the Algorithm—Asterisk
America’s epistemic challenges run deeper than social media.
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Weizenbaum-Institut @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
To all the #DSA experts and data access enthusiast out there, before you go on holiday, sign up & save the date for the #dsa40 data access days in Berlin, September 25 & 26! 2 days with keynotes, panels, expert insights and practical guidance 👉 dsa40collaboratory.eu/data-access-...
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EPSS @epssnet.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
🚨 Big News for European Political Science 🚨 We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the European Political Science Society (EPSS): a new, member-led, not-for-profit association built to support our scholarly community. 🔗 epssnet.org Here’s a thread with everything you need to know. 🧵
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Reuters Institute @reutersinstitute.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Our Digital News Report 2025 is out! 📊48 markets 🌏Almost 100K respondents 📰Key headline: Audiences lean into video news and influencers, raising misinformation concerns and new dilemmas for publishers 📱Explore now buff.ly/xLP67Tg 🧵Findings in thread #DNR25
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Didac Queralt @didacqueralt.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Thrilled to share the program for the III Yale-UB HPE Workshop — a joint initiative bringing together HPE researchers across continents and disciplines. Huge thanks to our sponsors, presenters, and discussants. Can’t wait for a great conference! cc @cescamat.bsky.social (UB co-host)
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Claes de Vreese @claesdevreese.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Scholar, journalist, policy maker, NGO working on digital technologies and democracy topics? Check out this exciting Fellowship program at the @ddc-sdu.bsky.social. Flexible conditions, inspiring environment, great colleagues. 🗓️ DL: September 15 (check instructions ⬇️) www.sdu.dk/en/forskning...
sdu.dk
Digital Democracy Fellowship x TrygFonden Fellowship Program
Digital Democracy Fellowship x TrygFonden Fellowship Program
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Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
From Bluesky to the Guardian! In my new op-Ed, I argue that the “male glaze” of media and politics is empirically, normative, and politically wrong and that progressives should focus more on the left turn of young women.
theguardian.com
The real story isn’t young men supposedly voting far right. It’s what young women are up to | Cas Mudde
There is an opportunity staring centre-left parties in the face – if they reject the male gaze distorting our politics, says political scientist Cas Mudde
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Molly Scudder @mollyscudder.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Special issue on Democratic Listening forthcoming @polcommjournal.bsky.social. 9 excellent articles using experimental, observational, & philosophical methods to study this key component of political comm. Check out the TOC + intro essay by Michael Neblo & myself: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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Alexander Wuttke @kunkakom.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
🚨 We're hiring! Join us at @LMU_Muenchen for the DFG-funded project "Democratic Persuasion: How to Make the Case for Democracy." Interested in making scholarly & societal impact? We’re looking for: 🔹 1 Postdoc (100%) 🔹 1 PhD researcher (70%) Starting: Oct 2025 | Apply by: July 8 More info ⬇️ (1/7)
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Transformative Communication @transform-comm.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Kicked off our #Fuel2Fire 🔥 project in Hamburg! In this cross-country collaboration, we're studying polarization across Europe — from meta discourse to polarizing topics & practices — with partners from Spain, Sweden, Poland & @netzwerkrecherche.org. #Polarization #Journalism
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Joe Phillips @polpsychjoe.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Out now at @poqjournal.bsky.social! Do election forecasts set realistic election expectations? doi.org/10.1093/poq/... 🧵 (w/ @mbarnfield.bsky.social, @florianstoeckel.bsky.social, @benlyons.bsky.social, @vittoriomerola.bsky.social, @jasonreifler.bsky.social and other awesome BlueSky-less colleagues)
doi.org
The Effects of Forecasts on the Accuracy and Precision of Expectations
Abstract. Quantitative forecasts have become increasingly prominent as tools for aiding public understanding of sociopolitical trends. But how much, and wh
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JEPP Journal @jeppjournal.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
▶️ Do far-right wins fuel disinformation fears? 😮 @kgattermann.bsky.social, @elskevdhoogen.bsky.social and @claesdevreese.bsky.social show that strong far-right showings in the 2024 EP elections heighten public concern about disinformation 👇
tandfonline.com
The role of far-right party performance in shaping disinformation concerns of European voters: evidence from the 2024 European Parliament elections
Concerns about the risk of disinformation in the 2024 European Parliament elections were widespread in European capitals. Simultaneously, the far-right – often linked to the spread of disinformatio...
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GESIS Training @gesistraining.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
📣 GESIS Fall Seminar in Computational Social Science 2025 The program of the #GESISfallseminar is out & registration is open! 🗓️ 01 - 26 Sep 2025 Venue (depending on course): 🏢 GESIS Mannheim 💻 Online More info & registration at gesis.org/fallseminar
GESIS Fall Seminar in Computational Social Science 2025
01 to 26 September 2025
Mannheim | Online
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MEDem @medem.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
🌟 Another milestone for #MEDem! We’re now backed by 900+ #democracyresearchers worldwide! 🌍 🙌 Let’s keep the momentum going and reach 1,000 soon! It only takes a minute to sign 👉 www.medem.eu/medem-endorsements
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WHAT-IF @what-if-horizon.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Our project #WHAT-IF is live! 🚀 Disinformation and hate speech threaten democratic discourse. WHAT-IF is building a digital twin of the political information landscape to test interventions and foster healthier democracies. Stay tuned for updates and check our brand-new website: what-if-horizon.eu
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Laia Castro @laiacastro.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Much needed and timely report on academic access to social media data👇🏽
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Sandra González-Bailón @sgonzalezbailon.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
New publication (4+ years in the making): “The Diffusion and Reach of (Mis)Information on Facebook”. shorturl.at/VE2fU We analyze the propagation of 1B+ posts across content moderation regimes, with @davidlazer.bsky.social @jatucker.bsky.social @taliastroud.bsky.social @annenbergpenn.bsky.social
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Eva Anduiza @evaanduiza.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
‼️ Call for papers for the Barcelona DEC Workshop on Political Behavior and Public Opinion 👉 webs.uab.cat/grdec/2025-w... deadline: January 15th
webs.uab.cat
2025 Workshop – Democracy, Elections and Citizenship
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Rahel Freiburghaus @rfrbrghs.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
(DIGITAL) MEDIA SYSTEM So far, only new studies have empirically investigated media systems in the digital age. Stemming from trad approaches to media system comparisons, @laiacastro.bsky.social & @sinajb.bsky.social review the latest efforts to measure digital MS www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/b...
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Rahel Freiburghaus @rfrbrghs.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
To celebrate the publication of our HANDBOOK OF COMPARATIVE POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS and our awesome contributors, I’m kicking off a pre-holiday challenge: every day, I’ll share a short intro to one of its chapters. This is also an opportunity to connect with new colleagues, so please feel free to 📌!
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Richard Fletcher @richardfletcher.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
New article in Journal of Communication looking at changes to trust in news across 46 countries in the last 10 years. Trust in news declined in just over half of countries. It decreased more in countries where TV news use has declined, and/or where social media news use has grown. A thread:
academic.oup.com
The link between changing news use and trust: longitudinal analysis of 46 countries
Abstract . Changing levels of public trust in the news are of deep concern to both researchers and practitioners. We use data from 2015 to 2023 in 46 count
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Claes de Vreese @claesdevreese.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Unique professorship. Please share 🫶♾️ Digital communication & society professorship @ddc-sdu.bsky.social and @d-ias.bsky.social. Excellent conditions, extraordinary startup package. Interdisciplinary profile. 📆: deadline February 17! fa-eosd-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
fa-eosd-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com
Professorship in Digital Communication with a Focus on Digital Society
Application Deadline: February 17, 2025.
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Ross Dahlke @rossdahlke.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Older adults are the most likely to visit dubious political news sources yet they are good at identifying misinformation because of strengthening partisanship while aging, finds @benlyons.bsky.social @jacobmontgomery.bsky.social @jasonreifler.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/poq/...
Partisanship and Older Americans' Engagement with Dubious Political NewsFigure 1Figure 2Figure 3
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Digital Democracy Centre @ddc-sdu.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
At the Digital Democracy Centre, we've just created this cool new starter pack featuring research institutions, researchers, NGOs, journals, and think tanks focused on how digital technologies and AI impact media, politics, and democracy. We'll be updating the list continuously!
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Johannes B. Gruber @jbgruber.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
As more #rstats folks arrived here recently: you can use the Bluesky API for free and there are several packages for it. You can find the one @benguinaudeau.bsky.social @favstats.bsky.social and I wrote here: jbgruber.github.io/atrrr/ And a fun bot project: www.johannesbgruber.eu/post/2024-01...
jbgruber.github.io
Wrapper for the AT Protocol Behind Bluesky
Wraps the AT Protocol (Authenticated Transfer Protocol) behind Bluesky <https://bsky.social>. Functions can be used for, among others, retrieving posts and followers from the network or posting conten...
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