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Nathalie Van Raemdonck

@nathalievanraemdonck.com
1.8K followers 504 following 382 posts

Social media networks and social norms, freshly minted PhD from Brussels University (VUB). Belgian living in Barcelona, internet night crawler, STS

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Reposted by Nathalie Van Raemdonck
Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
With some delay, my op-Ed on the dramatic Saxony-Anhalt election. It is high time we focus our political struggle on strengthening democracy, rather than merely weakening the far right. To do this, we must show realism, resilience and restraint.
theguardian.com
The AfD’s win in Germany is a dark day for Europe. Time is running out to stop the far right | Cas Mudde
This party is among the most extreme in Europe. To protect our democracies, liberal parties must urgently change their tactics, says Cas Mudde, author of The Far Right Today
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 17/08/2026
"we still use these platforms like it’s 2011. We shoot things off into the ether and hope people will somehow self-organize"
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Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
If you think the plagiarism of the deceased is a bigger problem that the racism of the campaigners, you should really rethink your priorities.
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 17/08/2026
glad we have a word now for the cowardly abandonment of climate policy in attempts to protect "the economy" which will only tank more as the consequences of climate change become worse and worse: the doom loop
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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 17/08/2026
Well look, the only way you can possibly claim that Labor’s harebrained #SocialMediaBan is working, or could possibly work at all, _IS_ by hallucinating, so using AI here is only logical really.
theguardian.com
Report supporting Australia’s teen social media ban appears to contain AI hallucinations, Senate hears
Exclusive: Guardian analysis finds one section of report includes links to academic articles that do not exist, but authors deny the references were made up by AI
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Mekka Okereke @mekka.mekka-tech.com · 15/08/2026
I said what I said. Y'all fall for this constantly.
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 15/08/2026
White supremacist "academic" Nathan Cofnas puts a black professor in front of the firing squad, and British media executed the eugenicists plan to have him destroyed. Shame on any academic participating in the plagiarism lynching squad for the sake of “academic purity”. Rest in Power Jason Arday
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Aram Sinnreich @aramsinn.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
16 years ago, @zizip.bsky.social wrote "Privacy as a Luxury Commodity." www.firstmonday.org/ojs/index.ph... The Discourse is finally catching up.
ms.now
Opinion | Taylor Swift was able to buy her privacy at MSG. What about the rest of us?
Reports that Madison Square Garden temporarily shut off its facial recognition system for Swift’s wedding expose a glaring problem with how the elite wield and control mass surveillance.
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 10/07/2026
👏👏👏
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 10/07/2026
Policymakers HAVE the toolbox with the DSA to regulate social media to protect children. Bans are signs of lazy politicians trying to score brownie points with their electorate.
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Reposted by Nathalie Van Raemdonck
B. Prendergast @renderg.host · 02/07/2026
As requested by @liabelle.me here are all the unique features of @mu.social which I will keep up to date as we progress
leaflet.pub
Unique Mu.social features
The unique features of Mu.Social which I will keep up to date.
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Reposted by Nathalie Van Raemdonck
J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
In case anyone is curious to study how network effects lose critical mass, search inclusion is a good opportunity to update scientific theories of collective action
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 09/07/2026
My move to @eurosky.social is official I guess 🥳
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 09/07/2026
Never read Babel as a cautionary tale against empire, where the punishment of plurality in languages was a "refusal to let one order claim the whole future". Great cautionary tale on AI, building a system that grows past our understanding will be the consequence of our own actions.
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Reposted by Nathalie Van Raemdonck
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 08/07/2026
WOW -- Danish reporter *goes there* with Rutte "You sit next to Trump when he talks about conquering Greenland, lashes out at allies like Spain -- things it doesn't seem like the old Mark Rutte would approve of. Does this have any affect on your self-respect when you sit there and say nothing?"
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 08/07/2026
I missed the initial convo here about the CJEU ruling that platforms are no longer exempt from liability over their algorithmic control of content, but the potential implications are so big! @kellyfincham.bsky.social www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...
irishexaminer.com
Has the clock started ticking for social media algorithms?
Algorithms are opaque, they optimise for the wrong things — engagement, virality, outrage — and they’re not neutral
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Daphne Keller @daphnek.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
This paper about the publicly available data that is missing from Meta's and TikTok's research tools/APIs, by Luka Bekavac and Simon Mayer, is super interesting. And this graphic is a doozy. arxiv.org/html/2601.12...
Color coded concentric circles showing data transmitted from Insta to a user's device, versus what is available through two research tools
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David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
actually macron and others know a ban won’t work to curb the way social media companies target/commodify kids. but remarkably it’s Meloni who says it.
politico.eu
Meloni says Italian government won’t push for social media ban on kids
Prime minister says ban can be ’easily circumvented.’
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Signal @signal.org · 08/06/2026
Our statement on the UK gov't's demand that all content on all devices sold or used in the UK be scanned, on the presumption of nudity, using a dystopian combination of age verification & content scanning. This proposal will not safeguard children. It endangers us all. signal.org/blog/pdfs/20...
signal.org
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 11/05/2026
wrote in 2024 already for @sampolmaandblad.bsky.social why Eurovision is so important for Israel and how it has weaponized the competition for information warfare purposes. nathalievanraemdonck.com/2024/05/23/t...
nathalievanraemdonck.com
The Eurovision Song Contest as an information war battlefield
The presence of Israel in the 2024 Eurovision song contest has generated a lot of protest, but Israel’s participation is an important part of its ‘Hasbara’ strategy to keep being …
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 10/05/2026
"When political pressure determines whether people can gather, it doesn't just limit movement—it reshapes how we think, how we make decisions, and how we relate to one another. It isolates us, creates distance, and fuels tension, all while shrinking the already fragile space for civil society."
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Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Julia Angwin says Meta, "one of the most powerful media organizations in the world and one of the most valuable members of the S&P 500 — is at the start of a long, slow decline that will trigger aftershocks to our economy and our society." (Kudos to the graphic artist, very Monty Python.)
nytimes.com
Opinion | Meta Is Dying
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Jacob Öberg @profjacob.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
🚨🚨 #Bluesky is doing very well. @ec.europa.eu has changed some of their policies in respect of interaction with social media & are now prioritising #Mastodon, Bluesky & #linkedin. #X has been completely been removed from the "Follow" function (whilst FB & youtube is at the bottom of the page).
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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Every splashy New York Times profile of a right wing influencer.
Bugs Bunny giving a monster a manicure, caption: My I'll bet you monsters lead interesting lives.
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 04/05/2026
Could Americans really create the first ever public aviation transport? Very much here for this socialism experiment 🔥 #spirit2.0 letsbuyspiritair.com
letsbuyspiritair.com
Spirit 2.0 — The Airline Owned by the People, for the People
Spirit Airlines collapsed. Before private equity locks it up, the people can own it. Join the Spirit 2.0 founding coalition. One member, one vote. Profits shared by all.
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Eric @edavis.dev · 26/04/2026
the dumbest feed idea I have ever had, please enjoy
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GOLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 26/04/2026
an extremely funny thing about it is that it's a cluster of "stop fedposting, stop sephiroth-posting about violence, win political power and then make change" accounts, 95% of whom are on various "centrist coward shitlib" leftist bluesky lists
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Recent jury verdicts signal a turning point in addressing harms to children from social media platforms, but courts can’t fix systemic failures, argues Salil Tripathi. Real change requires regulating companies—setting standards, enforcing safeguards, and ensuring accountability.
buff.ly
Regulate Companies, Not Children
Jury verdicts signal accountability, but lasting change requires regulating platforms with enforceable safeguards and oversight, argues Salil Tripathi.
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Reposted by Nathalie Van Raemdonck
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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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Why is it so complicated to fact-check claims about severe harms when people misunderstand how they're quantified? Thoughtful article by @nathalievanraemdonck.com, via the @aoir.bsky.social Mastodon server at @eilah_tan@aoir.social nathalievanraemdonck.com/2026/04/21/f...
nathalievanraemdonck.com
Factchecking the online ‘rape academy’ discourse; on the tension between accuracy and activism
Over the weekend the story of an “online rape academy” went viral on social media, following an investigative reporting by CNN about an online network of men that exchanges tips to drug and rape th…
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Christophe Martens @chrmartens.eurosky.social · 22/04/2026
Altijd interessant leesvoer.
The pushback against internet users correcting this 62million men number is therefore not difficult to comprehend. Discourse that pivots from sexual violence against women to accuracy of numbers can take attention away from the very real issues at hand. The way our algorithmized online ecosystems functions is that conflict breeds virality, which means a correction can become more visible than the actual content that is being corrected. This indignation over inaccuracy can inadvertently overshadow the indignation over the fact that there are many men worldwide exchanging tips on raping women and getting away with it.
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 22/04/2026
Getting back into blogging this year, I’m starting with the online discourse RE: the CNN “rape academy” story and the misnumbered “62 million men” participating. I reflect on a tension between accuracy and activism that deserves nuance nathalievanraemdonck.com/2026/04/21/f...
nathalievanraemdonck.com
Factchecking the online ‘rape academy’ discourse; on the tension between accuracy and activism
Over the weekend the story of an “online rape academy” went viral on social media, following an investigative reporting by CNN about an online network of men that exchanges tips to drug and rape th…
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Reposted by Nathalie Van Raemdonck
Maaike @maaikeverbruggen.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
No the real purpose is to kill your privacy and track your every move Keeping children safe is just a favourite excuse cause who can possibly object to keeping children safe? It is such bullshit, and it does not even keep children safe, esp marginalized kids who need safe spaces
politico.eu
‘No more excuses’: Von der Leyen says EU age checking app is ready
Age verification app is central to EU effort to keep kids safe online.
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 20/04/2026
Feel like a proud parent watching Joost Klein's full Coachella set 🥹 Been following Eenhoornjoost on Youtube since he got kicked out of his school Italiereis, and now the world is discovering this lil weirdo! I can imagine @maaikeverbruggen.bsky.social feels the same! youtu.be/NAbznZnrSCE?...
youtube.com
joost klein at coachella 2026 weekend 1
YouTube video by tobias De Greeuw
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 09/04/2026
"social media isn’t a toxin that we can isolate and test and ban. It is an information-delivery system whose effect on any individual depends entirely on what’s in the drip" @dkthomp.bsky.social with critical nuances on social media bans for minors www.theargumentmag.com/p/against-th...
theargumentmag.com
Against the Smartphone Theory of Everything
The phones are not the only problem
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atproto.camp @atproto.camp · 02/04/2026
We're gonna need a bigger tent #atproto.local
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Robin Berjon @robin.berjon.com · 02/04/2026
The cool folks from the Eurosky team just brought you a new site: eurosky.tech, portal to the Atmosphere. I'd say it's the crispest explanation so far of what the Atmosphere brings: 1. one account 2. that works with a bunch of apps, and 3. your data from all apps is yours, portable, interoperable.
eurosky.tech
Eurosky - Building a thriving open social web for Europe
Eurosky is a European initiative to build and operate sovereign social web infrastructure
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Godspeed You! Woke Moralists @dashwallkick.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
That diner goth piece is so funny. An interesting, engaging idea - what does youth culture look like when it's all learned via screens? - but the writer doesn't know that so it just blunders around cultural decay of states hit by decades of austerity so he can get over fumbling a weird bitch.
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Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Brazil will soon find out if its new law aimed protecting children online will stick. A copy of a draft enforcement decree obtained by Tech Policy Press offers a fuller picture of how it may be implemented, fellow Tatiana Dias reports.
techpolicy.press
Brazil Wants to Reshape The Internet for Kids. The Hard Part Just Began.
A Brazilian law aimed at protecting children online is set to take effect this week, but significant enforcement questions remain, Tatiana Dias reports.
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Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) @aoir.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
1 week to go! Have you registered yet? 🗓️ 24 March, 2026 🕧 5PM CET / 11AM CDT/Chicago 🔗Register here: www.members.aoir.org/event-6590105 Hope to see you!
members.aoir.org
Association of Internet Researchers - Authorization required
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Rosamunde Van Brakel @rosamundevb.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Welcome to the next phase of hyperreality
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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 09/03/2026
Excellent point. Habits can be bad but they are not "addiction". And, if instead of pathologising, we think in these terms, we can create better habits for our social media usage. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
washingtonpost.com
Opinion | Your social media ‘addiction’ is overrated
It is healthier and more accurate not to pathologize our habits.
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Ted Han★ 韓聖安 @knowtheory.net · 09/03/2026
Also I love to see more cross protocol work happening. Rising tides can lift all boats. Folks who want to have protocol wars can wade in and try to hold back the ocean.
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Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Nepal's Gen Z used TikTok, Discord & Reddit to flip their country’s political system, as rapper-turned-politician Balen Shah crushed the 6-time incumbent in last week's election. Aaradhyaa Gyawali offers an account of how events played out, and what it says about the role of technology in elections.
techpolicy.press
Nepal's Gen Z Used TikTok and Discord to Win a Historic Election
The election of rapper-turned politician Balen Shah was shaped by platforms and algorithms built on the other side of the world, writes Aaradhyaa Gyawali.
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Emelia @thisismissem.social · 09/03/2026
Heeey, look, it's me! I'm super hyped to announce that @bsky.app have given me a grant to work on the standards for the Federated Credential Management API (or FedCM) to make them really work for all decentralized web applications.
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 09/03/2026
Bring back whimsical Single-Purpose websites like gradient.horse
gradient.horse
gradient.horse
Draw a horse, watch it run!
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 06/03/2026
Great research project to participate in and have your voice be heard on safety and tackling harm in decentralized system, warmly recommend people to sign up!
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Ashwin Nagappa @ashwinnag.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Are you active on platforms like Mastodon, Bluesky, Pixelfed, or Eurosky? Please consider participating in an asynchronous brainstorming activity to share your suggestions to make them safer. See project details and sign up here tinyurl.com/44adp9cx @qutdmrc.bsky.social @admscentre.org.au
This is a flyer inviting participants to join a study to share their thoughts on making new social media platforms safe and welcoming
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