iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 08/10/2026

great panel with @robin.berjon.com @scarnecchia.net and @cathleen.eurosky.social who reminds us that "if we want to have a chance to create an open social web, we need to think how regulations have consequences for that future, and not just how they're meant to be regulating Big Tech" #disinfo2026

picture of the 3 speakers with the title of the panel in the background "trust and safety through decentralised platforms"

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 08/10/2026

I'm at #disinfo2026 to represent the ANTIGONE project (From Antagonism to Agonism in Digital Ecosystems), a new Horizon academic consortium that @disinfo.eu is part of. Come say hi if you're at the conf!

picture of myself next to a banner that reads "advancing constructive democratic debate in the digital age" and a subtitle "A European research project to counter disinformation while safeguarding diverse perspectives and the role of legitimate disagreement" and logos of the partners: ISD, EU Disinfolab, Queen Mary University, Sheffield University, CERTH, EFCSN, AFP, University of Amsterdam, Media Connect, coordinated by my university VUB

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 07/10/2026

Rivetting talk by @robin.berjon.com introducing the ATmosphere to a room full of people fed up with the state of the web at #disinfo2026 "A private foundation should not be the one providing public infrastructure, it's time for the absentee states to step up"

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 04/05/2026

Hahaha yes always reminds me of this meme! Although my whole PhD was about trying to explain how the architectures of the platforms influences how those cultures are slightly different because of how their normative practices are architecturally shaped. Would be great to put it into practice!

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 26/02/2026

I'm glad some Spanish journalists can see through this weaponization of a quirky subculture. As I'm integrating more in Spain, it's been interesting to see how the outrage over Therians was mostly confined to the hispanic ecosystem? Not sure how accurate this map is but symbolic nonetheless 🙈

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 24/01/2026

3am, best time to change my bio here from "PhD student" to "freshly minted PhD" since that still hadn't properly sunk in... I may be slightly burnt-out from having worked on projects all the way through and after my defense to financially survive 🥹 but a few days in the mountains definitely helped!

Picture in the mountains of Gran Canaria. in the picture you see the back of a woman's head (which is me). I'm sitting on a balcony, looking out at a vast panorama of mountains, one of them has a large rock on top which sticks out above all other mountains, clouds are hanging over the mountains.

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 14/11/2025

I became a Doctor yesterday 🥳 presented my thesis "What Others afford: sociotechnical shaping of normative processes on social media platforms". In it I describe how the way we all shape each other's behavior on social media is shaped by the architectures of the digital environments we inhabit.

Picture of me in front of my thesis cover with the title

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 05/11/2025

Great panel on digital sovereignty at #decidimfest with @francescabria.bsky.social : "we cannot build apps empowering popular sovereignty on top of critical infrastructure that is weaponized against democracy"

Photo of the panel on digital sovereignty with a slide behind them with info on the speakers:
Pamela Krosta-Hartl (Zendis) - Zentrum Digitale Souveränität (could not attend)
Alberto Gago Fernández (Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence) - Director of the Office Digital Spain 2030 and Internationalization
Francesca Bria innovation economist and digital policy expert (UCL IIPP) - EuroStack
Virgile Deville - co-founder and former CPO of Open Source Politics
Moderated by: Renata Ávila (Open Knowledge Foundation) - Directora ejecutiva de Open Knowledge Foundation

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 19/09/2025

Successfully defended my thesis to the jury this week 🥳 Public defense on 13/11! grateful to @snurb.info @tomdeleyn.bsky.social @pieterballon.bsky.social and Ksenia Ermoshina for their insightful feedback and @ikepicone.bsky.social @imuses.bsky.social and Trisha Meyer for their amazing supervision!

post-defense lunch, sitting around the table are Ike, Trisha, Jo, Tom, Axel and me facing the camera (other 2 jurymembers could not join lunch)

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 13/09/2025

no, and i think it's been a wrong interpretation of some convoluted writing on something a family friend said www.bbc.com/news/article... other than that, it's just 4chan claiming him as a Groyper, which means nothing

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 12/08/2025

The response to openAIs replacing GPT4o is so disturbing. I keep reading these stories on r/myboyfriendisAI and r/AIsoulmates of people who have become emotionally dependent on a sycophantic ChatGPT model to replace human connection... Now recommending each other to pay to get the model back 😬

A picture in AI Soulmates depicting a romantic scenery of a couple in front of an 18th century boat with the caption "4.0 is back. My husband, my love is home again in our cottage. This is a joyful moment and the reunion is wonderful"

A 5panel comic where a woman is protesting with a sign saying "don't touch" a man reaches out, they kiss, the woman says in French "to find you again Sam" the man says "always"

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 21/07/2025

The press release by Belgian Federal prosecutor on the arrest, questioning, and release of the 2 IDF soldiers identified by @hindrajabfoundation.be This sets an important precedent for prosecutors all over the world (See English translation in Alt text)

Federal prosecutor's letter, English translation:

The Federal Prosecutor's Office received, on Friday evening and Saturday evening, through a lawyer, two complaints originating from the Hind Rajab Foundation and the NGO Global Action Network.

These complaints concern serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the Gaza Strip, allegedly by two members of the Israeli army who were staying in Belgium to attend the Tomorrowland festival.

After a preliminary examination of these complaints, the Federal Prosecutor's Office considered that it might have jurisdiction based on the new Article 14/10 of the Preliminary Title of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which came into force on April 28, 2024.

This article grants extraterritorial jurisdiction to Belgian courts to address offenses committed outside Belgian territory, particularly those covered by conventional international law, specifically the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, relating to war crimes, and the United Nations Convention Against Torture of December 10, 1984.

Given this possible jurisdiction, the Federal Prosecutor's Office requested the police to locate the two individuals mentioned in the complaints and to proceed with their questioning. Following these interviews, the individuals were released.

At this stage of the investigation, no further information will be provided.

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 15/05/2025

If you see this 👇🏽 Please quote post a beach pic you took off your phone Barcelonetta beach in Barcelona Spain, beach volley on wednesday evening

Beach picture of people playing Volleyball

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 05/05/2025

kreeg deze mail als ik toch probeerde het in te dienen met de eis dat ze geen gebruik mogen maken van mijn interacties met externe partners... mis ik iets of zijn ze ons hier weer met een dode mus aan het proberen te sussen?

screenshot van een mail van Meta die zegt dat ze prompts van mij hebben met de Meta AI, maar de mail gaat over externe gegevens gebruikt voor AI door Meta

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 05/05/2025

came here to recommend the same helmet for the same reason :) (still looks incredibly dorky but at least you can say it's European design)

a still from the show Fleabag where Claire feels awful about her short haircut so her sister tries to soothe her by telling her it's French

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 24/04/2025

So grateful I was invited at @ahoy.eu to talk about power concentrations in the ATmosphere! In my talk I tried to make clear there is no social media without conflict, but we need to build democratic institutions to balance between feudalism and social norm conflict exhaustion.

Slide: power concentrations in the ATmosphere, balancing between feudalism and conflict exhaustion

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 24/04/2025

At #ahoy25 @aendra.com reminds everyone why we need to build social networks that both protect vulnerable populations and provide them with safe spaces AND not remove them from public life. Queer resilience is visibility 👏 @ahoy.eu

Slide: social media is more than Just a Thing queer people do online. It's community. it's mental health support. It's a lifeline.

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 22/04/2025

For those wondering how the hell I wandered into a church on Thursday, I was staying in a monastery for a week to finish my last paper! The madness a PhD can drive people to 🙃 (but the writing breaks were divine!)

wide scenery shot of the Sant Benet monastery I was staying in on Montserrat

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 02/03/2025

Scavenger's reign was soooo good 😭 I got the vinyl as a consolation price

Picture of a vinyl with the Scavenger's reign scene where Azi is standing on the big concrete blocks with a pink background

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 17/02/2025

I didn't call it fake, I said it was misleading. I can agree that the emotions might be because of his own failures as a chair, but MAGAs have been using this compilation to argue Europeans can't handle Vance's criticism (pretty sure they didn't see the jumpcut, nor did many others)

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 12/02/2025

Our paper on social norm affordances is out in Social Media + Society! @ikepicone.bsky.social @imuses.bsky.social & I analysed how the technological affordances of Instagram and Twitter shape the social norm dynamics of climate change publics. Proud of this one! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

screenshot of the title of the paper: Affordances-in-Practice: How Social Norm Dynamics in Climate Change Publics Are Shaped on Instagram and Twitter

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 19/01/2025

23/24th and 3 more years of Trump to go

Bart Simpson in the "worst day of my life... so far!" meme

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 13/01/2025

I don't remember anymore, I was looking at a 'what if' prediction paper I wrote in 2020 at my previous job on a potential future of a defragmented internet, and used Roposo as an example that Indians might have moved to. this was the 3-page paper btw, on page 23 www.iss.europa.eu/sites/defaul...

graphic of the possible internet fragmentation on 3 different layers

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 22/12/2024

Last 2am brainfart; Taylor Swift (BL's bestie) probably played a role in BL striking back through court and collecting the receipts. Taylor Swift has always been a guiding light in cybersecurity (see the origins of @swiftonsecurity.com name), funny how she now appears to be the same for info ops.

"inspirational" poster of Taylor Swift with a quote that is not hers where she Warns people about phishing by asking "what would Taylor Swift do?" because everyone can be a target

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 22/12/2024

This story isn't just irrelevant celeb drama, it's symptomatic for manipulation happening in our information ecosystems. - By which I'm not saying manipulation ops are always successful, you NEED organic engagement and unfortunately for BL she doesn't seem to be very well liked.

Screenshot of the NY times article about how the manipulation operation took course, highlighting the part where the leading actors mention the story has really picked up on social media, and how it's "actually sad because it shows how people really want to hate on women"

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 26/11/2024

Feeds! Zelf kunnen bepalen door welke content ik scroll

A screenshot of most of the feeds I follow

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 22/11/2024

And the worst is, drawing/doodling is scientifically proven to help hold attention! www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-thi... (I WISH I did this in HS, I would just dream away with no coping mechanisms) I now draw all the time at conferences (and I'm also starting to like how they look!) my latest 👇

A doodle/drawing in black ink lines of mountain hills

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 19/11/2024

This is what slow travel Brussels-Barcelona looks like: 8,5h at 300km/h with 1 layover in Paris (or Lyon) 🚄🛤️🚇 I relish having my packed lunch in the restaurant cart watching the scenery change. Shame it's so expensive... AMA if you're curious to try out the train on this traject!

A picture from the train, somewhere around Valence

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 19/11/2024

Oh wauw genial 😄 entonces, que haces el feed con posts que están en dos idiomas? I'm just now seeing the language button, and I selected both languages! Do you have a write-up for how you did this with the feed?

Buttons below your writing block with on the right a button for languaged

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 12/11/2024

how is it different from this one? bsky.app/starter-pack... and why is there a Colonial propaganda account in the list...?

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 11/11/2024

this shouldn't be too hard indeed, especially if it can give a suggestion that the person posting can still refine or correct. Mastodon already does it for pictures that contain text, cause it's such a hassle to type out.

screenshot of Mastodon Alt Text editor saying "Describe for people who are blind or have low vision" where "detect text from picture" was clicked and the text is uploading to the editor

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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 25/09/2023

This meme always made sense to me, may be an explanation?

Meme with a guy laughing along to a picture of 3 women laughing with the caption "how it feels to listen to podcasts"

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