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Nathalie Van Raemdonck

@nathalievanraemdonck.com
1.9K followers 512 following 391 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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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 9h
I do also understand that Lithuania's threat landscape is completely different than most EU countries and we must extend some grace to the host of #disinfo2026. They are caught between a rock and a hard place. It must suck when you feel like your bully can only be held back by the orange bully
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 9h
props to France for standing firm where the EEAS, Lithuania and Canada buckled “We stick to supporting civil society. It’s not just principled, it’s operational" #disinfo2026
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 16h
always a pleasure to hear you speak Robin!
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Logan Dupont @logandupont.com · 16h
I just created a feed for #Disinfo2026 Conf from @disinfo.eu!
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 17h
Just sharing the piece I wrote in 2024 when I was untangling how power could consolidate in Bluesky's stacked moderation middleware model www.techpolicy.press/where-does-p... a lot has moved in the meantime with way more platforms and servers that people can move around to!
techpolicy.press
Where Does Power Consolidate on Bluesky?
Nathalie Van Raemdonck says only time will tell how the pieces fit together and how they interact to create a new "public square."
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 17h
also a wild @laurenshof.online skeet appears 🤭
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 18h
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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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 18h
An update on sponsors pulling out of #Disinfo2026 at the last minute. Michael Shellenberger has followed up his earlier email to panelists participating in the event with another email, that include the following statements:
Since then the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote to me: "Upon becoming aware of the above-mentioned discussion topics, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania withdrew from any participation in the conference. The Ministry has also formally dissociated itself from the conference content and requested that the organisers remove all references to the Ministry from conference materials, communications, and promotional activities."
Andrius Katinas of the Radio and Television
Commission of Lithuania wrote to me that he has withdrawn as a speaker "in light of the differences of opinion that have arisen with the organisers of the
'Disinfo 2026' conference regarding the assessment of the role of the United States."
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 20h
for the EEAS I assume when Lithuania pulled out they also had to pull back as it is supposed to represent member states...
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French Response @frenchresponsex.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026
Enable free press ❌ Harass civil society ✅ t.co/F3BusL213j t.co/2TyXI2wkNL Source : x.com/FrenchResponse/status/2107509…
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 22h
Also important to note there are only Americans speaking in this panel 👀 #disinfo2026
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Maarten Schenk @mschenk.bsky.social · 23h
An example of FIMI (Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference) in action at the @disinfo.eu conference? Apparently someone in the U.S. did not agree with the topic of a session named "USA as a FIMI threat: acknowledge, adapt, push back" and applied pressure on the sponsors...
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 07/10/2026
Just got to Vilnius for #disinfo2026 and the tone is set!
Picture of buildings in Vilnius with a text atop one of them saying “Putin The Hague is waiting for you”
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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 · 23/08/2026
up to hang in Barcelona and chat social networks though! I will unfortunately not be in town the 9th for an ATproto meetup
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 23/08/2026
Hi Didier! Just found you because of the convo on r/askbarcelona 🤗 I missed your question but my partner sent it to me, I think Reddit mods must’ve thought it was another bullshit tech promo cause they don’t know what the ATmosphere is, but it’s definitely a shame they didn’t let you explain
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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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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 17/08/2026
any university has the legal right and moral obligation to make sure its personnel isn't launching harassment campaigns on other academics or pursuing political ambitions of eugenically cleansing academia of minorities. it is beyond me that UGent leadership has not had the courage to take action
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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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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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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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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
and I also liked how @tjmcintyre.com properly read the ruling and nuanced how a simple "reverse chronological feed" would not fall under this loss of exemption bsky.app/profile/tjmc...
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 08/07/2026
The ruling was brought back to my attention because @laurenshof.online did the fascinating exercise of figuring out what this might mean for decentralized platform infrastructures where algorithmic recommendations are not centrally governed bsky.app/profile/laur...
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 08/07/2026
The ruling also undercuts the DSA's risk mitigation regime which was built on liability safe harbour, But @stevepeers.bsky.social www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm... and Lorna Woods eulawanalysis.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-... do nuance the actual impact of this ruling bsky.app/profile/daph...
irishexaminer.com
EU Court of Justice ruling may have just radically changed social media regulation
The rule exempting internet service providers from liability as a publisher is the foundation of modern social networks, but the court said it doesn't apply where an algorithm is used
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 08/07/2026
This is related to the US Section 230 convo that @taylorlorenz.bsky.social has been covering, but this CJEU ruling could incentivise platforms to deamplify any content individuals could sue platforms for, and since "illegality" is open for many interpretations, there's a risk of many false positives
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 08/07/2026
I don't disagree with the emphasis on algorithmic dissemination. Platforms are not just hosting when they determine the rules of what gets visibility; in this attention economy, being seen, not being hosted, is where the value lies. But I worry about lifting the exemption on liability.
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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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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 04/05/2026
Honestly, I think we just need an interesting case study! Let’s talk soon dear 😘
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 04/05/2026
I’m fuming at how good of a joke it is. Damn you and your dad-puns!
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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 · 04/05/2026
Retroactively praising you for your beanfluencer efforts ❤️
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Nathalie Van Raemdonck @nathalievanraemdonck.com · 04/05/2026
Hahaha I think it spontaneously emerged as a counter to all the protein-mainstreaming coming from the fitfluencers, EVERYTHING now has “protein” in it! I did luckily see some medical influencers explaining how to safely fibremaxx since you should do this gradually not to overwhelm your gut
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