iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Sol Messing

Christopher Barrie @cbarrie.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

📄 New paper: people choose AI models partly on political grounds This is joint work with @pettertornberg.com @chrisbail.bsky.social @michelleschimmel.bsky.social and led by @michaelheseltine.bsky.social

26227

Reposted by Sol Messing

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

New in Nature: LLMs give "the party line" in the languages of authoritarian regimes. This works when they control the media, which feeds pretraining data. We show more state control over the media means less critical LLMs. 6 studies spanning 38 languages & 13 models. Details ↓

Scatter plot of 38 countries plus China showing the proportion of LLM responses favorable to the regime in the local language vs. World Press Freedom Index score. Lower press freedom predicts more regime-favorable responses; all production models pooled.

7243118

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

7243118

Reposted by Sol Messing

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

You can just research things. New from @jatucker.bsky.social & me at @brookings: Coding agents like Claude Code and Codex will likely accelerate research AND undermine institutional structures we built to support it.

Google Trends chart showing interest in commercial coding agents increasing dramatically in early 2026

13612

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

13612

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

AI personas do not 'contain multitudes,' unlike actual human survey respondents who contradict themselves across a wide array of issues. Cool work from my colleague @cbarrie.bsky.social, excited to see this out in the world!

061

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

CORRECTION, Claude Code launched in February 2025, suggesting a roughly 13% increase above expectations.

141

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

[ #GenAI-post warning] Almost every researcher I know is using Claude Code, and talking about the huge productivity gains. Are we actually producing more scientific papers yet? Since its release in May 2025, arXiv submissions are indeed *12%* above what we'd expect. Details in thread:

4283

Reposted by Sol Messing

Oxford Social Media Observatory @oxsocmedobs.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

🌐 📲 With international collaborators, the Observatory’s director @andreucasas.bsky.social revisited recent “TikTok censorship” claims after the TikTok USDS takeover ➡️ Detailed information about the analysis available: goodauthority.org/news/was-the... 🧵[1/5]

goodauthority.org

Was there censorship on TikTok after the U.S. takeover?

A TikTok outage more likely explains recent anomalies – there’s no evidence of larger platform changes so far.

11313

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Last week the story was that TikTok censored anti-Trump/ICE/Pretti videos after the U.S. ownership change. We investigated with a large set of US TikTok data and found some interesting results, short thread...

621691

Reposted by Sol Messing

Karsten Donnay @karstendonnay.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

🚨Job alert 🚨 I have an opening for a postdoc in my team at @ipz.bsky.social in the area of digital democracy starting Sep 1, 2026. If you are working on the impact of the digital transformation on politics, please apply by 🗓️ Mar 1, 2026. 📤 Please share widely! www.ipz.uzh.ch/de/ueber-uns...

ipz.uzh.ch

Offene Stellen / Open Positions

25770

Reposted by Sol Messing

Melina Much @melinamuch.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Is Joe Rogan really just a voice of the right? Our new @csmapnyu.org piece for @goodauth.bsky.social shows he’s just as much a space for the left and the center, too. A look inside today’s surprisingly complicated podcast information ecosystem. 🎙️ goodauthority.org/news/podcast...

52613

Reposted by Sol Messing

Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Next up on my reading list. …I am already regretting this choice.

IF ANYONE BUILDSIT, EVERYONE DIES
WHY
SUPERHUMAN AI
WOULD
KILLUS ALL
ELIEZER
YUDKOWSKY &
NATE SOARES

5564453

Reposted by Sol Messing

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):

413554

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

TODAY Aug 28 - "Politics in 60 Seconds: Short-Form Video, TikTok, and Political Communication" at #APSA2025 - 2 PM, VCC West Ballroom B Chair: @eunjikim.bsky.social. Discussant: @mollyeroberts.bsky.social

142

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Spoiler alert: the answer is “no”

020

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Maybe let’s not dismantle the tenure system while admin and athletic budgets balloon

020

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

🧵 NEW PAPER - "Quantifying Narrative Similarity Across Languages" is live at SMR. We combine NLP w pairwise LLM evals to track ideas across media ecosystems and languages. We also figured out a way to eval unsupervised probs on widely understood supervised performance metrics.

1217

Reposted by Sol Messing

Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

I am thrilled to share a new article in Sociological Methods & Research, “Quantifying Narrative Similarity Across Languages”. My co-first author Sol Messing and our collaborators developed a new approach to measuring “narrative similarity” between texts: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

journals.sagepub.com

Quantifying Narrative Similarity Across Languages - Hannah Waight, Solomon Messing, Anton Shirikov, Margaret E. Roberts, Jonathan Nagler, Jason Greenfield, Megan A. Brown, Kevin Aslett, Joshua A. Tuck...

How can one understand the spread of ideas across text data? This is a key measurement problem in sociological inquiry, from the study of how interest groups sh...

35827

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Important corrective paper and solid work from @cbarrie.bsky.social: don't mistake game simulations as evidence of intelligence if the game is in the training data.

064

Reposted by Sol Messing

Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

1/ I am excited to share my new article with Adam Goldstein in the American Journal of Sociology. We harmonized a set of historical public opinion data from 1966-2013 to investigate the shifting bases of inequality perceptions in the United States. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

journals.uchicago.edu

The Polarization of Inequality Perceptions in the New Gilded Age | American Journal of Sociology: Vol 0, No ja

46913

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Join us as a research engineer @ CSMAP. 1. Collaborate on deploying and fine-tuning LLMs/LMs - build your AI chops 2. Big compute resources and data infra already in place 3. Access to largest social data collections on earth 4. Smart & teched up co-workers who know their isht

052

Reposted by Sol Messing

Joshua Tucker @jatucker.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

💡 Ever wondered how social media and digital technology shapes our democracy? Join our team @CSMaP_NYU as a Research Engingeer and help us build the tools that power cutting-edge research on the digital public sphere. 🚀 Apply now! apply.interfolio.com/165833

apply.interfolio.com

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

157

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

🚨 NEW job posting for research engineer/TL @ CSMAP. 1. Collaborate on deploying and fine-tuning LLMs/LMs - build your AI chops 2. Big compute resources and data infra already in place 3. Access to largest social data collections on earth 4. Smart & teched up co-workers who know their isht

010

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

🚨 Fantastic data + methods work in PNAS on “scripted propaganda,” government-authored phrases/talking points that appear in commercial newspapers. They show it’s been on the rise in recent decades & particularly during COVID — huge congrats on this incredibly heavy lift

010

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Dodge-targeted agencies are the ones that create knowledge, suggesting this is about more than just political retribution

020

Reposted by Sol Messing

Lawfare @lawfaremedia.org · 21/02/2025

Regardless of whether TikTok will be sold to a non-Chinese owner, @zevesanderson.com, @solmg.bsky.social, and Scott Babwah Brennen argue that researchers need access to independent data to understand the platform’s democratic effects in the U.S. and abroad.

lawfaremedia.org

Mosaics of Insight: Auditing TikTok Through Independent Data Access

Even if TikTok is sold to a non-Chinese buyer, the threat of foreign influence will remain. That’s why researchers need independent data access.

1268

Reposted by Sol Messing

NYU's Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics @csmapnyu.org · 12/12/2024

In the absence of federal regulation, states continue to lead the development of technology policy in the US, passing 238 bills in 46 states in 2024, a 163 percent increase from last year. New report published today by us & NYU's Center on Tech Policy. 🧵 1/

csmapnyu.org

The State of State Technology Policy: 2024 Report

In the absence of federal regulation, state’s continue to lead the development of technology policy in the United States, passing 238 bills in 46 states in 2024, a 163 percent increase from last year.

12711

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Political scientist: The cup is in a 2-party equilibrium. No major 3rd party will emerge due to its first-past-the-post voting system.

0111

Reposted by Sol Messing

NYU's Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics @csmapnyu.org · 19/11/2024

📢 New CSMaP & @ucsandiego.bsky.social paper published in PNAS Nexus! Main finding: Latinos who rely on Spanish-language social media for news were significantly more likely to believe false political narratives than those who consume English-language content 🧵 1/ academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

76523

Reposted by Sol Messing

Political Behavior Commentary @pbcommentary.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

It's not fair u come armed with stupendous math coupled with actual experience as former Twitter employee. It's said much of Musk's followers are bots. But millions of his real followers will still do the job of multiplying effect.

011

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

🧵The study everyone here is talking about does NOT provide evidence that Twitter/X pushed a pro-Republican home timeline ranking change in July 2023. The cascading, multiplicative effects of ranking changes likely explain the effect--details below

79844

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

🧵Do not accept the narrative that Trump won b/c racism & sexism: 1. Doesn’t line up with the evidence 2. Assumes the worst about Trump voters & will further alienate them 3. Plays into "the left is too woke" meme 4. May embolden white supremacy

4166

Reposted by Sol Messing

NYU's Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics @csmapnyu.org · 22/01/2024

How might AI, TikTok, and the liar's dividend affect the 2024 elections? Zeve Sanderson, @solmg.bsky.social, and @jatucker.bsky.social explain in this new piece for Brookings. 🧵 1/ www.brookings.edu/articles/mis...

brookings.edu

Misunderstood mechanics: How AI, TikTok, and the liar's dividend might affect the 2024 elections | B...

11911

Reposted by Sol Messing

NYU's Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics @csmapnyu.org · 17/01/2024

CSMaP is thrilled to welcome our new Tech Policy Fellow, Lama Mohammed! In this role, Lama will work to insert rigorous research into the policy conversation around social media, technology, and democracy. Please join us in welcoming Lama! csmapnyu.org/people/lama-...

152

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 08/01/2024

THREAD: Early projections for 2024 based on previous Presidential and House returns do not look good for Biden—Republicans have a slight edge. NOTE: These are completely unrelated to Biden’s recent polling numbers. www.270towin.com/maps/OWYvL

100

Reposted by Sol Messing

NYU's Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics @csmapnyu.org · 18/12/2023

The online environment is rapidly transforming, as generative AI intersects with a fragmenting social media ecosystem. In the past year, CSMaP published several major studies analyzing the platforms, and built a foundation to study the shifting landscape moving forward.

csmapnyu.org

2023 Year in Review: Our Research & Impact

A look at our top articles, events, and more from the past year.

001

Reposted by Sol Messing

NYU's Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics @csmapnyu.org · 13/12/2023

🚨Job alert 🚨 CSMaP is hiring 3 postdoctoral fellows to work on research examining the intersection of social/digital media & politics! 1) Focuses generally on social media/politics 2) Focuses on comparative politics 3) Focuses on political behavior Info & application links 👇

csmapnyu.org

Work With Us - NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics

01726

Reposted by Sol Messing

Benjamin Guinaudeau @benguinaudeau.bsky.social · 20/09/2023

As the big migration is happening, I highly recommend reading @solmg.bsky.social 's blog post. Everything is beautiful around here, but it's still too early to tell whether it will stay that way (in terms of moderation, centralization, and platform revenue) csmapnyu.org/news-views/n...

083

Reposted by Sol Messing

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 02/10/2023

1/ Many said Science went overboard on its cover for those Meta studies. Science published my take yesterday. It shows Meta’s algorithms actually tended NOT to increase ideological segregation in general, at least in 2020

261

Reposted by Sol Messing

Dean Eckles @eckles.bsky.social · 14/10/2023

How should we measure "filter bubbles"? Some comments building on a letter to Science by @solmg.bsky.social statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2023/10/13/p...

092

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 02/10/2023

261

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 07/08/2023

Excellent post from Tom Cunningham on the what we know about the possible effects of social media on affective polarization tecunningham.github.io/posts…

010

Reposted by Sol Messing

NYU's Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics @csmapnyu.org · 15/05/2023

People are flocking to BlueSky. But will it keep its luster as it scales up? @solmg.bsky.social explores what could happen with this new platform. Read his full post and thread 👇 csmapnyu.org/news-views/news/on-blu…

032