WHAT-IF
Horizon Europe research project testing the impact of evidence-based policies for healthier political information environments
what-if-horizon.eu
- Developing the first simulation prototype based on the systematic literature review in beautiful Konstanz 🏔️ ☀️ with Stephen Tyndel, Giordano de Marzo, @aytalina.bsky.social, @dgarcia.eu & Taehee Kim
- Reposted by WHAT-IFWe have just updated our Social Media Research Toolkit, a curated collection of over 50 research tools compiled by researchers at the Social Media Lab. The kit only features tools that have been used in peer-reviewed academic research. socialmedialab.ca/apps/social-...
- (How) can AI help build better online spaces? ✨ Last week, 16 researchers from 8 institutions gathered in Vienna to explore exactly that question. Between the Christmas markets, the WHAT-IF team discussed how LLMs can power agent-based simulations to tackle online hostility and harmful content 👇
- We're creating virtual societies where thousands of AI agents interact, generating patterns like polarization. With the DSA requiring platforms to identify & mitigate risks, simulations can test interventions before using them on real users. Can we simulate our way to better online spaces?
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- Reposted by WHAT-IFNEW PREPRINT 💡 Together with @dougaparry.bsky.social, I just published a new preprint experimentally examining how specific normative cues on social media shape self-disclosure using an innovative simulation approach. Link: osf.io/preprints/ps... Read on for more information (1/9) 👇
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- Reposted by WHAT-IFI’m very honored to be elected as International Liaison of the ICA CM Division and to serve our vibrant community! 🙏 Looking forward to starting the work very soon 🙌
- Big news! 🎉 Our colleague @aytalina.bsky.social has been elected International Liaison of the @icacm.bsky.social! 🌍👏We’re thrilled to see her representing and connecting the global #CompMethods community. compcommlab.univie.ac.at/news-detaila...
- Reposted by WHAT-IF🎉 We're really excited to be collaborating with our excellent partners on this, as part of WP3 of the What-If Horizon project, hosted at the Observatory. 🎯 Understanding what interventions affect citizen misinformation effects is crucial to build evidence based policy in the area! More insights 🔜
- Learn more about this partnership here: what-if-horizon.eu/2025/09/30/s...
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- Misinformation researchers benefit from real-world insights. Practitioners benefit from scientific evidence on what interventions actually work. Our partnership with the media literacy & fact-checking organizations Learn to Check! and @maldita.es combines both 🤝 🧵 below
- Why this matters: We're moving beyond theory into practice. Learn to Check! brings years of hands-on media literacy education across Spain, while Maldita is one of Europe's leading fact-checking organizations. Real expertise & content meets rigorous research!
- Reposted by WHAT-IFPresented the @what-if-horizon.bsky.social project today at #SSC2025 in Delft 🙌 Very grateful for the helpful feedback from the social simulation community! Looking forward to implementing it w/ @anniewald.bsky.social and Taehee Kim ✨
- Come chat with WHAT-IF researcher @aytalina.bsky.social at #SSC2025 in Delft! She’ll present our base model at the poster session Thursday, 13:00 📆 WHAT-IF creates a digital twin of the online political information space to test interventions & strengthen democratic discourse 👉 what-if-horizon.eu
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- Reposted by WHAT-IFIn addition to the original UK results, we have now ***replicated*** this (TWICE) in the US. The main findings hold strong: information diets are a lot more diverse in attention than in engagement. New version here: osf.io/preprints/os...
- Reposted by WHAT-IFDo LLMs represent the people they're supposed simulate or provide personalized assistance to? We review the current literature in our #ACL2025 Findings paper and investigating what researchers conclude about the demographic representativeness of LLMs: osf.io/preprints/so... 1/
- Reposted by WHAT-IF📢 Big news for platform researchers across Europe and beyond: Today, the @ec.europa.eu adopted the Delegated Act for Article 40 of the Digital Services Act (DSA) – a long-anticipated milestone enabling researchers to request access to non-public platform data under Article 40.4.
- Reposted by WHAT-IFFINALLY 😌 The Delegated Act is here. The Act clarifies rules for data access under the Digital Services Act #DSA #dataaccess #research #eusky #commsky #polisky #csssky digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/d...
- Accessing social media data is currently tricky for researchers. Even if we get access, platforms deliver inconsistent, poorly documented data in different formats. Our WHAT-IF team found a way to handle Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube & TikTok donations dynamically across 4 countries. A thread 🧵
- Reposted by WHAT-IFOn my way to Madrid-EPSA! Please join in if you want to hear about (political biases? in) content moderation on YouTube during the 2024 US Election, and/or about using open-source Large Visual Language Models (VLMs) for supervised multimodal classification in political science research.
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- WHAT-IF team members met in Konstanz last week to design the WHAT-IF machine—an agent-based simulation with LLM-driven agents. It models media ecosystems to test 'what if' policy scenarios. Curious how? Read more: what-if-horizon.eu/2025/05/16/o...
- Watch this video of @arodilla.bsky.social to learn more about WHAT-IF!
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- Great opportunity for those interested in (LLM-based) agents! Don’t miss the *extended* deadline for SemGenAge at ESWC 2025!
- 🚀 Attention social simulation enthusiasts! Working with LLM agents in social simulations or exploring how to bridge LLMs & semantic web technologies? Join this interdisciplinary workshop in Portorož, Slovenia (June 1-2) 📢 SemGenAge @ #ESWC2025 📅 CfP DL: March 6 🔗 www.twon-project.eu/semgenage25/
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- Reposted by WHAT-IFWe’re thrilled that the CCL is part of this incredible project! 🎉 @anniewald.bsky.social & @aytalina.bsky.social will contribute to agent-based modeling and simulations, while @hajoboo.bsky.social & @julaluehring.bsky.social will be engaged in science communication. Exciting collaborations ahead 🚀
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- Hello world! Meet our consortium—15 organizations, 10 countries—joining forces to rethink the digital political information space. 🚀 Last week, we kicked off our project WHAT-IF, setting the stage to build a digital twin that will help us test the impact of policy interventions. More in the 🧵!
- Our Horizon Europe project develops an agent-based simulation with LLMs representing the digital political information environment. The simulation will be tested by citizens and used to evaluate the impact of policy regulations, fostering healthier democratic discourse. 👉 what-if-horizon.eu
- Reposted by WHAT-IFWe had an amazing time in the kick-off meeting. Brilliant and diverse people working on novel approaches to addressing important and timely challenges. Follow the project account and stay tuned!
- 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
