Today, I stood before the Danish parliament on a public hearing on social media & democracy
As a researcher of online hate, I could have spent hours. But I had 10 minutes, so I had to be focused
The title was "The Myths About Social Media"
Here is what I said👇
🧵(1/12)
The data is clear: We have a problem.
Citizens find online debates more hateful; the non-haters withdraw from the discussions; and politicians & public figures are harassed online.
But: There are myths about the causes. Solutions require correct problem-identification. (2/12)
Myth 1: A lot of misinfo on social media
No, research suggests there is little, shared by few & having small effects.
Those sharing misinfo are not dumb. But they have intense political animus, which motivates to share what fits their worldview, true or false.
(3/12)
This opens for new challenges:
1) The real problem is biased sharing. Even if everything is true, selective sharing will create a biased picture.
2) People can learn to spot fake news. The real problem is intellectual humility: getting them to trust & share real news. (4/12)
Myth 2: Social media makes people hateful.
No, research suggests that online hate reflects offline frustrations that make them hateful both online & offline.
The hateful are few in numbers but they are attracted to politics and, hence, are much more visible.
(5/12)
This opens for new challenges:
1) Long-terms solutions to online hate requires solving the causes of offline frustrations. No quick fixes exist.
2) As the hateful are attracted to politics, it takes effort to keep debates non-hostile. It requires clear & enforced rules.
(6/12)
Myth 3: Social media are echo chambers.
No, research shows that, for most, social media breaks the bubble. We are more connected to "the others" on social media than in our offline lives. That is why it feels unpleasant - because it is the most hateful "others" we meet.
(7/12)
This opens for new challenges:
1) Exposure to hate can help legitimize hate, in part because our views of the other political groups becomes biased.
1) If connectivity is the problem, short-term solutions involve focus on shielding against hate, not changing the haters. (8/12)
All in all, social media are not that mysterious.
For decision-makers, social media is a window into the most frustrated.
For activists, social media is simply a tool to effectively accomplish their political goals. People are pretty much the same, online and offline.
(9/12)
On this basis, I asked parliament to work on 4 solutions:
1) As the myths show, we need insight. Insist on openness & external oversight regarding data and algorithms from tech platforms.
2) Prioritize tools that can enable people to shield themselves from exposure to hateful content. (10/12)
3) Focus on democratic--not just digital--education. The problem is not that people are not tech savvy. The problem is lack of rationalism.
4) Invest in remedying the offline frustrations that drives online hate. Ending hate requires real change in the offline world. (11/12)
Those were my input!
The hearing launches the parliament's effort to improve democratic debate in the age of social media. Find more info on this important effort here: ft.dk/da/aktuelt/tem…
We surveyed experiences of victims in 30 countries across the world (N=15,202) to show that political & economic inequality drive global differences in abuse on online platforms:
Our preregistered study show that experiences of being a victim to online hostility vary widely. West Europeans experience political hostility less than once a month but hostility is much higher in other parts of the world. 2/12
These differences reflect basic societal conditions of inequality. Political equality (i.e., presence of democracy) is highly correlated with online abuse (corr = -.69) as is economic inequality (corr = .45). 3/12
“The unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off. And so, we’re going to continue doing so, until the end. That’s the strategy,” said Macron during the COVID-19 pandemic
In a new article, we show the risks of such moralized cost-imposition:
Similar, but less strong, rethoric was used by the Danish primeminister during a press conference on Nov 8, 2021.
During the time, we collected daily representative surveys of trust in the response etc. in the @HopeProject_dk. 2/7
@HopeProject_dk Our findings show that, as result of the press conference, unvaccinated lost 11 %-points of trust in the response. It also decreased their motivation to contribute to the collective action problem of reducing infections as well as their felt ability to cope with the pandemic. 3/7
I was asked by the board of the Danish National Research Foundation, @GrundforskFond, to give a talk at their annual meeting.
They asked me to talk under the theme: "Preprints"
Here is what I said 👇
🧵 1/18
@GrundforskFond A key challenge facing the dissemination of knowledge is delays in publication ().
The social sciences are hard hit. 18 months from submission to publication in Economics & this is only *if* the paper is accepted in that journal. 2/18 sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
@GrundforskFond The evidence suggest that the delay is getting worse, not better, over time (). This is mostly due to increased time in review.
@concitoinfo Tal fra @ HopeProject_dk viser, at der ikke er helt aMMW konsensus om hårde instrumenter som skatter og afgifter, men selv er der kun ca. 30 %, der er uenige: 3/8 https://t.co/yV5W77QaHxgithub.com/Hopeproject202…
The Danish government has appointed me to direct a 5-year audit of Danish democracy in the 21st century: ufm.dk/aktuelt/presse…
Political scientists can think of Dahl's classic, "Who Governs?", but for an entire country. It is a monumental research challenge.
🧵 1/5
Parliament-initiated studies of power & democracy constitute a Scandinavian tradition. The last Danish study ended in 2003. In the following year Facebook was launched & fundamental societal changes have happened since. 2/5
A core focus is thus how and whether "slow-speed" democracy is fundamentally threatened by current "high-speed" society -- characterised by rapid technological innovation, increasing problem complexity, fast-paced media reporting & rising inequality. 3/5
I denne tråd skitserer jeg det, der ligger forude, og nogle af de udfordringer, som demokratiet står foran i det 21. århundrede.
🧵 1/14
Magtudredninger er en særlig skandinavisk tradition, hvor parlamentet beder uafhængige forskere om at vurdere om de - og andre magtaktører - lever op til demokratiets idealer og udstyrer forskerne med væsentlige ressourcer til den opgave. 2/14
Én gang tidligere har man gennemført en magtudredning i DK (magtudredningen.dk). Bl.a. under overskriften "et ganske levende demokrati" konkluderede man, at DKs demokrati var robust, og at forskydningerne af magt i høj grad var politisk bestemte & dermed under kontrol. 3/14