Prof @UniLeipzig @ifkmw & Institute for PolSci @crifc_de @cdp_org (Private account & personal opinions, of course.)
Jul 12 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
This type of reporting is so irresponsible and a big part of the problem. A political group hires some consultancy to run the type of analysis that has been refuted again and again - just to claim strong disinformation effects without any evidence. 1/ theguardian.com/world/article/…
This analysis, which is hardly documented and (of course) not peer-reviewed, basically categorizes a bunch of accounts that follow each other as troll accounts. They may well be. But that tells us absolutely nothing about the reach, let alone impact of these accounts. 2/
Apr 22, 2022 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
It seems to me that the discourse on social media harms suffers from a kind of negativity-seeking concept creep. We usually start out with very strong, panicky claims about harms caused by social media. Initial studies often appear to support these claims. 1/
However, the more research we get, the more conflicting results we see, ultimately largely disproving the original claims. Instead of recognizing this as progress, the discourse then tends to shift the goal post by redefining key concepts. 2/
Apr 21, 2022 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
A fascinating documentation of how the views of opinion leaders are shaped 👇🏼 A lot of think tank papers, some activist statements, several magazine commentaries. Most of a distinctly alarmist bent. Looks like quite little that directly relates to actual research.
Interestingly, there are quite a few reports out there, with strong academic contributions, that attempt to aggregate the state of research (which is really hard). Just for example, I thought this @royalsociety report did a great job 👇 1/3
With all due respect to @JonHaidt, I increasingly suspect that pieces like this really aren’t about how social media corrupt society, but rather a projection of increasing confusion and frustration within the elite onto society. Short 🧵 1/7 theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
First, romanticism about the “early” Internet or social media in the early 00s overlooks how elitist the early Internet was. Large parts of the population simply weren’t online. There was a notable class divide in Internet access. 2/7 pewresearch.org/internet/2015/…
May 28, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Jene, die sich über Twitters Fact-checking freuen und Facebooks liberalere Haltung kritisieren, unterschätzen m.E. die Komplexität der Situation. Im Kampf gegen „Fake News“ grassiert zunehmend ein ebenso naiver wie expansiver Wahrheitsbegriff. 1/5
Konflikte, v.a. politische, entstehen in der Regel nicht aufgrund mangelnder Fakten, sondern rund um die Interpretation dieser Fakten. Es geht meist um Meinungen, Wertungen, Weltanschauungen, nicht Fakten. „Fake News“ sind darum enorm schwierig zu definieren und abzugrenzen. 2/5
