COMPTEXT Conference is a cool place for dataset launches with so many potential users listening. A great example is tg.observer by Aleksi Knuutila and team focusing on Telegram data in the post-Twitter/X API landscape!

“Can we get a new text analysis tool?”
“No—we have Topic Model at home”

Topic Model at home: outputs vague keywords; needs constant parameter fiddling🫠

Is there a better way? We introduce LLooM, a concept induction tool to explore text data in terms of interpretable concepts🧵

'Mapping out Russian impersonated propaganda operations on Telegram during the war in Ukraine' — 9 April with Roman Kyrychenko , Aleksi Knuutila and Vasileios Maltezos from #HelsinkiUni : blogs.helsinki.fi/russianmediala… Helsinki Institute of Social Sciences & Humanities University of Helsinki Faculty of Social Sciences, HelsinkiUni

Selvitys: YouTube suosi perus­suomalaisia presidentin­vaaleissa is.fi/digitoday/art-…

Euractiv huomioi tuoreen raporttimme, Politico kirjoitti aiheesta jo eilen.

'a new study found YouTube’s recommendation algorithm boosted right-wing content in the run-up to Finland’s 2024 elections.'

euractiv.com/section/artifi…

YouTube’s algorithm promoted right-wing content in the 2024 Finnish elections dlvr.it/T40SCM

Juuri julkaisemamme selvityksen mukaan Youtuben suosittelualgoritmi toimii kuin suppilo, joka ohjaa käyttäjiä perussuomalaisten ehdokkaiden pariin. Ketju ->

#algorotimit #youtube #presidentinvaalit

faktabaari.fi/fakta/faktabaa…

First in Morning Tech: As the far right keeps rising, a new study found that YouTube's algorithm disproportionately pushed right-wing, anti-immigration videos during Finland’s elections earlier this year.

➡️pro.politico.eu/news/youtube-r…

➡️crossover.social/finnish-far-ri…

Suomessa toimiva Nahlieli-ryhmä on osa eri puolilla maailmaa kasvavaa rauhanliikettä. ku.fi/artikkeli/4980…

Next meetup: Understudied Tubes: Disinformation and alternative publics on YouTube. Join us live in Helsinki or via Zoom on Monday, 4.3., 2 p.m.-4 p.m. This meetup is a joint effort by Rajapinta, Helsinki Institute of Social Sciences & Humanities & Helsinki Hub on Emotions, Populism & Polarisation. See you there! More information➡️fb.me/e/4WXMiD1ey

From algorithms amplifying political messages on social media to AI-generated deepfakes, there’s plenty to look out for in this mega-election year, says Aleksi Knuutila from Faculty of Social Sciences, HelsinkiUni.
fcai.fi/news/2024/2/6/…
cc HIIT Helsinki Sociology Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki University of Helsinki

#AIMonday Helsinki is back on January 15: How is AI being used in social influencing? Join the discussion online or at Tiedekulma.
Speakers incl. Mikko Alasaarela, Essi Pöyry, Aleksi Knuutila
➡️ ai-monday.de/event/ai-and-s…
cc DAIN Studios Taival

#SocArXiv : Synthetic ethnography: Field devices for the qualitative study of generative models osf.io/zvew4/

synthetic ethnography preprint out - me, Matti Pohjonen and Aleksi Knuutila sketch some field devices for the qualitative studies of generative models, feedback very welcome osf.io/preprints/soca…

Bark Text-to-Audio Model

Full Text Input: 'Why was six afraid of seven?'

Ignore Bark's 'I'm done with this input' token and tell Bark to just keep generating more audio anyway.

🚨🚨New Research🚨🚨

Just out in Journal of Communication:
One of the first academic studies uncovering the economy of digital misinformation networks doi.org/10.1093/joc/jq…

Key Q: How do people involved in misinformation campaigns make money?
1/

Meme generation is a continuous process, with memes evolving by fusing cultural symbols. How can we study this evolutionary nature? In our recently accepted paper IEEE S&P '23, we use OpenAI’s CLIP model to study the evolution of (hateful) memes!
📰 arxiv.org/abs/2212.06573
🧵👇

🎉Learned that our paper 'Misinformation and professional news on largely unmoderated platforms' was the most-read article published in Journal of Information Technology&Politics in the last year

Great feeling to see substantial interest in our research
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

Every now and then I think of the posters Wolfgang Tillmans designed for the Remain campaign in 2016 and what they tell us about late modern liberalism and its limits

🚨🚨new study alert 🚨🚨
Our new article on misinformation and news on largely unmoderated platforms just published!

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10… (open access)

authored by Aleksi Knuutila Jonathan Bright 🇺🇦 Phil Howard and me at Programme on Democracy and Technology
#ICA22 might be interested

Key points👇👇