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Jana Lasser

@janalasser.bsky.social

2.6K followers 1.6K following 13 posts

Professor for Data Analysis @UniGraz | Computational Social Science, Data Science, complex systems, computational modelling | #OpenScience, #coder | she/her

Videos

Computer science 20%

Environmental science 14%

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Jana Lasser, Johannes Breuer

Alexander Wuttke @kunkakom.bsky.social · 7d

Open Science Professor ship at HU Berlin
www.academics.de/jobs/w2-prof...

W2-Professur "Open Science" an der Philosophischen Fakultät - Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin bietet Stelle als W2-Professur "Open Science" an der Philosophischen Fakultät in Berlin - jetzt bewerben!

www.academics.de

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Reposted by Katherine Ognyanova, Jana Lasser

Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · Nov 9

Not going to argue against this. Certainly can't point the finger at one specific disinfo campaign & say, "this had an impact." But the long theory of disinformation is that it erodes the ability to know/trust information, which can lead to apathy towards democracy and a preference for autocracy.

Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · Nov 9

I said on the podcast yesterday that I don't think "disinformation" had that big an impact on the election. What did was a huge portion of the populace just ignoring all news because there's just too much, and it's too much work to figure out what's legit. This seems to agree...

Ryan O'Donnell @rodonnell.bsky.social · Nov 8

looking at some unweighted dfp data by how much attention voters pay to political news

-a great deal: harris +8
-a lot: harris +5
-a moderate amount: trump +1
-a little: trump +8
-none at all: trump +15

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Reposted by Lisa M. Given, Jana Lasser

Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · Feb 9

NEW: The US is in the midst of a political coup that, if successful, would forever change the nature of its government, writes Eryk Salvaggio. But this coup is not taking place in the streets. It's taking place cubicle by cubicle in federal agencies and in the mundane automation of bureaucracy.

Anatomy of an AI Coup | TechPolicy.Press

DOGE is gutting federal agencies to install AI across the government. Democracy is on the line, writes Tech Policy Press fellow Eryk Salvaggio.

www.techpolicy.press

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Reposted by Victor Galaz, Jana Lasser, Hilary Bussell

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · Jun 2

I talked to 15 teachers/professors about how AI and ChatGPT is ruining their lives:

www.404media.co/teachers-are...

Teachers Are Not OK

AI, ChatGPT, and LLMs "have absolutely blown up what I try to accomplish with my teaching."

www.404media.co

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

Martina Winkler @martinawinkle14.bsky.social · May 6

Ein großes Problem für den Kampf gegen #Machtmissbrauch ist der Mangel an verlässlichen Daten. Umso wichtiger ist die Forschung so engagierter Wissenschaftler*innen wie @leising.bsky.social @janalasser.bsky.social oder Andrea Kübler.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Can Germany rein in its academic bullying problem?

Researchers and administrators are exploring ways to restructure a rigid hierarchy that can breed power abuses.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

Kristin Eichhorn @drkeichhorn.bsky.social · May 6

Kanzler gewählt. Dann können wir uns jetzt wieder mit #Machtmissbrauch in der Wissenschaft beschäftigen... #IchBinHanna #IchBinTina
@leising.bsky.social @janalasser.bsky.social @amreibahr.bsky.social @netzwerkmawi.bsky.social

Can Germany rein in its academic bullying problem?

Researchers and administrators are exploring ways to restructure a rigid hierarchy that can breed power abuses.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

Pooja @forgottensaves.bsky.social · May 4

Fuck Harry Potter

Go read Venco by Cherie Dimaline

It's about a woman who finds out she's part of a powerful legacy of witches and must race against time across Turtle Island to find the last witch in her coven before an immortal erases their chance to turn the tides of the world

Bo Thompson @gaudipern.bsky.social · May 4

Fuck Harry Potter

Go read the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix

It's about deadbeat dads, chosen ones, necromancy through the power of bells, and choosing kindness over pragmatism, acceptance over defiance, and integrity over expediency.

Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Blade Wielding Bisexual (Lordean arc) @shengokai.blacksky.app · May 4

Fuck Harry Potter

Go read the Scholomance trilogy by Naomi Novik

It's about the chosen sorceress with an affinity for destructive spells who stumbles into having to save the wizarding world from the equivalent of wizarding capitalists. Also, she's queer and badass.

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Reposted by Michela Massimi, Jana Lasser

Paulina Sliwa @pasliwa.bsky.social · Apr 28

We are advertising a permanent senior lecturer position teaching Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Vienna! Please forward to anyone interested.

jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Senior-L...

Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Science and Technology

jobs.univie.ac.at

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Reposted by Helen Jarvis, Jana Lasser

Robert Stribley @stribs.bsky.social · Apr 27

Love this. In his “I Agree” installation Dima Yarovinsky-Yahel took the content from terms of service statements for companies like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Tinder and printed them out on A4 paper with a standard font size for legal contracts to demonstrate the length of these agreements.

Alt-Txt: Two people stand before multi-color strips of paper with text on them that stretch down an entire wall and onto the floor. The title of the installation "I Agree" appear in all caps on the wall, too.

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Reposted by Jana Lasser, Damian Trilling

Jürgen Pfeffer @jurgenpfeffer.bsky.social · Apr 21

Have you ever asked yourself about the overall extent of TikTok? Here some numbers from "Just Another Hour on TikTok" - Great compliment to @bendavidsteel.bsky.social for this data collection effort!
w/ @miriamschirmer.bsky.social & Derek Ruths
arxiv.org/abs/2504.13279

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · Apr 19

If you have a #quarto #rstats pandoc workflow, and need to create a track-changes version of your revised paper for resubmission, try pandiff, which can do that for you for docx, pdf, and html 🧪 github.com/davidar/pand...

You'll first need to install Node and npm: nodejs.org/en/download

% pandiff Paper.R0.docx Paper.R1.docx -o diff.docx

Output shows Word doc with changes from R0 to R1 in tracked-changes mode

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

University of Graz @uni-graz.at · Apr 14

🇺🇸 Eine Auswertung von acht Millionen politischen Reden unter Beteiligung der #unigraz zeigt: Nie zuvor wurde im US-Kongress so viel nach persönlichen Überzeugungen argumentiert – und so wenig nach #Fakten:
🔗 www.uni-graz.at/de/neuigkeit...

#weworkfortomorrow #universityofgraz

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

Stefan Herzog @stefanherzog.bsky.social · Apr 11

🚨🤖👥
Webinar "Collective Intelligence in the era of LLMs"
April 24 5-6pm CET
www.hacid-project.eu/hacid-webina...

Register
nesta.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Speakers:
- Jason Burton, Copenhagen Business School
- Lucie Flek, University of Bonn
- Nikolas Zöller, Max Planck Institute for Human Development

A group of six people sits around a large wooden table working collaboratively with laptops, tablets, smartphones, and notebooks. The screens display a presentation slide titled “Discussion Outline.” The table also has coffee mugs, notebooks with handwritten notes, and small potted plants, suggesting a casual but focused team meeting or brainstorming session.

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Reposted by Jana Lasser, Sebastian Stier

Philipp Lorenz-Spreen @lorenzspreen.bsky.social · Apr 10

Excited about this coverage of our work and the replication by @maxplanck.de with @lfoswaldo.bsky.social @lewan.bsky.social and Ralph Hertwig @arc-mpib.bsky.social

www.mpg.de/24519906/dig...

Digital media – a threat to democracy? The evidence is piling up

Digital media are increasingly shaping the political landscape worldwide. A new replication study takes a closer look at earlier research on the influence of digital media on democracy and confirms wo...

www.mpg.de

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Reposted by Norbert Schwarz, Sendhil Mullainathan, Olivier Corneille , and 2 more Norbert Schwarz, Sendhil Mullainathan, Olivier Corneille, Jana Lasser, Kris Hardies

Stephan Lewandowsky @lewan.bsky.social · Apr 10

Honest people don’t lie. Or do they? Liars aren’t honest. Or are they?
One puzzling conundrum in contemporary politics is that politicians who seem to be estranged from facts and evidence are nonetheless considered honest by their followers.
1/n

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

Marijn Sax @marijnsax.bsky.social · Apr 4

>>New open access publication<<

With @laurensnaudts.bsky.social as a lead author, we discuss how with the arrival of the DSA we should pay more critical (regulatory) attention to optimization logics, which permeate and shape the entire stack of digital services.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A Right to Constructive Optimization: A Public Interest Approach to Recommender Systems in the Digital Services Act - Journal of Consumer Policy

The technological promise of recommender systems should not be misused by those with decisional power over the infrastructural, data, and knowledge resources needed for their design. The ideal of pers...

link.springer.com

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

Philipp Lorenz-Spreen @lorenzspreen.bsky.social · Apr 2

Very glad to start our teaching activities as a team next week. Offering different aspects of computational social science at @tudresden.bsky.social at the sociology and computer science departments:

css-synosys.github.io/teaching/

Teaching | CSS-Synosys

Research Group Computational Social Science within SynoSys and CIDS at TU Dresden.

css-synosys.github.io

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Reposted by Luca Rossi, Jana Lasser

Serge Belongie @serge.belongie.com · Mar 30

Would you present your next NeurIPS paper in Europe instead of traveling to San Diego (US) if this was an option? Søren Hauberg (DTU) and I would love to hear the answer through this poll: (1/6)

NeurIPS participation in Europe

We seek to understand if there is interest in being able to attend NeurIPS in Europe, i.e. without travelling to San Diego, US. In the following, assume that it is possible to present accepted papers ...

docs.google.com

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Reposted by Michael Schmitt, Jana Lasser

European Commission @ec.europa.eu · Mar 30

Are you an internationally-minded researcher? We just opened the 2025 call for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Staff Exchanges:

🔹 12-month secondments for knowledge & skills exchange
🔹 €97.7 million for some 85 research projects
🔹 International collaboration in innovation

Apply by 8 October!

Abstract figures on a black background and the text "Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. Staff Exchanges 2025" at the top.

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

ruggsea @ruggsea.bsky.social · Mar 27

A friend and colleague at my lab (the CS² under @janalasser.bsky.social ) is organizing a super nice school on democracy and social media here in Graz!

If you're interested, check it out and share! Link: sicss.io/2025/graz/

CS² Summer School Poster: A black background featuring a fragmented, digital-looking olive branch or plant with green leaves and fruits. The poster announces "DATA, DEMOCRACY & THE NEW SOCIAL FABRIC" in a red box, hosted by Complex Social & Computational Systems. Located in Graz, Austria from September 15-26, 2025, the summer school explores the intersection of social media, technology, and democracy. Themes include philosophical foundations, social media's impact on democracy, ethics of large-scale data use, and the future of democracy and the internet. A QR code for application is provided, with an April 13, 2025 application deadline.

Program details for CS² Summer School on Data, Democracy, and Social Fabric. The image features a textured, architectural background with fragmented brick walls. A schedule shows a two-week program: Week One covers daily lectures on democracy, social technologies, and ethics, while Week Two focuses on group project work. The poster details the audience (Masters, Doctoral students, Postdocs in computational social sciences), key details about application (deadline April 13, 2025), and potential financial support. Organized by Complex Social & Computational Systems (SICSS), with a QR code for application and further details.

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

futurezone @futurezone.at · Mar 19

Algorithmus-Forscherin @janalasser.bsky.social im Interview von @claudiazettel.bsky.social futurezone.at/science/soci...

Social Media: "Gefahr für Demokratien ist nicht zu vernachlässigen"

Die Algorithmus-Forscherin Jana Lasser spricht über Fehlentwicklungen in großen sozialen Medien und wie Alternativen aussehen könnten.

futurezone.at

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Reposted by Matt Sponheimer, David Bushnell, Michael Nelson , and 2 more Matt Sponheimer, David Bushnell, Michael Nelson, Jana Lasser, Matthew S. Erie

Claudia Friedlander @voiceteachernyc.bsky.social · Mar 14

Tesla Model 3 crushed by an Olmec statue
By Mexican sculptor @chavismarmol.bsky.social

A blue Tesla Model 3 has been crushed by an Olmec statue. A man with long black braids leans against the hood of the car with his arms crossed, staring down the camera.

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Reposted by Christopher D. Manning, Hendrik Wagenaar, Jana Lasser , and 1 more Christopher D. Manning, Hendrik Wagenaar, Jana Lasser, Petri Ylikoski

Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · Mar 14

1. @alisongopnik.bsky.social, Cosma Shalizi, James Evans and myself have a new piece in Science on "AI" Large Models, pushing back against much of the collective wisdom about what they can and can't do. Official below, unpaywalled at henryfarrell.net/large-ai-mod... . So why this now?

Large AI models are cultural and social technologies

Implications draw on the history of transformative information systems from the past

www.science.org

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

European Commission @ec.europa.eu · Mar 8

When a woman is empowered, the world is empowered.💜️

#InternationalWomensDay

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

astrocyteNet @astrocytenet.bsky.social · Mar 7

Kickoff meeting for the project "Leaky blood-brain barrier in major depressive disorder" funded by @fwf-at.bsky.social and @dfg.de and in collaboration with Dr. Barbara Di Benedetto @dibenedetto-lab.bsky.social. Thanks for hosting @ghanendra.bsky.social and myself in Regensburg 🙏

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

Stephan Lewandowsky @lewan.bsky.social · Mar 3

This promises to be an interesting event: Wednesday 9 April, 6pm-7pm at Club Alpbach in London.

PANELLISTS
How does misinformation spread online, and what are its real-world consequenc,es?
Can we protect d,emocracy while preserving open discourse? Our exp,ert panel discuss,es.
Matteo Bergamini MBE (moderator) is founder and CEO of Shout Out UK, an award
·winnirng social enterprise strengthenmng democracy throu,gh media and political literacy.
Stepha:n Lewandowsky is Professor and Chair in Co•ginitive Science at the· University of
Bristol!, and a leading figure in mwsinfonmation research.
Jonathan Bright is a Fellow at the Turing Institute, where he is Head of Al for Public
Services and Head of Online Safety.
Saloni Dattan:i is a Project Lead at Global Change D·ata Lab, a ~eading non-profit
research organization publishing data on global developm1ent.
Jens 1Koed Madsen is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychological and
Be,havioural Science at the London School of Economics.

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

Jochen Spangenberg @jospang.bsky.social · Mar 1

Feb 28 “will go into the history books as one of the grimmest days in American diplomacy, the beginning of a long-term disaster that every American,every U.S. ally,and anyone who cares about the future of democracy will have to endure.” @radiofreetom.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

It Was an Ambush

Today marked one of the grimmest days in the history of American diplomacy.

www.theatlantic.com

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

Henning Krause (he/him) prefers Mastodon @hnnng.de · Mar 1

Soziale Netzwerke als demokratische Kraft retten - unsere Petition #SaveSocial sucht als nächsten Meilenstein 2 hoch 18 Unterschriften! Bist du dabei? weact.campact.de/petitions/sa... #sharingiscaring

Selfie eines Mannes in gelber Warnjacke vor einem roten Plakat, das Elon Musk beim Hitlergruß zeigt

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Reposted by Jana Lasser

Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · Mar 1

A Seattle Times op-ed summarizing a few of the arguments from my UW talk this week: "To understand right-wing media's power, study improv and theater of influencers." I end with some recommendations for countering the right's bullshit machine: www.seattletimes.com/opinion/to-u...

To understand right-wing media's power, study improv and theater of influencers | Opinion

Right-wing populism is leveraging online platforms' participatory nature. A counter-movement must amplify its constituents' values, with a commitment to truth.

www.seattletimes.com

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Reposted by Edgar G. Hertwich, Wouter Dorigo, Olivier Corneille , and 10 more Edgar G. Hertwich, Wouter Dorigo, Olivier Corneille, Cecil C. Konijnendijk, Alan J. Singer, Karine Nyborg, Jean Bonnet, Rachel Armitage, Jana Lasser, Marlene Wind, Zoë D. Peterson, Holger Heuer, Ilona M. Otto

Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu · Feb 28

Your dignity honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people.

Be strong, be brave, be fearless.
You are never alone, dear President Zelenskyy.

We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.

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