Hannes Cools
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hannescools.bsky.social
Hannes Cools
@hannescools.bsky.social
Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam 🇳🇱 || Journalism, AI, Tech & innovation 👨‍💻 || Fellow Digital Democracy Centre 🇩🇰 & Marie Curie Scholar 🇪🇺 || #FirstGen
🌐 https://hannescools.com/
Democracy dies when laying off journalists...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/b...
Washington Post Begins Laying Off More Than 300 Journalists
www.nytimes.com
February 4, 2026 at 4:42 PM
"The future of social media may be decided in Europe", @laurenshof.online writes. He argues that developers have shown that it is possible to build independent platforms on AT Protocol, yet suitable funding mechanisms are largely absent.👇
#digitalsovereignty
newpublic.substack.com/p/the-future...
🇪🇺🌐 The future of social media may be decided in Europe
A survey of European AT Protocol projects, including 4 mini case-studies
newpublic.substack.com
January 29, 2026 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Hannes Cools
🎙️ Our lab is organizing a panel discussion with @natalihelberger.bsky.social and special guest @oscarwestlund.bsky.social on the global challenges posed to academic freedom. Join to learn why defending it matters!

📍 SPUI25 (and online)
📅 24.02 | 17:00
Sign up for free: www.spui25.nl/programma/ac...
Academic Freedom Under Attack
This panel discussion addresses the growing global assault on academic freedom—a cornerstone of democratic societies now under increasing threat from authoritarian regimes.
www.spui25.nl
January 27, 2026 at 12:02 PM
[Verslag Journalistieke Driedaagse]
𝐖𝐚𝐭 𝐤𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐥 𝐯𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐳𝐢𝐣𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐮𝐫 𝐯𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞?

Dat was de centrale vraag van de driedaagse van Stichting Democratie & Media waar ik afgelopen weekend aan deelnam. Drie inzichten 👇

medium.com/@hannes.cool...
Wat kan de democratische rol van de journalist zijn in de huidige cultuur van communicatie?
Wat kan de democratische rol van de journalist zijn in de huidige cultuur van communicatie?
medium.com
January 21, 2026 at 8:10 AM
"Russia denies it is interested in Moscow"

You okay, @financialtimes.com? 🤔😅
@maxseddon.bsky.social
January 20, 2026 at 10:32 AM
We can't say we didn't see it coming 😳

NYT interview with Trump.

On 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱:

T: "Ownership to me is important"
NYT: "Why is it important?"
T: "It's what I feel is psychologically needed for success"
NYT: "Psychologically important to you or the US?"
T: "To me" 😳
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/p...
An Interview With the President
www.nytimes.com
January 9, 2026 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Hannes Cools
PLEASE SHARE

📣 Multi-position (PhD and postdoc) call for an interdisciplinary project on "AI in the News Ecosystem: Navigating Trust and Authenticity”

Project @ddc-sdu.bsky.social (Digital Democracy Centre (SDU)).

Multiple positions with different backgrounds and profiles.

Links in🧵

#commsky
January 8, 2026 at 9:14 AM
UGent-rector Petra De Sutter gebruikte onbestaande citaten in haar speech bij start vh academiejaar. Ze bevestigt dat de fouten door AI veroorzaakt zijn 🫠
De UGent verwacht v studenten “dat wie AI gebruikt, het werk controleert, kritisch beoordeelt & waar nodig bijstuurt” apache.be/2026/01/08/r...
Rector Petra De Sutter gebruikte door AI ‘gehallucineerde’ citaten in openingsspeech
De foute citaten werden op de UGent-website in oktober ‘opgekuist’ zonder enige uitleg.
apache.be
January 8, 2026 at 7:09 AM
❄️❄️❄️
Look! Snow in Amsterdam trying to distract you from the state of the world 🫠
January 6, 2026 at 3:45 PM
What a way to start the new year: "This paper is stellar in my opinion", said no Reviewer 2 ever 😜
January 5, 2026 at 10:52 AM
2025 wrapped! 🎁🔥

Despite the challenges and uncertainties of the world, this year brought an incredible highlight: the birth of my son ✨✨✨

Happy holidays to all!!
December 19, 2025 at 12:42 PM
'Hallucinate' has been chosen as the Dutch word of the year... Again building on this anthropomorphic notion that LLMs etc can make up or hallucinate content. This implies they have a capacity to perceive, which they don’t.
@emilymbender.bsky.social
nltimes.nl/2025/12/16/h...
"Hallucineren" chosen as Van Dale's word of 2025 as AI gives term new meaning
The editors of Van Dale have chosen “hallucineren” as the Word of the Year 2025. According to the dictionary, artificial intelligence has given the word, Dutch for “hallucinating,” a new meaning.
nltimes.nl
December 16, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Ik schreef opinie voor @volkskrant.nl nav 'Nationaal' AI Plan.

"Nederland verdient een breder debat. Niet: hoe snel kunnen we AI invoeren, maar: welke AI willen we? (...) Niet: hoe doen we mee aan de race, maar: waar willen we eigenlijk naartoe?"

www.volkskrant.nl/columns-opin...
Opinie: Het Nationaal AI Deltaplan komt vooral de industrie ten goede, en niet de mens
Het nieuwe deltaplan dat oproept om te investeren in AI-infrastructuur is vooral een verlanglijstje van de tech-elite. Nederland verdient een breder debat. Niet: hoe snel kunnen we AI invoeren? Maar: ...
www.volkskrant.nl
December 1, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Zeer, zeer pijnlijk voor NRC. Maar liefst drie rectificaties voor berichtgeving Wijers. Zelfs bij het bericht van afgelopen zaterdag van hoofdredacteur Patricia Veldhuis staat nu: "NRC kan niet instaan voor de zorgvuldige totstandkoming van dit artikel." 🫠
www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...
NRC rectificeert berichtgeving rondom informateur Wijers
Beste lezer, Deze week zijn er nieuwe feiten bekend geworden over onze berichtgeving over informateur Hans Wijers. Na nader intern onderzoek moeten we constateren dat we bij het voorleggen van zijn ve...
www.nrc.nl
November 28, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Hannes Cools
We just published a new report on how UK journalists are adopting AI in their work
Authored by @neilthurman.bsky.social @sinatk.bsky.social & @richardfletcher.bsky.social, it's based on a survey conducted in 2024

Read in full
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/ai-adoption-...
10 findings in thread
November 27, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Disappointed but not surprised.
Secretary RF Kennedy shares a Thanksgiving photo of Trump & Musk that's clearly AI-generated... 🫠🫠 Not a great look.
November 27, 2025 at 9:12 PM
✨ New publication: 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐛𝐨𝐱 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐦: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐋𝐚𝐛𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐎𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 ✨

Happy to share latest research exploring how media labs are shaping the future of journalism across Europe. This study focuses on 6 European countries 🇧🇪 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇵🇹 🇮🇹 🇩🇪

Small 🧵
November 27, 2025 at 7:35 AM
"De uitspraak over 'een leugenaar' was door 2 van de 14 bronnen gehoord (...). Sommigen hadden zelfs helemaal niets gehoord van wat er op het podium was gezegd." Ombudsman NRC noemt berichtgeving gerechtvaardigd maar als je zulke aantijgingen hebt...

www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...
Opinie | Verslaggeving van NRC over Wijers was gerechtvaardigd maar er ging te veel fout
Een stortvloed aan mails en veel opzeggingen: NRC had informateur Hans Wijers ten onrechte gevloerd met „bedroevende journalistiek”, of erger met „riooljournalistiek zonder weerga”. De redactie kwam v...
www.nrc.nl
November 22, 2025 at 12:12 PM
🟥 OPEN LETTER by media organizations in NL 🟥
Tech giants threaten democracy in the Netherlands.

Clear & urgent letter on digital autonomy & alternative infrastructures. It also the first time that almost all major Dutch news organizations have jointly made such an appeal to politicians. 🙏
November 20, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Een krachtige, urgente, & eensgezinde boodschap van de Nederlandse mediasector 👇🙏

sdm.nl/brief-aan-de...
Brief aan de informateur namens de Nederlandse mediasector - Stichting Democratie en Media
sdm.nl
November 20, 2025 at 7:53 AM
New book chapter 📚

On the evolving role of journalists as gatekeepers in the age of (generative) A.I.

Thanks to the editors, Aynur Sarısakaloğlu & Martin Löffelholz 🙏

www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Ha...
November 17, 2025 at 8:03 AM
"If you want, I can also make a snappier 'front-page style' version" 🫠🫠
November 14, 2025 at 12:00 PM
"Cools, Henk"

Nice to find some made-up references in a paper citing my work 🫠🫠
November 10, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Pressure had been building for days...

"BBC director general Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness resign following criticism that a BBC Panorama documentary misled viewers by editing a speech by US President Donald Trump."

Live coverage: www.bbc.com/news/live/cd...
November 9, 2025 at 6:58 PM