Matt DeVerna
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matthewdeverna.com
Matt DeVerna
@matthewdeverna.com
Postdoc with Stanford's Tech Impact and Policy Center
(@techimpactpolicy.bsky.social). Formerly IU / Observatory on Social Media.

Computational social science, human-AI interaction, social media, trust and safety, etc.

🧨 matthewdeverna.com
Pinned
🚨 New working paper 🚨

Can LLMs with reasoning + web search reliably fact-check political claims?

We evaluated 15 models from OpenAI, Google, Meta, and DeepSeek on 6,000+ PolitiFact claims (2007–2024).

Short answer: Not reliably—unless you give them curated evidence.

arxiv.org/abs/2511.18749
Only halfway through this but it is hilarious.

tonsky.me/blog/tahoe-i...
It’s hard to justify Tahoe icons
Looking at the first principles of icon design—and how Apple failed to apply all of them in macOS Tahoe
tonsky.me
January 9, 2026 at 11:02 PM
Worth following: This morning, X restricted the Grok image-editing feature to paying users. (Meanwhile, as Wired reported, the web version of Grok continues to generate extremely graphic nonconsensual sexual and pornographic imagery — including of apparent children — for free.)
Live Coverage: Is Grok Still Being Used to Create Nonconsensual Sexual Images of Women and Girls?
X users continue to use Grok to generate nonconsensual porn of women and literal children. Will X or xAI stop it?
futurism.com
January 9, 2026 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
🚨 Spread the word! 🚨 The #ICWSM 2026 Adamic-Glance Distinguished Young Researcher Award is now accepting nominations and self-nominations! 🌟

📅 Deadline for this year's award: March 15th, 2026

More info: www.icwsm.org/2026/submit....
January 6, 2026 at 2:34 PM
OpenAI Announces ChatGPT Health, a dedicated space for health and wellness.

"...over 230 million people globally ask health and wellness related questions on ChatGPT every week."

Access only for a select few via waitlist but
@openaidevs.bsky.social the waitlist link is currently 404...
Introducing ChatGPT Health
A dedicated experience in ChatGPT designed for health and wellness.
openai.com
January 7, 2026 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
Happy 2026! 🎉

📅 The ICWSM January submission deadline is just ten days away (Jan 15)

Find all the information to submit your full paper, poster, demo, dataset, and tutorial proposal here: www.icwsm.org/2026/submit....

🔔 Note that the deadline for workshop proposals is Jan 30!
January 5, 2026 at 8:10 AM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
2026 tutorial submissions are open!

✔️ Submission deadline: February 2nd, 2026
✔️Acceptance Notification: February 16th, 2026

View the guidelines here:
lnkd.in/eBHVe2tP
December 15, 2025 at 2:37 PM
I love the Claude — and now Codex — API “gifts” but they are for the only time period of the years when I try to truly stop working and don’t have the flexibility to develop stuff… 🤦🏻‍♂️
December 29, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
Is Joe Rogan really just a voice of the right? Our new @csmapnyu.org piece for @goodauth.bsky.social shows he’s just as much a space for the left and the center, too. A look inside today’s surprisingly complicated podcast information ecosystem. 🎙️

goodauthority.org/news/podcast...
December 17, 2025 at 4:39 PM
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
2026 tutorial submissions are open!

✔️ Submission deadline: February 2nd, 2026
✔️Acceptance Notification: February 16th, 2026

View the guidelines here:
lnkd.in/eBHVe2tP
December 15, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
Started a thread in the other place and bringing it over here - I really think we should be more vocal about the opportunities that lay at the intersection of these two options!

So I'm starting a live thread of new roles as I become aware of them - feel free to add / extend / share :
Life situations are bleak right now for a lot of people. In tech, the "Venn Diagram" of (1) positive work and (2) making enough money to support your family is increasingly non-overlapping. We all do what we can.
This image has been living in my mind rent-free for months.
October 29, 2025 at 2:25 AM
The incredible @yyahn.bsky.social is building something special at UVA.

🚨 If you're a fit for this job, I highly recommend applying!

Find more details via the link below.

www.linkedin.com/posts/yyahn_...
December 10, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
Keynote Announcement!

We're thrilled to have Kate Starbird from the University of Washington's Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering speak at IC2S2 2026.

Registration is open with submissions opening on 12/15: ic2s2-2026.org
December 8, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
What if you could see fewer hostile political posts on social media? A new paper out in Science by Martin Saveski @msaveski.bsky.social of the iSchool, along with @tiziano.bsky.social, @jiachenyan.bsky.social, Jeff Hancock, Jeanne Tsai and @mbernst.bsky.social, explores this: doi.org/10.1126/scie...
December 4, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
In what I think may be previously unreported news, the SF City Attorney's office told me that they are confident more AI nudifiers will be shutting down as a consequence of their lawsuit -- including ones based overseas.
December 4, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
If platforms won't do it out of the good of their hearts, they may need to be coerced.

California's AB 621, passed in October, may make them responsible for providing services to nonconsensual deepfake nude providers if they're notified and don't act.

Here's what the author of the law told me:
December 4, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
The lowest-hanging fruit should be deplatforming.

There is no reason Meta can't get better at blocking ads like these, nor Apple from hosting the underlying apps. There is no reason for Google to provide single-sign on to 5 of the top 10 nudifiers, or Cloudflare to provide CDN services.
December 4, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
For today's article, I spoke to a dozen experts working on countermeasures to this problem.

I came out of it with uncharacteristic optimism that the concerted effort of the many people focusing on this problem may start yielding results in 2026. But it’s going to take work.
Nonconsensual nude generators had another banner year. What will it take to defeat them?
Deplatforming the companies, debilitating the technology, and deterring the users
indicator.media
December 4, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
I’m sick and tired of writing about these awful tools. But if we think about digital safety in terms of reducing harms that are both prevalent and acute, this has to be one of the top current concerns from generative AI. Nudifiers reach millions and make millions.
Nonconsensual nude generators had another banner year. What will it take to defeat them?
Deplatforming the companies, debilitating the technology, and deterring the users
indicator.media
December 4, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
Today on Indicator: 2025 has been a banner year for AI nudifiers. I found another 9,000 ads on Meta since my last report, bringing the total for this year to 25,000. The top 10 nudifying websites got 10 million views in October.
Nonconsensual nude generators had another banner year. What will it take to defeat them?
Deplatforming the companies, debilitating the technology, and deterring the users
indicator.media
December 4, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
Happy to share our most recent paper, led by @allisonwan.bsky.social, auditing what domains Google shows when you search for a Member of Congress.

journalqd.org/article/view...

@journalqd.bsky.social
December 4, 2025 at 2:42 AM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
IC2S2 2026 registration is open!
Explore the 2026 conference here ➡️ ic2s2-2026.org

✔️ Submissions open December 15th
✔️ Keynotes will be announced between now and February
✔️ Full program of selected talks and tutorials will be available in late April
December 1, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Matt DeVerna
I am pleased to announce that our work “A longitudinal analysis of misinformation, polarization, and toxicity on Bluesky after its public launch” has been accepted at #OSNEM.
The paper is an extension of our previous work presented at #ASONAM.
Don't miss it: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A longitudinal analysis of misinformation, polarization and toxicity on Bluesky after its public launch
Bluesky is a decentralized, Twitter-like social media platform that has rapidly gained popularity. Following an invite-only phase, it officially opene…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 1, 2025 at 12:14 PM
The mini pdf-viewing window for reading papers on osf.io hurts my soul.
December 1, 2025 at 1:35 AM
🚨 New working paper 🚨

Can LLMs with reasoning + web search reliably fact-check political claims?

We evaluated 15 models from OpenAI, Google, Meta, and DeepSeek on 6,000+ PolitiFact claims (2007–2024).

Short answer: Not reliably—unless you give them curated evidence.

arxiv.org/abs/2511.18749
November 29, 2025 at 10:06 PM