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Elena Gadjanova

@elliegadjanova.bsky.social

1.2K followers 1.9K following 150 posts

Political scientist at Exeter. Ethnic politics, political communication, and social media in Africa. Writing a book on cross-ethnic outreach in highly diverse states. BA/Leverhulme Innovation fellow 2025-2026.

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Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · Jul 19

So this is what I'm up to this year - news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...

Hugely grateful to @britishacademy.bsky.social for making this possible through an Innovation Fellowship award.

@uniofexeternews.bsky.social @cais-exeter.bsky.social

New research will analyse the spread of misinformation in Africa and the continent’s growing digital divides

Major new research will help experts to counter the spread of misinformation in Africa and understand the causes and consequences of the continent’s growing digital divides. The project, by researcher...

news.exeter.ac.uk

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Reposted by Elena Gadjanova

Simon Chauchard @simonchauchard.bsky.social · 28m

🚨🚨 Some hope: media and information literacy trainings - modules providing crucial skills to better consume information - in classroom settings appears to move the needle, and to have positive externalities!

Check out the (open-access) results of our large field-experiment in India.

Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 3h

#OpenAccess from @apsrjournal.bsky.social -

Countering Misinformation Early: Evidence from a Classroom-Based Field Experiment in India - https://cup.org/4mZR3Em

- @priyadarshi-amar.bsky.social, @sumitra.bsky.social, @simonchauchard.bsky.social & FLORIAN SICHART

#FirstView

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Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · 13d

Cue the escalating nuclear threats…

Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · 16d

Was wondering the same. Trial balloon? Election far enough for a U-turn in case of backlash? 🤷‍♀️

Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · 16d

And more on this from Bloomberg www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Moldova Elections: Russia's Secret Plan to Hack the Vote

Documents seen by Bloomberg show that tactics include recruitment of Moldovan voters abroad, organizing protests and a disinformation campaign.

www.bloomberg.com

Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · 17d

Think/hope this will backfire. A whole lot of people will be mobilised in outrage.

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Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · 17d

Of course he does. But I’m not staying if they’re not welcome

Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · 17d

that's my plan.

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Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · 17d

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

How Russian-funded fake news network aims to disrupt European election - BBC investigation

An undercover reporter discovers a network is offering to pay for social media posts undermining Moldova’s ruling party.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · 17d

This is really significant. It shows fundamental and unsurmountable limits to applicability and scalability.

Prof Mike Yearworth @mikeyearworth.bsky.social · 17d

"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits."

www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws

In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...

www.computerworld.com

Reposted by Elena Gadjanova

Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · Sep 2

New school year, new paper! Drawing on research in Ghana @gabriellelynch.bsky.social and I argue that spreading campaign misinformation can backfire and will, under certain conditions, be avoided.

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Reposted by Elena Gadjanova

Christian @ceebarnacles.bsky.social · 24d

Written by a doctor at St Thomas' Hospital, London after the Tommy Robinson march on 13/9.

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Reposted by Elena Gadjanova

Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 @emmalbriant.bsky.social · Sep 8

“Rightwing populists all over Europe want to destroy the ability of the UK and the EU to regulate large tech platforms — a move that might threaten their disinformation campaigns with genuine political debate.”
www.ft.com/content/62b1...

Protecting Big Tech, not free speech

Trump and Farage are using censorship as a cloak for disinformation

www.ft.com

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Reposted by Elena Gadjanova

Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte @turnbulldugarte.com · Sep 5

The takeaway:

👉 Accommodating the radical right on immigration doesn’t win back voters.
👉 It alienates the progressive base.
👉 And it raises the salience of the very issue the radical right owns.
In short: it’s electoral self-harm.

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Reposted by Elena Gadjanova

Gracie Flora @gracieflora.bsky.social · Sep 3

Just a random work experience: I fed it several PDF reports that we publish to extract statistics. No matter what I told it to do, it repeatedly hallucinated data points that were not in those reports. It also attributed stats to resources that were not cited. Completely untrustworthy.

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Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · Sep 2

They’re great! Love the jacket too

Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · Sep 2

Link here www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Comments welcome!

(PDF) Spreading Fake News to Win? The Logic of Campaign Misinformation in Closely-fought Elections

PDF | False information spread with a view to influencing elections is among the main dangers to democracy, government accountability, and electoral... | Find, read and cite all the research you need ...

www.researchgate.net

Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · Sep 2

New school year, new paper! Drawing on research in Ghana @gabriellelynch.bsky.social and I argue that spreading campaign misinformation can backfire and will, under certain conditions, be avoided.

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Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · Aug 28

And Switzerland.

Reposted by Elena Gadjanova

Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · Aug 26

UK gender pay gap underestimated for two decades due to data collection anomalies.

Gender discrimination is institutionalized.

Women lose most when govts impose real cuts in public sector pay, benefits; two-child benefit cap; don't value carers.

Despite laws equality is a long way off.

UK gender pay gap underestimated for two decades, report says

Findings suggest since 2004 ONS failed to properly account for fact it received more data from larger employers

www.theguardian.com

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Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · Aug 19

Thinking of doing something like this in the future - looks great, thanks for sharing!

Elena Gadjanova @elliegadjanova.bsky.social · Aug 13

❤️

News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · Aug 12

As confirmed in this story, police went door to door asking local residents for their social media account details, at the request of Vance’s team.

They were politely told to fuck off.👏

Pat down the golden retrievers: Cotswolds put on high alert for Vance family visit

With helicopters whirring overhead and police quizzing residents, rural life is anything but tranquil

uk.news.yahoo.com

Reposted by Elena Gadjanova

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft @maxplanck.de · Aug 1

Director at Max Planck - a unique position! The Open Call for Expressions of Interest in Max Planck Directorships is open now and can be submitted by the 31st of October 2025. ➡️ mpg.de/directors - Please share the Open Call among potential candidates.

Open Call for Expressions of Interest in Max Planck Directorships:
Expressions of interest can be submitted until 31 October 2025.

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Reposted by Elena Gadjanova

Daniel Fountain @danielfountain.bsky.social · Aug 3

My University has opened a virtual scholar scheme for scholars from Gaza. Please share widely and help stop scholasticide. www.exeter.ac.uk/faculties/ha...

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Reposted by Elena Gadjanova

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · Jul 30

I'd recommend for anyone interested in approaches in different countries to these issues to read the OECD report Facts not Fakes: Tackling Disinformation, Strengthening Information Integrity
www.oecd.org/en/publicati...

Facts not Fakes: Tackling Disinformation, Strengthening Information Integrity

Rising disinformation has far-reaching consequences in many policy areas ranging from public health to national security. It can cast doubt on factual evidence, jeopardise the implementation of public...

www.oecd.org

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