What are the opportunities and risks of the ever-increasing use of social media? On the one hand, social media brings us closer together and opens new networking opportunities. On the other, social media platforms are increasingly criticised for failing to halt the spread of misinformation.
Our research into social media considers the effects, positive and negative, of social media. It includes projects on the link between social media and political volatility, the use of social media to spread state-produced ‘computational propaganda’, and narratives of consumption on social media.
By Viktor Mayer-Schönberger & Thomas Ramge
Information is power, and the time is now for digital liberation. Access Rules mounts a strong and hopeful argument for how informational tools at present in the hands of a few could instead become empowering machines for everyone.
This project analyses Sweden's depiction online and in news media by foreign radical groups and how these depictions, in turn gains visibility in Swedish media
This project develops novel AI NLP tools to investigate how China is developing and strategically deploying AI and other tools for social control and online discourse manipulation.
This project will examine the role of digital media in improving social understanding, with a particular focus on how trust can develop in the shared understanding of history and climate change.
By Samantha Bradshaw and Philip N. Howard
Cyber troops manipulate public opinion over social media. This report summarises the findings of the first comprehensive inventory of the organizations behind social media manipulation, finding that cyber troops are a pervasive and global phenomenon.
7 November 2024
According to Oxford and MIT researchers, social media users are more likely to follow and engage with like-minded accounts that demonstrate similar political views – but to what extent is this driven by interest in the content itself?
2 October 2024
New research from a team of US and UK researchers has found that politically conservative users tend to share misinformation at a greater volume than politically liberal users.
10 September 2024
As digital monitoring technologies become an accepted part of the digital parenting toolkit, a new blog from researchers Hertog, Weinstein and Zhao considers if should we be worried about their their long-term impact on children’s digital wellbeing?
15 August 2024
Looking for new reading recommendations for the summer months? The Oxford Internet Institute's faculty, staff, and students share their top picks.
BBC Radio 4, 07 January 2025
Have we lost faith in institutions, politicians - and even money? Prof Helen Margetts, OII shares her insights in how to restore public trust.
DW, 15 December 2024
After Australia, the introduction of a 16-year-old age restriction on social media is on the agenda in Turkey. So how do social media companies and experts evaluate the ban initiatives?
Nature, 10 December 2024
Australia is the latest nation to introduce restrictions but evidence is limited about whether they will work.
