AIAS Seminar: 'Platform Collective Behavior and the Making of Democracy'

Abstract

This monograph presents a novel framework for understanding platform collective behavior, showing how humans and AI together create hidden patterns that shape democracy. From misinformation to filter bubbles and extensive time spent on platforms, it reveals subtle dynamics and offers new theoretical and methodological ways to make large-scale online behavior visible, understandable, and analysable.

Short Bio

Anja Bechmann is Professor of Media Studies and Director of the interdisciplinary DATALAB – Center for Digital Social Research at Aarhus University. Her work examines platform collective behavior as intertwined AI–human agency and its democratic implications (e.g., misinformation, deepfakes, fragmentation, privacy, excessive time spent on platforms, inequality, and algorithmic bias). She has advanced applied AI and computational social science methods, such as data donation, to study these dynamics at population scale, in combination with classical sociological approaches. She is PI of the Independent Research Fund Denmark project Social Media Influence, former founding PI of the EU CEF project Nordic Observatory for Information Disorders (NORDIS), and former founding executive board member of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO). She has served in numerous roles as an independent expert, including as a member of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on Disinformation. Most recently, she has been appointed Chair of the EU Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content under Article 50(4) of the AI Act, underscoring her expertise in AI–human collective behavior, AI governance, transparency, and democratic resilience.

What is an AIAS Seminar?

The AIAS Seminar Series is a session of seminars held by the AIAS fellows, AIAS Visiting or Tandem Fellows or by other speakers proposed by the fellows. In each seminar, a fellow will present and discuss her/his current research and work-in-progress to an interdisciplinary audience for 30 minutes, closing off with 30 minutes for questions, comments and discussion.

All seminars are in-person and held in English. To attend online, please contact us at info@aias.au.dk by 9:00am on the day of the seminar as the latest to request a link.