TWON (Twin of Online Social Networks) was an EU-funded Horizon Europe research project (2023–2026) studying how the design of online social networks affects democratic debate, using digital twins populated with generative AI agents.https://www.twon-project.eu/enWed, 11 Nov 2026 14:33:34 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/final-policy-brief/https://www.twon-project.eu/final-policy-brief/In March 2026, the TWON consortium developed its third and final policy brief, presenting policy recommendations for shaping online social networks in line with democratic values, fundamental rights, and European digital sovereignty.Tue, 19 May 2026 11:17:54 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/ai-tools-and-journalism-joint-event-in-slovenia/https://www.twon-project.eu/ai-tools-and-journalism-joint-event-in-slovenia/At the end of March, the Jožef Stefan Institute, the Slovenian Press Agency (STA), and the University of Maribor hosted a joint event exploring how modern AI tools can be integrated into the media landscape and how they can support journalistic work in an …Mon, 27 Apr 2026 08:27:16 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/from-research-to-sovereignty-in-the-digital-public-sphere-insights-from-the-twon-project/https://www.twon-project.eu/from-research-to-sovereignty-in-the-digital-public-sphere-insights-from-the-twon-project/On 17 March 2026, we held our final TWON evening event in Brussels, bringing together policymakers, researchers, civil society representatives, and practitioners to discuss how Europe can strengthen digital sovereignty in the digital public sphere.Thu, 19 Mar 2026 14:36:21 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/twon-citizen-lab-4-in-brussels-on-overcoming-polarization/https://www.twon-project.eu/twon-citizen-lab-4-in-brussels-on-overcoming-polarization/The fourth and final TWON Citizen Lab took place in Brussels from 14 to 18 March 2026. Bringing together young leaders from various communities from all over Europe came together to discuss a digital and sovereign European future.Wed, 18 Mar 2026 12:21:56 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/final-results-of-twon/https://www.twon-project.eu/final-results-of-twon/After three years of interdisciplinary research, the TWON – Twin of Online Social Networks project concluded with a final event on 28 January 2026 at Publix Berlin.Mon, 09 Feb 2026 16:42:12 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/twon-policy-hackathon/https://www.twon-project.eu/twon-policy-hackathon/As geopolitical tensions increasingly play out online, the need for a democratic digital public sphere has never been more urgent.Mon, 09 Feb 2026 16:07:27 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/twon-consortium-meeting-a-recap/https://www.twon-project.eu/twon-consortium-meeting-a-recap/Last week, the TWON consortium came together in Berlin to advance ongoing work on democratic online social networks and to strengthen the project’s dialogue with policy and civil society stakeholders.Thu, 05 Feb 2026 16:27:20 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/eacl-2026-new-publications-on-simulating-social-media-users/https://www.twon-project.eu/eacl-2026-new-publications-on-simulating-social-media-users/At this year’s European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (EACL) in Rabat, Morocco, Simon Münker, Nils Schwager and Achim Rettinger presented two new TWON papers on the simulation of social media users with Large Language Models (LLMs).Tue, 03 Feb 2026 08:42:19 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/research-on-open-source-llm-safety-at-hicss-2026/https://www.twon-project.eu/research-on-open-source-llm-safety-at-hicss-2026/From January 6-9, 2026, TWON researcher Simon Münker presented his paper at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), one of the leading international conferences in the field of information systems and digital innovation.Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:21:44 GMTAnnouncementsAIEventResearch PaperTWONWorkshophttps://www.twon-project.eu/new-publication-simulating-algorithmic-personalization-and-polarization/https://www.twon-project.eu/new-publication-simulating-algorithmic-personalization-and-polarization/We are pleased to announce a new peer-reviewed publication by Ljubiša Bojić, co-authored with Velibor Ilić, Veljko Prodanović, and Vuk Vuković, published in Chinese Political Science Review.Fri, 19 Dec 2025 09:57:03 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/rethinking-ai-for-democratic-societies-joint-event-in-ljubljana-october-14/https://www.twon-project.eu/rethinking-ai-for-democratic-societies-joint-event-in-ljubljana-october-14/On October 14, partners from the projects AI4Gov, SOLARIS, and TWON gathered in Ljubljana to explore how artificial intelligence can support democracy, transparency, and citizen participation.Fri, 28 Nov 2025 14:46:19 GMTMeetingEventLjubljanaRettingerhttps://www.twon-project.eu/twon-researcher-simon-munker-sends-greetings-from-suzhou-china/https://www.twon-project.eu/twon-researcher-simon-munker-sends-greetings-from-suzhou-china/TWON researcher Simon Münker from Universität Trier has published a new paper titled “Fingerprinting LLMs through Survey Item Factor Correlation: A Case Study on Humor Style Questionnaire.” The paper appears in the Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on …Sat, 15 Nov 2025 11:14:00 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/out-now-our-new-demonstrator-tool-twonderland/https://www.twon-project.eu/out-now-our-new-demonstrator-tool-twonderland/In the past weeks, our TWON researcher Fabio Sartori (KIT) and his colleagues worked on a new demonstrator tool to make the dynamics of Online Social Networks tangible for the broad public. The result is: TWONderland!Sun, 09 Nov 2025 18:08:53 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/new-paper-by-twon-researcher-simon-munker-fingerprinting-llms-through-survey-item-factor-correlation-a-case-study-on-humor-style-questionnaire/https://www.twon-project.eu/new-paper-by-twon-researcher-simon-munker-fingerprinting-llms-through-survey-item-factor-correlation-a-case-study-on-humor-style-questionnaire/We are proud to announce that our researcher Simon Münker published a new paper with the title: Fingerprinting LLMs through Survey Item Factor Correlation: A Case Study on Humor Style Questionnaire.Mon, 03 Nov 2025 16:00:11 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/its-a-wrap-citizenlab-2025-in-chemnitz/https://www.twon-project.eu/its-a-wrap-citizenlab-2025-in-chemnitz/On 8 October, we hosted another CitizenLab in the Stadthallenpark in Chemnitz, where we got to speak with citizens about our research on Online Social Networks.Mon, 03 Nov 2025 15:47:58 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/damian-trilling-discusses-platform-data-access-at-erc-workshop/https://www.twon-project.eu/damian-trilling-discusses-platform-data-access-at-erc-workshop/TWON researcher Damian Trilling was invited to an ERC workshop on Article 40 of the Digital Services Act (DSA), held in October 2025 in Brussels.Fri, 31 Oct 2025 11:42:00 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/twon-x-zkm-karlsruhe/https://www.twon-project.eu/twon-x-zkm-karlsruhe/On 24 October, TWON researchers Achim Rettinger and Simon Münker joined the symposium “The Fabrication of Truth” at ZKM Karlsruhe, which focused on fake news, deepfakes, and the post-factual society.Sat, 25 Oct 2025 10:58:00 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/new-publication-can-we-use-automated-approaches-to-measure-the-quality-of-online-political-discussion/https://www.twon-project.eu/new-publication-can-we-use-automated-approaches-to-measure-the-quality-of-online-political-discussion/We’re proud to announce that our consortium members Sjoerd Stolwijk, Damian Trilling (both University of Amsterdam) and Simon Münker (Trier University) contributed to a freshly published paper on measuring the debate quality of online political discussions.Tue, 23 Sep 2025 09:51:04 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/event-recap/https://www.twon-project.eu/event-recap/TWON researcher Ljubisa Bojic participated in the DGPuK & ICA conference on Digital Communication and Human-Machine Communication, held from 15 to 17 September at Technische Universität Dresden.Sat, 20 Sep 2025 11:21:00 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/zero-shot-prompt-based-classification-acl-vienna/https://www.twon-project.eu/zero-shot-prompt-based-classification-acl-vienna/Simon Münker recently presented his research on the use of zero-shot, prompt-based classification for analysing political discourse on German Twitter during the European energy crisis at the 2025 Association for Computational Linguistics Conference in Vienna.Tue, 26 Aug 2025 11:38:08 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/twon-research-presented-in-tirana/https://www.twon-project.eu/twon-research-presented-in-tirana/TWON researcher Sjoerd Stolwijk presented work from the Twin of Online Social Networks project during a visit to Tirana, Albania.Wed, 20 Aug 2025 11:38:00 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/damian-trilling-presents-twon-research-at-ica-denver/https://www.twon-project.eu/damian-trilling-presents-twon-research-at-ica-denver/TWON researcher Damian Trilling represented the Twin of Online Social Networks project at the International Communication Association (ICA) conference in Denver, Colorado.Wed, 20 Aug 2025 11:35:00 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/panel-discussion-twon-researcher-jonas-fegert-on-who-owns-ai-on-democratization-control-and-power-relations/https://www.twon-project.eu/panel-discussion-twon-researcher-jonas-fegert-on-who-owns-ai-on-democratization-control-and-power-relations/On July 14th, TWON researcher Jonas Fegert (FZI Research Center for Information Technology), was invited as a panelist to the event “Who owns AI?Wed, 06 Aug 2025 10:27:02 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/ai-democracy-and-regulation-comparing-european-and-u-s-approaches/https://www.twon-project.eu/ai-democracy-and-regulation-comparing-european-and-u-s-approaches/TWON researcher Dr. Jonas Fegert participated in the Digital Salon hosted by the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society.Fri, 01 Aug 2025 11:30:00 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/twon-researchers-present-findings-on-bias-in-generative-ai-text-annotations/https://www.twon-project.eu/twon-researchers-present-findings-on-bias-in-generative-ai-text-annotations/TWON researchers Damian Trilling and Sjoerd Stolwijk presented their research on bias in generative AI text annotations at IC2S2 – the International Conference on Computational Social Science in Norrköping, Sweden.Wed, 30 Jul 2025 11:26:00 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/new-publication-the-dual-impact-of-virtual-reality-examining-the-addictive-potential-and-therapeutic-applications-of-immersive-media-in-the-metaverse/https://www.twon-project.eu/new-publication-the-dual-impact-of-virtual-reality-examining-the-addictive-potential-and-therapeutic-applications-of-immersive-media-in-the-metaverse/We are excited to share a new publication in Information, Communication & Society, titled “The Dual Impact of Virtual Reality: Examining the Addictive Potential and Therapeutic Applications of Immersive Media in the Metaverse” by Ljubiša Bojić, Jörg Matthes, …Wed, 23 Jul 2025 11:02:08 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/from-semgenage-to-twente-continuing-the-dialogue-on-ai/https://www.twon-project.eu/from-semgenage-to-twente-continuing-the-dialogue-on-ai/TWON colleagues reconnected with Denisa Reshef Kera, keynote speaker at the TWON SemGenAge Workshop in Portorož, during the Conference on Philosophy of Computing and AI at the University of Twente.Sun, 20 Jul 2025 11:45:00 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/paper-announcement-does-gpt-4-surpass-human-performance-in-linguistic-pragmatics/https://www.twon-project.eu/paper-announcement-does-gpt-4-surpass-human-performance-in-linguistic-pragmatics/We are above excited to announce that our TWON colleague, Ljubisa Bojić of the University of Belgrade, has published an extensive study addressing a compelling question: Does GPT-4 surpass human performance in linguistic pragmatics?Fri, 04 Jul 2025 09:42:50 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/recap-semgenage-2025/https://www.twon-project.eu/recap-semgenage-2025/June 2nd, 2025 – Portorož, Slovenia | Part of ESWC 2025 The 1st Workshop on Semantic Generative Agents on the Web, held on June 2nd in Portorož, Slovenia, as part of the Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2025), marked a key milestone in disseminating the …Wed, 04 Jun 2025 14:34:52 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/fifth-twon-consortium-meeting-in-portoroz-slovenia/https://www.twon-project.eu/fifth-twon-consortium-meeting-in-portoroz-slovenia/From May 30 – June 1st, all nine TWON partner institutions gathered in Portorož, Slovenia for the fifth TWON Consortium Meeting. This in-person event offered a key opportunity to assess our progress, align goals, and prepare for the final year of the project.Mon, 02 Jun 2025 21:28:58 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/twon-citizen-lab-2/https://www.twon-project.eu/twon-citizen-lab-2/In TWON we do not only want to translate our scientific results into actionable recommendations for decision-makers in politics and industry – we also want to foster digital citizenship and the public debate on the role Online Social Networks should play in …Fri, 23 May 2025 11:53:46 GMTCitizen Labshttps://www.twon-project.eu/announcing-semgenage-at-eswc-2025/https://www.twon-project.eu/announcing-semgenage-at-eswc-2025/We are excited to announce SemGenAge: The 1st Workshop on Semantic Generative Agents on the Web, taking place on June 2, 2025 in Portorož, Slovenia, as an official workshop of the Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2025).Fri, 16 May 2025 08:08:18 GMTAnnouncementsAIESWC2025SemGenAge2025SymposiumWorkshophttps://www.twon-project.eu/twon-report-defining-metrics-for-democratic-online-discourse/https://www.twon-project.eu/twon-report-defining-metrics-for-democratic-online-discourse/Our researcher Sjoerd Stolwijk recently published a deliverable, proposing a set of metrics to determine the deliberative quality of discussions on social media in general, and TWON in particular.Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:10:33 GMTcontent diversitycontent exposuredemocratic discoursediscourse qualityOSNspolitical contentResearch PaperTWONhttps://www.twon-project.eu/navigating-the-digital-age-new-book-co-edited-by-twon-researchers/https://www.twon-project.eu/navigating-the-digital-age-new-book-co-edited-by-twon-researchers/TWON-researchers Damian Trilling of the University of Amsterdam and Ljubiša Bojić of the University of Belgrad have co-edited the book: “Navigating the Digital Age: An In-Depth Exploration into the Intersection of Modern Technologies and Societal …Wed, 12 Mar 2025 15:30:31 GMTPublicationPublicationsResearchTWONhttps://www.twon-project.eu/on-regulating-online-social-networks-twon-policy-brief-2/https://www.twon-project.eu/on-regulating-online-social-networks-twon-policy-brief-2/In January 2025, the TWON consortium developed a second TWON policy brief, on regulating online social networks!Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:46:39 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/the-dsas-research-access-a-flawed-system/https://www.twon-project.eu/the-dsas-research-access-a-flawed-system/The Digital Service Act does not do enough for research access. While its article §40 implements a duty for very large online platforms (VLOPs) and very large online search engines (VLOSEs) to allow research access, it is not sufficient.Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:01:51 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/call-for-papers-on-semantic-generative-ai/https://www.twon-project.eu/call-for-papers-on-semantic-generative-ai/Call for Papers! 📝🚨 Are you researching social interactions of any combination of agents and/or humans on the web, including the architectures and platforms enabling and influencing those interactions?Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:03:54 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/recommender-systems-shaping-our-news/https://www.twon-project.eu/recommender-systems-shaping-our-news/A speech by Damian Trilling​ How can we ensure trust and responsibility in the use of generative AI? What role does it hold in the future of media? What are recommender systems and how do they shape our news feeds?Wed, 04 Dec 2024 10:41:36 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/how-to-counter-antisemitism-online-the-european-practitioners-network-against-antisemitism-meets/https://www.twon-project.eu/how-to-counter-antisemitism-online-the-european-practitioners-network-against-antisemitism-meets/How does antisemitism appear on social media? What is the role of platform operators when it comes to the moderation of hateful content? And how to counter antisemitism online?Wed, 04 Dec 2024 10:33:04 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/on-the-ethics-of-using-twons-twon-policy-brief-1/https://www.twon-project.eu/on-the-ethics-of-using-twons-twon-policy-brief-1/Researchers of the TWON consortium have achieved another milestone regarding the communication of results and insights of our EU-funded research project.Thu, 31 Oct 2024 09:35:44 GMTPublicationEthicsOSNsPolicy BriefTWONhttps://www.twon-project.eu/consortium-meeting-in-dubrovnik/https://www.twon-project.eu/consortium-meeting-in-dubrovnik/The first half of our 3-year project has passed. So, it was time to come together as a consortium, share our progress and discuss the next steps.Wed, 30 Oct 2024 12:10:49 GMTMeetingMeetingTWONWorkshophttps://www.twon-project.eu/how-to-build-digital-spaces-modeling-data-analysis-and-qualitative-approaches/https://www.twon-project.eu/how-to-build-digital-spaces-modeling-data-analysis-and-qualitative-approaches/MODIS 2024 Workshop Recap The MODIS 2024 workshop, recently held as part of the Horizon Europe projects TWON and SoMe4Dem, successfully gathered experts from various fields to explore the role of online social networks (OSN) in shaping public opinion and …Fri, 11 Oct 2024 14:35:09 GMTMeetingAIMODIS2024OSNsSymposiumTWONWorkshophttps://www.twon-project.eu/the-first-twon-citizen-lab-took-place-in-karlsruhe/https://www.twon-project.eu/the-first-twon-citizen-lab-took-place-in-karlsruhe/As part of the Days for Democracy Karlsruhe the participants of DialoguePerspectives’ European Leadership Workshop discussed on how online social networks influence democracy in the digital age. In workshops by TWON’s Prof. Damian Trilling, Prof.Mon, 07 Oct 2024 11:52:06 GMTCitizen Labshttps://www.twon-project.eu/new-podcast-episode/https://www.twon-project.eu/new-podcast-episode/The new podcast episode by Dialogue Perspectives explores democracy in the digital age. In this episode, hosts Neta-Paulina Wagner, Whitney Nosakhare and Henri Vogel are joined by TWON researcher Dr.Mon, 30 Sep 2024 11:06:00 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/panel-discussion-recap-the-intersection-of-generative-ai-and-online-social-networks/https://www.twon-project.eu/panel-discussion-recap-the-intersection-of-generative-ai-and-online-social-networks/In a panel discussion hosted by AlgorithmWatch in Berlin, the FZI’s Jonas Fegert emphasized the inseparable link between Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Online Social Networks (OSNs).Wed, 18 Sep 2024 10:45:25 GMTAIOSNsPanel DiscussionTWONhttps://www.twon-project.eu/a-call-to-action-new-paper-on-youth-online-mental-health/https://www.twon-project.eu/a-call-to-action-new-paper-on-youth-online-mental-health/The World Health Organization (WHO) has put forward guiding principles on online mental health for young people. In a newly published study, TWON-researchers integrate the WHO framework into a European context.Wed, 04 Sep 2024 10:21:52 GMTPublicationMental HealthOSNsResearch PaperTWONhttps://www.twon-project.eu/new-publication-on-the-theoretical-foundations-of-building-a-twon/https://www.twon-project.eu/new-publication-on-the-theoretical-foundations-of-building-a-twon/In a study recently published in the European Journal of Futures Research, Ljubiša Bojić (JSI) and his team explored a multidisciplinary approach to testing and aligning artificial intelligence (AI), with a special focus on large language models (LLMs).Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:22:39 GMTPublicationhttps://www.twon-project.eu/consortium-meeting-with-the-eu-commission-in-brussels/https://www.twon-project.eu/consortium-meeting-with-the-eu-commission-in-brussels/On June 4th the first project review meeting of our EU-funded project “TWON – Twin of Online Social Networks” took place in Brussels. This was a great opportunity to reflect the first year of work in the consortium.Tue, 11 Jun 2024 14:47:57 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/consortium-meeting-in-trier-in-march-2024/https://www.twon-project.eu/consortium-meeting-in-trier-in-march-2024/After nearly a year and two consortium meetings in Amsterdam and Karlsruhe, the TWON team met again on March 11. to March 13. 2024 in Trier.Mon, 03 Jun 2024 13:42:54 GMTMeetingMeetinghttps://www.twon-project.eu/achim-rettinger-joins-working-group-on-ai-and-its-implications-on-information-and-communication-spaces/https://www.twon-project.eu/achim-rettinger-joins-working-group-on-ai-and-its-implications-on-information-and-communication-spaces/Since 2024, Achim Rettinger is a member of the Policy Working Group on Artificial Intelligence and its Implications for the Information and Communication Space.Wed, 08 May 2024 16:14:00 GMThttps://www.twon-project.eu/refining-deliberative-standards-for-online-political-communication-introducing-a-summative-approach-to-designing-deliberative-recommender-systems/https://www.twon-project.eu/refining-deliberative-standards-for-online-political-communication-introducing-a-summative-approach-to-designing-deliberative-recommender-systems/How can Social Media best foster democratic debates? In a new paper, TWON’s very own Sjoerd Stolwijk, Michael Heseltine, Corinna Oschatz, and Damian Trilling challenge the notion that a perfect debate on social media platforms is a desirable outcome.Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:28:53 GMTPublicationhttps://www.twon-project.eu/consortium-meeting-in-karlsruhe-in-october-2023/https://www.twon-project.eu/consortium-meeting-in-karlsruhe-in-october-2023/Six months after our project kick-off in Amsterdam, the TWON consortium gathered for its second consortium meeting in Karlsruhe on October 5th and October 6th of 2023.Thu, 19 Oct 2023 14:24:41 GMTMeetingMeetinghttps://www.twon-project.eu/we-got-started/https://www.twon-project.eu/we-got-started/In April of 2023, our international consortium – comprised of eight partner institutions from various European countries – gathered to mark the launch of TWON in Amsterdam.Thu, 07 Sep 2023 12:58:27 GMT