The London Social Media Observatory is a multidisciplinary research centre using computational methods to examine social media platforms' role in politics. We are based at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Research Areas

Curation and Moderation of Political Content

An increasing amount of people rely on social media platforms to learn about and engage in politics. Platforms increasingly play an active role in curating and moderating content and accounts, often using AI algorithms, and with very little transparency. We investigate how content of political relevance is curated and moderated within and across platforms, and the potential effects for citizens and democracy.

Misinformation and Information Operations

Misinformation and information operations on social media remain a threat to democratic politics, particularly given the rise of generative AI that make for highly realistic fake and malicious content. We develop methods for identifying false claims and coordinated actions on social media platforms, as well as their spread and potential effects. Additionally, we design and test interventions to help people to identify and fight misinformation.

Political Agendas, Issue Framing, and Media Effects

What policy issues do political elites discuss on social media platforms, and how do they frame them? What about media organisations, and interest groups? Or non-political influencers? What content do citizens follow and/or are exposed to, and how does that shape their attitudes towards key political issues such as the environment, immigration, or gender? We use platform data, data donations, and surveys to investigate these questions in detail.

Computational Methods for Social Science Research

We develop and test novel computational methods for collecting, processing, and analysing social media data, and conducting social science research more generally. This includes building more efficient computational pipelines for data collection, storage, and retrieval; contributing new tools for collecting data donations from survey participants; and training Large (Visual) Language Models for annotating large amounts of social data.

Team

Core Team

  • Dr. Andreu Casas, Director
  • Georgia Dagher, Policy Officer & Researcher
  • Hazel Stutz, Media & Policy Officer
  • Adrian Bermudez Villalva, Research Data Scientist
  • Freek Cool, Research Engineer
  • Sophia Kinght, PhD Candidate
  • Nicole Young, Project Coordinator & Research Assistant

Vacancies

  • PhD Studentship on Social Media & Politics (fully funded, 3.5 years, UK Home students only)
    Deadline: November 2nd, 2025: more information available here. [CLOSED]
  • Postdoc in Computational Social Science (job add will be ready in January, to start Sep. 2026)
  • Postdoc in Political Communication (job add will be ready in January, to start Sep. 2026)

Collaborators

  • Dr. Janina Beiser-McGrath (Royal Holloway Univ. of London), Faculty Research Affiliate
  • Prof. Ben O’Loughlin (Royal Holloway Univ. of London), Faculty Research Affiliate
  • Dr. Silvia Majó-Vazquez (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Faculty Research Affiliate
  • Prof. Anne Rasmussen (King’s College London), Faculty Research Affiliate
  • Dr. Francesco Rigoli (City St George’s Univ. of London), Faculty Research Affiliate
  • Henry Snowball (Royal Holloway Univ. of London), Doctoral Research Affiliate
  • Hanna Scholten (University of Sheffield), Doctoral Research Affiliate

Advisory Board

  • Prof. Wouter van Atteveldt (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
  • Dr. Pablo Barbera (Meta)
  • Prof. Sandra Gonzalez-Bailón (University of Pennsylvania)
  • Dr. Robert Gorwa (WZB Berlin Social Science Center)
  • Prof. Jennifer Pan (Stanford University)
  • Prof. Margaret E. Roberts (University of California, San Diego)
  • Prof. Yannis Theocharis (Technical University of Munich)
  • Prof. Joshua A. Tucker (New York University)
  • Prof. Cristian Vaccari (University of Edinburgh)
  • Prof. Magdalena Wojcieszak (University of California, Davis)

Funders

  • UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (PI: Dr. Casas, #45414)
  • NWO-VENI (PI: Dr. Casas, Vl.Veni.211R.052)
  • Horizon Europe (Main PI: Prof. van Atteveldt. PI of Work Package 3: Dr. Casas, #101177574)
  • NWO Large Computing Grant (co-PIs: Dr. Casas & Dr. Majó-Vazquez, #2024-44)
  • Royal Holloway Social Purpose Grant (PI: Dr. Casas)

News

UKRI Future Leaders fellowship awarded to Dr andreu CAsas to launch London Social Media Observatory

The fellowship, which will provide more than £1.8 million in funding, will support groundbreaking research into monitoring social media platforms’ unprecedented power to moderate and curate political speech.

Read the UKRI news story here

London Social Media Observatory Participates in DSA40 Data Access Days

Representatives from the Observatory were thrilled to participate in two recent DSA40 Data Access Days in Berlin, held on the 25th and 26th of September.

Read more about the DSA40 Data Access Days here