Simon Munzert | Lightnews

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · 10d

Putting out evidence isn’t enough. Public engagement is critical to drive climate–health progress. Breaking misinformation silos and rebuilding trust in science has become a public health priority. 4/4

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · 10d

Yet there’s hope: the Lancet Countdown shows that clean energy growth already boosts jobs, GDP, and health. A just, health-centered transition can still prevent millions of deaths. The evidence is clear—climate policy is health policy. 3/4

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · 10d

Overall, it's a grim read: 2024 saw global temps exceed 1.5 °C for the first time, heat deaths, food insecurity, and disease spread. Political backsliding and fossil fuel expansion are putting millions at risk. Climate inaction is a health crisis. 2/4

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · 10d

This week, the 2025 edition of the Lancet Countdown Report on Health and Climate Change was released — and I was able to contribute a small part again (look for indicator 5.2 in our version of the #ShowYourStripes chart, that’s me!). 1/4

Chart 1 of 2 from Lancet Countdown 2025 providing time-series information on climate and health indicators reported in the paper. Lots of unfavorable, a few favorable developments.

Chart 2 of 2 from Lancet Countdown 2025 providing time-series information on climate and health indicators reported in the paper. Lots of unfavorable, a few favorable developments.

Anita Gohdes @argohdes.bsky.social · 13d

We are hiring a PhD student to join us at the @hertiesecurity.bsky.social (start Sept. 2026)!

If you want to conduct research on topics related to digital authoritarianism, state repression, contentious politics or social movements online, then this job might be for you!

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · 29d

@medem.bsky.social be sure to check this out!

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · 29d

This looks very useful for comparative research on legislative elites. Also, it's great to see more projects paying attention to interoperability with existing data infrastructure. We're on a good path as a discipline!

Jens Wäckerle @jwaeckerle.bsky.social · Oct 8

New data for legislative scholars! Committee Membership Dataset with @bcastanho.bsky.social, @dmpullan.bsky.social and Firuze Taner:

Committee assignments for all MPs (Wikidata IDs!) in 14 countries
Harmonized roles/policy areas

Data: doi.org/10.7802/2940
Working paper: tinyurl.com/vf54r78p

⬇️

GESIS-Suche

doi.org

Jens Wäckerle @jwaeckerle.bsky.social · Oct 8

New data for legislative scholars! Committee Membership Dataset with @bcastanho.bsky.social, @dmpullan.bsky.social and Firuze Taner:

Committee assignments for all MPs (Wikidata IDs!) in 14 countries
Harmonized roles/policy areas

Data: doi.org/10.7802/2940
Working paper: tinyurl.com/vf54r78p

⬇️

GESIS-Suche

doi.org

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · Sep 29

... in which I accidentally imitate Otto Wels, while saying things far less momentous than he did back then.

Johannes B. Gruber @jbgruber.bsky.social · Sep 29

@simonsaysnothin.bsky.social at #MEDem Conf: we need to integrate our efforts instead of researchers all building their own datasets and infrastructure. Couldn't agree more!

Integrate

○ Researchers get lost in building fragmented data
infrastructures (case in point: me).
○ specialized collection is fine, but fragmented
dissemination hinders use.
○ Lack of integration blocks comparative research.

Whot I'd like MEDem to build towards

○ Incentivization of shared infrastructures
○ Toolkits to standardize data collection (measurement and interoperability)

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · Sep 29

Day 1 at #MEDem Conference @gesis.org in Cologne, where I had the chance to share a personal perspective on data infrastructure projects for democracy research. Slides here: simonmunzert.com/medem25/

MEDem @medem.bsky.social · Sep 29

🚀 Kicking off day 1 of the 3rd #MEDemConference at @gesis.org! From @sldelange.bsky.social discussing radical-right normalization 🗳️ to calls to consolidate democracy data by @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social 📊 — keynotes spotlight why #MEDem matters for democracy.

Sarah de Lange presents at the 3rd MEDem Conference 2025. Behind her, a slide shows the book “The Normalization of the Radical Right” and a quote on how radical-right behavior grows when previously hidden views become socially acceptable.

Simon Munzert speaks at the 3rd MEDem Conference 2025 on the past, present, and future of democracy research.

MEDem @medem.bsky.social · Sep 29

🚀 Kicking off day 1 of the 3rd #MEDemConference at @gesis.org! From @sldelange.bsky.social discussing radical-right normalization 🗳️ to calls to consolidate democracy data by @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social 📊 — keynotes spotlight why #MEDem matters for democracy.

Johannes B. Gruber @jbgruber.bsky.social · Sep 29

@simonsaysnothin.bsky.social at #MEDem Conf: we need to integrate our efforts instead of researchers all building their own datasets and infrastructure. Couldn't agree more!

Alexia Katsanidou @alexiakatsanidou.bsky.social · Sep 23

Coming up on Monday the @medem.bsky.social conference at @gesis.org in Cologne. Stay tuned for the future of democracy research infrastructures www.medem.eu/coming-up-th... Keynotes from @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social and @sldelange.bsky.social

Coming Up: The 2025 MEDem Conference & Workshop! - Monitoring Electoral Democracy

Coming Up: the 2025 medem Conference! We are thrilled for the upcoming 3rd MEDem Conference, scheduled to take place from September 29-30 at GESIS in Cologne!The 3rd MEDem conference will bring togeth...

www.medem.eu

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · Sep 16

Congrats Andreu, this is so cool!! 🎉

Bernd Schlipphak @bschlipphak.bsky.social · Sep 10

Deadline for the position as Full Professor at our dept is coming closer: Great position, great colleagues & very positive working atmosphere. Please contact @danbischof.bsky.social if you have any questions.

And thanks for asking - yes, the pic shows today's view from the position's office.

Anita Gohdes @argohdes.bsky.social · Aug 11

I have studied the targeting of journalists for many years, but the scale and public display of these killings is truly shocking: “Israel admits deliberate attack on the journalist, known for frontline coverage, in a strike on a tent outside al-Shifa hospital“

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Anas al-Sharif, prominent Al Jazeera correspondent, among five journalists killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza

Israel admits deliberate attack on the journalist, known for frontline coverage, in a strike on a tent outside al-Shifa hospital

www.theguardian.com

Christian Stecker @pluggedchris.bsky.social · Feb 20

Die AfD ist hat viele Wähler, aber noch mehr Gegner. Weil sich diese Gegner aber über viele Parteien verteilen, kann die AfD Direktmandate erringen. Würde das Wahlsystem berücksichtigen, dass viele Wähler jede Partei gegenüber der AfD bevorzugen, wäre auch im Osten die Wahlkarte weniger blau.

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · Jul 10

Or, if you're looking for a prominent example, check out the original from Baldassarri/Gelman sites.stat.columbia.edu/gelman/resea...

Partisans without Constraint: Political Polarization and Trends in American Public Opinion

Public opinion polarization is here conceived as a process of alignment along multiple lines of potential disagreement and measured as growing constraint in individuals’ preferences. Using NES data fr...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · Jun 5

If you're a researcher (or, less likely, a policymaker) reading this, you'll definitely want to read on. Featuring a dataset that may include you - and findings that make a solid case for hanging out in this space and sharing your work.

Sebastian Ramirez-Ruiz @seramirezruiz.bsky.social · Jun 5

🤔 How much do politicians engage with academic researchers online?

In my latest paper, I find that politicians from 12 countries rarely engage with researchers on social media, but this can change when expertise gains salience

Preprint: osf.io/preprints/osf/wqbe4_v1

🧵👇

Sebastian Ramirez-Ruiz @seramirezruiz.bsky.social · Jun 5

🤔 How much do politicians engage with academic researchers online?

In my latest paper, I find that politicians from 12 countries rarely engage with researchers on social media, but this can change when expertise gains salience

Preprint: osf.io/preprints/osf/wqbe4_v1

🧵👇

Rebekah Tromble @rebekahtromble.bsky.social · May 13

The worst happened. We were DOGE’d. Our NSF funding is gone.

So now there’s nothing stopping me from sharing Expert Voices Together, a crisis response system for US-based researchers and journalists facing harassment.

It's a true passion project. 🧵 1/

expertvoicestogether.org

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · May 12

A shout-out to the people who did all the hard work for this study - in particular @dawiet.bsky.social and Amin Oueslati, who paved the way in his master's thesis he wrote @hertieschool.bsky.social - super proud of him!

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · May 12

Finally, black-box audits are not ideal. Researchers need better access to the models behind those services. More implications, and more findings, in the paper!

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · May 12

Multiply that by the number of calls made to those APIs every day, and the decisions they inform. (We don't know that number, but it's probably no less than ~500k calls over the minute you've engaged with this thread.)

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · May 12

And what is more, those decisions probably affect those most who are not perpetrators but members of attacked groups.

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · May 12

But our results indicate that if your moderation pipeline largely builds on automated decisions informed by those services, you're going to produce A LOT of questionable decisions.

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · May 12

Hate speech moderation is hard, and we wouldn't expect any model to do a perfect job. Also, it's not straightforward to agree on what constitutes hate speech in the first place, which is why our benchmark datasets are not beyond any doubt.

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · May 12

Main finding #2: Group markers drive over-moderation. Words like "muslim", "gay", or "jews" make mis-classifying non-hate speech as hate speech more likely.

Table providing results from a SHAP Values analysis, showing which speech tokens contribute to misclassification decisions.

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · May 12

Some APIs seem overly sensitive (in particular Google's NL API) while others tend to under-moderate (Perspective and Microsoft).

Simon Munzert @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social · May 12

Main finding #1: Performance varies wildly across moderation services, datasets, and metrics, but some of the failure rates are astonishing (FPR & FNR > 75% on balanced samples for some implicit and explicit speech!).

Table reporting some key findings from the paper - hate speech classification performance statistics across moderation services and datasets.

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