Ben Rochford
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benrochford.com
Ben Rochford
@benrochford.com
Duke Sociology PhD student (advised by Chris Bail), studying online communities, polarization, and social AI. Flute player, early career Computational Social Scientist
Reposted by Ben Rochford
Want to learn about computational social science *for free* and launch interdisciplinary research projects? We are so excited to announce there will be *26* Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science this year! Apply to one of them here: sicss.io/locations
February 24, 2025 at 2:27 PM
I had a great experience at SICSS-Penn last year. Highly recommend to any early-career scholar interested in Computational Social Science!
SICSS-Penn application is open! Deadline March 7, 2025. More information can be found ➡️ sicss.io/2025/penn/ap...
@duncanjwatts.bsky.social @dhopkins1776.bsky.social
#computational #socialscience #SICSS
February 17, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Reposted by Ben Rochford
🚨OpEd+data: Meta is out of step with public opinion🚨
Zuck cut moderation b/c he said people no longer want it. But he's wrong!
We polled 1k Americans and most people, including majority of Reps:
i) want content moderation
ii) don't want Community Notes w/o fact-checkers
thehill.com/opinion/tech...
January 28, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Ben Rochford
Applications to host a 2025 Summer Institute in Computational Social Science are due December 1st. Feel free to email me with questions and/or help connecting with others (especially since grant support will be limited): sicss.io/host
Host a Partner Location
sicss.io
November 20, 2024 at 8:40 PM
Reposted by Ben Rochford
Due to the server issues some of your recent posts may have gotten fewer likes than they deserved

Please accept this coupon to rectify this, which allows you to imagine you got 10 more likes on your post than you did
November 19, 2024 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Ben Rochford
I'm eager to engage with folks here who are interested in building healthier communities, supporting the participants and drivers of these communities, and finding ways to leverage AI both to support community objectives and study these communities in new ways.

If that sounds like you, say hello!
November 15, 2024 at 9:56 PM
Hello to all my new followers, most of whom are (luckily) nerds.

I will not let you down.

Here is a topic modeling of my college subreddit. Equipped with my deep domain expertise, I'm taking questions.
November 15, 2024 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Ben Rochford
With oh so many social apps today, it's time for us social computing builders and designers to take a pause, zoom ALL the way out, and also take a trip down memory lane...

Check out @mbernst.bsky.social's talk on Wed at #CSCW2024 9:00 – 10:30 "Session 1d: Understanding and Shaping Online Behavior"!
What unifies, and what distinguishes, social media designs? Are all the Twitter spinoffs actually meaningfully different designs from each other? Form-From is a design space from @axz.bsky.social, myself, @karger.bsky.social, and Mark Ackerman that will appear at #cscw2024: arxiv.org/abs/2402.05388
November 13, 2024 at 4:07 AM
Reposted by Ben Rochford
Ready for another Computational Social Science Starter Pack?

Here is number 2! More amazing folks to follow! Many students and the next gen represented!

go.bsky.app/GoEyD7d
November 14, 2024 at 11:42 PM
Reposted by Ben Rochford
Here is a @github.com repo where I will share tutorial notebooks on how to retrieve and analyze data from @bsky.app @atproto.com

Feedback, suggestions, and contributions are welcome!

github.com/brianckeegan...
GitHub - brianckeegan/bluesky-datascience: Exploratory notebooks for data science using Bluesky data
Exploratory notebooks for data science using Bluesky data - brianckeegan/bluesky-datascience
github.com
November 14, 2024 at 5:05 AM
Reposted by Ben Rochford
Our team just published a "rapid" analysis of some of the rumors we've been tracking since the assassination attempt on Saturday, drawing on these foundational understandings of "collective sensemaking" during crises: www.cip.uw.edu/2024/07/15/t...
Making sense of rumors about the Trump assassination attempt
We share some of what we have seen on social media and other online spaces in the aftermath of the Trump assassination attempt, and put that into context based on what we know about how people use …
www.cip.uw.edu
July 16, 2024 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Ben Rochford
New research across 30 countries (N = 15,202) finds that online hostility is driven by a small number of status-seeking individuals.

These folks are more hostile in situations of inequality (both online and offline) as a strategy to gain social status.

osf.io/preprints/ps...
February 8, 2024 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Ben Rochford
Discourse around misinformation doesn't always line up w/ our research team's findings re: how falsehoods actually spread in online spaces. Here, I provide a more nuanced view, describing the problem of misinformation as one of collective sensemaking gone awry: www.cip.uw.edu/2023/12/06/r...
December 6, 2023 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Ben Rochford
Conflicts are always “fog of war" situations — where information is uncertain & ambiguous. With recent disruptions to the info ecosystem (diminished moderation, Twitter's deterioration), we have perhaps never been so vulnerable to deception and manipulation. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
A flood of misinformation shapes views of Israel-Gaza conflict
A flood of misinformation in the Israel-Gaza war is shaping how panicked citizens and a global public view the conflict with Hamas.
www.washingtonpost.com
October 14, 2023 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Ben Rochford
This is the clearest analysis I’ve seen of the fundamental problem with Community Notes in crisis situations: The overwhelming majority of impressions on tweets happen in the first 1-3 hours after posting, but it takes an average of 10 hours and 44 minutes for Community Notes to publicly show up.
I took a look at how Community Notes is doing at handling the deluge of misinformation related to the current Israel/Hamas war. TLDR: Community Notes has managed to label some popular false posts, but is falling short in multiple ways.

conspirator0.substack.com/p/community-...
Community Notes and war crimes
X's community fact checking system has thus far been inadequate in multiple ways at addressing the flood of online misinformation regarding the Israel-Hamas war
conspirator0.substack.com
October 15, 2023 at 5:21 PM