Social Media, Platforms and Chatbots
How do digital technologies shape public discourse, social trust, political behavior and everyday life? At TPP, we study the societal impacts of social media, online platforms and generative AI chatbots, and explore approaches to make these technologies safer, more accountable and more aligned with democratic values.
Project Spotlight: The MySky Project
Led by TPP Associate Research Professor Renée DiResta and funded by the TPP Grants Program, the MySky Project works to build open technology that makes social media feeds less polarizing and more constructive.
Building Prosocial Algorithms
Most social platforms serve content through proprietary “black box” algorithms optimized for engagement rather than healthy dialogue. Built on ATProto (the open protocol powering Bluesky), MySky is developing an open-source, prosocial AI “bridging feed” designed to surface content that bridges divides rather than deepens them.
Two-Pronged Approach
- In-depth qualitative interviews with developers, community managers, and platform participants to map effective curation and moderation incentives.
- Engineering and deploying open-source bridging algorithms available to any platform or user.
Student Impact
Discover work supported by the TPP Scholars Program.
Max Morgan
Max Morgan (MPP ’27) serves as a developer contributor on the technical engineering team.
Chirag Chinnapa
Chirag Chinnapa (MIDP ’26) leads ecosystem research interviews.
Social Platforms Research
Discover our research on how platforms shape public discourse and developing open, accountable alternatives to dangerous algorithms.
Explore our research
- How Social Media Can Shape Public Opinion – and How We Can Build a Healthier Online Environment, TPP Associate Research Professor Renee DiResta
- When Age Assurance Laws Meet Chatbots ,TPP Fall 2025 Visiting Fellow Zeve Sanderson
- Tracing the Speech Regulation Patterns of 2025, Fall 2024 Visiting Fellow Ashkhen Kazaryan
- Elon’s “Nudify” Mess: How X Supercharged Deepfakes On with Kara Swisher, TPP Associate Research Professor Renee DiResta
- Hear Me Out: A Different Perspective on Meta’s Fact-Checking Decision , TPP Fall 2024 Visiting Fellow Danielle Davis
- Breaking Through the Noise and Building Trust in Elections: Election Officials as Brand Ambassadors, TPP Scholar Matt Steinberg (MPP’26)
- Gender Politics and the Weaponization of Personal Data, TPP Fall 2025 Visiting Fellow Katelyn Ringrose
- We Need to Focus on How Our Data Is Used, Not Just How It Is Shared, KTPP Grantee Kobbi Nissim
- The 23andMe Collapse Exposes the Cracks in Genomic Data Governance, TPP Fall 2025 Visiting Fellow Zeena Nisar