NEOVEX

On the 10th of December, our team members  Annett Heft (Universität Tübingen, Freie Universität Berlin/Weizenbaum Institute),  Kilian Buehling and Xixuan Zhang (both Freie Universität Berlin/Weizenbaum Institute) participated in the final event of the NEOVEX research project, which took place at the Representation of the State of Hamburg in Berlin. The event started with the presentation of the results… Read more: Final Event of the NEOVEX Research Project

Conspiracy theories have never been limited by geopolitical borders. In today’s digital age, advancements in technology have amplified interactions between individuals and groups worldwide, accelerating the spread of such ideas across nations. This work by Xixuan Zhang, Joana Becker, Dr. Annett Heft, and Dr. Kilian Buehling explores into methods for measuring the transnational dissemination of… Read more: Die Transnationalität rechtsextremer Verschwörungstheorien online und ihre länderspezifische Adaption

Conspiracy theories have never been confined by geopolitical borders. In the digital age, social media and online forums amplify their reach, allowing far-right ideologies to spread and adapt across different national and cultural contexts. A recent study conducted by Xixuan Zhang, Joana Becker, Dr. Annett Heft, and Dr. Kilian Buehling examines this phenomenon by analyzing the transnational dissemination… Read more: The Transnationality of Far-Right Conspiracy Theories Online and Their Country-Specific Adaptation

In the latest episode of the NEOVEX podcast, Maik Fielitz from the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society in Jena, responsible for the area of right-wing extremism and democracy research at the IDZ, sits down with Dr. Kilian Bühling, a researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, working on the researching diffusion dynamics… Read more: Podcast: Understanding Conspiracy Theories on Alternative Platforms

The international symposium “Indicators of Social Cohesion in Social Media and Online Media,” hosted by the Social Media Observatory (SMO) at the Leibniz-Institute for Media Research, took place from April 24 to 26, 2024. It explored the pivotal role of social and online media in uniting and dividing communities, from supporting democratic movements to fostering… Read more: Affording Conspiracism. Particularities of Conspiracy-Related Communication Across Platforms

Today, the proliferation of conspiracy theories has become a prevalent issue, often fueled by the expansive reach of digital forums and social media platforms. A collaborative project led by Annett Heft, Kilian Buehling, Xixuan Zhang (all Freie University of Berlin/Weizenbaum Institute), research on the complex nuances of online communication surrounding conspiracy narratives. In their investigation,… Read more: Unveiling the Stylistic Dynamics of Conspiracy Theory Communication in Digital Spaces

Digital forums like 4chan and Reddit, along with social media platforms such as Twitter (now known as “X”), play a crucial role in the narration and spread of conspiracy theories. These platforms can serve as both a protected breeding ground for conspiracy theories, offering unmoderated, (semi-)public digital spaces to radicalized users, and as the primary… Read more: Der Ton macht die Musik – Die sprachlichen Finessen von Verschwörungserzählungen auf digitalen Plattformen

On February 7 and 8, the NEOVEX subprojects consortium meeting took place at the Munich School of Politics of the Technical University of Munich. The main focus was on exchanging ideas and planning future collaboration. During the one-day workshop, the subproject teams gathered to update the consortium and funding agencies on their current project work.… Read more: NEOVEX Meeting in Munich

On November 2nd, 2023, we had the great pleasure of participating in the book launch of The Women of the Far Right, written by Dr. Eviane Leidig (Tilburg University). Hosted by the research project NEOVEX, the event was jointly organized with the Free University of Berlin, the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin,… Read more: Book launch with Eviane Leidig “The Women of the Far Right”

Many civil society and academic projects are engaged in documenting and analyzing conspiracy theory, anti-democratic or racist discourse on social media. Kilian Buehling has investigated to what extent the results of these efforts are influenced by the time of data collection. In this article, he summarizes the results of a recently published study. A bizarre… Read more: How well can conspiracy theory content be measured on social media? It’s a matter of time!

After the announcement in October 2022 that the microblogging platform Twitter had been acquired by Elon Musk, incidents both within the company and in the platform’s digital space began to spiral. Since then, many experts have been concerned that Twitter could become a communication platform where disinformation, hate speech, and conspiracy theories could take up a… Read more: Platform infrastructures and the spread of conspiracy theories

Social media has become a central stage for conspiracy-theoretical, anti-democratic, and racist discourses. But how can such content be effectively documented and analyzed – and what role does the timing of data collection play in this process? Dr. Kilian Bühling has explored these questions in a recent study that highlights how dynamic and time-sensitive these… Read more: Wie gut kann man verschwörungstheoretische Inhalte auf Social Media messen? Alles eine Frage der Zeit!

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter could dramatically reshape the platform’s structures, potentially paving the way for more disinformation, hate speech, and conspiracy theories. In this analysis, Dr. Annett Heft examines how the design and features of social media platforms influence their usage and the dynamics of discourse. She delves into the potential impacts of this… Read more: Plattforminfrastrukturen und die Verbreitung von Verschwörungstheorien

The researchers involved in the NEOVEX collaborative project meet regularly to report on the progress of their individual subprojects. This time, the meeting took place on Thursday, September 22, at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin. Read on for insights into their latest developments and achievements. The following text has been originally… Read more: NEOVEX-Verbundtreffen in Berlin

Conspiracy theories are only as popular as their ability to spread. But how can we gain reliable insights into their reach? In this post, Dr. Annett Heft and Dr. Kilian Bühling explore the methods used to measure the dissemination of conspiracy theories. The following text has been originally published in German on the NEOVEX website. Verschwörungstheorien sind… Read more: Wie wird die Verbreitung von Verschwörungstheorien gemessen?