TWON - Twin of Online Social Networks

TWON (Twin of an Online Social Network) is an EU-funded project that sets out to study the potentially harmful effects of online social networks (OSNs) on democratic debates. By creating a digital twin of an OSN and populating it using generative artificial intelligence, the TWON-team is spearheading a unique approach to study the effects of algorithmic biases and platform mechanisms on online debates –independent from the good will to provide access of companies like X, Meta, or TikTok. By analyzing different platform design and algorithmic choices, we aim to better understand how people form radical political opinions online, how disinformation spreads, and how such tendencies lead to a more polarized society. Based on the findings of this project, the TWON project will produce evidence-based recommendations for regulatory innovations regarding OSNs and enhance digital citizenship by participatory methods. We are an interdisciplinary consortium led by University of Amsterdam, with researchers from Trier University, University of Belgrade, Institut Jožef Stefan, KIT Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, FZI Research Center on Information Technology, RKI Robert Koch Institut, Slovenska Tiskovna Agencija and DialoguePerspectives e.V.. TWON as a research project is fully funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe framework.