New article by yours truly for @lsepoliticsblog.bsky.social - I wrote about how avenues for content and account removal appeals are still an under-developed area of platform enforcement and of online safety legislation

LSE British Politics and Policy@lsepoliticsblog.bsky.social · 4d ago

The right to appeal is still missing from online safety conversations Dr Carolina Are @bloggeronpole.bsky.social argues that the current routes of appeal offered by Big Tech companies are hugely ineffectual, delegated to AI with little or no human oversight. blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

The right to appeal is still missing from online safety conversations Dr Carolina Are @bloggeronpole.bsky.social argues that the current routes of appeal offered by Big Tech companies are hugely ineffectual, delegated to AI with little or no human oversight. blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

The right to appeal is still missing from online safety

Online safety has focussed on regulating Big Tech platforms. But when it comes to regulation and the current routes of appeal, companies are hugely ineffectual.

blogs.lse.ac.uk

It's publication day! Congrats Özlem Demirkol-Tønnesen and Anna Feigenbaum for creating and publishing The Social Media Methods Workbook, to which I've had the pleasure to contribute with a spotlight interview on autoethnographic approaches. www.routledge.com/The-Social-M...

The Social Media Methods Workbook

The Social Media Methods Workbook offers an innovative, easy-to-follow, hands-on guide for navigating your social media research projects. Whether you want to evaluate advocacy strategies or understan...

routledge.com

It’s too early to say whether the protections #Meta agreed in the settlement will keep children on #socialmedia safe. What interests me here is what the settlement says about Meta’s comms strategy and its relationship with power. techcrunch.com/2026/08/26/m...

Meta settles for $18 billion in lawsuit brought by 29 states over social media harms to children | TechCrunch

The lawsuit alleged that Meta knowingly designed platforms like Instagram and Facebook to addict children, despite knowing about the harms the platforms could pose to young users.

techcrunch.com

Sono contentissima della pubblicazione di una mia intervista per Ātman Journal fatta da @viola.bsky.social, dove finalmente parlo in italiano di 'platform gaslighting,' una delle ricerche che mi stanno più a cuore. atmanjournal.it/platform-gas...

PLATFORM GASLIGHTING - Ātman Journal

Viola Stefanello racconta come algoritmi di moderazione trasformino le grandi piattaforme in sistemi di potere difficili da interrogare.

atmanjournal.it

A slightly different post today bc last week was my 10th pole dance anniversary. Little did I know pole would change my life so much, helping me recover from an abusive relationship & SA + changing the trajectory of my research: bloggeronpole.com/2026/08/10-y... #poledancersofinsta

10 years of pole dancing - Blogger On Pole

This year marks 10 years since I started pole dancing. Here's how my relationship with pole dance has changed in the past 10 years.

bloggeronpole.com

Co-production and participatory research are increasingly recognised as a way of building equitable outcomes in research projects. But sex workers continue to be excluded from academic research on sex work, writes Carolina Are @bloggeronpole.bsky.social on @lseimpactblog.bsky.social

Academia’s “whorephobia” undermines research on sex work - LSE Impact

Sex workers are excluded from academic research on sex work, yet there could be much to gain from integrating their expertise into academic research.

blogs.lse.ac.uk

Hot off the press, the latest collab between yours truly & @pambriggs.bsky.social is now out, open access, in Creator & Influencer Studies. link.springer.com/content/pdf/...

Yesterday I presented my research on shadowbanning, de-platforming and platform appeals to Samantha Niblett MP, together with a group of badass sex educators, activists and brands.

Last week marked the conclusion of a very busy few weeks spent co-organising the #LSE’s Knowledge Beyond Boundaries conference & co-organizing + teaching the Impact Research Lab (IRL) programme pilot ⤵️

The same government who wants to apply this to nudity on App Stores. Love that for us

Matt Burgess (WIRED)@mattburgess1.bsky.social · 4mo ago

NEW: The UK plans to use AI face scans to determine the age of asylum seekers at the border from next year. However, a leaked report shows the government has known the tech isn’t accurate for more than a year. In some cases, the technology could predict a 13.5-year-old to be an adult

It's still government policy to roll out AI tutors and other forms of AI across primary and secondary education. Maybe a rough equivalent would be banning all kids from public parks in case someone sells heroin to some of them, while also prescribing methadone to all kids, just for funsies.

Since the UK government seems intent on playing political football with young people’s digital & offline lives with the social media ban, I'm resharing the paper that @pamogranite.bsky.social, Catherine Talbot & I wrote re: the importance of SM for LGBTQIA+ users journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Social media affordances of LGBTQIA+ expression and community formation - Carolina Are, Catherine Talbot, Pam Briggs, 2025

Faced with offline discrimination, LGBTQIA+ users frequently turn to social media to find role models, build social networks and test out new forms of self-expr...

journals.sagepub.com

Summer School: Class, Culture & Discontents Free + free lunch. What's not to like? July 23-24th in Balham (South London) 11-3pm each day featuring some great speakers talking on some very timely topics Supported by @thesociologicalreview.org www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/summer-sch...

Summer School: Class, Culture & Discontents

Summer School on class, culture and discontents.

eventbrite.co.uk

I put some words on if the big phone OS providers can stop children from sharing explicit images in this article by @stokel.bsky.social. Also some excellent words by @bloggeronpole.bsky.social & Julian Hayes. Overall, great collection of words. Go read. www.newscientist.com/article/2529...

In the @newscientist.com talking about why the Starmer government's latest promise to 'stop children from seeing and sharing explicit images' sounds great as a headline, but is going to have severe unintended consequences in practice, and it's going to be hard to implement successfully.

New Scientist@newscientist.com · 4mo ago

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has warned tech firms, including Apple and Google, that they must voluntarily implement tools to stop children sharing explicit images, but experts warn this is easier said than done

Not surprised to see that during the @oversightboard.bsky.social's pilot case considering account removals from Meta, the Board was literally flooded by public comments from users whose accounts had been wrongly removed without redress.

Oversight Board@oversightboard.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The Oversight Board has upheld Meta's decision to permanently disable an Instagram account that made death threats against a journalist. This newly published case is the first time the Board has reviewed Meta's approach to permanently disabling accounts. www.oversightboard.com/news/board-u...

You used to be able to google the time of the sunset, and Google would give you the exact time right on top every single time. Thankfully, with artificial intelligence, you can now ask Google what time the sun will set and it will conveniently tell you "I don't know."

Organising this summer school with support from @thesociologicalreview.org 🚨Class, Culture & Discontents 📍23rd & 24th July 🏫 Balham, South London 🧑‍🍳 Free lunch Great line-up of speakers on a wide range of topics, come one, come all Free tickets ⬇️ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/summer-sch...

I'm in @theguardian.com today talking about being a #pilates girlie, although ofc I had no chill & had to bring in my research about algorithms to discuss which type of pilates girlie is visible & why the manosphere has to ruin even the nice things in life: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

‘As soon as I left the first session I felt taller’: is reformer pilates as amazing – or awful – as they say?

One of the fastest-growing fitness trends is also one of the most divisive. To its fans, it promises a stronger, healthier body; to its critics, it’s another way to make women feel insecure. Time to s...

theguardian.com

Since the UK govt's consultation about social media bans for under-16s is now live, it's fitting to share our newly-published papers from our AoIR2025 panel discussing the effects of platform governance's constrains, limits or outright bans on crucial information & networks for several users.

Listening to @bloggeronpole.bsky.social chatting to @siridahl.com for the First Thirst podcast is such a joy. Two of my fav creative forces of good getting to talk about early formative crushes is exactly what I needed this morning

Thanks everyone for the engagement with my recent "Sexy Jail" / shadowbanning appeals paper :) if you're looking for a short summary, the #LSE have kindly published a press release about it with key facts and stats. Read it here: www.lse.ac.uk/news/latest-...

Instagram’s Account Status tools criticised by creators in new study

Creators say Instagram’s Account Status tools amount to 'performative transparency' in a new LSE study where respondents report the features give users little insight or real avenues to challenge deci...

lse.ac.uk

“It’s a reminder that feminism is powerful and important and even transformative, which is why there’s so much pushback from those who benefit from the old inequalities and the old silences, which are pretty much the same thing.” @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 8mo ago

Decades of feminism paved the road to Andrew’s arrest | Rebecca Solnit

@platformsnsociety.bsky.social Congrats @bloggeronpole.bsky.social!

Dr Carolina Are / Blogger On Pole@bloggeronpole.bsky.social · 8mo ago

1st paper of 2026 & in my new job, out open access in Platforms & Society! With a survey amongst 100 creators of pole dance content, I found Instagram’s attempt at transparency & accountability via Account Status shadowbanning appeals was entirely performative: journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10....

1st paper of 2026 & in my new job, out open access in Platforms & Society! With a survey amongst 100 creators of pole dance content, I found Instagram’s attempt at transparency & accountability via Account Status shadowbanning appeals was entirely performative: journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10....

V concerned to see great research orgs partner up with NCOSE to repeal Section 230. This article has is a v good history of NCOSE (once Morality In Media) & their campaigns against… literally any depiction of anything but conservative values on TV / the internet. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

The (not so) secret governors of the internet: Morality policing and platform politics - Zachary J McDowell, Katrin Tiidenberg, 2023

A growing body of academic work on internet governance focuses on the ‘deplatforming of sex’, or the removal and suppression of sexual expression from the inter...

journals.sagepub.com

I was really sad to hear that the First Monday Journal will soon cease publication. Back in 2020, First Monday became the home of one of my very first papers, and the kindness and time taken in peer review was incredibly helpful to me as a PhD student and early-career researcher.

I really want to study this as a social phenomenon. How, when, and why queer/kink communities shift from platform to platform, and how they maintain (or attempt to maintain) resilience throughout the process and in the aftermath. As I mentioned to @bloggeronpole.bsky.social a couple weeks back.

Lady Huge@ladyhuge.bsky.social · 8mo ago

My friend group has moved from Skype to Curse Voice to Discord. We can move again.