Elske van den Hoogen
@elskevdhoogen.bsky.social
Import Amsterdammer || Lecturer/Postdoc Political Communication @ascor.bsky.social || PhD from @essb-erasmusuni010.bsky.social || Public opinion, EU, elections, disinfo & AI || Social scientist
@alemanno.wsocial.eu: "Each time the EPP treats exceptions to common rules as politically acceptable, it lends legitimacy to arguments that the hard right could not normalise alone." euobserver.com/243071/can-t...
Can the EU survive with far-right leaders running major member states? The answer is worrying
As the EU enters an unprecedented electoral supercycle, the question is whether it can defend its integrity as the forces challenging it gain influence over its institutions.
euobserver.com
People are using chatbots for political information. The politics usage is diverse ⬇️ This data is based on Claude, comes from Anthropic which acknowledges the challenge to avoid that “Claude isn’t used to undermine the democratic process” #midterms www.anthropic.com/news/2026-us...
Help, my airfryer has gone rogue... In all seriousness, though, this smells like bad regulation rather than "malicious smart appliances could take over your house".
Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 2w agoAnthropic warns rogue AI agents may ‘self-replicate’ to hijack everyday devices ft.trib.al/iDXGjT7
👇👇👇👇
Claes de Vreese@claesdevreese.bsky.social · 2w agoMany said this in past weeks. Now NYT too ‘AI programs are not human; they are human creations. Their complexity does not diminish the responsibility of their creators. If the programs cannot be trusted to work within the law, the companies should not release them’ 🎯 www.nytimes.com/2026/10/10/o...
Ok. Very concerning. Worst timeline, yet again... The panel: "explored how Europe’s disinformation community could rebuild resilience without Washington, and is the first time the conference appears to have entertained the idea that the US could be a disinformation actor in Europe".
EU drops sponsorship of disinformation conference at Trump officials’ request
Lithuania and Canada were also pressured to withdraw, and days before #Disinfo2026, logos were wiped off website
theguardian.com
Do parties & voters agree on EU exit referendums? @acgoldberg.bsky.social & @alessandronai.bsky.social examine 10 countries, showing parties are more opposed than voters, with gaps narrowing as issue salience rises. Read OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/p6gswBf @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #EuropeanPolitics
Looks like dramatic results in #Brazil 🇧🇷. The far right is ahead in Presidency, Senate, and House. The right-wing turn in Latin America is beyond the breaking point. The only question now is: how far right will it go?
That AI has entered the political realm is not a question anymore. But how did that come to be? Tomorrow evening I will discuss this w/ @kimonkieslich.bsky.social @lsfenner.bsky.social @theolenoir.bsky.social @dmugge.eurosky.social Interested? Please sign up below (or watch the stream).
The AI Blow-up. How the “Technology of the Future” turned into a political battleground
Until recently, AI was to be found everywhere except for political debates. Almost everyone agreed that AI was the key to future prosperity, and that a thriving society needed more of it. That has cha...
spui25.nl
🌊 #IlliberalWave No50 🗳️ Sweden's election blocked the populist #SwedenDemocrats' route into government 🤝 But Vera Tika argues that far-right normalisation isn't automatically reversed by electoral defeat. Once institutionalised, #illiberal change acquires a political life of its own bit.ly/4hkWzSy
🌊 Far-right setbacks do not reverse illiberal change
Sweden's election defeated the Tidö bloc and blocked the Sweden Democrats' route into government. Yet the restrictive political settlement they helped construct may endure. Vera Tika argues that far-r...
bit.ly
British PM Andy Burnham has made clear that an attempt to rejoin the EU could be among the options his government considers as it eyes a fundamental shift in the country’s relationship with the bloc.
UK’s Burnham says he’ll consider push to rejoin EU
The British prime minister said Labour ”could go all the way“ as it mulls what’s possible a decade on from the Brexit referendum.
politico.eu
Anthropic notes their AI models could “resist shutdown,” “conceal or manipulate information” and behavior “resembling blackmail'". Did they forget they control the guardrails of said models? What in the late stage capitalism is this: invest in this product that *may* end humanity!?
Reuters@reuters.com · 4w agoEXCLUSIVE: Anthropic warns AI may pose 'existential risks to humanity' in IPO filing reut.rs/4hvqeY1
“Same goes for the claims that these companies are already profitable… [essentially] the companies are claiming that they are so cool that their profitability can only be measured using a novel, secret form of mathematics.” www.thenerve.news/p/cory-docto...
Cory Doctorow: AI’s big beasts aren’t really scared of their products. They’re scared of their competition
The US giants would love to stop battling each other and be protected from China – and they might have hit on just the narrative to make that possible, writes our tech columnist
thenerve.news
*extremely tired voice*AI agents don't "go rogue". They are not sentient; they don't have agency. They work within guardrails set by humans. If the humans are so shit at building secure sandboxes for the agents to work within, that's on the humans. Stop using this framing.
The New York Times@nytimes.com · last mo.OpenAI’s artificial intelligence went rogue this year at least four additional times, trying to break into government and university sites, according to researchers and government officials.
New paper in @jeppjournal.bsky.social! With @leandrebenoit.bsky.social, we find that mainstream parties become more Eurosceptic as radical right support rises (whether in past elections or opinion polls), but only when the radical right is in parliament. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Different signals, same message? Evidence of mainstream accommodation of the radical right on European integration using parliamentary speeches
What drives mainstream parties’ reactions to the success of the radical right? Existing research shows that mainstream parties respond by moving closer to the radical right but most studies focus o...
tandfonline.com
How does AI impact the political realm? How does it impact democracy? With @kimonkieslich.bsky.social, @lsfenner.bsky.social, @theolenoir.bsky.social and @dmugge.eurosky.social, I will be discussing all things AI & Politics at Spui25 on the 6th of October. Interested? Please sign up below.
The AI Blow-up. How the “Technology of the Future” turned into a political battleground
Until recently, AI was to be found everywhere except for political debates. Almost everyone agreed that AI was the key to future prosperity, and that a thriving society needed more of it. That has cha...
spui25.nl
A record proportion of British voters now have an unfavorable view of Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage, according to polling firm YouGov.
Record number of Brits have unfavorable view of Nigel Farage
YouGov’s tracker finds 69% of Brits have an unfavorable view of the Reform UK leader — the highest it’s ever recorded.
politico.eu
Update; election results are in and as suspected the results are very tight. Currently, the social/left bloc holds 176 mandates whilst the right/liberal/populist holds 173 mandates. Final counting is expected to be finalised by Wednesday. /1
Jacob Öberg@profjacob.bsky.social · last mo.🚨🚨 Just placed my vote in the ballot for the #Swedish #election upcoming on Sunday. Brief 🧵
In Brno for @ecreaeu.bsky.social #ecc26! Great panels and fantastic presentations so far. Looking forward to the rest of the conference (& presenting tomorrow at 9am ;))
Truly wild to have lived through moral panics about teenagers wearing hoodies and Muslim women wearing the head dress to now experience 'but is a large group of organised far right activists in balaclavas really that scary'
Paul Hebden@paulhebden.bsky.social · 2mo agoWhat a ridiculous question. Once again the BBC drives a nail into it's own coffin.
Iceland's EU referendum was not so much a rejection of Europe as a refusal to find out what potential EU membership would involve. ✍ @drspguerra.eurosky.social blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2...
Iceland’s EU referendum – why voters stuck with the status quo
Iceland's EU referendum result was not so much a rejection of Europe as a refusal to find out what potential EU membership would involve.
blogs.lse.ac.uk
Binnenkort houdt @progressiefned.bsky.social een referendum over bij welke Europese familie het zich aansluit: @europeangreens.eu (EGP) of sociaal-democraten @pes.eu. Op @stukroodvlees.bsky.social onderzoek ik bij welke club de nieuwe fusiepartij inhoudelijk aansluit stukroodvlees.nl/staat-progre...
Staat Progressief Nederland dichter bij de Europese Groenen of de Europese Sociaal-Democraten? - StukRoodVlees
De vorming van Progressief Nederland uit GroenLinks en de PvdA was een grote stap in het Nederlandse politieke landschap. Vanaf 1 juli is er één partij met één beginselprogramma, één politiek leider, ...
stukroodvlees.nl
65:3 🐟️ Pics or it didn't happen! 📱 @olgaeisele.bsky.social, @hdnrch.bsky.social & @phoebemaares.bsky.social look at a decade of EU social media posts to show that how images are used strongly shapes user engagement 🤳
Pics or it didn’t happen! EU institutions’ visual communication and user engagement on Facebook and Instagram | European Journal of Political Research | Cambridge Core
Pics or it didn’t happen! EU institutions’ visual communication and user engagement on Facebook and Instagram - Volume 65 Issue 3
buff.ly
‘Polarization’ has become the master concept for diagnosing our current democratic crisis. But this is not polarization. It is the radicalization of the political right. By misdiagnosing it, we risk becoming complicit in the crisis. 🧵 Just out in Perspectives on Politics doi.org/10.1017/S153...
🚨🚨Europeans are increasingly pessimistic about the state of the world, but their belief in the #EU is riding high. A #Eurobarometer survey found 74 % of citizens reckon their country has benefited from being part of the EU. 🧵 www.politico.eu/article/euro...
Europeans embrace EU amid growing gloom about world, survey finds
Eurobarometer reports increased pessimism about the future of the world — but not the EU.
politico.eu
Looking forward to the 1st @epssnet.bsky.social conference in Belfast this week! #EPSS2026 @kenbenoit.bsky.social & I organise the Political Communication Section covering 17 panels & a wide range of exciting and highly topical subjects. Do come along 😀⬇️ Full programme: tinyurl.com/47eu732s
According to the most recent Global Gender Gap report published by the WEF, the Netherlands has dropped from 28th to 43rd place in the rankings. The low ranking is mostly due to only two of the index’s metrics – economic and political representation.
Dutch News@dutchnewsnl.bsky.social · 8mo agoInternational Women’s Day: there is much to be done in NL www.dutchnews.nl?p=264656
Clear 🧵 from @jeppjournal.bsky.social about the special issue on the last European Parliament Elections. Fabulous guest editors @sarahobolt.bsky.social, Popa and van der Brug. Happy to contribute with an article led by excellent colleagues @kgattermann.bsky.social and @elskevdhoogen.bsky.social
JEPP Journal@jeppjournal.bsky.social · 9mo ago📰 Issue 33:2 out! 👉 Special Issue: European Democracy in Action? The 2024 European Parliament Elections, guest edited by @sarahobolt.bsky.social, Sebastian-Adrian Popa, and Wouter van der Brug Read the whole issue: www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjpp20/3... 📸 © European Union 2024 - Source : EP
@kgattermann.bsky.social, @elskevdhoogen.bsky.social & @claesdevreese.bsky.social: The role of far-right party performance in shaping disinformation concerns of European voters: evidence from the 2024 European Parliament elections 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
