My Research

Digital platforms and artificial intelligence are fundamentally reshaping political communication, democratic institutions, and the governance of information environments. My research examines how these technological transformations affect political behavior, electoral competition, and democratic decision-making. I study how political actors, citizens, and institutions interact with digital communication infrastructures and how these interactions shape contemporary democracies.

My work lies at the intersection of political communication, digital governance, and computational social science. Methodologically, I combine computational and quantitative approaches, including social network analysis, text analysis, digital trace data, and experimental designs, to study political behavior in digital information environments. Through these approaches, I aim to understand both the opportunities and the risks that emerging technologies pose for democratic politics.

My research program focuses on three interconnected areas.

(1) Political behavior and communication dynamics on digital platforms

A central strand of my research investigates how political communication unfolds on digital platforms. I examine how political actors such as parties, elected representatives, candidates, and new forms of political intermediaries such as influencers or partisan online communities use digital media to mobilize supporters, shape political narratives, and influence public debate.

In this work, I study the dynamics of online political communication, including agenda-setting processes, networked campaigning, and the role of platform infrastructures in structuring political discourse. A particular focus of my research is the strategic use of digital platforms by populist and radical political actors and the implications of these communication strategies for the fragmentation of digital publics and democratic representation.

(2) Artificial Intelligence and elections

A second strand of my research focuses on the growing role of artificial intelligence in democratic elections and political communication. AI systems increasingly shape both the production and consumption of political information.

On the supply side, political parties and campaigns are beginning to integrate AI tools into campaign strategy, content production, and organizational processes. On the demand side, citizens increasingly interact with AI systems to access political information, discuss political issues, or seek guidance on electoral choices.

My research investigates how these AI-mediated interactions influence political knowledge, public opinion formation, and voting behavior. In particular, I am interested in how biases in generative AI systems, model design choices, and safety mechanisms may affect the political information environment and democratic decision-making.

(3) Governance of digital information environments and AI

A third pillar of my research examines the governance of digital information environments and emerging AI systems. 

My work in this area focuses in particular on European platform regulation, including the Digital Services Act, and learnings for the emerging governance architecture surrounding artificial intelligence. I examine how regulatory frameworks, institutional oversight mechanisms, and new forms of intermediary actors such as researchers, auditors, and NGOs contribute to the governance of digital platforms and AI systems.

More broadly, this research seeks to understand how democratic societies can develop effective institutional mechanisms to govern distributed digital infrastructures while safeguarding democratic accountability, and fundamental rights, especially in electoral context.

About

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the AI, Media and Democracy Lab at the University of Amsterdam, where I am affiliated with the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR). The lab brings together researchers from different disciplines who work on questions related to political communication, digital governance, and computational social science.

Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Digital Governance at the Hertie School in Berlin and an affiliated researcher in the ERC-funded international research project Digital Campaigning and Electoral Democracy (DiCED) at the University of Manchester.

During my academic career, I have held several visiting research positions. In 2024, I was a visiting postdoctoral fellow at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES). During my doctoral studies, I was a visiting researcher at the Data Science Institute at the London School of Economics and a Eurolab guest researcher at GESIS, the Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.

In my doctoral dissertation in Governance (summa cum laude) at the Hertie School, I examined the socio-political implications of social media platforms and their potential contribution to democratic fragmentation. My current research builds on this work and focuses on the relationship between digital technologies, political communication, and democratic governance.

In addition to my academic work, I occasionally collaborate with public institutions, NGOs, and media organizations on issues related to digital governance, disinformation, and platform regulation. In this context, I have worked with organizations such as the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the Hertie Foundation, and I contributed to the Data Knowledge Hub on Disinformation in collaboration with the Bertelsmann Foundation.