SOLARIS project meets TWON and SoMe4Dem!

It is always inspiring to meet with others who are tackling challenges in the same area, and to discover where your work intersects. On Monday, May 27th, the sister projects funded under the Horizon 2.2 - Culture, Creativity, and Inclusive Society, and Horizon 2.2.1 - Democracy and Governance programs convened for a collaborative meeting. It was an excellent opportunity for our project team to engage with the teams of TWON and SoMe4Dem, to identify common ground and to explore opportunities for joint efforts.

SoMe4Dem (Social media for democracy – understanding the causal mechanisms of digital citizenship), coordinated by Max Planck Institute, is exploring how social media shapes democracy. It investigates its impact on political debates and societal fragmentation and aims to provide better evidence and develop tools to enhance digital citizenship in liberal democracies. 

TWON(TWin of Online Social Networks), coordinated by the University of Amsterdam, develops digital twins of social networks to study the impact of design choices on public debate and polarization. By combining empirical observations and simulations, the project aims to provide evidence-based recommendations to enhance digital citizenship and reduce harmful effects in democratic debates.