As 2025 comes to a close, we can’t help but feel immensely proud of all we’ve accomplished together at IDDP this year. It has been a period marked not only by rigorous research and meaningful dialogue, but also by an important moment of transition as we welcomed new leadership to guide the Institute into its next chapter. This shift has energized our community and reaffirmed our commitment to understanding the evolving intersections of digital technology, media, and democracy.

Throughout the year, we hosted timely events that sparked critical conversations, produced cutting-edge research on information integrity and online harms, and contributed to policy discussions shaping platform accountability around the world. We also strengthened partnerships across academia, civil society, journalism, and the policy community, ensuring our work continues to inform both scholarship and real-world impact.

None of this would have been possible without the dedication and support of our colleagues, collaborators, and friends. We’re truly grateful for this community and for everything we have achieved together.

As we move into 2026 under new leadership, we look forward to building on this momentum. Wishing you and your loved ones a joyful holiday season and a bright, hopeful New Year.

Regards,
Catie Bailard & Ethan Porter
IDDP Co-Directors

This year marks a new era of leadership for GW’s Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics (IDDP), as Catie Snow Bailard and Ethan Porter step in as the institute’s new co-directors.

Since its founding, IDDP has emerged as a hub for high-impact, interdisciplinary research at the intersection of digital media, technology and democracy.

GW Today spoke with our new Co-Directors Catie Bailard & Ethan Porter about their vision for IDDP, the opportunities and responsibilities of research in this moment and how the institute is preparing to contribute to important national conversations. 

In October, IDDP organized an event examining how the Trump presidency is testing democratic institutions and norms in the United States. The event, titled “The State of Democracy in Trump’s America: Year One,” was held at GW’s Lerner Family Hall and was co-hosted by The New Republic magazine.  

Following a keynote address by Congressman Ro Khanna, New Republic Editor Michael Tomasky moderated an insightful panel discussion with Harvard University's Ryan Enos, the University of Chicago's Susan Stokes, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eugene Robinson. Together, their perspectives offered a compelling exploration of the forces driving democratic erosion in the U.S. and the challenges the current administration poses to our democracy.

If you missed the event and would like to learn more about the current state of our democracy, a recap is available on our Youtube channel. 

IDDP researchers produced numerous scholarly publications addressing a wide range of pressing issues. These publications expand the institute’s research portfolio, and will serve as valuable resources for the GW community and the broader public. In case you missed out, below is a snapshot of the papers: 

Over the past year, IDDP research led by David Broniatowski has highlighted how platform design and system architecture shape both harmful and healthy online behaviors. In collaboration with Lorien Abroms, a large-scale study of Twitter’s attempts to curb COVID-19 vaccine misinformation showed that even aggressive content removals and mass deplatforming often failed to reduce misinformation—and sometimes increased its reach—underscoring the limits of top-down moderation on highly flexible networked platforms. Complementary work in collaboration with Matt Hindman introduced a new statistical method to detect coordinated link-sharing on Facebook, revealing previously hidden networks that systematically amplified political content. At the same time, collaborations with Lorien Abroms demonstrated how platform affordances can be leveraged to promote constructive behaviors: moderated, empathic Facebook groups successfully increased COVID-19 vaccination intentions, and ChatGPT-based smoking-cessation tools showed strong promise when equipped with the right instructions and safeguards. Together, these studies show that while platform architecture can make harmful content difficult to contain, thoughtful design and guided engagement can meaningfully support healthier decision-making online.

IDDP Principal Researcher Spencer Overton has published several articles on artificial intelligence (“AI”), democracy and race, including a piece about the possible benefits of AI.  This article is the first to comprehensively examine the extent to which AI—and the legal frameworks that regulate it—can advance racially inclusive democracy. It fills a gap in the AI optimism literature by offering a clear-eyed assessment of relevant political, racial, and economic barriers to AI making democracy more racially inclusive. This analysis reveals that some of the AI optimists’ technological and legal proposals could, in fact, exacerbate racial disparities in political power and harm voters of color. The article acknowledges, however, that certain AI tools, if applied appropriately, could help reduce turnout gaps and increase government responsiveness to communities of color. Although good AI law is no substitute for an updated Voting Rights Act and a Supreme Court committed to protecting voting rights, embedding values of racial inclusion into AI law at this formative stage could shape the trajectory of our democracy. 

Recent research by IDDP Co-Director Ethan Porter explores different dynamics associated with fact-checking. One study, in collaboration with Jacob Ausubel and Annika Davies, shows it can damage the reputation of lesser-known misinformation spreaders, but leaves well-known figures largely unscathed. Another study, in collaboration with Matthew Graham, found that while fact-checks reliably reduce belief in false claims, most people don’t read them. Efforts to boost engagement often fail—including partisan appeals. However, strategies that emphasize civic duty, social pressure, or small financial incentives consistently increase readership. Together, these findings suggest fact-checking is effective at reducing false beliefs, but only when paired with smart approaches that motivate people to engage.

Earlier this year, IDDP hosted two design thinking workshops with recent civil servants. The participants were asked to imagine a future in which the U.S. is dedicated to protecting consumers and has decided to create a ‘New Digital Platform Regulator’ or ‘FDA for AI’. Think tanks and scholars have imagined such an agency and repeatedly highlight that it will need to be adaptable, able to operate interagency, and prioritize consumer welfare when drafting and enforcing regulations. People who have worked in the federal government possess tacit knowledge about how to make these processes work—or fail—in practice. A summary report from the workshops is available here.

IDDP is currently planning a follow-on summit with leading scholars and consumer advocates to build expert consensus around the scope and remit of such an agency and to create a blueprint for socializing it with policymakers and the public.

IDDP Policy Fellow Anna Lenhart published a report to promote understanding of the debate surrounding new national guidelines for ethical research using pervasive data. 

In early 2025, former IDDP Policy Fellow Brandon Silverman led a report exploring how access to social media platform data can lead to real world change. 

The report co-authored by IDDP Policy Fellow Anna Lenhart and Brandon Silverman analyzes interviews with 18 high profile figures and offers ethical considerations for social media researchers and policy recommendations for governments.

This IDDP report explores the massive Social Media Monitoring (SMM) market and how companies acquire data.

Ethan Porter 

“Misinformation research continues to be urgent science,” Science Advances

“Rethinking Citizen Competence: A New Theoretical and Empirical Framework,” British Journal of Political Science

Catie Snow Bailard

“Keep Your Heads Held High Boys!”: Examining the Relationship between the Proud Boys’ Online Discourse and Offline Activities,”American Political Science Review

“Proud Boys on Telegram,” Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media

Spencer Overton

“Analyzing the Benefits of Artificial Intelligence to Racially Inclusive Democracy Multiracial, Interclass Democracy,” Social Science Research Network

Matt Hindman

 “Pressing play on politics : quantitative description of YouTube,” Journal of quantitative description

Join us for a reading and discussion of Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses, a new book co-edited by Jonathan Becker and Yael Bromberg. Through case studies from Tuskegee University, Prairie View A&M University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Bard College, the book examines how college communities have shaped the fight for youth voting rights—and what those lessons mean for democracy today.

Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Time: 12:30pm

Additional registration and event details coming soon!

We're looking for two exceptional Postdoctoral candidates to join our team, one with expertise in behavioral sciences and one in computational sciences.

Our mission is to help society understand critical challenges that arise at the intersection of digital technology, media and democracy, in turn informing sound policy solutions. IDDP is committed to supporting rigorous, evidence-based research that advances democratic values. The positions are for a one-year term, with the possibility to extend. Read full job descriptions and apply below.

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