Indiana University's Observatory on Social Media Receives $1 Million Grant from the Knight Foundation

The Observatory on Social Media (OSoMe) at Indiana University has been awarded a new $1 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to support its groundbreaking interdisciplinary research on the role of media and technology, building tools to analyze and counter manipulation on social media, and the evolving threats posed by artificial intelligence.

OSoMe’s research has appeared in leading journals such as Science and Nature Communications, been cited thousands of times annually, and been featured in major media outlets. Its public tools have been used more than 100 million times and its findings have directly informed policy discussions and legislation on issues like bot disclosure and researcher access to data.

Over the next four years, OSoMe will research the generation and distribution of malicious AI-based content; expand methods to detect coordinated inauthentic behavior and online manipulation at scale; create new open-source tools and data repositories for the broader research community; and contribute to the regulatory environment through advanced simulations that help understand the impact of social media platform policies. These efforts will be increasingly important as our political and technology sectors continue to evolve rapidly.

“Knight Foundation remains committed to supporting rigorous, independent scholarship that can shed light on how new technologies are changing how we connect with information, ideas, and each other,” said Knight Foundation’s Vice President–Information & Society John Sands.

“Indiana University is very appreciative of the continued support from the Knight Foundation. Through this partnership, OSoMe will continue to be a central resource to both researchers and society by providing high-quality solutions to address challenges in the information ecosystem,” added Russell Mumper, IU Vice President for Research.

For more information about OSoMe’s research and public tools, visit osome.iu.edu.