I am an Assistant Professor of Computational Social Science in the Department of Methodology and an affiliate at the Data Science Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science. I specialize in computational methods and comparative politics. Substantively, I focus on Chinese politics, LGBT politics, and social media politics. My methods research involves applied machine learning, quantitative text analysis, and fairness and bias in AI. I hold a Ph.D. in Political Science and Scientific Computing from the University of Michigan.

Book Project: Platforms and Power: Authoritarian Control of Social Media in China

Abstract: Platforms and Power explores how the contentious interactions between authoritarian political actors, private platforms, and users shape the online information landscape. Focusing on China, this book examines the political logic behind information control, exploring the puzzle of why political actors delegate control to private platforms over which they have limited control. Drawing on rich empirical evidence from leaked censorship logs, large-scale quantitative analyses of social media data, and qualitative case studies, the book reveals how market competition, bureaucratic fragmentation, and user behavior constrain and shape the state and platform capacity to moderate content and control information flows. I show how delegation to private intermediaries solves problems of inflexibility and technological incapacity through institutional layering and endogenous institutional change. I argue that contention between state actors and platforms informs the development of softer and covert “technologies of control,” which are more effective and less likely to provoke popular backlash than blunter forms of control preferred by state actors. At the same time, reduced control over private agents may subject the state to dangerous pressures during crises, as exemplified in the large-scale anti-government protests in 2022 against zero-COVID policies. This work highlights the complexities of internet governance in modern authoritarian regimes and provides critical insights into the shifting boundaries of political power in the digital era.

News Articles, Podcasts, Research Reports, and Blog Posts Featuring my Research:

• The changing relationship between governments and NGOs (LSE Research for the World)
• Who Not What. (CSIS Pekingology Podcast)
• Message Control: A New For-Profit Industry Helps China’s Leaders ‘Manage Public Opinion.’ (China File)
• Choose your own Dystopia: Social Media and Surveillance Capitalism. (The Little Red Podcast.)
• "Can the Chinese government really control the Internet? We found cracks in the Great Firewall." (The Washington Post)
• "Can China’s Approach to Internet Control Spread around the World?" (China File)
• "Remembering Liu Xiaobo: Analyzing censorship of the death of Liu Xiaobo on WeChat and Weibo." (Report by The Citizen Lab and media reports from New York Times, Telegraph, and AP).