Ludvig Norman Score Fellow

Ludvig, tell us about your research.

My current research examines how democratic states regulate social media platforms and what those choices mean for the online public sphere. I am particularly interested in why democratic governments adopt specific regulatory approaches, and how different approaches are justified. Bringing together comparative politics, digital governance, my work studies both the character of the rules enacted as well as the political drivers of regulations.

I am also interested in methodological questions surrounding causal inquiry and the study of causal processes in the social sciences. This includes both the conceptual foundations of causal explanation and the development of practical methodological tools for identifying causal mechanisms, tracing processes, and combining various forms of evidence.

What will you be working on during your time at Score?

During my year as a Score fellow, my main focus will be on developing a comparative global dataset on state regulation of social media platforms. The dataset will map key features of national laws and policy frameworks, including their goals, scope, enforcement mechanisms, and the kinds of speech or platform practices they target. The data will enable cross-national comparison and identify broader patterns in how states, democracies in particular, govern online content and provide the empirical foundation for both quantitative analysis of regulatory trends and qualitative case studies of specific countries, helping explain when particular regulatory models emerge.