Bio
Amin Mekacher is a PhD candidate in mathematics at City, University of London. He gained his MSc in Electrical Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, where he worked in collaboration with the Swiss Radio Television to track disinformation on social media for his Master thesis. Amin also joined the Online Safety Team at Ofcom for an internship during his PhD.
Research interests
Amin's research focuses on studying how users engage in online fringe environments. His previous studies aimed at understanding how users migrate to an alternate social platform after being banned from the mainstream option and how their interactions take shape within a new online space that is often left unmoderated. Amin also looks at the ways fringe narratives, such as conspiracy theories and calls to violence, are amplified on such platforms. He is interested in studying matters related to user engagement around such narratives, the social hierarchies that arise on fringe platforms and how hate speech is amplified once moderation rules are relaxed.