Postdoctoral Researcher
Networked Systems Research Group,
Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS),
Saarbrucken, Germany.
adash @ mpi-sws . org
Currently, I am a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Krishna P. Gummadi's Networked Systems Research Group at MPI-SWS, Saarbruecken. My broad area of research revolves around different aspects of computational social science which includes (, but is not limited to) algorithm auditing, multi-modal analyses of social media data, understanding decentralized social media platforms, compliance of platforms with data protection regulations, fairness in digital marketplaces.
Algorithm auditing: I am leading a team of researchers to create a decentralized observatory for platform audit by using the right of access by data subjects provision of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This observatory, and data collected through such provisions will enable us to audit the algorithms deployed on digital platforms for potential systemic risks.
Multimodal analyses: Traditionally, social media research has been focused on the textual data available on platforms. However, with the recent advancement of large audio / video language models, I am interested in applying such tools to perform more holistic and robust analyses of content moderation and dissemination on online platforms.
Decentralized social media platforms: While most of the above research are being conducted on centralized platforms (e.g., Instagram, TikTok, YouTube etc.), decentralized platforms (e.g., Mastodon, Bluesky) provide a new opportunity for effective content moderation. I am also interested in understanding their underlying architecture and its effectiveness in content moderation.
Compliance with regulations: I also lead a number of projects where we develop qualitative and quantitative frameworks to evaluate platforms adherence to different provisions and regulations enlisted in data protection laws (e.g., GDPR, Digital Services Act (DSA), Digital Markets Act (DMA) etc.)
Fairness in digital marketplaces: I have conducted a number of investigations on unfairness concerns, resulting from different algorithms and choice architectures deployed in digital marketplaces, toward different stakeholders (customers, sellers) due to potential preferential treatment of marketplaces toward a set of entities.
I conducted my doctoral studies in the Department of Computer Science at Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India under the supervision of Dr. Saptarshi Ghosh and Dr. Animesh Mukherjee. Prior to this, I completed my masters in Information Technology at Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur with the supervision of Dr. Malay Bhattacharyya.