Dr. Martin Degeling

I'm a researcher focussed on black-box auditing of algorithmic systems like social media platforms. I also investigate usable privacy and security issues..

Currently I work as a freelancer for various non-profits like AI Forensics and ISD. Before that, I spent time work at interface auditing auditing TikTok, doing research at Ruhr-University Bochum and at CMU working on personalized privacy assistant.

You can find a short CV and a list of my publications on Orcid and updates on publications on Google Scholar.

Follow my updates on Mastodon or connect on Linkedin.

Empolyment

since 2024: Researcher AI Forensics, ISD and others.| Freelancer (inlcuding as data protection officer) | open for work!
2022-2024:Stiftung Neue Verantwortung/interface | Expert on auditing recommender systems
2018-2022:Ruhr-University Bochum | Scientific Coordinator
2016-2018: Carnegie Mellon University | Post-Doc
<2016: Ruhr-Uni Bochum | research assistant; data protection office

Online-Networks

Mastodon | GitHub | LinkedIn

Academic Services

I was PC member of the Privacy Enhancing Technology Symposium (PETS) and was Publicity Co-Chair for the Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) 2022.

Recent Works

I spent a lot of time working on social media, but less time posting. If you are interested in staying up to date you can follow me here:

Mastodon | GitHub | LinkedIn | Google Scholar

Here's what was most important to me in the last month:

Quoted: I talked to journalists that create a radio feature on TikTok and advised other on experiments. Last year I was quoted in WIRED and AFP interviewed me and others on Holocaust AI Fakes. Our 2 year project on Auditing TikTok was profiled in DER SPIEGEL (24/2024)

AI Slop: Our work on AI generated content is presented at the Siegen Autumn School on Synthetic Media. See our work on TikTok and Instagram with AI Forenics, Covered in DER SPIEGEL (39/2025)

Digital Services Act:Earlier I showed how the DSA-required Research API of TikTok has a lot of problems which we also reported on in techpolicy.press together with other civil society rearches. I also got interviewed for the investigations into TikTok by the Europen Comission.

Monitoring TikTok:Together with teams at AI Forensics and ISD, I monitored the Polish as well as the German elections in 2025 on TikTok and helped gather and analyse the data that showing that harrassment in comments on TikTok is genered targeting female candidates more often then male politicians. At AIF we've also monitored what's happening during the NATO Summit 2025.

This page was last updated on September 1, 2025

Contact Information

Leuthardtstr. 10 | 44137 Dortmund
martin degeling.com

Privacy Policy

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