I am Emilio Ferrara, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California, where I direct the HUMANS Lab. My research covers social bots and automated accounts, coordinated inauthentic behaviour, influence operations, misinformation, network science, and bias and safety in large language models.

I am the subject of the article Emilio Ferrara. I do not edit it. I did edit it in 2023, before I understood the guidance at WP:AUTOBIOGRAPHY; CristianCantoro correctly flagged that on the article talk page and I have stayed off it since.

I also edit articles in my research areas, and some of those edits add citations to work I co-authored. I disclose that in advance under WP:COI and note it in the edit summary whenever it applies. The standard I hold myself to: I only propose a citation where the article is already deficient on its own terms, meaning it carries a maintenance template such as {{citation needed}} or an existing source demonstrably does not support the claim attached to it. Where a source by another author fits a sentence better, I use that instead. I do not add citations to my own work merely because it is absent.

If any editor considers one of my edits inappropriate, please revert it and leave a note on my talk page. I will not reinstate a reverted edit; I will discuss it instead.

Declared under WP:SOCK#LEGIT. All of these are operated by me:

• Safety-researcher — the account I use for research-area editing and for conflict-of-interest edit requests. Its user page carries the same disclosure as this one.
• Online-safety-bot — a bot account. It is not approved for automated editing and makes no article-space edits. A request for approval is open.

I am recording the connection here so that it is visible to anyone reviewing my edits, rather than something that has to be inferred.