Levi Kaplan

Levi Kaplan is a doctoral candidate in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, based in Boston. He is advised by Alan Mislove and Piotr Sapiezynski.

After becoming involved in tech fairness research as a Northeastern undergraduate, Kaplan began his doctorate within the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute in 2022. His research involves conducting sociotechnical audits of recommender systems such as social media feeds. Much of his recent work has focused on auditing the TikTok 'For You' page, an algorithmically driven, endless feed of personalized content. He is interested in understanding how unwanted content is delivered to users, the avenues users have to shape their feed, and the extent to which sensitive or harmful content is delivered to vulnerable users.

Kaplan's research has been covered by ArsTechnica, The Verge, and ProPublica, and was cited by Governor Lael Brainard in a speech to the Federal Reserve. His work has been recognized with the IMC 2022 best paper award, and he has worked with advocacy groups such as Amnesty International.

In his free time, Kaplan enjoys cooking, reading, and playing the electric bass.