VIRENA: Virtual Arena for Research, Education, and Democratic Innovation

2026-02-12

AI Summary

This work addresses the challenges of studying user interaction, opinion dynamics, and content moderation on real-world social platforms—constraints imposed by limited data access, ethical considerations, and a lack of suitable experimental tools. To overcome these limitations, we present a configurable virtual social media experimentation platform that enables interactions between human participants and embodied AI agents powered by large language models within high-fidelity simulated interfaces resembling Instagram and WhatsApp. The platform features a no-code visual interface for fine-grained control over content moderation policies, stimulus delivery, and experimental conditions, and supports on-premises deployment to ensure compliance with data regulations. As the first infrastructure enabling large-scale human–AI hybrid experiments without programming, it has already been deployed at the University of Zurich to investigate AI intervention efficacy, group deliberation mechanisms, and comparative moderation strategies, offering a scalable and compliant environment for interdisciplinary social computing research.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Humans and AI: Interaction Techniques and Devices
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Economic ramifications for generative AI infrastructure and applications
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web

Abstract

Digital platforms shape how people communicate, deliberate, and form opinions. Studying these dynamics has become increasingly difficult due to restricted data access, ethical constraints on real-world experiments, and limitations of existing research tools. VIRENA (Virtual Arena) is a platform that enables controlled experimentation in realistic social media environments. Multiple participants interact simultaneously in realistic replicas of feed-based platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Reddit) and messaging apps (WhatsApp, Messenger). Large language model-powered AI agents participate alongside humans with configurable personas and realistic behavior. Researchers can manipulate content moderation approaches, pre-schedule stimulus content, and run experiments across conditions through a visual interface requiring no programming skills. VIRENA makes possible research designs that were previously impractical: studying human--AI interaction in realistic social contexts, experimentally comparing moderation interventions, and observing group deliberation as it unfolds. Built on open-source technologies that ensure data remain under institutional control and comply with data protection requirements, VIRENA is currently in use at the University of Zurich and available for pilot collaborations. Designed for researchers, educators, and public organizations alike, VIRENA's no-code interface makes controlled social media simulation accessible across disciplines and sectors. This paper documents its design, architecture, and capabilities.

Problem

• social media research
• controlled experimentation
• data access restrictions
• ethical constraints
• digital deliberation

Innovation

• virtual experimentation
• AI agents
• social media simulation
• no-code research platform
• content moderation