[2][3] In 2022, Tufekci was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her "insightful, often prescient, columns on the pandemic and American culture", which the committee said "brought clarity to the shifting official guidance and compelled us towards greater compassion and informed response.

[14][15][16] She has repeatedly urged both online and in op-eds[17] that outlets should avoid repetition of the killer's name and face as well as step-by-step discussions of their methods.

[18][19] The phenomenon of suicide contagion via social media and news coverage is part of Tufekci's analytical work.

[21] In May 2017, Tufekci's first book, Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest, was published by Yale University Press.

[25][26] In addition to her mainstream media writing during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tufekci has co-authored articles published in peer reviewed academic journals reviewing evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is airborne, with British medical professor Trisha Greenhalgh[27] and environmental engineering professor Linsey Marr.