Everyday life – Digital Society Blog

Jörg Pohle | 24. April 2018

The ethics of big data, Facebook & Cambridge Analytica

Facebook is under fire after the social media giant admitted it didn’t prevent data from as many as 50 million users getting to political data firm Cambridge Analytica, which it…

Jeanette Hofmann | 17. April 2018

Power and counter-power in the digital society

How is power constituted in the digital society? Who is powerful – and how can power be countered and contested? On 12 December 2017, Manuel Castells held the opening lecture…

Aljoscha Burchardt | 3. April 2018

Understanding Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is a controversial and much-discussed topic of our digital future. Aljoscha Burchardt sees a huge gap between the machines of today, which are able to act intelligently, and the…

Jonas Kaiser | 23. March 2018

No, YouTube’s “trolls” won’t destroy Wikipedia

YouTube’s decision to embed Wikipedia articles under controversial videos caused a huge uproar. Commentators and scholars chastised YouTube for being lazy, for outsourcing their responsibility, or for “crushing” the online…

Kirsten Gollatz | 15. March 2018

Hate speech and fake news – how two concepts got intertwined and politicised

On 1 October 2017, the so-called Network Enforcement Act (Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz, or NetzDG) came into force with a transitional regulation. The law applies to operators of social media platforms and their…

Anna Jobin | 6. March 2018

Organic search: How metaphors help cultivate the web

Tomatoes, apples and bread can be ‘organic.’ But search results? Anna Jobin and Malte Ziewitz wonder about the currency of agricultural metaphors in web search and show how they do…

William Dutton | 1. March 2018

Fostering a cybersecurity mindset

What precisely is the meaning of the concept of cybersecurity – and who is responsible for its implementation? Guest author William Dutton argues that challenges in this area might require…

Meg Jing Zeng | 27. February 2018

From #MeToo to #RiceBunny: how social media users are campaigning in China

In Chinese, the phrase “rice bunny” is pronounced as “mi tu” and has become a nickname for the #MeToo campaign. The #RiceBunny hashtag, accompanied by emojis of rice bowls and bunny…

Rikke Frank Jørgensen | 22. February 2018

The Privatised Public Sphere

The public sphere metaphor was always contested and this continues in the digital realm. While “old” debates on access, inequality and power continue, the so-called platform society has taken concerns…