Making sense of our connected world
Civil disobedience. An international issue
Even though this is a blog for international law, I was invited to provide my perspective from political philosophy and media studies on the issue of civil disobedience. My article…
Recap: How the Policy & Governance Team participated in the Internet Governance Forum
This year, a large number of researchers of the Humboldt Institute of Internet and Society (HIIG) participated in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The IGF is a United Nations forum…
Germany is preparing for new IT security legislation
As an essential cornerstone of the Government’s Digital Agenda on 19 August Thomas de Maizière, Federal Minister of the Interior, presented a new draft law which aims at increasing the…
Is Whistleblowing Civil Disobedience?
The case of Edward Snowden provoked a wide academic discussion on the question of whether whistleblowing is an act of civil disobedience. The opinions are divided: while some, like Danah…
ECJ and Data Retention: Emergence of a Right to Security?
In its judgment on the data retention directive (C‑293/12 and C‑594/12), the ECJ caught the spirit of the age. The storage of all communication data is disproportionate to the objectives…
User generated content and copyright
In the leaked draft White Paper on the possible EU copyright reform, the European Commission seems determined that there’s no need for a new exception for user generated content (UGC)….
Surveillance
The state monitors its citizens, Internet companies monitor their users – and finally we monitor ourselves and each other. Who is monitoring whom and why? What positive effects can surveillance have and when does it become a danger for a democratic society? Questions like these were posed by students of the Humboldt University of Berlin in the seminar “Tracing Surveillance – On the Trace of Surveillance” led by HIIG researcher Thomas Christian Bächle. In the contributions to this dossier they discuss their views on state and economic power and surveillance technologies.
How COVID-19 impacts digital technologies
The current lockdown is boosting online activity – everything is increasingly shifting to the digital sphere. In this dossier we ask if, how and why the Corona pandemic will affect key subjects of digital technologies. What does this mean for the regulation of content on digital platforms? How is Covid-19 activating the digital society? How does it transform our online culture? How safe are tracing apps? What lessons can be learned regarding cyber security? Busy times for our researchers!
