Making sense of our connected world
Content moderation on digital platforms: A more intensive horizontal effect of freedom of expression?
To what extent should private companies be bound by freedom of expression? Investigating a more intensive horizontal effect of fundamental rights.
Turning back time for Content Moderation? How Musk’s takeover is affecting Twitter’s rules
Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter is bringing platform governance to the centre of the media spotlight. But (how) have Twitter’s content policies changed so far?
ArtificiaI Intelligence made in X: The German AI policy landscape
AI is also discussed at the subnational level. Laura Liebig and Dr. Anna Jobin asked themselves: Why do German federal states feel the need to individually issue AI policies?
Designing Digital Democracy
Designing rules for digital democracy is difficult. But new ideas for more democracy on platforms through deliberative elements are being piloted. How promising are they?
Social Media Councils: An effective means of holding digital platforms accountable?
Social Media Councils may align public values with platform governance if platform economic incentives are taken into account.
A lion for sustainable AI: How to support a new standard for sustainability reporting?
The Sustainability of AI is missing proper standards. The EU’s CSRD is a reporting tool that might be a new directive. But is it a toothless paper tiger or a sharp lion?
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!
