Internet Governance Explained – Details, episodes & analysis

The regulation of digital platforms, particularly in combating disinformation, is a highly debated issue. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently caused a controversy when he announced plans to discontinue fact-checking program on Facebook and Instagram. This decision raises serious concerns that, without oversight, the platforms could be flooded with disinformation and used for propaganda purposes.

Martha Stolze is focusing closely on these challenges. She is a research associate in the “Platform Algorithms and Digital Propaganda” research group at the Weizenbaum Institute.

Her dissertation is dedicated to the role of gender in Russian online information campaigns. In this episode, she shares insights into how certain gender narratives are strengthened, why the topic should be given greater attention by both research and society and what regulatory solutions could look like.

The digital world holds the key to participation in nearly every aspect of modern life - but for people with disabilities, significant barriers remain. In this episode, we sit down with

Michael Wahl, head of the German Federal Agency for Accessibility of Information Technology (BFIT-Bund), to explore how digital accessibility can bridge this divide. Drawing from his professional expertise and personal experiences as a blind person, Michael Wahl shares his thoughts on the challenges, opportunities, and technologies

shaping current and future digital inclusion. From legal frameworks to AI innovations, discover how we can all contribute to creating a more equitable digital space.

Caroline Kellerbach and Anna Absolonová talk about digital inequalities and NFTs with Dr. Matthieu Nadini, data scientist from the University of London. Users worldwide are increasingly interested in how digital art and other digital items can be bought or sold. Theoretically, NFTs trading can be done by everyone. However, there is only a small group of people who are engaged in the process, while the rest of the population still does not participate in this activity. In this episode, we discuss the social consequences of the NFTs economy.

What is Artificial Intelligence? How can it impact our societies and guide our actions? Why are ethics and principals necessary to help steer its development and usage? How is AI autonomously mediating issues of freedom of expression online? How should AI be governed, and by whom? In this episode, Vanessa and Halil are joined by AI expert Prateek Sibal, specialist consultant of UNESCO’s Digital Innovation and Transformation section, as they explore these questions and look ahead to the role AI could continue to play in our lives, services, and cities.

Sources:

Gebru, T., Morgenstern, J., Vecchione, B., Vaughan, J. W., Wallach, H., Iii, H. D., & Crawford, K. (2021). Datasheets for datasets. Communications of the ACM, 64(12), 86-92.

Taeihagh, A. (2021). Governance of Artificial Intelligence. Policy and Society, 40(2), 137-157.

Zhang, B. et al. (2021). Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence. The Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 71, 591–666.

Russell, S. J. (2019). Human compatible: Artificial intelligence and the problem of control.

In 2021, Frances Haugen revealed the so-called “Facebook Files”, which fueled controversial discussions on platforms as powerful entities - not only in shaping societal discourse. What makes them so powerful and what are the most effective regulatory solutions for a “platform society”? Do ordinary Internet users have a possibility to call platforms to account and make a change?

Anna Schild and Carlo Backes discuss these and other questions with Michael Seemann, media scholar and author of the book ‘The power of platforms’. 

In this episode, Hernan Funes & Valeria Tsoy explore the digital world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and discuss among other things the challenges of regulation of this new technology as well the ecological aspect of its production. Their guest is Dr. Lennart Ante, co-founder of the Blockchain Research Lab, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent science and research on blockchain technology.

In the podcast we mention Memo Akten, an artist and creative technologist based in London who only creates CleanNFTs, here is the link to his work: www.memo.tv 

What is hate speech and how can it be regulated in online communication? In this episode, Francesca Elsey and Kyara Durlinger talk with Christian Strippel, researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society. The communication scholar shares his thoughts on hate speech regulation and tells about the outcomes of the NOHATE project that aimed to develop methods and software for recognition of hateful communication and potential strategies for de-escalation of aggressive speech.

Related open-access articles:

Paasch-Colberg, S., Strippel, C., Trebbe, J., & Emmer, M. (2021). From Insult to Hate Speech: Mapping Offensive Language in German User Comments on Immigration. Media and Communication, 9(1), 171–180. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v9i1.3399

Paasch-Colberg, S., & Strippel, C. (2021). "The boundaries are blurry...": How comment moderators in Germany see and respond to hate comments. Journalism Studies  https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2021.2017793 

Even though blockchain technology is on everyone’s radar, there is still a lot of confusion and lack of clarity about how blockchain technology actually works and how it could be useful not only for the general public but also for the field of internet governance. In this episode we talk to Moritz Becker, researcher in the research group "Trust in Distributed Environments" at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin. We discuss the concept blockchain as well as its practical implementation in so-called decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Do blockchain-based systems really offer a more inclusive and democratic alternative for organizational systems?

Becker, M. (2019). Blockchain and the Promise(s) of Decentralisation: A Sociological Investigation of the Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Blockchain. Proceedings of the STS Conference Graz 2019. https://doi.org/10.3217/978-3-85125-668-0-02

Wagener, A. (2018). Politische Disruption: Die Digitalisierung der Politik und die libertäre Technologie der Blockchain. In S. Liebold, T. Mannewitz, M. Petschke, & T. Thieme (Eds.), Demokratie in unruhigen Zeiten (pp. 387-396). Nomos. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845284637-386

Once hailed as a liberating, democratizing technology, social media platforms are now controversially discussed as potential threats to democracy and freedom of expression. Where does freedom of opinion end, and at what point do we talk about censorship? How should users be protected and from whom? To what extent may platforms intervene, and do we need additional state regulation? In this episode, Johanna Palla and Ann-Kathrin Rust discuss the most burning questions with the platform governance expert Dr. Clara Iglesias Keller from the Social Science Center Berlin and the Leibniz Institute for Media Research.

In this episode, Valentyna Koenig and Viktor Illmer talk about net neutrality with Thomas Lohninger, executive director of the digital rights NGO epicenter.works. “Net Neutrality is the principle that makes the internet a universal medium,” says Lohninger – but what exactly do we mean by it? How does it affect us as individual users and what is the current state of net neutrality in the world? Also, why has raising these questions become especially important during the pandemic?