Internet Governance Explained

In today’s digital world, it is almost impossible for social media users to not stumble upon influencers and influencer marketing. However, the regulations and laws surrounding them are still undefined, which can cause ambiguity and confusion for users. What are influencers and influencer marketing, and how can they be regulated? Who is responsible for these regulations? In this episode, Caroline Ritchie and Claudia Paneque Marrero talk with Ruvimbo Musiyiwa M.A., communication scholar from Canada. Ruvimbo's work centers on influencer marketing, exploring potential approaches for its effective regulation.

With the rising popularity of AI tools such as Chat GPT and Midjourney, the first effects in the creative industry are noticeable. Declining amounts of commissions and people losing their jobs are just the tip of the iceberg. In this episode, Fabrice and Katrin talk with Melanie Hölscher, also known as Mahou.Shoujo or Meri on social media, about her experiences with AI as a fashion designer and freelance artist. Diving deeper into the topic, we discuss trends and shifts in the world of art due to AI, conversations happening between artists and how to better protect them from having their art stolen for AI generators such as Midjourney.

Since Twitter's transformation into X, as announced by Elon Musk in October 2022 with his tweet "the bird is freed," the platform has undergone significant changes. How do these developments affect users as well as research conducted on this social media platform? In this episode, Rita Gsenger and Jasper Hendrickx talk with Felix Gaisbauer, a postdoctoral researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin. They discuss the new challenges faced by researchers and examine the implications of the platform’s transformation for democracy and public discourse.

What role do online platforms play in storing and forming our individual and collective memories? Lena Mackuth and Fleur Renkema talk with Dr. Rik Smit from the Universty of Groningen about his research on the platformization of memory to figure this out. We dive into what platforms are, the power they have, and the ethical questions behind the outsourcing of the storage of our memories to online platforms. Furthermore, we discuss the importance of regulating the
platformization of memory and the current lack of attention for this subject in the realm of public policy makers.

In this episode we interview Daniel Moßbrucker, journalist and security trainer for journalists. Daniel focusses on surveillance, data protection and internet regulation. We ask Daniel about the problems journalists are facing in regards to cybersecurity, examples of security breaches and about his investigation of the use of the dark web by paedo-criminals that was the subject of his 2021 documentary on forums used by paedo-criminals to share harmful content. We also asked Daniel about measures individual users can take to better protect themselves in the digital sphere.

Trigger Warning: This podcast mentions pedophilia.

Link to the documentary about Daniel’s investigation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iItLpwkQMUQ&t=26s

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’. 

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?

In this episode, Tien-Chi Lu and Alexander Wagner set out to investigate the concept of security of messenger apps. Living in modern and hyper-connected societies, we are confronted on a daily basis by questions such as: what does “secure” mean? And from whom? Is there such a thing as an entirely private or secure messenger app? How does the new WhatsApp update affect users worldwide? Can we trust the messenger apps’ claims to be secure? Our guest expert from the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, Yan Foto, helps us understand in simple terms what it all means.

How does China manage to develop a flourishing digital economy under authoritarian rule? Is the country’s approach to internet governance sustainable over time? What are the main challenges to China’s cyber sovereignty? And what is on China’s internet governance agenda in 2021? John Lee, Senior Analyst from the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), discusses with Polina Andreeva and Carolina Acevedo Gonzalez China’s approach to internet governance and gives his expert insights into strengths and challenges of this model.

What is individual cybersecurity? What are the dangers of data collection? How can apps help sensitize users in terms of data security? Why are independent organizations for consumer protection and cybersecurity, such as Netzpolitik and Chaos Computer Club e.V. (CCC), important for internet governance? And what can users actively do to stay safe on the internet? Noah Schlegel, a developer of privacy friendly apps, talks to Christine Laqua und Christa Ohlenholz about the challenges and importance of cybersecurity for users –and why caution is the mother of wisdom.