DiSCourse Seminar with Matthias C. Kettemann
06 May 2022, 12:00 (CEST), hybrid
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, 1st floor, Open Space Area or Big Blue Button
DiSCourse - The Digital Science Seminar Series on
US Elections, the World's Virus and Russia's War: Conflicts as Drivers of Change in Online Speech Governance
Who decides what we can say online? States with their laws play an important role, but since the early 2000s online platforms with their private rules and community standards have become increasingly important in deciding what's allowed online and what isn't. Their rules, and their automated decision-making engines, including their recommender algorithms, have emerged as a high-powered communication rule-maker and -enforcer. Of late, states have attempted to reassert their sovereignty over the hybrid communication orders of these new gatekeepers. I will show how three phenomena – the US elections, the global pandemic, and now Russia's War on Ukraine – have substantially altered the balance of online speech governance. For the better?
Matthias C. Kettemann, University of Innsbruck, Department of Legal Theory and Future of Law and associated researcher at DiSC
Matthias C. Kettemann is Professor of Innovation, Theory and Philosophy of Law at the University of Innsbruck and head of the Department of Legal Theory and Future of Law. He also chairs research groups and programs at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research (Hamburg) and the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (Berlin). Research questions he tackles include How to apply international law to cyberattacks? Who governs communication flows during war? How do states and platforms deal with Covid-19-related disinformation? Are all bots evil?