Internet Governance Explained

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?

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.