Politics

The first speaker on the second day of the Weizenbaum Conference is Victo Silva, whose focus is on the idea of digital public infrastructure (DPI). How should states intervene in the digital economy, if at all? States might provide alternatives to Big Tech options, and such alternatives could then also adopt open technology standards and support innovation; this might produce public benefits.

Three main systems are widely seen as comprising the core of DPI: digital identity systems, payment and financial infrastructures, and data sharing platforms; however, other platforms (including social media) might also be considered. Such DPI platforms, it is …

The final speaker in this Weizenbaum Conference session is Gözde Söğütlü, whose interest is in the role of social media in peacebuilding, focussing here especially on Nigeria. Social media can be an important source of information, and promote dialogue; this can contribute to reconciliation, build bridges, enhance civil society, and build peace.

This can happen across diverse social media platforms, but also depends on the specific affordances of such platforms; such platforms can motivate action to promote peace. Social media use in Nigeria has grown substantially over time, especially amongst young people; social media have been used to facilitate engagement …

Up next in this Weizenbaum Conference session are Sabine Barthold and Richard Joos, whose interest is in fighting dark participation through digital vigilantism. Dark participation is a growing threat to online communities; it undermines functioning online communities and turns them into toxic and dysfunctional spaces, for political reasons. Such attacks are often orchestrated amongst large groups of actors.

Traditional counter-strategies are platform governance, but its effectiveness is strictly limited; and societal responses, but these often fail due to limited resources and understanding amongst law enforcement organisations. Instead, a further option may be to employ DIY defence approaches and swarming techniques …

The next speaker in this Weizenbaum Conference session is Victoria Vziatysheva; she begins by noting that pre-existing beliefs affect what information we engage with – this is selective exposure. But studies have also shown that the use of search engines can reduce selective exposure; whether this is the case also depends on the way search queries are formulated in the first place, however.

Victoria’s project explored this in the context of a Swiss referendum on a responsible economy within the planet’s limits (which was ultimately rejected); this connected voting intentions on this referendum with search queries that reflected attitudes for …

The next speaker in this Weizenbaum Conference session is Lion Wedel, who begins by highlighting the definitional uncertainties about news and news actors online. This can lead to a misrepresentation of the news and information uses by particular demographic groups, such as young people.

One way to work around this is to focus on the informativeness of sources, rather than a more narrow definition of what is news; but how can this be assessed for a given source? This project worked with participant donations of data download packages from social media platforms, connected with a representative two-wave panel study of …

The next speaker in this Weizenbaum Conference session is Quentin Bukold, whose interest is in mass comment campaigns, for instance in response to European Union public consultation efforts. Such campaigns encourage large numbers of supporters to send a pre-formulated text in response to an online consultation effort; this is essentially spamming the consultation form, but might nonetheless represent some facet of public opinion.

Mass comment campaigns thereby jeopardise legitimate public consultation processes, but also provide information about the mobilisation potential of critical interest groups; however, there are few effective ways for identifying, describing, and responding to such campaigns.

This hinges …

The next session at the Weizenbaum Conference starts with the great Curd Knüpfer, with an article on what he calls the logic of connective faction (see what he did there?). He begins by noting that online spaces empower some people more than others; they also enable networked propaganda, connect problematic groups through ‘deep stories’, and provide digital surrogate networks – often especially benefitting right-wing actors.

In other words, then, there is a logic of connection faction here, facilitating specific network ties based on communicative acts; this takes on quasi-organisational functions, and enables organisations to connect in digital surrogate networks; and …

The final speaker in this session at the Weizenbaum Conference is Maysa Amer, whose focus is on platform governance especially in Egypt. Platform governance has been variously approached through self-regulation (in the US), through a citizen rights-centric regulation (in the EU), or through state-led regulation (in China); how is it approached in Egypt, however?

Since the Arab Spring, which served as a substantial disruption of established governance models, Egypt has increased its regulation for digital technologies; new media laws and digital protection regulations also addressed mis- and disinformation, but in doing so also created mechanisms for targeting critical civic actors …

The next speaker at the Weizenbaum Conference is Regina Cazzamatta, whose focus is on the disruption of public spheres in Europe and Latin America by regressive ‘alternative’ media. ‘Alternative’ here is a problematic term, as some outlets are alternative in a progressive sense, trying to provide a platform for marginalised voices, while others are much more regressive and illiberal in ideology and spread mis- and disinformation. Here, the focus is on the latter category of outlets.

How do such regressive outlets justify their institutional roles, then? The project focussed on some 65 such sites that had been identified by fact-checkers …