The HBI’s
Private Ordering Observatory has started "Private Ordering Perspectives", a series of talks on how to create good rules for better private ordering. The English-language series closes on 30 September, 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. CEST with Prof.
Eric Goldman of Santa Clara University, who will talk to us about remedies imposed by platforms in response to content rule violations.
Please register for the series of events
here. The access data will be sent to you shortly before the respective event.
2020 has substantially altered how we think of platforms - and their role in governing online speech. At the start of 2021, leading internet platform researchers have created a new Observatory for private content governance by platforms at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut: the
Private Ordering Observatory (PrObs). After intensive consultations, the PrObs is now ready to start its first series of workshops on the key question of who gets to say who gets to speak online - and under what conditions.
Prof. Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann, head of the research programme on private rule-making in online settings at the HBI, says that this workshops series “is designed to make sense of the realities of content moderation and the private ordering built around it, and confirms the role of PrObs as a convener and space of debate for top-notch researchers from around the world.”
Dr. David Morar, Data Policy Postdoctoral Fellow at the New York University Steinhardt School and Visiting Fellow at the HBI says that "the platform space is one where disparate places provide specific and useful, but limited and siloed access to information. This workshop series is looking to remedy that, and to build strong networks of knowledge on good platform governance”.
Talks in June, July and September 2021
Private Ordering Perspectives is a series of online talks spread out across the months of June, July and September 2021, each month with its own perspective. The three questions that the series is built on each tackle a general framework of private ordering, while simultaneously highlighting a particular case.
Query I: Who gets to speak? What deplatforming can teach us -
June
Query II: What can we speak about? What dealing with disinformation tells us -
July
Query III: Who makes the rules? Designing for better speech governance -
September
The first question in June is a fundamental one, “Who gets to speak?”
On
10 June, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. CEST, Prof.
Maura Conway of Dublin City University talked to us about deplatforming and why one size does not fit all.
Paper: Maura Conway (2020)
Routing the Extreme Right, The RUSI Journal, 165:1, 108-113
On
17 June, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. CEST, Prof.
Richard Rogers of the University of Amsterdam talked to us about what happens after deplatforming.
Paper: Richard Rogers (2020)
Deplatforming: Following extreme Internet celebrities to Telegram and alternative social media, European Journal of Communication, 35:3, 213–229.
On
24 June, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. CEST, Prof.
Elizabeth Pearson of Royal Holloway University talked about how deplatforming can be seen as positive by those deplatformed.
Paper: Elizabeth Pearson (2018)
Online as the New Frontline: Affect, Gender, and ISIS-Take-Down on Social Media, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 41:11, 850-874
In July, the Private Ordering Perspectives series will feature the second fundamental question, “What can we speak about?”
On
8 July, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. CEST, Prof.
Stephan Lewandowsky of the University of Bristol talked to us about debunking and inoculation as solutions to misinformation.
Paper: Stephan Lewandowsky & Sander van der Linden (2021)
Countering Misinformation and Fake News Through Inoculation and Prebunking, European Review of Social Psychology.
On
15 July, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. CEST,
Farnaz Jahanbakhsh of MIT talked to us about lightweight interventions at posting time.
Paper: Farnaz Jahanbakhsh, Amy X. Zhang, Adam J. Berinsky, Gordon Pennycook, David G. Rand, and David R. Karger (2021)
Exploring Lightweight Interventions at Posting Time to Reduce the Sharing of Misinformation on Social Media, Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 5, CSCW1, Article 18.
On
29 July, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. CEST,
Owen Bennet from Mozilla talked to us about regulatory theory and disinfomation.
Paper: Owen Bennet (2021).
The Promise of Financial Services Regulatory Theory to Address Disinformation in Content Recommender Systems. Internet Policy Review, 10(2).
In September, the Private Ordering Perspectives series will tackle the final question “Who makes the rules?”
On 2 September, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. CEST, Prof. Daria Gritsenko of the University of Helsinki talked to us about algorithmic governance through a modes of governance approach.
Paper: Daria Gritsenko & Matthew Wood (2020) Algorithmic Governance: A Modes of Governance Approach, Regulation & Governance.
On 9 September, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. CEST, Charis Papaevangelou of University of Toulouse will talk to us about disambiguating governance and regulation in the context of online content.
Paper: Charis Papaevangelou (2021) The Existential Stakes of Platform Governance: A Critical Literature Review. Forthcoming.
On 30 September, 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. CEST, Prof. Eric Goldman of Santa Clara University will talk to us about remedies imposed by platforms in response to content rule violations.
Paper: Eric Goldman (2021) Content Moderation Remedies, Michigan Technology Law Review. Forthcoming.
You can register for the event series here. The access data will be sent to you shortly before the respective event.
For more about the Private Ordering Observatory (PrObs), see PrObs.org.
