{"title":"What rights matter? Examining the place of social rights in the EU's artificial intelligence policy debate","authors":"Jędrzej Niklas, L. Dencik","doi":"10.14763/2021.3.1579","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2021.3.1579","url":null,"abstract":"References to ‘European values’ are often rooted in some perception of a commitment to particular rights that uphold certain principles about democracy and the relationship between state, market and citizens. Whilst rarely translated into consistent policy frameworks or activities, the formulation of new policy areas, such as artificial intelligence (AI), provide a window into what priorities, interests and concerns currently shape the European project. In this paper, we explore these questions in relation to the recent AI policy debate in the European Union with a particular focus on the place of social rights as a historically pertinent but neglected aspect of policy debates on technology. By examining submissions to the recent public consultation on the White Paper on AI Strategy, we argue that social rights occupy a marginal position in EU’s policy debates on emerging technologies in favour of human rights issues such as individual privacy and nondiscrimination that are often translated into design solutions or procedural safeguards and a commitment to market creation. This is important as systems such as AI are playing an increasingly important role for questions of redistribution and economic inequality that relate to social rights. As such, the AI policy debate both exposes and advances new normative conflicts over the meaning of rights as a central component of any attachment to ‘European values’. Issue 3 This paper is part of Governing “European values” inside data flows, a special issue of Internet Policy Review guest-edited by Kristina Irion, Mira Burri, Ans Kolk, Stefania Milan.","PeriodicalId":219999,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Rev.","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131500825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Embedding European values in data governance: a case for public data commons","authors":"Jan Zygmuntowski, L. Zoboli, P. Nemitz","doi":"10.14763/2021.3.1572","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2021.3.1572","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":219999,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Rev.","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134538053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Platform as new \"daddy\": China's gendered wanghong economy and patriarchal platforms behind","authors":"Xiaofei Han","doi":"10.5210/spir.v2021i0.11932","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2021i0.11932","url":null,"abstract":"This paper provides an explorative analysis of gender as a critical\u0000 dimension of the prospering wanghong economy in China with special attention devoted to the\u0000 e-commerce wanghong value chains that are yet to be examined by scholars so far. Wanghong\u0000 refers to a particular stream of vocational Chinese internet celebrities that have acquired\u0000 their celebrity online and have acute incentives through various models to liquidate such\u0000 online influence by transforming followers into consumers. While wanghong economy is often\u0000 projected as a new platform economy that is by the women and for the women on diverse media\u0000 outlets, my analysis highlights the structurally embedded gender hierarchy of this platform\u0000 business ecosystem and the platform power increasingly associated with patriarchal order as\u0000 exemplified by the updated meanings constructed around the Chinese term “baba” (daddy),\u0000 which now is used to refer to platforms by wanghong and netizens. By combining the analysis\u0000 of female participation at different levels of wanghong economy with the “platform-as-daddy”\u0000 discourse prevalent on Douyin, one of the most popular social media platforms, this paper\u0000 seeks to connect the industrial analysis of wanghong economy as one of the most prominent\u0000 “platform economies” in contemporary China with its cultural dimensions. It accentuates the\u0000 key roles of major Chinese platform companies as not only new critical intermediaries in\u0000 perpetuating the ongoing patriarchal system between the state and users but also active\u0000 participants that actively construct, and aggressively profit from, the gendered wanghong\u0000 economy value chains.","PeriodicalId":219999,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Rev.","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133661398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The new frontier of platform policy","authors":"Matthew Marinett","doi":"10.14763/2021.3.1570","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2021.3.1570","url":null,"abstract":"Platform policies aimed at the misbehaviour of users that occurs off of the platform, especially offline abuse, are a relatively new and understudied phenomenon that may represent a new frontier of platform policy. Policies of this nature may be necessary to create healthy online communities, but they raise unique problems in comparison to on-platform content moderation that exacerbate existing concerns about the accountability and transparency of platforms. \u0000 \u0000This article provides the background and context for the development of such policies through the case study of Twitch.tv. It then discusses three unique challenges raised by the creation and enforcement of policies aimed at off-platform abuse. These are 1) the need for investigation and verifying evidence, 2) the difficulty of balancing the privacy of all parties with a fair process, and 3) the increased potential adverse impacts of error. It argues that current policies are opaque and offer few guarantees to either complainants or the targets of complaints. Further steps, especially greater transparency and broader consultation, must be taken to ensure accountability to users and the public when such policies are implemented. \u0000 \u0000It concludes by discussing the possibility that similar policies will be adopted by other platforms and calls for greater public and academic discussion of where, when, and how such policies should be implemented.","PeriodicalId":219999,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Rev.","volume":"168 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124704168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial independence in an automated media system","authors":"M. V. Drunen","doi":"10.14763/2021.3.1569","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2021.3.1569","url":null,"abstract":"The media has increasingly grown to rely on automated decision-making to produce and distribute news. This trend challenges our understanding of editorial independence by transforming the role of human editorial judgment and creating new dependencies on external software and data providers, engineers, and platforms. Recent policy initiatives such as the EU’s Media Action Plan and Digital Services Act are now beginning to revisit the way law can enable the media to act independently in the context of new technological tools and actors. Fully understanding and addressing the challenges automation poses to editorial independence, however, first requires better normative insight into the functions editorial independence performs in European media policy. This article provides a normative framework of editorial independence’s functions in European media policy and uses it to explore the new challenges posed by the automation of editorial decision-making. Issue 3","PeriodicalId":219999,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Rev.","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132228365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A step back to look ahead: mapping coalitions on data flows and platform regulation in the Council of the EU (2016-2019)","authors":"Clément Perarnaud","doi":"10.14763/2021.2.1566","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2021.2.1566","url":null,"abstract":"This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Grant CSO2015-67213-C2-2-P.","PeriodicalId":219999,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Rev.","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131847148","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Black box algorithms and the rights of individuals: no easy solution to the \"explainability\" problem","authors":"Jarek Gryz, Marcin Rojszczak","doi":"10.14763/2021.2.1564","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2021.2.1564","url":null,"abstract":": Over the last few years, the interpretability of classification models has been a very active area of research. Recently, the concept of interpretability was given a more specific legal context. In 2016, the EU adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), containing the right to explanation for people subjected to automated decision-making (ADM). The regulation itself is very reticent about what such a right might imply. As a result, since the introduction of the GDPR there has been an ongoing discussion about not only the need to introduce such a right, but also about its scope and practical consequences in the digital world. While there is no doubt that the right to explanation may be very difficult to implement due to technical challenges, any difficulty in explaining how algorithms work cannot be considered a sufficient reason to completely abandon this legal safeguard. The aim of this article is twofold. First, to demonstrate that the interpretability of “black box” machine","PeriodicalId":219999,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Rev.","volume":"187 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121611075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
J. Whittaker, Seán Looney, Alastair Reed, Fabio Votta
{"title":"Recommender systems and the amplification of extremist content","authors":"J. Whittaker, Seán Looney, Alastair Reed, Fabio Votta","doi":"10.14763/2021.2.1565","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2021.2.1565","url":null,"abstract":": Policymakers have recently expressed concerns over the role of recommendation algorithms and their role in forming “filter bubbles”. This is a particularly prescient concern in the context of extremist content online; these algorithms may promote extremist content at the expense of more moderate voices. In this article, we make two contributions to this debate. Firstly, we provide a novel empirical analysis of three platforms’ recommendation systems when interacting with far-right content. We find that one platform—YouTube—does amplify extreme and fringe content, while two—Reddit and Gab—do not. Secondly, we contextualise these findings into the regulatory debate. There are currently few policy instruments for dealing with algorithmic amplification","PeriodicalId":219999,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Rev.","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131866578","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Information interventions and social media","authors":"G. D. Gregorio, N. Stremlau","doi":"10.14763/2021.2.1567","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2021.2.1567","url":null,"abstract":": Recent conflicts, particularly in Asia and Africa, have highlighted the potential for social media to provoke or exacerbate violent conflict and mass atrocities. The role of media and propaganda in disseminating hate and violence has been a longstanding aspect of war. In some cases of violent conflict, international actors—including the United Nations (UN)—have undertaken ‘information interventions’, a term that came into its own in the mid-1990s in response to the ongoing conflict in the Balkans, and the use of radio in the Rwandan genocide in 1992. While information intervention has historically been applied to mass media, this article explores the relevance and applicability of this approach to online communications, and social media in particular. We unpack whether and how information intervention might apply when social media has a role in inflaming extreme violence, or genocide,","PeriodicalId":219999,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Rev.","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129935215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}