On 24 June 2021, German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be attending the “Toward an African Narrative on Digital Sovereignty” research sprint via a live online connection. Together with the participants, he will talk about new solutions for Africa’s digital economy in order to realise the national and individual interests of the continent’s citizens. The sprint is part of the “Ethics of Digitalisation” research project at the Global Network of Internet and Society Research Centers (NoC). The Federal President is the patron of the project.

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With the Platform Governance Archive (PGA), the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) is taking a pioneering step in collaborative research on online platforms and their governance. The archive is open to researchers, citizens and journalists from all over the world. It collects and organises platforms’ documents on their regulation and governance and makes them accessible via open access.

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Political parties and free media are essential for the proper functioning of representative democracies. For some time now, however, these institutions have been subject to major structural change. As part of the series Making Sense of the Digital Society, Jan-Werner Müller discusses what the changes in this critical infrastructure mean for the effective exercise of fundamental rights as well as for the relationship between citizens and the political system. We invite all interested parties to participate in the online event On Wednesday, 9 March, from 7:00-8:30 p.m., via livestream on hiig.de

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The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) and its partners are looking to develop a global research network with the aim of bringing scientific expertise more strongly into the discussion and to make a set of debates, which are often centered around Europe and the USA, more global. In March, HIIG and its collaborators will organize a conference seeking to both bring together cutting edge interdisciplinary academic work on all things platform and kickstart a grass-roots network of researchers that spans academia and civil society.

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How did AI become what it is today? HIIG is launching two international research projects that examine the hype and institutionalisation of AI over the past ten years. Thanks to extensive funding by the DFG and international partner organizations, the team will be able to investigate the interplay of technical, political, and media construction of AI in six different countries.

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“The Ethics of Digitalisation” project has completed its first research sprint and published three policy briefs, calling for more transparency and accountability concerning algorithmic content moderation. The Global Network of Internet and Society Research Centers (NoC) joint project is under the patronage of the German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and funded by Stiftung Mercator. The initiative brings ethics to the forefront of the debate around platforms and their handling of content.

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