Digital Services Act (DSA)

Can we fix access to platform data? Europe’s Digital Services Act and the long quest for platform accountability and transparency

Svea Windwehr, Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte/Society for Civil Rights
Joschka Selinger, Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte/ Society for Civil Rights
PUBLISHED ON: 27 Mar 2024

From negative impacts on teenagers’ mental health to the abuse of data collection for political microtargeting and potentially abetting genocide against the Rohingya : in the past decade, online platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube have been accused of contributing to — in some cases even driving — a host of real-life harms with

Social media

Banning children’s social media use: A wave of symbolic regulations, but at what cost?

Pascal Schneiders, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Alicia Gilbert, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
PUBLISHED ON: 13 Mar 2024

Recent public discourse on social media sounds somewhat dystopian: Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and co. knowingly use manipulative design features and algorithms to keep users hooked. Children and young people are particularly susceptible to this — staring at their screen for countless hours, they become addicted, depressed, and plagued by anxiety

According to recent studies , Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) output discriminates against women. On testing ChatGPT, terms such as “expert” and “integrity” were used to describe men, while women were associated with “beauty” or “delight”. This was the case while using the Large Language Model, Alpaca, a model developed by Stanford

Cybersecurity

The risk of unreliable standards: Cybersecurity and the Artificial Intelligence Act

Federica Casarosa, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
PUBLISHED ON: 29 Feb 2024

Declaration This work was based on the research developed in the framework of PNRR/NextGenerationEU project "Biorobotics Research and Innovation Engineering Facilities “IR0000036” – CUP J13C22000400007". Why should we bother about cybersecurity in AI systems? According to statistics, a cyberattack currently occurs every 39 seconds, and this trend

Dark patterns

Gaming the mind: Unmasking 'dark patterns' in video games

Weiwei Yi, University of Glasgow
PUBLISHED ON: 06 Feb 2024

Stepping into a virtual realm where every move you make is not solely your own but is subtly orchestrated by game designers — where there could be 'dark patterns' controlling your gaming experience, dopamine rushes and spending habits — is a concerning but not unrealistic portrayal of the future of gameplay. Ongoing regulatory debates in the EU

Artificial intelligence

The road to regulation of artificial intelligence: the Brazilian experience

Laura Schertel Mendes, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
Beatriz Kira, University of Sussex
PUBLISHED ON: 21 Dec 2023

Brazil is currently examining a comprehensive AI bill to establish a rights-based and risk-based regulatory framework. In contrast to notions of legal transplant or the influence of the Brussels effect, Brazil seeks to carve its own path, addressing the nation's distinct challenges and opportunities.

Crowdsourcing

The past and future of crowdsourced online dispute resolution (CODR)

Daniel Dimov, Dimov Internet Law Consulting
PUBLISHED ON: 07 Dec 2023

Bloomberg has recently reported that Visa has 90 million disputes annually. The resolution of so many disputes requires an innovative dispute resolution method: CODR. CODR can be defined as a term that encompasses some forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and court proceedings using the internet and crowdsourcing as parts of the dispute

Data protection law

The emergence of dark patterns as a legal concept in case law

Cristiana Santos, University of Utrecht
Arianna Rossi, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Jul 2023

On the 23 February 2023, the Italian Data Protection Authority (DPA) issued a decision against Ediscom S.p.A. (Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali, 2023) explicitly referring to “dark patterns”, i.e. online design choices that manipulate users’ decision-making to benefit digital services.

Audiovisual media

Regulating Netflix: A cross-national momentum?

Antonios Vlassis, University of Liège
PUBLISHED ON: 21 Apr 2023

The author argues that the regulation over transnational audiovisual platforms (Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+) is framed by two crucial variables: handling state-interest groups relationships and global interdependence.

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