News on Information & Data

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

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.

Political micro-targeting

Political advertising exposed: tracking Facebook ads in the 2021 Dutch elections

Davide Beraldo, University of Amsterdam
Stefania Milan, University of Amsterdam
Jeroen de Vos, University of Amsterdam
Claudio Agosti, University of Amsterdam
Bruno Nadalic Sotic, University of Amsterdam
Rens Vliegenthart, University of Amsterdam
Sanne Kruikemeier, University of Amsterdam
Lukas P Otto, University of Amsterdam
Susan A. M. Vermeer, University of Amsterdam
Xiaotong Chu, University of Amsterdam
Fabio Votta, University of Amsterdam
PUBLISHED ON: 11 Mar 2021

How can we monitor political ads circulating on social media in the run-up to an election? This essay learns from the project "Analysis of Political Ads in Digital Campaigns”, combining scraping methods and public opinion research to investigate how online advertising shape political preferences in the Dutch general elections (15-17 March 2021).

Freedom of expression

Borderline speech: caught in a free speech limbo?

Amélie Heldt, Hans-Bredow-Institut
PUBLISHED ON: 15 Oct 2020

To ban content that might possibly violate their own content policies, social media platforms use the term 'borderline‘. This means categorising content as potentially unwanted (e.g. harmful, inappropriate, etc) and sanctioning legitimate expressions of opinion - hence putting lawful speech in a twilight zone.

Digital inclusion

Digital inclusion and well-being

Douglas White, Carnegie UK Trust
PUBLISHED ON: 28 May 2020

This commentary is part of Digital inclusion and data literacy , a special issue of Internet Policy Review guest-edited by Elinor Carmi and Simeon J. Yates. At the Carnegie UK Trust, a charitable foundation based in Scotland and operating across the UK and Ireland, we have been working for more than 100 years to improve well-being for individuals

Open budgets

Want to open the budget now? Ask me how! Budget data literacy in Israel - a case study

Mary Loitsker, Public Knowledge Workshop
PUBLISHED ON: 27 May 2020

This commentary is part of Digital inclusion and data literacy , a special issue of Internet Policy Review guest-edited by Elinor Carmi and Simeon J. Yates. A particularly useful type of data literacy, instrumental for civic participation, for the ability to hold governments accountable, and to monitor policy implementation, as well as the

Privacy

Big data and democracy: a regulator’s perspective

Michael P. McEvoy, Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Dec 2019

This commentary is part of Data-driven elections , a special issue of Internet Policy Review guest-edited by Colin J. Bennett and David Lyon. Introduction: all roads lead to Victoria, British Columbia As the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, I am entrusted with enforcing the province’s two pieces of privacy legislation –

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