News and Research articles on Accountability

Automated decision-making

If transparency is the solution, are we really addressing the problems of automated decision-making?

Hannah Louise Smith, University of Copenhagen

PUBLISHED ON: 24 Jul 2025

While transparency is often championed as the key to addressing the risks of automated decision-making (ADM) in public governance, this op-ed argues that a narrow focus on explainability overlooks deeper systemic issues such as power imbalances, commercial influence, and weakened accountability. To address these issues, mechanisms that promote transparency must operate alongside efforts to enhance citizen engagement and other methods of oversight and accountability to better protect democratic values.

Volume 13, Issue 4

Accountability protocols? On-chain dynamics in blockchain governance

Kelsie Nabben, European University Institute
Primavera De Filippi, National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS)
PUBLISHED ON: 8 Oct 2024 DOI: 10.14763/2024.4.1807

This paper focuses on the dynamics of accountability in blockchain governance. Drawing on a case study of the Lido protocol on Ethereum, it explores the rule of code, on-chain accountability, accountability trade-offs, and the complexities of determining when accountability can be better instantiated via on-chain or off-chain mechanisms.

KEYWORDS: Blockchain, Accountability, Governance, Rule of code, Design
Volume 11, Issue 1

Traceability

Nanna Bonde Thylstrup, Copenhagen Business School
Matthew Archer, Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies
Louis Ravn, Copenhagen Business School
PUBLISHED ON: 30 Mar 2022 DOI: 10.14763/2022.1.1646

This glossary entry explores traceability which is an increasingly prominent research topic in decentralised technosocial systems in fields as diverse as health, sustainability, finance, and supply chain management and relates to the ability to trace something or someone.

KEYWORDS: Traceability, Tracing app, Message tracing, Accountability
Volume 9, Issue 4

Explanations of news personalisation across countries and media types

Mariella Bastian, University of Amsterdam
Mykola Makhortykh, University of Bern
Jaron Harambam, Leuven University
Max van Drunen, University of Amsterdam
PUBLISHED ON: 13 Oct 2020 DOI: 10.14763/2020.4.1504

We examined how news personalisation is communicated through privacy policies of quality and popular media outlets in the Netherlands, Russia and Brazil.

KEYWORDS: News personalisation, Privacy policies, Transparency, Accountability, Comparative journalism research