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As part of the Forum on Information and Democracy’s Global Dissemination month, the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) is opening its doors for a special multi-stakeholder event. This gathering will bring together academics, activists, and policymakers for an exclusive showcase of the OID’s latest findings. The OID’s results will be presented by Professor ...

How do we guarantee digital integrity in the future? What steps do we need to take to preserve the utility, but also the integrity, of the Internet on a multilateral level and with respect to a wide range of stakeholders? And at the same time, how can we enhance the security of users and institutions that rely on the Internet?In this talk, Dr. Vinton G. Cerf, one of the “fathers of the ...

The ongoing coup against American democracy raises serious concerns for democracy worldwide. In this talk, Stanley argues that the history of the United States, as well as its present situation, justifies these concerns. More specifically, Stanley argues that the anti-democratic form that is emerging in the United States is a kind of racial fascism. Europe should prepare for the possibility of a ...

In this conversation, part of a series of events marking the IWM’s 40th anniversary in 2022, Timothy Snyder and Yuval Noah Harari discussed what lessons we should take from the past four decades and what will determine the course of the years to come.Topics included techno-optimism and -pessimism, the role of ideas in politics, the continuing relevance of history to geopolitics, the failure and ...

Courage has always been a central virtue in the Western ethical tradition, but its meaning has changed considerably over time. In antiquity, courage signified fearlessness in the face of bodily injury and death, whether passively endured (like Socrates and Christ) or actively risked (like Achilles and Alexander the Great).Today, however, such "physical courage", as it is called, tends to be ...

On Tuesday, November 16th at 6:00 pm ET in the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, this year’s Salant Lecture on Freedom of the Press will be delivered by Maria Ressa, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner, co-founder and CEO of Rappler.com, Fall 2021 Shorenstein Center Fellow, and Center for Public Leadership Hauser Leader. Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy Director Nancy ...

Public pressure on platform companies to more soundly monitor the content on their sites is constantly increasing. To address this, platforms are turning to algorithmic content moderation systems. These systems prioritize content that promises to increase engagement and block content that is deemed illegal or is infringing the platform's own policies and guidelines. But content moderation is a ...

Ever since the nineteenth century, political parties and professional media were widely deemed indispensable for the proper functioning of representative democracy. They constituted what one might call the critical infrastructure of democracy, an infrastructure that enabled citizens to use their basic rights effectively and also to reach each other (and be reached). Both intermediary institutions ...

Lucia Zedner (Oxford, All Souls College, Professor of Criminal Justice)Bernard Harcourt (Columbia Law School, Professor of Law and of Political Science)Frank Pasquale (Brooklyn Law School, Professor of Law)Christoph Burchard (Goethe University, Professor of Criminal Justice etc.)Indra Spiecker gen. Döhmann (Goethe University, Professor of Public Law etc.)Jürgen Kaube (Co-Editor at Large, ...

In the USSR, information was a scarce resource shared only sparingly with the population at large; now Russians are awash in a flood of information. Yet each scenario proved conducive to unfettered suspicion and widespread conspiracy theorizing. Now the Russian media encourage viewers to believe they are surrounded by enemies who want to brainwash them with propaganda. Post-Soviet conspiracy ...

The architecture of the space around us has a considerable influence on our everyday lives. However, the resulting layout is rarely accidental and unintentional. Architects who design government and administrative buildings, urban spaces, libraries or other built structures have always been guided by the aesthetic as well as functional requirements and needs that are placed on the buildings and ...

A Genealogy of Criminal Risk Assessment in American Law and PolicyJonathan Simon (UC Berkeley, Professor of Criminal Justice Law)Algorithms – and the actors behind them – are surveying and impacting ever more dimensions of our modern lives. They recommend which movies to watch; they calculate risk-appropriate credit scores; and they play a role in meting out “just” punishment; to only name ...

Users’ perspectives on what f*ke news and misinformation is and isn’t, who drives it, and where people say they see it are important for understanding the scale and scope of public concern, and how this corresponds with research insights and aligns with proposed responses to these problems, as well as for the credibility and even effect of responses. In this presentation, Professor Rasmus ...

Internationality has many faces and is widely accepted as a success factor in a globalized world. And yet having an immigrant background is seen as a disadvantage. What does internationality mean for us personally, and for our everyday life at an international university? How do we deal with things that feel “foreign” and define our own concept of what’s “normal”? We’ll be talking ...

Booklaunch within the Postdoctoral Dialogue Series "Norms, Plurality and Critique"With Dr. Peer Illner (Normative Orders, Goethe University) and Prof. Darrel Moellendorf (Normative Orders, Goethe University)Welcome Address by: Prof. Rainer Forst (Normative Orders, Goethe University)Organized by: Dr. Peer Illner (Author)Many communities in the United States have been abandoned by the state. ...

A. L. Kennedy is a Scottish author of numerous novels, essays, and newspaper columns, with occasional appearances as a stand-up comedian; most of her novels have been translated into German, most recently: "Das Blaue Buch" [2014]", "Gleißendes Glück" [2016], "Leises Schlängeln" [2016], "Süßer Ernst" [2018], in 2020 her short story collection "We are Attempting to Survive Our Time" was ...

Machine intelligence plays a growing role in our lives. Today, machines recommend things to us, such as news, music, and household products. They trade in our stock markets and optimise our transportation and logistics. They are also beginning to drive us around, play with our children, diagnose our health. How do we ensure that these machines will be trustworthy? This lecture explores various ...

Why has anger become such a dominant theme in today's world that people have even spoken of an "age of anger"? Is it conceivable that this emotionalization could also have a positive effect, under what conditions? In terms of the history of philosophy and religion, two approaches to this topic can be identified. On the one hand, a complete rejection, in Buddhism, for example, and in Stoicism; on ...

Why has anger become such a dominant theme in today's world that people have even spoken of an "age of anger"? Is it conceivable that this emotionalization could also have a positive effect, under what conditions? In terms of the history of philosophy and religion, two approaches to this topic can be identified. On the one hand, a complete rejection, in Buddhism, for example, and in Stoicism; on ...

There is order on the internet, but how has this order emerged and what challenges will threaten and shape its future? This study shows how a legitimate order of norms has emerged online, through both national and international legal systems. It establishes the emergence of a normative order of the internet, an order which explains and justifies processes of online rule and regulation. This order ...