<![CDATA[Beyond EVE: Events]]> de-DE Sun, 22 Feb 2026 13:12:37 +0100 <![CDATA[International Observatory on Information and Democracy (OID): A Major New Report on the State News Media, AI and Data Governance]]> https://beyond-eve.com/en/events/international-observatory-on-information-and-democracy-oid-a-major-new-report-on-the-state-news-media-ai-and-data-governance 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 Jeanette Hofmann and Professor Robin Mansel, followed by a “Digitaler Salon” in the evening to publicly discuss key issues of information flows and the changing discourse climate, and the action necessary in different sectors.

After more than a year of work and a review of more than 3000 sources, the OID is launching its first meta-analysis. The report is set to provide a global understanding of the current structure of the information and communication space and its impact on public debate and democracy around the world.

]]> ]]> Sun, 05 Jan 2025 18:23:47 +0100 <![CDATA[AI and Content Moderation]]> https://beyond-eve.com/en/events/ai-and-content-moderation 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 ‘wicked problem’ that raises many questions all of which eschew simple answers. Where is the line between hate speech and freedom of expression – and how to automate and deploy this on a global scale? Are platforms overblocking legitimate content, or are they rather failing to limit illegal speech on their sites? 

Within the framework of a ten-week virtual research sprint hosted by the HIIG, thirteen international researchers from various disciplines came together to tackle the challenges posed by automation in content moderation. Their work resulted in policy briefings focused on algorithmic audits and on increasing the transparency and accountability of automated content moderation systems. We warmly invite you to learn more about their findings and attend their output presentations followed by a panel discussion.

Agenda

Opening remarks on the project and the research sprint by research director Wolfgang Schulz and research lead Alexander Pirang

Presentations of the research outputs by the sprint fellows:


Followed by a panel discussion moderated by Jennifer Boone with:

  • Angelica Fernandez, fellow of the research sprint and PhD candidate at the University of Luxembourg
  • Philipp Otto, founder and director of the iRights.lab
  • Matthias Kettemann, associated researcher at the HIIG and scientific lead of the research project ”Regulatory Structures and the Emergence of Rules in Online Spaces” at the Leibniz-Institut für Medienforschung I Hans-Bredow Institut 
]]> ]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 13:12:37 +0100 <![CDATA["I have nothing against foreigners, but ..."]]> https://beyond-eve.com/en/events/i-have-nothing-against-foreigners-but 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 about opportunities, challenges, and (academic) freedom in a world where borders are becoming more and more open – or are they?

Event organized by the WU Vice-Rector for Research and Human Resources


Panel discussion:

Marie-​Thérèse Claes, Pro­fes­sor and Head of the In­sti­tu­te for Gen­der & Di­ver­si­ty in Or­ga­niza­ti­ons, WU

Hu­bert von Goi­sern, world mu­si­ci­an, sin­ger, and song­wri­ter

Majid Mga­mis, As­so­cia­te Pro­fes­sor of Eng­lish li­te­ra­tu­re and cri­ti­cism, Mem­ber of Scholars at Risk

Shali­ni Rande­ria, Rec­tor of the In­sti­tu­te for Human Sci­en­ces (IWM) in Vi­en­na, Pro­fes­sor of So­cial An­thro­po­lo­gy and So­cio­lo­gy at the Gra­dua­te In­sti­tu­te of In­ter­na­tio­nal and De­ve­lo­p­ment Stu­dies (IHEID) in Ge­ne­va

Moderation:

Riem Hi­ga­zi, Foun­ding mem­ber, Pre­sen­ter, and Sta­ti­on Voice at FM4, ORF

]]> Sun, 14 Mar 2021 12:09:31 +0100 <![CDATA[Rasmus Kleis Nielsen: The power of platforms and how publishers adapt]]> https://beyond-eve.com/en/events/rasmus-kleis-nielsen-the-power-of-platforms-and-how-publishers-adapt Today, more people follow the news via platform companies like Facebook and Google than via any news organisation in human history, and smaller platforms like Twitter serve news to more people than all but the biggest publishers. Most news content is still produced by professional journalists. But the way in which we discover it and the distribution of the content is changing rapidly. But who decides what is going to be displayed and what not? And who profits from our behaviour? All this goes along with the increasing use of search engines, social media, and the like for news.

In this lecture, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen will revisit the history of the first twenty years of relations between platforms and news publishers to identify the underlying dynamics that have shaped the development of our digital society, and will shape it for years to come. He argues that publishers have – sometimes reluctantly, but often actively – fueled the rise of platform companies by embracing the very real opportunities they provide. This is the case even though they also challenge publishers’ historically dominant position by competing for attention and advertising and by controlling key parts of the infrastructure of free expression. In the process publishers, like the rest of us, become increasingly empowered by and dependent upon a small number of centrally placed and powerful platforms.

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen is Director at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Professor of Political Communication at the University of Oxford and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Press/Politics. Most of his research deals with news media organisations and their ongoing transformations, changing forms of digital media use in political and news-related contexts, political communication and campaign practices. He is involved in a wide range of different comparative research projects around the future of news, the changing business of journalism and the rise of digital media.

]]> ]]> Fri, 18 Dec 2020 13:05:12 +0100 <![CDATA[Shoshana Zuboff: Surveillance Capitalism and Democracy]]> https://beyond-eve.com/en/events/shoshana-zuboff-surveillance-capitalism-and-democracy The collection and analysis of data is changing the way economies operate. Are these changes so fundamental that they can be said to have led to the emergence of a new form of capitalism – surveillance capitalism? If people’s behaviour is made increasingly transparent, do we become a society in which trust is no longer necessary? Are individuals a mere appendage to the digital machine, objects of new mechanisms which reward and punish according to the determinations of private capital? How is social cohesion affected when people become dispensable as a labour force, while their data continues to provide function as a source of value in lucrative new markets that trade in predictions of human behaviour? How should we understand the new quality of power that arises from these unprecedented conditions? What kind of society does it aim to create? And what ramifications will these developments have for the principles of liberal democracy? Will privacy law and anti-trust law be enough? How can we tame what we do not yet understand?


Shoshana Zuboff is a social scientist and author of three books, each of which has been recognised as the definitive signal of a new epoch in technological society. Her latest book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism reveals a world in which technology users are no longer customers but the raw material for an entirely new economic system. Zuboff is the Charles Edward Wilson Professor Emerita at Harvard Business School and was a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School from 2014 until 2016.

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