Tobias Mast, head of the research program “Regulatory Structures and the Emergence of Rules in Online Spaces” at the HBI, has been appointed to the advisory board of the Coordination Office for Digital Services.
Tobias Mast represents the field of science on the advisory board together with Prof. Dipl.-Journ. Christina Elmer from TU Dortmund University and Prof. Dr. Henrike Weiden from Munich University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
Further advisory board members are
- for the civil society: Josephine Ballon from HateAid, Lina Ehrig for the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv), Matthias Spielkamp for the F5 alliance (AlgorithmWatch, Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte, Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland, Reporters Without Borders and Wikimedia Deutschland), Teresa Widlok for LOAD and Svea Windwehr for the Center for Digital Progress D64;
- and for the trade associations: Alexander Rabe for eco – Association of the Internet Industry and Susanne Dehmel for Bitkom.
The members of the advisory board will be elected by the German Bundestag this week on the proposal of the coalition parliamentary groups.
From the press release of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag from June, 2nd:
When selecting the candidates, it was important to the coalition parliamentary groups not to base the proposals on party political issues, but solely on digital policy expertise in the respective field. The coalition parliamentary groups expressly welcome the fact that – also in discussions with the CDU/CSU parliamentary group – all democratic parliamentary groups in the German Bundestag have succeeded in proposing a convincing and powerful advisory board that will support the Coordination Office for Digital Services in implementing the DSA.
Jens Zimmermann, digital policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group:
“The Digital Services Coordinator, which is based at the Federal Network Agency, will play a crucial role in enforcing the DSA. I am sure that the outstanding expertise of this advisory board will be an important support in fulfilling this task.”
Tabea Rößner, Chair of the Digital Committee and responsible rapporteur:
“In sensitive regulatory procedures, which may also affect content on the net under the DSA, independence must be a given. However, a non-governmental advisory board can also provide important impetus for enforcement. In the parliamentary procedure for the Digital Services Act, we were able to strengthen the advisory board as an institution, for example with its own rights to information, and are now getting the appointments underway in good time before the summer break.”
Maximilian Funke-Kaiser, digital policy spokesperson for the FDP parliamentary group:
“Now the DDK will receive the expert support it needs for the very different areas of responsibility of the Digital Services Act in Germany. The input from civil society and research will help the DDK to do its job in the best possible way. If the DDK draws on the technical expertise of the Advisory Board, it will be able to do justice to the wide range of tasks arising from the Digital Services Act.”
