Element 68Element 45Element 44Element 63Element 64Element 43Element 41Element 46Element 47Element 69Element 76Element 62Element 61Element 81Element 82Element 50Element 52Element 79Element 79Element 7Element 8Element 73Element 74Element 17Element 16Element 75Element 13Element 12Element 14Element 15Element 31Element 32Element 59Element 58Element 71Element 70Element 88Element 88Element 56Element 57Element 54Element 55Element 18Element 20Element 23Element 65Element 21Element 22iconsiconsElement 83iconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsiconsElement 84iconsiconsElement 36Element 35Element 1Element 27Element 28Element 30Element 29Element 24Element 25Element 2Element 1Element 66
Leibniz Institute for Media Research Sets up Observatory to Study How Online Platforms Decide what Can Be Said Online

Leibniz Institute for Media Research Sets up Observatory to Study How Online Platforms Decide what Can Be Said Online

Hamburg, 13 January 2021. In order to study how online platforms decide what can be said online, the Leibniz Institute for Media Research sets up a "Private Ordering Observatory". In co-operation with researchers from across the world the observatory will investigate the interaction of private rules and public laws in public communication spaces.

Private online communication platforms decide whether presidents can communicate with millions of followers – or whether their accounts are suspended, whether Corona-related disinformation is deleted or conspiracy theories are amplified. The private rules merit close scrutiny and their application deserves careful watching.

Building on decades of research experience on the rules of communication, the Hamburg-based Leibniz Institute for Media Research will host the Private Ordering Observatory (PrObs) as an academic hub focused on pulling together the growing body of research on the norms and practices employed by private online platforms in ordering internet-enabled speech. “The Observatory”, says HBI’s director Wolfgang Schulz, “will provide expertise and analysis for policy-makers, practitioners and the public. We are dealing with a new type of norms with massive impact on public communication”. The added value, explains Matthias C. Kettemann, head of research for private ordering at the HBI, “lies in the overview the Observatory can provide for a quickly changing regulatory field that governments have more recently stepped into - with Germany’s Network Enforcement Act, and the EU’s Digital Services Act”.

The Observatory will build on the expertise developed at the HBI and will cooperate with the Platform Governance Archive hosted by the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society

The now launched project will also explore the needs in academia and policymaking and work out how a sustainable observatory should look like. Questions affecting online governance indeed abound, as 2021 starts. Can Twitter and Facebook ban a US President? Can Apple decide to throw Parler, a conservative social network, out of its App store for failure to implement a stronger anti-hate speech policy?This is why, as Dr. David Morar, Data Policy Postdoctoral Fellow at the NYU Steinhardt School and fellow at the HBI and the Observatory’s project manager, says “2021 is exactly the right time to launch the Observatory”.

Contact

PD Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann, LL.M. (Harvard): [email protected]
Dr. David Morar: [email protected]

Photo by Ravi Sharma on Unsplash

Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter and receive the Institute's latest news via email.

SUBSCRIBE!