Content moderation on the Internet infrastructure level – Where does censorship begin? – WS 09 2021

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29 June 2021 | 16:30-17:30 CEST | Amphitheatre
Consolidated programme 2021 overview / Day 1

Working title: Content moderation on the Internet infrastructure level – Where does censorship begin?
Proposals: #7 #55 #63

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Session teaser

Content moderation on the Internet infrastructure level can be wrought with problems. The EU Digital Services Act (DSA) proposal addresses providers of services establishing and facilitating the underlying logical architecture and proper functioning of the Internet, including technical auxiliary functions. This workshop explores the current and future role of providers of Internet infrastructure (wireless networks, DNS service providers, TLD registries, certificate authorities, content delivery networks and others) in content moderation and how it is being addressed in the proposed DSA.

Session description

Interfering with non-content layers of the Internet in order to censor contents, especially those on social media platforms, is an ongoing reality in some parts of Europe. In a way, the workshop provides a counterpoint to the discourse about restraining the excessive power of platforms, and presents cases where global platforms are instrumental in maintaining freedom of expression in a tightly controlled domestic digital environment.

At this workshop the two different realities of what is behind the concept at issue are presented side by side. There will be a contrast, but the workshop also offers opportunities to look for a minimum of common ground and to preset ideas of how to avoid at least unintended disruptions of service and damage to the infrastructure.

The workshop will be structured around three main themes:

  1. Stocktaking: what is the current picture of content moderation at non-content layers (what do we know; what do we not know)?
  2. Problem identification: what are issues around moderation at non-content layers (legal, technical, societal)?
  3. Regulatory landscape: how is self-regulation looking? How does the Digital Services Act proposal suggest to mitigate issues (what is good/bad, what is missing)?

Format

The workshop will take place online. Key participants have been invited to give a short intervention followed by an interactive facilitated discussion with the audience.

Further reading

  • Digital Services Act proposal (link)
  • Study Legal analysis of the intermediary service providers of non-hosting nature (link)


People

Focal Point

Focal Points take over the responsibility and lead of the session organisation. They work in close cooperation with the respective Subject Matter Expert (SME) and the EuroDIG Secretariat and are kindly requested to follow EuroDIG’s session principles


Organising Team (Org Team)

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

  • Polina Malaja (Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries (Centr))
  • Yrjö Länsipuro (N/A)

The Org Team is a group of people shaping the session. Org Teams are open and every interested individual can become a member by subscribing to the mailing list.

  • Vittorio Bertola (Open-Xchange)
  • Giacomo Mazzone (UNDRR & Eurovisioni)
  • Collin Kurre (Ofcom)
  • Claire Pershan (EU DisinfoLab)
  • Velimira Grau (European Commission)
  • Vladislav Ivanets (N/A)


Key Participants

  • European Commission (TBC)
  • Dr. Corinne Cath-Speth (@C___S), Oxford Internet Institute (OII), University of Oxford
  • Petra Arts (@Petra_Arts), Senior Manager Public Policy, Europe, Cloudflare
  • Polina Malaja (@CENTR_Polina), Policy Advisor, Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries (Centr)
  • Corynne McSherry (@cmsherr), Legal Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
  • Fred Langford, Online Technology Principal, Ofcom (TBC)


Moderator

  • Sebastian Felix Schwemer (@schwemer), Associate Professor, Centre for Information and Innovation Law (CIIR), University of Copenhagen


Remote Moderator

Trained remote moderators will be assigned on the spot by the EuroDIG secretariat to each session.


Reporter

Reporters will be assigned by the EuroDIG secretariat in cooperation with the Geneva Internet Platform. The Reporter takes notes during the session and formulates 3 (max. 5) bullet points at the end of each session that:

  • are summarised on a slide and presented to the audience at the end of each session
  • relate to the particular session and to European Internet governance policy
  • are forward looking and propose goals and activities that can be initiated after EuroDIG (recommendations)
  • are in (rough) consensus with the audience

Current discussion, conference calls, schedules and minutes

See the discussion tab on the upper left side of this page. Please use this page to publish:

  • dates for virtual meetings or coordination calls
  • short summary of calls or email exchange

Please be as open and transparent as possible in order to allow others to get involved and contact you. Use the wiki not only as the place to publish results but also to summarize the discussion process.

Messages

A short summary of the session will be provided by the Reporter.

Video record

Will be provided here after the event.

Transcript

Will be provided here after the event.