[Commlist] Fwd: CFP - GIGARTS 2020: Online Information Governance

The Fourth European Multidisciplinary Conference on Global Internet 
Governance Actors, Regulations, Transactions and Strategies 
*(GIG-ARTS)* will be held in Vienna, 7-8 May 2020.
The general theme of this edition is "*Online Information Governance - 
More Expression, Less Freedom?*"

Abstract submission is now open.
Authors are invited to submit their extended abstracts (no longer than 
500 words), describing their research question(s), theoretical 
framework, approach and methodology, expected findings or empirical 
outcome. Submitted abstracts will be evaluated through a peer-review 
process.

You can download the full call for papers here: https://bit.ly/2CCU1Lu

*Key dates*
Deadline for abstract submissions: 9 February 2020
Notification to authors: 19 March 2020
Programme publication: 9 April 2020
Conference dates: 7 & 8 May 2020

*Further details*
Website: events.gig-arts.eu <http://events.gig-arts.eu/>
Email: (events /at/ gig-arts.eu) <mailto:(events /at/ gig-arts.eu)>
Submissions: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=gigarts2020
Twitter: @GigArtsEU - Hashtag: #GIGARTS20
Mailing list for updates: http://tinyurl.com/yc7rvxm4

*
*
*Theme rationale and main topics*

It is now 30 years since the invention of the World Wide Web, and over 
fifteen years since the development of the interactive Web or also known 
as Web2.0. Online information and communication have never seemed easier 
and more accessible to everyone, thanks to the mediation of social 
networks, search engines, and other kinds of platforms and technologies.

With such capabilities “to seek, receive and impart information and 
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”, freedom of speech 
and freedom of the press should have grown to such an extent that some 
of the utopian visions of full participatory democracy would have 
appeared to be within our reach. At the very least, some of the 
long-standing informational imbalances concerning information flow 
globally, diversity of content and authors, and the accessibility of 
accurate information would have been taken as a given framework against 
which societies would have been called to solve problems and to look 
after citizens’ well-being. Paradoxically, the levels of freedom and 
freedom of expression, as captured in global measuring instruments by a 
variety of institutions and organisations, do not show the expected or 
desired advancement. Rather there is evidence that freedom in societies 
and freedom of the press deteriorate.

Ambitious goals of freedom to express one’s own identity and opinion at 
the global public sphere on an equal basis and free from fear of 
retaliation or misuse evaporate for many, such as those subjected to 
hate speech, those persecuted by autocratic authorities and the great 
majority of citizens whose personal data become de facto ownership of 
private companies.

Misinformation, spread not only by politically extreme groups but also 
by “normal”, mainstream parties in the (desperate or calculated) attempt 
to influence voters, can undermine the quality and freedom of global 
debate. Information conflict thus becomes even more an object of state 
rivalry and diplomacy, but also the tool for the erosion of citizenship 
as the utmost form of participation in the commons. These phenomena are 
coupled with the fact that even values once considered unquestionable, 
such as the value of independent journalism, the value of human rights 
such as privacy and dignity, are being challenged.

The technological capabilities allowed the world over to express and 
share information and opinions, to connect and form alliances. However, 
they have also enabled the spread of misinformation, have been 
undermining the human right to privacy on digital communication 
channels, subjected vulnerable groups to more vulnerability, and 
provided for economic models putting at stake the fundamental pillars of 
democracy. Within this context, policies governing the fate of users’ 
data, citizens’ freedoms and the integrity of content have fallen short 
of helping pave the path to the desired communication environment. 
Regulatory responses capturing communication and information have 
oscillated between forms of a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction to resist any attempt 
to provide for the normative standards of content and a tendency to 
securitise communication as a matter of national security.

Importantly, critics argue that even where governance has allowed for 
more democratic processes in raising concerns and suggesting solutions, 
the gaps in connecting the dots are glaring. If governance refers to the 
role of ideas and principles, the role of actors and the processes of 
negotiation and solution, it is urgent to return, on the one hand, to 
the basic and fundamental rights questions and take stock of the 
achievements of hitherto frameworks. On the other hand, it seems crucial 
to interrogate what futures exactly are current policy frameworks 
shaping, especially in relation to a politics of care for young citizens 
and hence the future generations?

After having addressed global internet governance as a diplomacy issue 
at its first edition held in Paris in 2017, how to overcome inequalities 
in internet governance at the second edition held in Cardiff in 2018, 
and the role of Europe in the global governance of the internet at its 
third edition held in Salerno in 2019, this year’s GIG-ARTS conference 
turns its attention to the governance of online information, to address 
the relation of citizens to the quality of content online as an often 
neglected area of regulation and governance of the internet. In that 
respect, the conference continues the conversation on internet 
governance turning its attention from institutions and structural 
factors to the role of content and misinformation as an object of 
governance, and to internet users as forces of change.

Hence, in addition to general internet governance issues and topics, 
submissions are particularly welcome on the following possible areas of 
investigation:
- The governance of fundamental freedoms online between global 
platforms, conflicts of jurisdictions and extraterritorial legislation
- The role of European and global institutions in shaping the conditions 
of free expression online
- Responsibility and liability of platforms and other intermediaries in 
content regulation
- Restrictive regulation and the securitization of content
- Privacy, misinformation, democracy: challenges to internet governance
- Structural role of individual targeting, behavioural advertising and 
other economic models of online platforms on the reshaping of 
fundamental freedoms and democracy
- From nudging to manipulation: consequences on autonomy and human dignity
- Successive copyright reforms and their impact on freedom of 
expression, freedom of the press and democracy
- Changes in and challenges to journalism practice through intentional 
misinformation
- Governance from below: how practices and principles by civil society 
aim to shape the conditions of technology for the advancement of 
democracies and human well- being
- Youth and access to information; news and misinformation in the online 
world; the purpose of thinking towards the future


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