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Ben Wagner

Professor of Human Rights and Technology

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Publications

TitleYear
Morocco’s Go ernance of Cities and Borders: I-Enhanced Sur eillance, Facial Recognition, and Human Rights
2025
SI Bergh, I Cherrat, F Colin, B Wagner
R. Matulion te & M. Zalnieriute (Eds.), 267-284
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Authors:SI Bergh, I Cherrat, F Colin, B Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:R. Matulion te & M. Zalnieriute (Eds.)
Pages:267-284
Description:Owing to advances around artificial intelligence (AI), such as computer vision and facial recognition, digital surveillance technologies are becoming cheaper and easier to use as everyday tools of governance worldwide. 1 Typically developed by companies and governments in the Global North and tested in the Global South or on the ‘periphery’of powerful actors, 2 they are becoming key tools of governance in both democratic and authoritarian contexts. 3 As the AI Global Surveillance Index
Resources:[PDF] from universiteitleiden.nl
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The Politics of Digital (Human) Rights: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of international studies
2025
Ben Wagner, Andy Sanchez, MT Sekwenz, SAT Dideriksen, DS Murray-Rust
International studies association and Oxford University Press
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Andy Sanchez, MT Sekwenz, SAT Dideriksen, DS Murray-Rust
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:International studies association and Oxford University Press
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Description:Basic human rights, like freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and privacy, are being radically transformed by new technologies. The manifestation of these rights in online spaces is known as “digital rights,” which can be impeded or empowered through the design, governance, and litigation of emerging technologies. Design defines how people encounter the digital world. Some design choices can exploit the right to privacy by commodifying attention through tactics that keep users addicted to maximize profitability; similar design mechanisms and vulnerabilities have facilitated the abuse of journalists and human rights advocates across the globe. But design can also empower human rights, providing novel tools of resistance, accountability, and accessibility, as well as the inclusion of previously underserved voices in the development process. The new capabilities offered by these technologies often transcend political boundaries, presenting complex challenges for meaningful governance and regulation. To address these challenges, collaborations like the Internet Governance Forum and NETmundial have brought together stakeholders from governments, nonprofits, industry, and academia, with efforts to address digital rights like universal internet access. Concurrently, economic forces and international trade negotiations can have substantial impacts on digital rights, with attempts to enforce steeper restrictions on intellectual property. Private actors have also fought to ensure their digital rights through litigation. In Europe, landmark cases have reshaped the international management of data and privacy. In India, indefinite shutdowns of …
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Tough decisions? Supporting system classification according to the AI Act
2025
Hilmy Hanif, Jorge Constantino, Marie-Therese Sekwenz, Michel Van Eeten, Jolien Ubacht,…
Legal Knowledge and Information Systems, 353-358
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Authors:Hilmy Hanif, Jorge Constantino, Marie-Therese Sekwenz, Michel Van Eeten, Jolien Ubacht, Ben Wagner, Yury Zhauniarovich
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Legal Knowledge and Information Systems
Pages:353-358
Publisher:IOS Press
Description:The AI Act represents a significant legislative effort by the European Union to govern the use of AI systems according to different risk-related classes, linking varying degrees of compliance obligations to the system’s classification. However, it is often critiqued due to the lack of general public comprehension and effectiveness regarding the classification of AI systems to the corresponding risk classes. To mitigate those shortcomings, we propose a Decision-Tree-based framework aimed at increasing robustness, legal compliance and classification clarity with the Regulation. Quantitative evaluation shows that our framework is especially useful to individuals without a legal background, allowing them to improve considerably the accuracy and significantly reduce the time of case classification.
Cited by:6
Resources:[PDF] from iospress.nl
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Oxford Research Encyclopedia of international studies: The Politics of Digital Human Rights
2025
Ben Wagner, MT Sekwenz, Andy Sanchez, SAT Dideriksen, DS Murray-Rust
International studies association and Oxford University Press
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Authors:Ben Wagner, MT Sekwenz, Andy Sanchez, SAT Dideriksen, DS Murray-Rust
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:International studies association and Oxford University Press
Publisher:Oxford University Press
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The 2021 German Federal Election on Social Media: Analysing Electoral Risks Created by Twitter and Facebook
2025
Johanne Kübler, Marie-Therese Sekwenz, Felicitas Rachinger, Anna König, Rita Gsenger, E…
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Authors:Johanne Kübler, Marie-Therese Sekwenz, Felicitas Rachinger, Anna König, Rita Gsenger, Eliška Pírková, Ben Wagner, Matthias C Kettemann, Michael Krennerich, Carolina Ferro
Publication date:05/05/2025
Description:Safeguarding democratic elections is hard. Social media plays a vital role in the discourse around elections and during electoral campaigns. The following article provides an analysis of the ‘systemic electoral risks’ created by Twitter and Facebook and the mitigation strategies employed by the platforms. It is based on the 2020 proposal by the European Commission for the new Digital Services Act (DSA) in the context of the 2021 German federal elections. This article focuses on Twitter and Facebook and their roles during the German federal elections that took place on 26 September 2021. We analysed three systemic electoral risk categories: 1) the dissemination of illegal content, 2) negative effects on electoral rights, and 3) the influence of disinformation and developed systematic categories for this purpose. In conclusion, we discuss how to respond to these challenges as well as avenues for future research.
Resources:[PDF] from hawaii.edu
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Pitfalls of socio-technical systems
2025
Ben Wagner, MT Sekwenz
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Authors:Ben Wagner, MT Sekwenz
Publication date:05/05/2025
Description:Technical systems accompany us in our everyday lives, interact with us, influence us and guide our decisions. However, these systems do not only consist of a technical aspect alone, but are much more socio-technically integrated into specific human application contexts. One example of such a socio-technical system is Google Maps.
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Delete or not to Delete: Methodological Reflections on Content Moderation
2025
MT Sekwenz, Ben Wagner
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Authors:MT Sekwenz, Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Description:Content moderation is protecting human rights such as freedom of speech, as well as the right to impart and seek information. Online platforms implement rules to moderate content on their platforms through their Terms of Service (ToS), which provides for the legal grounds to delete content. Content moderation is an example of a socio-technical process. The architecture includes a layer that classifies content according to the ToS, followed by human moderation for selected pieces of content. New regulatory approaches, such as the Digital Services Act (DSA) or the Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) demand more transparency and explainability for moderation systems and the decisions taken. Therefore, this article answers questions about the socio-technical sphere of human moderation:• How is certainty about content moderation decisions perceived within the moderation process?
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Design Recommendations for Safer Election Campaigning Online
2025
MT Sekwenz, Ben Wagner
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Authors:MT Sekwenz, Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Description:The internet is a place where the political opinion of voters is ever more formed on platforms and their user-generated content globally. A sphere in which the right to free-dom of expression, information and free and fair election are core human rights normative safeguards for our democracy. Securing this process for whoever is not an easy task, as examples like the 2016 US election, the Brexit campaign or the events of the 6th of Jan-uary 2021 illustrate. The European Union has taken regulatory action to secure the digital manifestations of elections, by issuing legislation like the General Data Protection Regu-lation, the Artificial Intelligence Act, the Digital Services Act (DSA) or the Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and the European council on the transparency and targeting of political advertising. The aim is to make platforms more transparent, regarding their algorithms deciding on recommendations, price of the ad, or to standardize content moderation to a certain degree. Platforms on the other hand use their Terms of Service (ToS) to implement their Community Standards–a selection of law-like clauses allowing for deletion or blocking of content–to set quasi-norms to safeguard democracy on-line. The ToS used by very large platforms (VLOP) according to Art 25 DSA however does not include granular clauses for European campaigning. The more recent design solutions on platforms include advertising repositories, or warning labels attached to problematic content to better inform the public. However, moderation of content addressing the heart of democracy and the democratic process per se is crucial for the status of …
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Paper vs. Practice?: How Do Legal and Ethical and Legal Frameworks Influence the Everyday Practices on Data and Algorithms of Public Sector Data Professionals in The Netherlands
2025
Isabelle Fest, Maranke Wieringa, Ben Wagner
Patterns 3 (10)
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Authors:Isabelle Fest, Maranke Wieringa, Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Patterns
Volume:3
Issue:10
Publisher:Cell Press
Description:Recent years have seen a massive growth in ethical and legal frameworks to govern data science practices related to data and algorithms. Yet one of the core questions associated with ethical and legal frameworks are the extent to which they are implemented in practice. A particularly interesting case in this context comes to public officials, for whom higher standards typically exist than for their private sector counterparts. We looked in detail at the public sector in the Netherlands, as the usage of data science practices in public sector decision making is already relatively normal and well-established. We are thus trying to understand how do ethical and legal frameworks influence the everyday practices on data and algorithms of public sector data professionals?
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Establishing auditing intermediaries to Verify Platform data
2025
Ben Wagner, Lubos Kuklis
Regulating Big Tech: Policy Responses to Digital Dominance, 169-179
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Lubos Kuklis
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Regulating Big Tech: Policy Responses to Digital Dominance
Pages:169-179
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Description:What you don’t know can’t hurt you: this seems to be the current approach for responding to disinformation by public regulators across the world. Nobody is able to say with any degree of certainty what is actually going on. This is in no small part because, at present, public regulators don’t have the slightest idea how disinformation actually works in practice. We believe that there are very good reasons for the current state of affairs, which stem from a lack of verifiable data available to public institutions. If an election board or a media regulator wants to know what types of digital content are being shared in their jurisdiction, they have no effective mechanisms for finding this data or ensuring its veracity. While there are many other reasons why governments would want access to this kind of data, the phenomenon of disinformation provides a particularly salient example of the consequences of a lack of access to this data for ensuring free and fair elections and informed democratic participation. This chapter will provide an overview of the main aspects of the problems associated with basing public regulatory decisions on unverified data, before sketching out some ideas of what a solution might look like. In order to do this, the chapter develops the concept of auditing intermediaries. After discussing which problems the concept of auditing intermediaries is designed to solve, it then discusses some of the main challenges associated with access to data, potential misuse of intermediaries, and the general lack of standards for the provision of data by large online platforms. In conclusion, the chapter suggests that there is an urgent need for an auditing …
Cited by:10
Resources:[PDF] from tudelft.nl
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Bias in geographic information systems: The case of Google maps
2025
Ben Wagner, Till Winkler, Soheil Human
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Till Winkler, Soheil Human
Publication date:05/05/2025
Description:Users’ perception of geographic space depends heavily on geographic information systems (GIS). GIS are the most common way for users to estimate travel time, provide routing information and recommend appropriate forms of transportation. This article analyses how predictions made by Google Maps, one of the most popular GIS, influence users’ perceptions and travel choices. To analyze this influence, a pre-study in a classroom setting (n= 36) as well as an online survey (n= 521) were conducted. We study users intuitive perception of travel time, before using the Google Maps Mobile App as a’treatment’to see how it influences their perceptions of travel time and choice of transportation type. We then contrast this original Google Maps treatment to a mock-up’warning label version’of Google which informs users about biases in Google Maps and an’unbiased version’of Google Maps based on ground truth data. Our analysis suggests that Google Maps systematically underestimates necessary car driving time, which has an impact on users’ choice of transportation.
Cited by:13
Resources:[PDF] from wu.ac.at
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Was bedeutet „Freiheit “in einem sozio-technischen Kontext?
2025
Ben Wagner
Demokratietheorie im Zeitalter der Frühdigitalisierung, 201-218
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Demokratietheorie im Zeitalter der Frühdigitalisierung
Pages:201-218
Publisher:Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
Description:Der Zusammenhang zwischen Freiheit und Technik muss grundlegend neu gedacht werden. In den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten hat es im Rahmen der Digitalisierung eine breite öffentliche Debatte über das Verhältnis von Freiheit und Technik gegeben. Dieser Dialog wird meist bloß implizit geführt. Die Annahmen, welche die Debatte bestimmen, werden jedoch nicht deutlich genug definiert. Gleichzeitig ist in vielen Fällen nicht klar, welche Konsequenzen solche Annahmen mit sich bringen, da sie nicht trennscharf voneinander abgegrenzt und entwickelt werden.
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Der AMS-Algorithmus: Transparenz, Verantwortung und Diskriminierung im Kontext von digitalem staatlichem Handeln
2025
Ben Wagner, Paola Lopez, Florian Cech, Gabriel Grill, Marie-Therese Sekwenz
juridikum (2), 191-202
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Paola Lopez, Florian Cech, Gabriel Grill, Marie-Therese Sekwenz
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:juridikum
Issue:2
Pages:191-202
Description:Wie transparent muss staatliches Handeln im digitalen Bereich sein? Der vom AMS eingesetzte Algorithmus legt viele interessante Gedanken über das Verständnis von Transparenz, Verantwortung und Diskriminierung offen. Der folgende Artikel beleuchtet diese Frage durch eine interdisziplinär-wissenschaftliche Perspektive. So wird der AMS-Algorithmus sowohl unter dem Gesichtspunkt aktueller Forschung in der Informatik und statistischer Analyse als auch im Bereich Bias, Fairness, Accountability und Transparency (FAT) beleuchtet. Danach wird auf das Thema der Diskriminierung durch den AMS-Algorithmus eingegangen und untersucht, welche unterschiedlichen Biasbegriffe in diesem Kontext anzuwenden sind. Anschließend wird debattiert, unter welchen Bedingungen der Einsatz eines Algorithmus in diesem Fall überhaupt sinnvoll wäre sowie welche Akteure dafür zwingend beteiligt wären, wer beim AMS-Algorithmus eigentlich die Entscheidungen trifft und wie in diesem Kontext sozio-technische Entscheidungen zu bewerten sind. Der Artikel stellt ebenfalls die Verbindung zu internationalen Standards des Europarats, der EU-Kommission und der Kanadischen Regierung her und diskutiert, inwieweit der AMS-Algorithmus diese Standards erfüllt.
Cited by:8
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Governance of Digitalization in Europe A contribution to the Exploration Shaping Digital Policy-Towards a Fair Digital Society? BertelsmannStiftung Study
2025
Ben Wagner, Carolina Ferro
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Carolina Ferro
Publication date:05/05/2025
Description:Digital policy is a unique policy area. As a cross-cutting policy issue, it has an impact not only on individual areas of regulation but on almost all other policy areas as well. Aspects of digital policy such as data regimes, cybersecurity and standardization issues are relevant not only to the the future of the internet or 5G mobile communications infrastructure, but to other areas of our lives to which they are closely linked, which range from automated driving to digital assistance systems in education and healthcare to the digitalization of sectors such as agriculture and construction. Nevertheless, regulation efforts have thus far been primarily sector-specific and national in their scope. With a few exceptions, such as the EU’s controversial General Data Protection Regulation, there are few digital policy frameworks in place for Europe that defines and integrates basic principles for broad application. Instead, we face a situation in which a variety of approaches stand side by side, at times complementing each other but also – all too often – competing with each other in ways that foster inconsistencies. The development of Europe’s 5G infrastructure is illustrative of this state of affairs. Despite the presence of what were originally uniform objectives across Europe, 28 nationally distinct tendering procedures with different requirements have since emerged. As a result, we must now find ways to manage the problems associated with having three or more networks per country, high costs, a difficult debate over security and the threat of dependency on non-EU providers.
Cited by:8
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Algorithmic Accountability–Towards Accountable Systems
2025
Ben Wagner
The Oxford Handbook of Intermediary Liability Online
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:The Oxford Handbook of Intermediary Liability Online
Description:Algorithmic Accountability – Towards Accountable Systems - TU Delft Research Portal Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content TU Delft Research Portal Home TU Delft Research Portal Logo Help & FAQ Home Research units Researchers Research output Datasets Projects Equipment Press/Media Prizes Activities Search by expertise, name or affiliation Algorithmic Accountability – Towards Accountable Systems Ben Wagner Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volume › Chapter › Scientific › peer-review Overview Original language English Title of host publication The Oxford Handbook of Intermediary Liability Online Publication status Published - 2019 Externally published Yes Access to Document https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198837138.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780198837138-e-35 Cite this APA Author BIBTEX Harvard Standard RIS …
Cited by:1
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Comparing routing predictions: travel time estimates and user accountability in navigation apps
2025
Benjamin Wagner, Till Winkler
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Authors:Benjamin Wagner, Till Winkler
Publication date:05/05/2025
Description:How are travel times displayed by different navigation apps? Do the way in which these work differ for different modes of transportation? We found unexpected divergence in the way travel time is displayed both between apps and within apps, when conducting testing on travel routing apps in Vienna. As a result, this paper will provide a brief overview of how travel times are displayed by commonly used apps in
Cited by:2
Resources:[PDF] from wu.ac.at
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Vienna University of Economics Vienna, Austria ben. wagner@ wu. ac. at
2025
Ben Wagner
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Description:Technology has become the new contested terrain of work relations. The way we think, imagine, and aspire to work in future is closely linked to the ways in which we hope how the tensions and conflicts around technology will be resolved. The following think-piece argues that key design challenge situated at the core of the debate about future of work is the promise to deliver greater freedom and flexibility. In doing so it will first provide an overview of a specific case study of food delivery riders. It will then look at responses to app-based management system of food delivery riders, as well the role of HCI in defining the future of labour. It concludes with different design perspectives around the future of labour, drawn from the original case study and beyond.
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Research handbook on human rights and digital technology: Global politics, law and international relations
2025
Ben Wagner, Matthias C Kettemann, Kilian Vieth
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Matthias C Kettemann, Kilian Vieth
Publication date:05/05/2025
Publisher:Edward Elgar Publishing
Description:In a digitally connected world, the question of how to respect, protect and implement human rights has become unavoidable. This contemporary Research Handbook offers new insights into well-established debates by framing them in terms of human rights. It examines the issues posed by the management of key Internet resources, the governance of its architecture, the role of different stakeholders, the legitimacy of rule making and rule-enforcement, and the exercise of international public authority over users. Highly interdisciplinary, its contributions draw on law, political science, international relations and even computer science and science and technology studies.
Cited by:32
Resources:[PDF] from researchgate.net
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Algorithms and human rights: Study on the human rights dimensions of automated data processing techniques and possible regulatory implications
2025
Ben Wagner, Wolfgang Schulz, Karmen Turk, Bertrand de la de la Chapelle, Julia Hörnle, …
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Wolfgang Schulz, Karmen Turk, Bertrand de la de la Chapelle, Julia Hörnle, Tanja Kersevan-Smokvina, Matthias Kettemann, Dörte Nieland, Arseny Nedyak, Pēteris Podvinskis, Thomas Schneider, Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon, Dirk Voorhoof
Publication date:05/05/2025
Publisher:Council of Europe
Description:Algorithms and Human Rights: Study on the human rights dimensions of automated data processing techniques and possible regulatory implications - TU Delft Research Portal Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content TU Delft Research Portal Home TU Delft Research Portal Logo Help & FAQ Home Research units Researchers Research output Datasets Projects Equipment Press/Media Prizes Activities Search by expertise, name or affiliation Algorithms and Human Rights: Study on the human rights dimensions of automated data processing techniques and possible regulatory implications Ben Wagner, Wolfgang Schulz, Karmen Turk, Bertrand de la de la Chapelle, Julia Hörnle, Tanja Kersevan-Smokvina, Matthias Kettemann, Dörte Nieland, Arseny Nedyak, Pēteris Podvinskis, Thomas Schneider, Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon, Dirk Voorhoof Research output: Book/Report › Report › Scientific Overview …
Cited by:27
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Free Expression?–dominant information intermediaries as arbiters of internet speech
2025
Ben Wagner
Digital Dominance: Implications and Risks, 219-240
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Digital Dominance: Implications and Risks
Pages:219-240
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Description:Free Expression? – dominant information intermediaries as arbiters of internet speech - TU Delft Research Portal Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content TU Delft Research Portal Home TU Delft Research Portal Logo Help & FAQ Home Research units Researchers Research output Datasets Projects Equipment Press/Media Prizes Activities Search by expertise, name or affiliation Free Expression? – dominant information intermediaries as arbiters of internet speech Ben Wagner Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volume › Chapter › Scientific › peer-review Overview Original language English Title of host publication Digital Dominance: Implications and Risks Editors Martin Moore, Damian Tambini Publisher Oxford University Press Pages 219-240 Publication status Published - 2018 Externally published Yes Cite this APA Author BIBTEX Harvard Standard RIS …
Cited by:25
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Understanding Internet shutdowns: A case study from Pakistan
2025
Benjamin Wagner
International Journal of Communication 12 (1), 22
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Authors:Benjamin Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:International Journal of Communication
Volume:12
Issue:1
Pages:22
Publisher:USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
Description:This article provides an overview of Internet shutdowns in Pakistan, which have become an increasingly common phenomenon, with 41 occurring between 2012 and 2017. It argues that to understand how shutdowns became normalized in Pakistan, it is necessary to look at the specific dynamics of how the shutdowns take place. In doing so, the concept of communicative ruptures develops to better understand intentional government shutdowns of communications. The article argues that strategic prevention of mobilization is key for short-term shutdowns, whereas long-term shutdowns can be better explained by looking at disciplinary mechanisms and denying the existence of “others.” The article then discusses Internet shutdowns in the wider context of authoritarian practices before concluding with the urgent need for further research on this topic, both in Pakistan and beyond.
Cited by:75
Resources:[PDF] from wu.ac.at
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Ethics as an escape from regulation. From “ethics-washing” to ethics-shopping?
2025
Ben Wagner
, 84-88
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Pages:84-88
Publisher:Amsterdam University Press
Description:A strange confusion among technology policy makers can be witnessed at present. While almost all are able to agree on the common chorus of voices chanting ‘something must be done,’it is very difficult to identify what exactly must be done and how. In this confused environment it is perhaps unsurprising that the idea of ‘ethics’ is presented as a concrete policy option. Striving for ethics and ethical decision-making, it is argued, will make technologies better. While this may be true in many cases, much of the debate about ethics seems to provide an easy alternative to government regulation. Unable or unwilling to properly provide regulatory solutions, ethics is seen as the ‘easy’or ‘soft’option which can help structure and give meaning to existing self-regulatory initiatives. In this world,‘ethics’ is the new ‘industry self-regulation.’
Cited by:421
Resources:[PDF] from mediarep.org
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Teilhabe, ausgerechnet
2025
Kilian Vieth, Ben Wagner
Wie algorithmische Prozesse Teilhabechancen beeinflussen können 2
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Authors:Kilian Vieth, Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Wie algorithmische Prozesse Teilhabechancen beeinflussen können
Volume:2
Cited by:31
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Boundaries of law: exploring transparency, accountability, and oversight of government surveillance regimes
2025
Douwe Korff, Ben Wagner, Julia Powles, Renata Avila, Ulf Buermeyer
Global Report, January
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Authors:Douwe Korff, Ben Wagner, Julia Powles, Renata Avila, Ulf Buermeyer
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Global Report, January
Description:Modern information technologies have given governments an unprecedented ability to monitor our communications. This capability can be used to fight terrorism and serious crime through targeted surveillance that is proportionate and subject to judicial control. What we have witnessed, however-as evidenced by the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden-is exponential growth in indiscriminate, generalised access to bulk communications and Internet data (often referred to as “mass surveillance”).
Cited by:15
Resources:[PDF] from ssrn.com
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Efficiency versus recht?
2025
Ben Wagner
De Helling 2016 (4)
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:De Helling
Volume:2016
Issue:4
Description:Wat we kopen, met wie we contact hebben, waar we naar toe gaan: steeds meer gegevens over onze levens veranderen in grote datastromen. Toch is er weinig politiek debat over cruciale vragen als: van wie zijn al die gegevens? Waarvoor kunnen ze worden gebruikt en mag dat ook? Welke omgang met big data, algoritmes en technologie past bij de samenleving die we voorstaan? Hoe krijgen we grip op big data? Daarover gaat deze Helling.
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Conclusion: Logics of Appropriate Governance in Internet Governance and Global Governance
2025
Ben Wagner, Ben Wagner
Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content, 175-181
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content
Pages:175-181
Publisher:Springer International Publishing
Description:The final chapter of this book looks more broadly at what can this book contribute to understandings of Internet Governance and the wider field of Global Governance. It argues that many of the trends found in Internet Governance such as the technification of regulatory demands or the expansion of disciplinary capacity over the Internet apply to many more areas of governance than just the governance of free expression.
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Governing Internet Expression: An Introduction
2025
Ben Wagner, Ben Wagner
Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content, 1-10
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content
Pages:1-10
Publisher:Springer International Publishing
Description:Why should anyone care about freedom of expression? Why does it matter that individuals have the ability to speak their mind uninhibited? What inherent value can be found in the seeking, receiving and imparting of information that would cause any society to raise it to the level of a human right? And why should the story and its subsequent narration in modern liberal thought raise the value of free expression to a value worth dying for? Why does speech matter? This chapter sketches out the larger argument being made in this book and argues that free expression, technology and power are deeply interlinked and that only be understanding these linkages can we make sense of freedom of expression online.
Cited by:1
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Internet Technologies Increasing Ability to Control: The Development of Disciplinary Capacity in the Past Two Decades
2025
Ben Wagner, Ben Wagner
Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content, 35-62
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content
Pages:35-62
Publisher:Springer International Publishing
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Towards a Theory of Information Control: Content Regulation, Disciplinary Capacity and the Governance on the Internet
2025
Ben Wagner, Ben Wagner
Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content, 11-33
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content
Pages:11-33
Publisher:Springer International Publishing
Description:Questions of Internet regulation and governance are enormously laden with normative presumptions. This is particularly the case in regard to Freedom of Expression and its restriction that is typically termed ‘censorship.’ This chapter proposes a theoretical model of information control based on (a) communities of practice, (b) governance through architecture and (c) network gatekeeping to assist in understanding how the boundaries of Internet expression are defined. It argues that communities of practice regulate speech according to their own logics of appropriateness.
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The Private Sector and Content Regulation: The Margin of Permissible Expression
2025
Ben Wagner, Ben Wagner
Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content, 97-120
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content
Pages:97-120
Publisher:Springer International Publishing
Description:This chapter focuses on private sector models of content regulation. It argues that the legal need and external pressure for content regulation creates a demand for norm-creation within many Internet companies. Particularly, as Internet companies operate in many international jurisdictions with frequently conflicting legal norms, companies are constantly responding to multiple regulatory demands. In order to explore this logic in greater detail, three cases were selected as they demonstrate crucial cases in the evolution of the private sector model of Internet content regulation: AOL, Google & Facebook.
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Global Expression Governance: The Norms of a Global Regime
2025
Ben Wagner, Ben Wagner
Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content, 137-156
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content
Pages:137-156
Publisher:Springer International Publishing
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The Public Sector and Content Regulation: Focussing on Pornography and Child Sexual Abuse Material
2025
Ben Wagner, Ben Wagner
Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content, 63-95
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content
Pages:63-95
Publisher:Springer International Publishing
Description:Who decides what is normal and abnormal content? How is this process of regulating Internet content normalised? Restrictions of certain types of Internet content can only be understood in their specific historical context, as an evolution of regulatory practices and Internet technologies. That some types of Internet content are regulated and not others is not a technical or economic necessity. In order to study this phenomenon this chapter looks at public sector governance of Internet content in the UK, Germany and the US with a focus on pornography and child sexual abuse material. In conclusion it argues that answering that the regulation of Internet content is heavily dependent on state capacity to induce self-regulatory regimes on the private sector.
Cited by:1
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Was macht cyber? Epistemologie und Funktionslogik von Cyber
2025
Ben Wagner
Zeitschrift für Außen-und Sicherheitspolitik, 213-222
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Zeitschrift für Außen-und Sicherheitspolitik
Pages:213-222
Publisher:Springer
Description:Was macht Cyber? Epistemologie und Funktionslogik von Cyber - TU Delft Research Portal Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content TU Delft Research Portal Home TU Delft Research Portal Logo Help & FAQ Home Research units Researchers Research output Datasets Projects Equipment Press/Media Prizes Activities Search by expertise, name or affiliation Was macht Cyber? Epistemologie und Funktionslogik von Cyber Ben Wagner Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review Overview Original language English Pages (from-to) 213-222 Journal Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik Publication status Published - 2016 Externally published Yes Cite this APA Author BIBTEX Harvard Standard RIS Vancouver Powered by Pure, Scopus & Elsevier Fingerprint Engine™ All content on this site: Copyright © 2025 TU Delft Research Portal, its licensors, and …
Cited by:7
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Multistakeholder Governance and Nodal Authority–Understanding Internet Exchange Points
2025
Ben Wagner, Patricia Mindus
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Patricia Mindus
Publication date:05/05/2025
Description:This case study considers Internet exchange points (IXPs) as an example of governance processes in action. Internet exchange points are the points of connection between different Internet networks, which enable different networks to exchange traffic at a shared facility without cost to either party through a process known as “peering”. Three different IXP governance models representing large and influential IXPs are compared: the DE-CIX in Frankfurt, CAIX in Cairo, and KIXP in Nairobi. DE-CIX, the largest IXP in the world, is a subsidiary of the German Internet trade association eco, and is thus “owned” by the Internet industry in Germany. Though well functioning, this has meant that key stakeholder groups such as civil society, and the academic and technical communities are excluded from participating in discussions over policy decisions. In contrast, the Cairo Internet Exchange Point (CAIX) is run by a public authority, the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. Though it is governed by a broad set of stakeholders including private sector, government, and civil society representatives, its decision-making processes are somewhat opaque. Lastly, KIXP was founded by a Kenyan network engineer and is governed by a local trade association. While set up with multistakeholder coordination under the leadership of the private sector, its dayto-day operations and governance fall under private sector control. By tracing out the plurality of models used for IXP governance and comparing the processes of developing peering relationships, this case provides unique lessons for the governance process, particularly surrounding …
Cited by:6
Resources:[PDF] from diva-portal.org
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Finding a Formula for Brazil: Representation and Legitimacy in Internet Governance
2025
Ben Wagner
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Publisher:University of Pennsylvania
Description:Finding a Formula for Brazil: Representation and Legitimacy in Internet Governance — TU Delft Research Portal Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content TU Delft Research Portal Home TU Delft Research Portal Logo Help & FAQ Home Research units Researchers Research output Datasets Projects Equipment Press/Media Prizes Activities Search by expertise, name or affiliation Finding a Formula for Brazil: Representation and Legitimacy in Internet Governance Ben Wagner Research output: Book/Report › Report › Scientific Overview Original language English Place of Publication Internet Policy Observatory Working Paper Series, University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg School Publisher University of Pennsylvania Publication status Published - 2014 Externally published Yes Publication series Name Internet Policy Observatory Working Paper Series, University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg …
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Ist Freiheit utopisch?
2025
Ben Wagner
zeitschrift für kritik| recht| gesellschaft 2014 (4), 514-521
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:zeitschrift für kritik| recht| gesellschaft
Volume:2014
Issue:4
Pages:514-521
Publisher:Verlag Österreich
Description:Die einen sind frei, die anderen sind weniger frei. So oder so ähnlich äußert sich der gegenwärtige Forschungsstand zur freien Meinungsäußerung im Internet. Die einen Länder sind eher restriktiv und zensieren, während die anderen eher freiheitlich sind und kaum regulieren und wenn dann nur im rechtsstaatlichem Rahmen. So oder so ähnlich gelagert liegen sowohl wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse (Deibert, Palfrey, Rohozinski & Zittrain, 2008, 2010; Ronald J. Deibert, 2011) als auch öffentliche Debatte (Reporters Without Borders, 2005, 2011) zur freien Meinungsäußerung im Internet. Wenn reflexartig diese Annahmen überdacht werden, dann nur um den Stand der Meinungsfreiheit in weiteren Ländern als unzureichend zu klassifizieren und deren Rolle zu geißeln (Breindl & Wright, 2012; Clayton, 2006; TJ McIntyre & Scott, 2008; T. McIntyre, 2012). Dann wird postuliert, Großbritannien würde genauso stark wie …
Cited by:1
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Uncontrolled Global Surveillance: Updating Export Controls to the Digital Age
2025
Tim Maurer, Edin Omanovic, Ben Wagner
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Authors:Tim Maurer, Edin Omanovic, Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Publisher:New America Foundation
Cited by:9
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全球调查报告: 互联网隐私和表达自由
2025
Toby Mendel, Andrew Puddephatt, Ben Wagner, Dixie Hawtin, Natalia Torres
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Authors:Toby Mendel, Andrew Puddephatt, Ben Wagner, Dixie Hawtin, Natalia Torres
Publication date:05/05/2025
Publisher:UNESCO
Description:提案国: 巴西 共同提案国: 阿根廷, 中国, 刚果, 古巴, 多米尼加共和国, 厄瓜多尔, 萨尔瓦多, 加蓬, 印度, 尼加拉瓜, 巴勒斯坦, 巴拉圭, 秘鲁, 俄罗斯联邦, 沙特阿拉伯, 乌拉圭, 委内瑞拉 (玻利瓦尔共和国), 与互联网有关的问题, 包括信息和 知识的获取, 表达自由, 隐私和信息社会的伦理问题
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Global survey on internet privacy and freedom of expression (ara)
2025
Toby Mendel, Andrew Puddephatt, Ben Wagner, Dixie Hawtin, Natalia Torres
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Authors:Toby Mendel, Andrew Puddephatt, Ben Wagner, Dixie Hawtin, Natalia Torres
Publication date:05/05/2025
Publisher:< bound method Organization. get_name_with_acronym of< Organization: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation>>
Description:This is a book published by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation in 2013 about Argentina, China, Data Protection, Egypt, France, Freedom of Expression, India, Internet, Mexico, and Right to Privacy. It was written by Mendel, Toby, Puddephatt, Andrew, Wagner, Ben, et al.
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Global Survey on Internet Privacy and Freedom of Expression
2025
Ben Wagner
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Publisher:Unesco
Description:Global Survey on Internet Privacy and Freedom of Expression — TU Delft Research Portal Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content TU Delft Research Portal Home TU Delft Research Portal Logo Help & FAQ Home Research units Researchers Research output Datasets Projects Press/Media Prizes Activities Search by expertise, name or affiliation Global Survey on Internet Privacy and Freedom of Expression Ben Wagner Research output: Book/Report › Report › Scientific Overview Original language English Publisher Unesco Publication status Published - 2013 Externally published Yes Cite this APA Author BIBTEX Harvard Standard RIS Vancouver Powered by Pure, Scopus & Elsevier Fingerprint Engine™ © 2024 Elsevier BV We use cookies to help provide and enhance our service and tailor content. By continuing you agree to the use of cookies Log in to Pure TU Delft Research Portal data …
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Étude mondiale sur le respect de la vie privée sur l’Internet et la liberté d’expression
2025
Toby Mendel
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Authors:Toby Mendel
Publication date:05/05/2025
Publisher:Unesco
Description:L'UNESCO, aux termes de son Acte constitutif, promeut «la libre circulation des idées, par le mot et par l'image» et s' est engagée à faciliter la mise en place d'un espace Internet libre, ouvert et accessible dans le cadre de la pleine liberté d'expression. Véritable manuel de bonnes pratiques, cet ouvrage propose les démarches en ce sens. La sauvegarde du principe de la liberté d'expression dans la politique de l'Internet restant l'une de ses préoccupations.
Cited by:4
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The Constitution of the Internet: the EU needs to develop a common Strategy for Cyber Security
2025
Ben Wagner
Internationale Politik/IP Journal
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Internationale Politik/IP Journal
Description:EU Strategie zur Cybersicherheitspolitik im internationalen Umfeld — TU Delft Research Portal Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content TU Delft Research Portal Home TU Delft Research Portal Logo Help & FAQ Home Research units Researchers Research output Datasets Projects Equipment Press/Media Prizes Activities Search by expertise, name or affiliation The Constitution of the Internet: the EU needs to develop a common Strategy for Cyber Security Translated title of the contribution : EU Strategie zur Cybersicherheitspolitik im internationalen Umfeld Ben Wagner Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review Overview Translated title of the contribution EU Strategie zur Cybersicherheitspolitik im internationalen Umfeld Original language Multiple languages Journal Internationale Politik / IP Journal Publication status Published - 2012 Externally published Yes Cite …
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Jahrbuch Netzpolitik 2012: von A wie ACTA bis Z wie Zensur
2025
Jan-Phillip Albrecht, Markus Beckedahl, Annegret Bendiek, Mirko Boehm, Jörg Braun, Ulf …
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Authors:Jan-Phillip Albrecht, Markus Beckedahl, Annegret Bendiek, Mirko Boehm, Jörg Braun, Ulf Buermeyer, Gabriella Coleman, Leonhard Dobusch, Kirsten Fiedler, Karina Fissguss, Kilian Froitzhuber, Volker Grassmuck, Johnny Haeusler, Christian Heise, Jeanette Hofmann, Jōichi‘Joi’ Itō, Andrea Jonjic, Matthias Kirschner, Julia Kloiber, Constanze Kurz, Lawrence Lessig, Falk Lüke, Lorenz Matzat, Tim Maurer, Joe McNamee, Andre Meister, Matthias Monroy, John F Nebel, Frank Rieger, Alexander Sander, Ben Scott, Felix Stalder, Moritz Tremmel, Ben Wagner, Stefan Wehrmeyer, Jillian C York
Publication date:05/05/2025
Publisher:epubli
Description:Netzpolitik betrifft alle, jede und jeden. Was im Jahr 2012 wichtig war, was vielleicht auch zu kurz kam, darauf blickt dieses Jahrbuch zurück. Die Autorinnen und Autoren waren Beobachter und Akteur zugleich. Ihre Berichte in diesem Buch fassen die wichtigsten Themen des Jahres zusammen, ordnen ein und reflektieren. Von A wie ACTA und Anonymous über Open-Data und Überwachung bis zu Urheberrecht und Z wie Zensur: komprimiert, informiert und frei lizenziert. Mit Beiträgen von: Jan-Phillip Albrecht, Markus Beckedahl, Annegret Bendiek, Mirko Boehm, Jörg Braun, Ulf Buermeyer, Gabriella Coleman, Leonhard Dobusch, Kirsten Fiedler, Karina Fissguss, Kilian Froitzhuber, Volker Grassmuck, Johnny Haeusler, Christian Heise, Jeanette Hofmann, Jōichi ‘Joi’Itō, Andrea Jonjic, Matthias Kirschner, Julia Kloiber, Constanze Kurz, Lawrence Lessig, Falk Lüke, Lorenz Matzat, Tim Maurer, Joe McNamee, Andre Meister, Matthias Monroy, John F. Nebel, Frank Rieger, Alexander Sander, Ben Scott, Felix Stalder, Moritz Tremmel, Ben Wagner, Stefan Wehrmeyer und Jillian C. York.
Cited by:1
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Global survey on Internet privacy and freedom of expression
2025
Toby Mendel, Andrew Puddephatt, Ben Wagner, Dixie Hawtin
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Authors:Toby Mendel, Andrew Puddephatt, Ben Wagner, Dixie Hawtin
Publication date:05/05/2025
Cited by:103
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Freedom of expression on the Internet: Implications for foreign policy
2025
Ben Wagner
Foreign Affairs 88, 4
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/05/2025
Journal:Foreign Affairs
Volume:88
Pages:4
Description:Since the birth of the public internet, questions of global internet governance have also been questions of international affairs. 1 However, while internet security has historically been heavily politicised at an international level, it is only more recently that the questions of internet expression and free speech have been perceived as a foreign policy issue. The following analysis will provide an overview of the two key foreign policy debates on free expression on the internet, before suggesting paths for the development of future internet foreign policy and what consequences these paths are likely to have for freedom of expression on the internet.
Cited by:17
Resources:[PDF] from academia.edu
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Legal and ethical considerations for demand-driven data collection and AI-based analysis in flood response
2025
Carolin Gilga, Christoph Hochwarter, Luisa Knoche, Sebastian Schmidt, Gudrun Ringler, M…
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 122, 105441
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Authors:Carolin Gilga, Christoph Hochwarter, Luisa Knoche, Sebastian Schmidt, Gudrun Ringler, Marc Wieland, Bernd Resch, Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/01/2025
Journal:International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
Volume:122
Pages:105441
Publisher:Elsevier
Description:During a disaster, the timely provision of customised and relevant data is of utmost importance. In the case of floods, data from remote sensing (satellite-based or airborne) is often used, but in recent years data from social media platforms has also been increasingly utilised. Focusing on these data sources, this study provides an in-depth assessment of requirements by emergency responders. Furthermore, the paper sheds light on the legal and ethical considerations that need to be taken into account during data collection and processing. A particular focus lies on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for data analysis in disaster response. Topics such as privacy preservation and AI-informed decision making are highlighted throughout the paper. The investigation was carried out based on expert interviews with scientists, an extensive literature review, and workshops with emergency responders.
Cited by:1
Resources:[HTML] from sciencedirect.com
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Playing with Politics: Preliminary Results from Interactive Interventions on AI and Democracy in Five Countries with 2024 Elections
2025
Andy Sanchez, Rita Gsenger, Susannah Montgomery, Marie-Therese Sekwenz, Jason Pridmore,…
Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computi…
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Authors:Andy Sanchez, Rita Gsenger, Susannah Montgomery, Marie-Therese Sekwenz, Jason Pridmore, Ben Wagner
Publication date:04/26/2025
Journal:Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Pages:1-16
Description:More people voted in 2024 than any other year in human history, while often relying on the internet for political information. This combination resulted in critical challenges for democracy. To address these concerns, we designed an exhibition that applied interactive experiences to help visitors understand the impact of digitization on democracy. This late-breaking work addresses the research questions: 1) What do participants, exposed to playful interventions, think about these topics? and 2) How do people estimate their skills and knowledge about countering misinformation? We collected data in 5 countries through showcases held within weeks of relevant 2024 elections. During visits, participants completed a survey detailing their experiences and emotional responses. Participants expressed high levels of self-confidence regarding the detection of misinformation and spotting AI-generated content. This paper …
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Digital cultural sovereignty: navigating the digital landscape of European Cultural Heritage Institutions with a decolonial lens
2025
Susannah Montgomery, Ben Wagner
Research Handbook on Human Rights and Digital Technology, 389-405
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Authors:Susannah Montgomery, Ben Wagner
Publication date:01/16/2025
Journal:Research Handbook on Human Rights and Digital Technology
Pages:389-405
Publisher:Edward Elgar Publishing
Description:Cultural heritage is a central part of the narration of states and peoples. While the artefacts hidden in archives might not always seem societally relevant, their central role in collective storytelling is often underestimated. This becomes particularly poignant in the context of growing decolonial movements, where marginalised communities increasingly advocate for reclaiming their cultural narratives and histories, both in tangible and digital forms. 1 This shifting landscape places Cultural Heritage Institutions (CHIs) in a unique intermediary position as nonstate actors navigating the complex terrain of cultural sovereignty in the digital age. They are increasingly tasked with rethinking their role as custodians of culture, and ensuring their practices uphold principles of legitimacy, justice, dignity and human rights. 2 Through international institutions such as UNESCO, a growing body of international experts have been calling …
Resources:[PDF] from ssrn.com
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Digital technologies, human rights and global trade? Expanding export controls of surveillance technologies in Europe, China and India
2025
Ben Wagner, Stéphanie Horth
Research Handbook on Human Rights and Digital Technology, 242-261
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Stéphanie Horth
Publication date:01/16/2025
Journal:Research Handbook on Human Rights and Digital Technology
Pages:242-261
Publisher:Edward Elgar Publishing
Description:Historically global trade has not had a strong value-based focus, whether on human rights or for that matter any other values in general. Trade-oriented institutions and legal mechanisms have historically been almost exclusively economically oriented, with human rights concerns either considered to be non-tariff trade barriers, or as non-binding guidelines such as the UN Guiding Principles on business and human rights. However, it should be noted that despite their voluntary nature, many non-binding mechanisms have developed considerable normative strength in recent decades, even though they do not have legally binding mechanisms attached. Despite these challenges, concepts related to human rights have slowly been seeping into international trade. One aspect has been the public debates about international investment treaties such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and …
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Mapping interpretations of the law in online content moderation in Germany
2024
Ben Wagner, Matthias C Kettemann, Anna Sophia Tiedeke, Felicitas Rachinger, Marie-There…
Computer Law & Security Review 55, 106054
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Matthias C Kettemann, Anna Sophia Tiedeke, Felicitas Rachinger, Marie-Therese Sekwenz
Publication date:11/01/2024
Journal:Computer Law & Security Review
Volume:55
Pages:106054
Publisher:Elsevier Advanced Technology
Description:Content moderation is a vital condition that online platforms must facilitate, according to the law, to create suitable online environments for their users. By the law, we mean national or European laws that require the removal of content by online platforms, such as EU Regulation 2021/784, which addresses the dissemination of terrorist content online. Content moderation required by these national or European laws, summarised here as ‘the law’, is different from the moderation of pieces of content that is not directly required by law but instead is conducted voluntarily by the platforms. New regulatory requests create an additional layer of complexity of legal grounds for the moderation of content and are relevant to platforms’ daily decisions. The decisions made are either grounded in reasons stemming from different sources of law, such as international or national provisions, or can be based on contractual grounds …
Cited by:1
Resources:[HTML] from sciencedirect.com
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Navigating the EU AI Act Maze using a Decision-Tree Approach
2024
Hilmy Hanif, Jorge Constantino, Marie-Therese Sekwenz, Michel van Eeten, Jolien Ubacht,…
ACM Journal on Responsible Computing 1 (3), 1-16
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Authors:Hilmy Hanif, Jorge Constantino, Marie-Therese Sekwenz, Michel van Eeten, Jolien Ubacht, Ben Wagner, Yury Zhauniarovich
Publication date:09/16/2024
Journal:ACM Journal on Responsible Computing
Volume:1
Issue:3
Pages:1-16
Publisher:ACM
Description:The AI Act represents a significant legislative effort by the European Union to govern the use of AI systems according to different risk-related classes, imposing different degrees of compliance obligations to users and providers of AI systems. However, it is often critiqued due to the lack of general public comprehension and effectiveness regarding the classification of AI systems to the corresponding risk classes. To mitigate these shortcomings, we propose a Decision Tree–based framework aimed at increasing legal compliance and classification clarity. By performing a quantitative evaluation, we show that our framework is especially beneficial to individuals without a legal background, allowing them to enhance the accuracy and speed of AI system classification according to the AI Act. The qualitative study results show that the framework is helpful to all participants, allowing them to justify intuitively made decisions …
Cited by:1
Resources:[PDF] from acm.org
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Accountability and oversight in the Dutch intelligence and security domains in the digital age
2024
Jorge Constantino, Ben Wagner
Frontiers in Political Science 6, 1383026
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Authors:Jorge Constantino, Ben Wagner
Publication date:06/04/2024
Journal:Frontiers in Political Science
Volume:6
Pages:1383026
Publisher:Frontiers Media SA
Description:Accountability is considered a cornerstone of public administration and good governance. This study characterizes the relationship between the Dutch Intelligence and Secret Service (“AIVD”) and citizens (represented by parliament, courts, and oversight boards) as a complex actor-forum relationship. We utilize different accountability principles of public administration found in international and Dutch instruments and academic literature to propose workable principles of accountability for the AIVD. These proposed principles of accountability can be summarized as acting within duty, explainability, necessity, proportionality, reporting and record keeping, redress, and continuous independent oversight. Similarly, there are some conditions to support the workability of accountability principles. These conditions may be characterized as productive actor-forum relationships, cooperation, flexibility, value alignment, and learning and improving opportunities.
Resources:[PDF] from frontiersin.org
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To Know What You Do Not Know: Challenges for Explainable AI for Security and Threat Intelligence
2024
Sarah Van Gerwen, Jorge Constantino, Ritten Roothaert, Brecht Weerheijm, Ben Wagner, Gr…
Artificial Intelligence for Security: Enhancing Protection in a Changing World, 55-83
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Authors:Sarah Van Gerwen, Jorge Constantino, Ritten Roothaert, Brecht Weerheijm, Ben Wagner, Gregor Pavlin, Bram Klievink, Stefan Schlobach, Katja Tuma, Fabio Massacci
Publication date:04/17/2024
Journal:Artificial Intelligence for Security: Enhancing Protection in a Changing World
Pages:55-83
Publisher:Springer Nature Switzerland
Description:Human analysts working for threat intelligence leverage tools powered by artificial intelligence to routinely assemble actionable intelligence. Yet, threat intelligence sources and methods often have significant uncertainties and biases. In addition, data sharing might be limited for operational, strategic, or legal reasons. Experts are aware of these limitations but lack formal means to represent and quantify these uncertainties in their daily work. In this chapter, we enunciate the technical, legal, and societal challenges for building explainable AI for threat intelligence. We also discuss ideas for overcoming these challenges.
Resources:[PDF] from tudelft.nl
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The politics of digital (human) rights
2023
Ben Wagner, Andy Sanchez, Marie-Therese Sekwenz, Sofie Dideriksen, Dave Murray-Rust
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Andy Sanchez, Marie-Therese Sekwenz, Sofie Dideriksen, Dave Murray-Rust
Publication date:12/13/2023
Journal:Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies
Description:Basic human rights, like freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and privacy, are being radically transformed by new technologies. The manifestation of these rights in online spaces is known as “digital rights,” which can be impeded or empowered through the design, governance, and litigation of emerging technologies. Design defines how people encounter the digital world. Some design choices can exploit the right to privacy by commodifying attention through tactics that keep users addicted to maximize profitability; similar design mechanisms and vulnerabilities have facilitated the abuse of journalists and human rights advocates across the globe. But design can also empower human rights, providing novel tools of resistance, accountability, and accessibility, as well as the inclusion of previously underserved voices in the development process. The new capabilities offered by these technologies often …
Cited by:1
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Accountability without Consequences: Reframing Tech Ethics Using the Pedagogy, Histories, and Licensure Ramifications of Engineering Disasters
2023
Andy Sanchez, Ben Wagner
Histories, and Licensure Ramifications of Engineering Disasters (July 16, 2023)
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Authors:Andy Sanchez, Ben Wagner
Publication date:07/16/2023
Journal:Histories, and Licensure Ramifications of Engineering Disasters (July 16, 2023)
Description:As information and communication technologies become central to our social infrastructure, many scholars are looking for ways to embed ethics within technology, ie, a system of “tech ethics.” One approach is to compare the tech community to older professional cultures, such as engineering. This comparison allows us to make abstract digital challenges concrete, evaluating platforms as “digital bridges,” whose vulnerabilities are very much matters of public concern; put differently, it helps us reframe “tech scandals” as “engineering disasters.” But what are the ethics and histories of engineering disasters? Research on engineering ethics pedagogy demonstrates that disaster case studies are among the most common approaches, but learning outcomes are potentially poor. We find the following four disasters presented at multiple top-ranked undergraduate programs: Ford Pinto, Space Shuttle Challenger, Space Shuttle Columbia, and Volkswagen emissions. Looking at the factual details of these cases, we find a prioritization of what we call transparency—as typified by exhaustive post-factual reports—over consequences—as might be typified by fines, firings, or loss of certification for engineers. Consequences are instead focused at the corporate level, which leaves little inspiration for implementing tech ethics into design. Other professional trends, such as certification and symbolic embodiments of ethics, also struggle to ensure broader social consideration within the design process. Socio-technical approaches, such as “comprehensive engineering,” do situate the engineer within a broader social context, but present major challenges for …
Resources:[PDF] from ssrn.com
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Sustainable development goals as accountability mechanism? A case study of Dutch infrastructure agencies
2023
Ben Wagner, Vincent de Gooyert, Wijnand Veeneman
Journal of Responsible Technology 14, 100058
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Vincent de Gooyert, Wijnand Veeneman
Publication date:07/01/2023
Journal:Journal of Responsible Technology
Volume:14
Pages:100058
Publisher:Elsevier
Cited by:13
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Responsible and accountable data science
2022
Ben Wagner, Claudia Müller-Birn
Patterns 3 (11)
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Claudia Müller-Birn
Publication date:11/11/2022
Journal:Patterns
Volume:3
Issue:11
Publisher:Elsevier
Description:Over the past few years, there has been an explosion of data science as a profession and an academic field. The increasing impact and societal relevance of data science is accompanied by important questions that reflect this development: how can data science become more responsible and accountable while also responding to key challenges such as bias, fairness, and transparency in a rigorous and systematic manner? This Patterns special collection has brought together research and perspective from academia, the public and the private sector, showcasing original research articles and perspectives pertaining to responsible and accountable data science. The articles in this special collection look closely at both conceptual and practical issues encountered in responsible and accountable data science. From a more conceptual perspective, we have articles looking at how data solidarity could contribute to an …
Resources:[HTML] from cell.com
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Paper vs. practice: How legal and ethical frameworks influence public sector data professionals in the Netherlands
2022
Isabelle Fest, Maranke Wieringa, Ben Wagner
Patterns 3 (10)
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Authors:Isabelle Fest, Maranke Wieringa, Ben Wagner
Publication date:10/14/2022
Journal:Patterns
Volume:3
Issue:10
Publisher:Elsevier
Description:Recent years have seen a massive growth in ethical and legal frameworks to govern data science practices. Yet one of the core questions associated with ethical and legal frameworks is the extent to which they are implemented in practice. A particularly interesting case in this context comes to public officials, for whom higher standards typically exist. We are thus trying to understand how ethical and legal frameworks influence the everyday practices on data and algorithms of public sector data professionals. The following paper looks at two cases: public sector data professionals (1) at municipalities in the Netherlands and (2) at the Netherlands Police. We compare these two cases based on an analytical research framework we develop in this article to help understanding of everyday professional practices. We conclude that there is a wide gap between legal and ethical governance rules and the everyday practices.
Cited by:11
Resources:[HTML] from cell.com
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Responsible data science is a responsibility for all
2022
Isabelle Fest, Maranke Wieringa, Ben Wagner
Patterns 3 (10)
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Authors:Isabelle Fest, Maranke Wieringa, Ben Wagner
Publication date:10/14/2022
Journal:Patterns
Volume:3
Issue:10
Publisher:Elsevier
Description:In a collaboration between TU Delft and Utrecht University, the authors recently wrote a qualitative study on the gap between regulatory (ethical and legal) frameworks and the daily practices of data professionals. This People of Data highlights the importance of collaboration in the success of interdisciplinary research and the responsibility of data scientists in safeguarding the public and ethical values.
Resources:[HTML] from cell.com
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Content governance on social networking sites: Battling disinformation and upholding values
2022
Rita Gsenger, Johanne Kübler, Ben Wagner
, 181-200
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Authors:Rita Gsenger, Johanne Kübler, Ben Wagner
Publication date:10/13/2022
Pages:181-200
Publisher:Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG
Description:Platforms need to deal with large amounts of data generated every day. For example, as of October 2021, 4.55 billion social media users were ac tive on an average number of 6.7 platforms used each month per internet user. 3 As a result, platforms were compelled to develop governance models and content moderation systems to deal with harmful and undesirable content, including disinformation. In this study:
Resources:[PDF] from tudelft.nl
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The next step towards auditing intermediaries
2022
Ben Wagner, Martin Husovec, Ľuboš Kukliš, Eliška Pírková
Verfassungsblog: On Matters Constitutional
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Martin Husovec, Ľuboš Kukliš, Eliška Pírková
Publication date:02/23/2022
Journal:Verfassungsblog: On Matters Constitutional
Description:Eliška Pírková 23 Februar 2022 The lack of transparency of digital platforms is a well-known problem that has wide societal implications. It has a detrimental impact on the exercise of rights of users, their ability to navigate in the online space and, ultimately, their ability to understand the world around them. Even more importantly, it fundamentally constraints any meaningful inquiry into how digital services influence our societies and thus makes introducing evidencebased and effective measures in the digital environment very difficult. Under the curre nt state of affairs, the regulatory interventions in the digital environment are simply bound to be based on informed guesses, extrapolations from partial research findings or limited voluntary disclosures of the Big Tech companies. As a result, regulators can’t effectively regulate and every effort to do so will keep missing its mark. There is now an extraordinary opportunity to establish legally mandated criteria for meaningful transparency for online platforms in the proposed EU Digital Services Act (DSA). The proposal has just entered the final state of trilogue negotiations. It seeks to create safe digital spaces in compliance with fundamental rights. Perhaps the most novel element of the DSA is the set of due diligence safeguards, such as independent auditing of Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs). However, the success of this mechanism will depend on the strength of oversight mechanisms which need to be accompanied by sufficient access to data. Hence, we propose creating an auditing intermediary to assure the effectiveness of such oversight. We argue that existing DSA proposals for independent …
Cited by:1
Resources:[PDF] from tudelft.nl
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Democracy and Digitalisation Handbook
2022
Ben Wagner, Carolina Ferro, Rita Gsenger
European Union
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Carolina Ferro, Rita Gsenger
Publication date:01/01/2022
Journal:European Union
Description:The Democracy and Digitalisation Handbook provides an overview of opportunities, challenges and threats related to digital technologies. This handbook looks at the impact of digital technology on democratic institutions while implementing international cooperation and development projects. It seeks to inform European Union (EU) staff, in particular staff based in EU Delegations, by providing them with: ● a short review of existing EU policies and an international framework of digitalisation for development;● a presentation of key digitalisation and democracy projects;● an analysis that will inform future EU projects supporting democratic governance with digital technology components;● examples of good practices;● a discussion of practices to avoid;● a list of relevant implementation partners.
Cited by:2
Resources:[PDF] from acodev.be
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Biometric and behavioural mass surveillance in EU member states: report for the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament
2021
FPSM Ragazzi, Elif Kuskonmaz, Ildikó Plájás, RR van de Ven, Ben Wagner
Biometric and behavioural mass surveillance in EU member states: report for the Greens/…
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Authors:FPSM Ragazzi, Elif Kuskonmaz, Ildikó Plájás, RR van de Ven, Ben Wagner
Publication date:10/25/2021
Journal:Biometric and behavioural mass surveillance in EU member states: report for the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament
Cited by:5
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The 2021 German Federal Election on Social Media: An Analysis of Systemic Electoral Risks Created by Twitter and Facebook Based on the Proposed EU Digital Services Act. The …
2021
Johanne Kübler, Marie-Therese Sekwenz, Felicitas Rachinger, Anna König, Rita Gsenger, E…
The Sustainable Computing Lab
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Authors:Johanne Kübler, Marie-Therese Sekwenz, Felicitas Rachinger, Anna König, Rita Gsenger, Eliška Pírková, Ben Wagner, M Kettemann, Michael Krennerich, Carolina Ferro
Publication date:08/01/2021
Journal:The Sustainable Computing Lab
Description:Safeguarding democratic elections is hard. Social media plays a vital role in the discourse around elections and during electoral campaigns. Social media platforms have become central spaces for electoral campaigns, often substituting traditional media outlets. Many politicians and parties communicate their messages primarily on their Twitter and Facebook profiles. In that regard, these platforms can be a valuable tool, but they also contribute to risks such as the dissemination of disinformation or other content that can infringe the right to free and fair elections. This study provides a risk assessment of the ‘systemic electoral risks’ created by Twitter and Facebook and the mitigation strategies employed by the platforms. It is based on the 2020 proposal by the European Commission for the new Digital Services Act (DSA) in the context of the 2021 German federal elections. Therefore, this study provides an external risk assessment regarding the right to free and fair elections on very large online platforms (VLOPs), focusing on Twitter and Facebook and their roles during the German federal elections that will take place on 26 September 2021. The data collection period covered the second half of May 2021.
Cited by:5
Resources:[PDF] from sustainablecomputing.eu
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Advanced Data Protection Control (ADPC)
2021
Soheil Human, Max Schrems, Alan Toner, Ben Wagner
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Authors:Soheil Human, Max Schrems, Alan Toner, Ben Wagner
Publication date:06/15/2021
Description:The mechanism serves as an automated means for users to give or refuse consent, to withdraw any consent already given, as well as to object to processing. The mechanism provides an alternative to existing nonautomated consent management approaches (eg ‘cookie banners’) and aims to reduce the efforts of the different parties involved regarding the protection of users’ privacy.
Cited by:4
Resources:[PDF] from wu.ac.at
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REIMAGINING CONTENT MODERATION AND SAFEGUARDING FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS
2021
Ben Wagner, Johanne Kübler, Eliška Pírková, Rita Gsenger, Carolina Ferro
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Johanne Kübler, Eliška Pírková, Rita Gsenger, Carolina Ferro
Publication date:05/01/2021
Description:This study was commissioned by the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament. The authors wish to thank the European Greens/EFA team, especially Kirsten Fiedler, Narmine Abou Bakari, and Eszter Bako, for their fantastic support. We would also like to acknowledge the valuable contribution of the people we interviewed during the process of elaboration of this study, without whom this study would not have been possible. Thank you for dedicating your time to reply to our questions, even in such uncertain and difficult times.
Resources:[PDF] from greens-efa.eu
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Constructing a mutually supportive interface between ethics and regulation
2021
Sylvie Delacroix, Ben Wagner
Computer Law & Security Review 40, 105520
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Authors:Sylvie Delacroix, Ben Wagner
Publication date:04/01/2021
Journal:Computer Law & Security Review
Volume:40
Pages:105520
Publisher:Elsevier Advanced Technology
Description:When the word 'ethical' becomes synonymous with specious, you know that something is amiss. With each data governance scandal, with each creation of a corporate 'ethics board', 'ethical standards' seemingly lose a few more feathers, to the point of generating instant suspicion when invoked in any official report. We argue that a key challenge in this regard is to more precisely define the ethics-regulation interface. In order to do this, we first provide an overview of recent endeavours to develop ethical frameworks around technology. We then look at a successful process of refinement of the ethics-regulation interface: the case of healthcare ethics in the UK. The third section develops an account of what a more robust ethics-regulation interface could look like, which would support a process of cross-fertilisation between the political, ethical and legal approaches. Finally, the fourth and last section critically examines a …
Cited by:35
Resources:[HTML] from sciencedirect.com
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Whose politics? Whose rights? Transparency, capture and dual-use export controls
2021
Ben Wagner
Security and Human Rights 31 (1-4), 35-46
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:03/01/2021
Journal:Security and Human Rights
Volume:31
Issue:1-4
Pages:35-46
Publisher:Brill Nijhoff
Description:What kinds of politics do export controls entail and whose rights do they enable? The following article will take a critical perspective on the governance challenges associated with export controls of dual-use technologies. After discussing challenges around transparency, the performance of human rights and export control havens, this article will then turn to looking at policy solutions, including audits, transparency and targeted international governance mechanisms. With conclusion, export controls continue to constitute an important policy tool to promote human rights and can be improved considerably to strengthen human rights further.
Cited by:7
Resources:[HTML] from brill.com
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Auditing big tech: Combating disinformation with reliable transparency
2021
Ben Wagner, Johanne Kübler, Lubos Kuklis, Carolina Ferro
Tallinn, Estonia: Enabling Digital Rights and Governance & Omidyar Network
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Johanne Kübler, Lubos Kuklis, Carolina Ferro
Publication date:02/01/2021
Journal:Tallinn, Estonia: Enabling Digital Rights and Governance & Omidyar Network
Description:Disinformation on social media platforms has become a major concern during elections and the COVID-19 pandemic. Under increased governmental and societal pressure, social media platforms attempt to limit the spread of disinformation. However, their exact procedures to identify and regulate the spread of disinformation on their platforms and whether they are successful or not in this endeavor are currently impossible to verify. To counter the lack of transparency of social media platforms and give governments and regulators an independent way to assess these efforts, we propose creating ‘independent auditing intermediaries.’An auditing mechanism of this kind would ensure the accuracy of ‘transparency data’provided by large online platform providers about the content on their services. Transparency data that have been audited would be considered'verified data'in this context. Such an institution could be created within the context of the proposed European Digital Services Act (DSA), but it should be a distinct legal entity to guarantee its independence. This institution would be responsible for collecting and verifying data, producing verified data and making them available only to authorities endowed with the legal competence to use them, to a legally specified extent for a legally-specified purpose. The collection and verification of the data on the one hand (responsibility of the independent auditing intermediaries), and their use for regulatory purposes on the other (obligation of the regulation authorities), would be distinct processes. This model would further enhance the independence of the institutions involved and guarantee the security of …
Cited by:5
Resources:[PDF] from enabling-digital.eu
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A first impression of regulatory powers in the Digital Services Act
2021
Ben Wagner
Verfassungsblog: On Matters Constitutional
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:01/04/2021
Journal:Verfassungsblog: On Matters Constitutional
Description:A first impression of regulatory powers in the Digital Services Act Anmelden ²Dok [§] Blättern nach Forschungseinrichtung nach Dokumenttyp nach Dewey-Dezimalklassifikation nach ²Dok-Systematik nach Projekten nach Personen Registrieren 0 Merkliste öffnen Artikel / Aufsatz A first impression of regulatory powers in the Digital Services Act Blog-Eintrag Mo., 04. Jan.. 2021 CC BY-SA 4.0 Veröffentlicht A first impression of regulatory powers in the Digital Services Act Wagner, Ben Vorschau Dateien Einordnung Erschienen in: Verfassungsblog: On Matters Constitutional (04.01.2021) Datum der Veröffentlichung: 04.01.2021 URN: urn:nbn:de:0301-20210104-182911-0-3 DOI: 10.17176/20210104-182911-0 Sprache: Englisch Ressourcentyp : Text ²Dok-Systematik: Recht und Gesellschaft DDC: 342 Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsrecht Link zum Volltext: https://verfassungsblog.de/regulatory-powers-…
Cited by:11
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What Can Be Said Online in Germany and Austria? A Legal and Terms of Service Taxonomy
2020
Anna-Sophia Tiedeke, Matthias C Kettemann, Felicitas Rachinger, Marie-Theres Sekwenz, B…
A Legal and Terms of Service Taxonomy (November 23, 2020)
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Authors:Anna-Sophia Tiedeke, Matthias C Kettemann, Felicitas Rachinger, Marie-Theres Sekwenz, Ben Wagner
Publication date:11/23/2020
Journal:A Legal and Terms of Service Taxonomy (November 23, 2020)
Description:All platforms conduct content governance, by humans and by algorithms. Especially in times of growing dangers of Corona-related disinformation and a polarised US election campaign platforms have become more active in governing speech. The number of platforms transparency reports and content governance disclosures–voluntarily (like in the US) or not (like in Germany)–is growing. Platforms, however, do not usually include examples in their reports. It is therefore very difficult for researchers to replicate the deletion/non-deletion decisions and check deleted content against national law and platform rules systematically. Both the data (deleted contents) and a taxonomy of norms under which deletion happens have been unavailable. This paper, for the first time, provides a legal and terms of service taxonomy that allows for the evaluation of the quality of individual content governance decisions for German and Austrian online forums. It allows other researchers, when they have access to deleted platform content, to code them systematically and in doing so to better assess the extent to which content governance matches the legal and terms of service categories platforms claim to be implementing.
Cited by:1
Resources:[PDF] from ssrn.com
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Digital Election Observation: Regulatory Challenges around Legal Online Content
2020
Ben Wagner
The Political Quarterly 91 (4), 739-744
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:10/01/2020
Journal:The Political Quarterly
Volume:91
Issue:4
Pages:739-744
Description:Between public debates about ‘hacking’ elections, so‐called ‘fake news’ and online disinformation campaigns, it has become hard to imagine what free and fair elections in a digital environment could look like. This challenge is particularly pronounced for election observers who monitor free and fair elections. How should election observers fulfil this task when reliable data in online media campaigns are often not even available to media regulators? The following article provides a brief overview of existing challenges around online content regulation and how these apply to elections and election observation. It then considers where resources for digital electoral observation exist and how most effectively to build on these before, in conclusion, discussing next steps and potential opportunities to develop digital election observation further.
Cited by:8
Resources:[PDF] from wiley.com
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Accountability by design in technology research
2020
Ben Wagner
Computer Law & Security Review 37, 105398
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:07/01/2020
Journal:Computer Law & Security Review
Volume:37
Pages:105398
Publisher:Elsevier Advanced Technology
Description:What does research look like in practice? Aside from popular assumptions of how researchers are lonely isolated individuals sitting disconnected from the rest of the world enmeshed in thought, a considerable part of research involves working with data. Whether this data is quantitative, qualitative, gathered through experiments or involves writing code, all of this data is not just magically ‘invented’ out of thin air, but instead develops in a process of interaction with both human beings and technical systems. However only a small fragment of this process is presented to outside reviewers, the outputs and the framing often specifically designed to make a specific point. How the author got there, and which assumptions were made on the way and how these assumptions developed over time is seldom included in the final write-up. The following article argues that rather than just providing output data to be considered in …
Cited by:17
Resources:[HTML] from sciencedirect.com
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Algorithmic accountability: Towards accountable systems
2020
Ben Wagner
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/04/2020
Description:There is an ongoing move towards privatization of law enforcement online through algorithmic tools. This chapter discusses algorithmic accountability and its relevance for intermediary liability and human rights. First, the chapter looks into open issues related to the specific nature of accountability within the context of algorithmic accountability, especially regarding ‘to whom’and ‘for what’algorithms should be accountable. In doing so, the chapter considers algorithmic accountability to users, listing a number of technical, organizational, and regulatory challenges to make accountability possible in ensuring access to data. Considering intermediary liability and algorithmic accountability more closely, the chapter describes specific provisions for ensuring algorithmic accountability by online intermediaries and platforms, contextualizing them within a proposal in which adherence to algorithmic accountability would lower …
Cited by:5
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Do Smartphone Apps Influence Mode ChoiceBehavior among Viennese Citizens?
2020
Ben Wagner, Till Winkler, Soheil Human, Stefanie Peer
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Till Winkler, Soheil Human, Stefanie Peer
Publication date:02/14/2020
Description:Do Smartphone Apps Influence Mode ChoiceBehavior among Viennese Citizens? This version is available at: https://epub. wu. ac. at/7482/Available in ePubWU: February 2020 ePubWU, the institutional repository of the WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, is provided by the University Library and the IT-Services. The aim is to enable open access to the scholarly output of the WU.
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Regulating transparency? Facebook, twitter and the German network enforcement act
2020
Ben Wagner, Krisztina Rozgonyi, Marie-Therese Sekwenz, Jennifer Cobbe, Jatinder Singh
Proceedings of the 2020 conference on fairness, accountability, and transparency, 261-271
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Krisztina Rozgonyi, Marie-Therese Sekwenz, Jennifer Cobbe, Jatinder Singh
Publication date:01/27/2020
Journal:Proceedings of the 2020 conference on fairness, accountability, and transparency
Pages:261-271
Description:Regulatory regimes designed to ensure transparency often struggle to ensure that transparency is meaningful in practice. This challenge is particularly great when coupled with the widespread usage of dark patterns --- design techniques used to manipulate users. The following article analyses the implementation of the transparency provisions of the German Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) by Facebook and Twitter, as well as the consequences of these implementations for the effective regulation of online platforms. This question of effective regulation is particularly salient, due to an enforcement action in 2019 by Germany's Federal Office of Justice (BfJ) against Facebook for what the BfJ claim were insufficient compliance with transparency requirements, under NetzDG. This article provides an overview of the transparency requirements of NetzDG and contrasts these with the transparency requirements of other …
Cited by:65
Resources:[PDF] from academia.edu
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Comparing Travel Time Estimates of Routing Applications in Vienna.
2020
Ben Wagner, Till Winkler
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Till Winkler
Publication date:01/14/2020
Publisher:WU Vienna University of Economics and Business
Description:How are travel times displayed by different navigation apps? Do the way in which these work differ for different modes of transportation? We found unexpected divergence in the way travel time is displayed both between apps and within apps, when conducting testing on travel routing apps in Vienna. As a result, this paper will provide a brief overview of how travel times are displayed by commonly used apps in Vienna and how these differ. In conclusion, we will suggest different avenues for additional research based on these findings and illustrate the challenges of user accountability associated with these apps.
Cited by:2
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All codes-no conduct? Performing the governing artificial intelligence
2019
Ben Wagner
경제규제와 법 12 (2), 39-46
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:11/01/2019
Journal:경제규제와 법
Volume:12
Issue:2
Pages:39-46
Description:What are the crucial next steps for the future of artificial intelligence? In Europe, but also in many other parts of the world, it seems clear that there is an urgent need for artificial intelligence to be governed. The following article provides an overview of the digital governance implementation gap and argues that this gap remains considerable. At then looks in details at the role that conceptions of Europe and European values play in shaping the debate on regulation of artificial intelligence, before looking at a broader conception of the tensions between values, principles and rights. In conclusion, the article suggest that much of the non-binding language about AI produced is all about codes rather than ensuring actual behaviour change by individual actors. Until governments are willing to go beyond self-regulatory approaches in governing artificial intelligence, they will have little effect on actual practices of individuals.
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Artificial intelligence governance and ethics: global perspectives
2019
Angela Daly, Thilo Hagendorff, Li Hui, Monique Mann, Vidushi Marda, Ben Wagner, Wei Wan…
arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.03848
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Authors:Angela Daly, Thilo Hagendorff, Li Hui, Monique Mann, Vidushi Marda, Ben Wagner, Wei Wang, Saskia Witteborn
Publication date:06/28/2019
Journal:arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.03848
Description:Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology which is increasingly being utilised in society and the economy worldwide, and its implementation is planned to become more prevalent in coming years. AI is increasingly being embedded in our lives, supplementing our pervasive use of digital technologies. But this is being accompanied by disquiet over problematic and dangerous implementations of AI, or indeed, even AI itself deciding to do dangerous and problematic actions, especially in fields such as the military, medicine and criminal justice. These developments have led to concerns about whether and how AI systems adhere, and will adhere to ethical standards. These concerns have stimulated a global conversation on AI ethics, and have resulted in various actors from different countries and sectors issuing ethics and governance initiatives and guidelines for AI. Such developments form the basis for our research in this report, combining our international and interdisciplinary expertise to give an insight into what is happening in Australia, China, Europe, India and the US.
Cited by:129
Resources:[PDF] from arxiv.org
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Constructed “Cyber” Realities and International Relations Theory
2019
Ben Wagner
Science, technology, and art in International Relations, 60-70
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:03/01/2019
Journal:Science, technology, and art in International Relations
Pages:60-70
Publisher:Routledge
Description:How “real” is cyberspace? How does the discourse on “cyber” and “cyberspace” shape how is possible to talk about the Internet and global communications networks? The following article traces the history of the term cyber and argues for a critical reading of the term by international relations scholars. Not only is the term highly laden with implicit meaning, it also serves to securitise the existing communications security industry, a process which is here termed “cyberfication”. In conclusion it argues for a practice-based international relations approach to cyber to shed greater light on what the people who say “cyber” actually do.
Cited by:4
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Liable, but not in control? Ensuring meaningful human agency in automated decision‐making systems
2019
Ben Wagner
Policy & Internet 11 (1), 104-122
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:03/01/2019
Journal:Policy & Internet
Volume:11
Issue:1
Pages:104-122
Cited by:145
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Introduction to the Research Handbook on Human Rights and Digital Technology
2019
Ben Wagner, Matthias C Kettemann, Kilian Vieth
Research Handbook on Human Rights and Digital Technology, 1-3
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Matthias C Kettemann, Kilian Vieth
Publication date:01/25/2019
Journal:Research Handbook on Human Rights and Digital Technology
Pages:1-3
Publisher:Edward Elgar Publishing
Description:In a digitally connected world, the question of how to respect, protect and implement human rights has become unavoidable. As ever more human beings, organizational systems and technical devices transition online, realizing human rights in online settings is becoming ever more pressing. When looking at basic human rights such as freedom of expression, privacy, free assembly or the right to a fair trial, all of these are heavily impacted by new information and communications technologies. While there have been many long-standing debates about the management of key Internet resources and the legitimacy of rules applicable to the Internet–from legal norms to soft law, from standards to code–it is only more recently that these debates have been explicitly framed in terms of human rights. The scholarly field that has grown in response to these debates is highly interdisciplinary and draws from law, political …
Resources:[PDF] from archive.org
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Animal Expectations: Intelligible Classification of Self-Driving Cars
2018
Ben Wagner, Jon Crowcroft
Available at SSRN 3232047
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Jon Crowcroft
Publication date:08/14/2018
Journal:Available at SSRN 3232047
Description:One of the main challenges with self-driving cars are the outlandish human expectation associated with them. Part of this challenge refers to the mental models associated with understandings of machine “learning” and artificial “intelligence”, which are typically associated with human learning and intelligence. Another key challenge is related to the way in which these systems are marketed, sold as ‘self-driving systems’ or ‘autopilots’ which misrepresent the actual technical capacities of the system and particularly their ability to function autonomously. To consumers, saying these systems are ‘Level 2’self-driving systems is meaningless. Thus, we instead propose a mandatory classification scheme based on the animal world to set appropriate expectations of self-driving vehicles. In this scheme, different levels of automation would be associated with similar levels of animal intelligence. This would help set consumer expectations more accurately and ensure an increase in safety while using self-driving cars. It also provides for a fantastic opportunity for community-led certification and generation of appropriate imagery. For example, Level 2 autonomous vehicles could most appropriately be described as being driven by ‘worm intelligence.’Thus vehicles driving at this level such with a Tesla AutoPilot or a Nissan ProPilot system would require a large sticker stating ‘Tesla AutoPilot brought to you by worm intelligence’together with the picture of a worm affixed on the outside of the vehicle. Successive levels of automated vehicles could then have different appropriately selected animals associated with them to combat false advertising claims and ensure …
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Free Expression?
2018
BEN WAGNER
Digital Dominance: The Power of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple, 220
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Authors:BEN WAGNER
Publication date:05/08/2018
Journal:Digital Dominance: The Power of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple
Pages:220
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Description:The public sphere and free expression have always been deeply intertwined. The first Habermasian imaginaries of what a public sphere might look like stem from a period in which crown copyright was being loosened, leading to a new flourishing of debate around key political issues (Calhoun 1992, 14). To write about free expression is thus never just about censorship and the limitation of speech but also about the societies enabled through free and open discourse, for which the public sphere is just one of many metaphors. The creation of speech spaces—wide or narrow—in which debate can flourish and narratives develop is at the core of the idea of freedom of expression (Wagner 2016b). Within the academic debate on free expression, far too much emphasis is placed on the edges of such speech spaces—that is, what the boundaries of free expression are—and not enough on the core, the speech that free expression enables. This chapter attempts to develop a narrative focused more on enabling free debates and expansive speech spaces, rather than focusing narrowly on the exact limitations and the cases of content that are limited. It is argued in the following that a considerable number of the challenges related to
Cited by:1
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Networked publics and digital contention: The Politics of everyday life in Tunisia
2017
Ben Wagner
Mediterranean Politics 22 (4), 555-556
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:10/02/2017
Journal:Mediterranean Politics
Volume:22
Issue:4
Pages:555-556
Publisher:Routledge
Description:Politics of Everyday Life in Tunisia provides some excellent respite from stories of ‘noble activists’(2015: 201) and ‘heroic technologies’(2015: 201). instead, Zayani provides a deep and rich empirical narrative that maps out in considerable detail the politics of the tunisian transition and the history of digital activism in tunisia. His work is reminiscent of that of laryssa chomiak’s work on Everyday Politics in Modern Tunisia (2011) and openly acknowledges many of the shortcomings in scholarship of this field, where ‘the centrality of technical innovation to political change in the arab world stands in stark contrast to the predominant narrative of only a few years ago, which emphasized the region’s aversion to change’(Zayani 2015: 3) it is in front of this backdrop that Zayani paints a rich empirical canvas covering both everyday politics in modern tunisia and an attempt to understand its ‘authoritarian architecture’(Zayani …
Cited by:1
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Digital communications and social networks: Co-evolution of digital activism and repression during the Arab Uprisings
2017
Ben Wagner
Routledge Handbook of Mediterranean Politics, 371-381
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:08/14/2017
Journal:Routledge Handbook of Mediterranean Politics
Pages:371-381
Publisher:Routledge
Description:Projection and reality of the Arab Uprisings or ‘Arab Spring’ as they are sometimes termed while already high have seldom been more contested than in considering the role of social media and digital technologies. ‘Twitter and Facebook revolutions’ abound in popular discourse and even in some scholarship, although the overwhelming majority of academic scholars working on this topic reject such notions. Moreover the specific configuration of various media and communications technology ecosystems across the Middle East and North Africa needs to be considered. These include as the historic predominance of Egyptian television and language, the rise of the prominence of regional satellite television in recent years and rampant censorship and surveillance across almost all forms of media and communication from the Internet, to television and newspapers. The chapter will trace some of the basic questions …
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International Cyber Policy and Transatlantic Relations: Making States Responsible for Their Activities in Cyberspace
2017
Annegret Bendiek, Ben Wagner
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Authors:Annegret Bendiek, Ben Wagner
Publication date:06/01/2017
Description:Cyberwar continues to be a hot topic in many of the discussions about the future of warfare. Yet despite the persistent debate about warfare on the Internet, it is questionable whether cyberwar has taken place in the past or is likely to take place in future. Ever since states engaged in international security policy have they been caught in the security dilemma. That dilemma has triggered arms races and repeatedly led to military confrontations. Since the Second World War, the international community has made significant progress towards taming the security dilemma by establishing arms control treaties, trust-building mechanisms, and a dense network of cooperation. The rise of offensive cyber operations today threatens to tear down those mechanisms and to introduce a renaissance of the security dilemma. The only way to prevent this from happening is to build norms and institutions that promote state responsibility and focus on “deterrence by resilience.”
Resources:[PDF] from carleton.ca
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A typology of cybersecurity and public-private partnerships in the context of the EU
2017
Raphael Bossong, Ben Wagner
Crime, Law and Social Change 67 (3), 265-288
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Authors:Raphael Bossong, Ben Wagner
Publication date:04/01/2017
Journal:Crime, Law and Social Change
Volume:67
Issue:3
Pages:265-288
Publisher:Springer Netherlands
Description:Current discussions on security on the Internet mostly revolve around the necessity and limits of public action in the face of a decentralised and privately owned or operated space [1, 2]. Unsurprisingly, the question of public authority particularly comes to the fore in matters of security. The original vision of an entirely self-regulated as well as resilient, decentralised Internet has come under severe stress due to structural vulnerabilities beyond the reach of any individual actor [3]. These vulnerabilities are increasingly exploited by a growing number of harmful actors, which are also increasingly putting their services and malware products on sale and wide access. This calls for more multi-faced and coordinated governance approaches to improve security on the Internet that is typically termed ‘cybersecurity’[4]. 1 In short, to provide cybersecurity public and private actors clearly need to engage with each other [5]. This is …
Cited by:56
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Kommunikation konstituiert Gesellschaft: Warum es Zeit ist, den Zugang zum freien Internet als Menschenrecht anzuerkennen
2016
Ben Wagner
zfmr
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:10/12/2016
Journal:zfmr
Description:Bislang gibt es keinen, Cyber-Gesellschaftsvertrag zwischen Service-Anbietern, Internetkonzernen und Internetnutzern im Cyberraum. Fakt ist indes, dass Internetfirmen wie Google, Amazon oder Facebook jeden Tag Daten sammeln, und zwar insbesondere persönliche Daten, die im übertragenen Sinn eine Bezahlung für Internetleistungen sind. Die Internetnutzer haben für diese Dienstleistungen in der Regel keinen
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Open Letter to the European Commission-On the Importance of Preserving the Consistency and Integrity of the EU Acquis Relating to Content Monitoring within the Information Society
2016
Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon, Eleonora Rosati, Matthias C Kettemann, Ben Wagner, Karmen Tur…
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Authors:Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon, Eleonora Rosati, Matthias C Kettemann, Ben Wagner, Karmen Turk, Aleksandra Kuczerawy, Giovanni Sartor, Paul Polanski, Maurizio Borghi, Félix Tréguer, Melanie Dulong de Rosnay, Andrés Guadamuz, Miquel Peguera, Alberto Bellan, Maria Lillà Montagnani, Alexandre Tourette, Benjamin Farrand, Eoin O'Dell, Christina Angelopoulos, Martin Husovec, Christophe Roquilly, Dirk Voorhoof, Jef Ausloos, Peggy Valcke, Eva Lievens, Daniel Westman, Federica Giovanella, Nicolas Jondet, Tito Rendas, Andrej Savin, Daria Gęsicka, Henrike Maier, Maciej Siwicki, Betty Tsakarestou, Georgios Doukidis, Spyros Polykalas, Agisilaos Konidaris, Lilian Edwards, Alison Knight, Sebastian Felix Schwemer
Publication date:09/30/2016
Description:The recent developments, starting with the Communication on Online Platforms and the Digital Single Market Opportunities and Challenges for Europe released on 25/05/2016, followed by a series of proposals (Proposal for a Directive amending the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright in the Digital Single Market) and soft law initiatives (the EU Internet Forum against Terrorism and the Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online) seriously put at risk the consistency and integrity of the EU acquis related to the information society. A key component of this acquis is the prohibition of general monitoring obligations to the benefit of providers of intermediary services. It is a means to achieve at least two central objectives: the encouragement of innovation as well as the protection of fundamental rights of all Internet users, namely the rights protected by Articles 8 and 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Yet, the proposed Copyright Directive, in particular, seems to negatively affect both the domain and effect of Article 15 of the E-commerce Directive. The signatories of this open letter therefore urge the European Commission to take into account the human rights dimension of Article 15 of the E-commerce Directive, as made explicit by the Court of the Justice of the European Union, and to make sure its implications are carefully examined across sectors.
Cited by:6
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Symbolic Power and Legitimacy Theatre: Constructing Legitimacy in Global Internet Governance
2016
Ben Wagner
Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content, 157-174
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:09/03/2016
Journal:Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content
Pages:157-174
Publisher:Springer International Publishing
Description:How can this global system of expression governance be justified? On which actors and institutions does it base its legitimacy? How can it continue to govern internationally, despite on-going predominance by a small set of countries and corporations? This chapter will argue that the picture, painted to the public of Global Internet Governance, has little to do with the actual governance practices. In conclusion this chapter will suggest that multi-stakeholder model of Internet Governance has devolved into a theatrical performance. It is practised at international conferences and events around the world and it has become common for all actors to pay lip service to their support of it. However, it has thus far had little influence on actual practices of Internet Governance.
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Global Free Expression-Governing the Boundaries of Internet Content
2016
Ben Wagner
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:09/02/2016
Publisher:Springer International Publishing
Description:As I descended down the rabbit hole to write this PhD thesis that eventually became a book, I have struggled to find a narrative that could encompass the many issues involved. What started as an interest in the relationship between speech and power has evolved to encompass the absurd claims made on the ‘right to speech’in everyday life and their powerful weight in political discourse. It continues to baffle me that so few social scientists have embarked on a deeper study of speech and speech norms, particularly the ‘critical’ones who claim to be analysing discourse. While I am by no means the first person to work this out, 1 I’m surprised that there has been so little practical research on the boundaries of possible human expression. All that Internet technology does is to provide these borders of what can be said online as easily accessible precoded lists. The boundaries themselves have always existed. While …
Cited by:39
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Algorithmic regulation and the global default: Shifting norms in Internet technology
2016
Ben Wagner
Etikk i Praksis-Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics (1), 5-13
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:05/09/2016
Journal:Etikk i Praksis-Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics
Issue:1
Pages:5-13
Description:The world we inhabit is surrounded by ‘coded objects’ from credit cards to airplanes to telephones (Kitchin and Dodge 2011). Sadly the governance mechanisms of many of these technologies are only poorly understood, leading to the common premise that such technologies are ‘neutral’(Brey 2005; Winner 1980), thereby obscuring normative and power-related consequences of their design (Bauman et al. 2014; Denardis 2012). In order to unpack supposedly neutral technologies, the following paper will try and foreground two of key questions around the technologies used on the global Internet: 1) how are content regulatory regimes governed and 2) how are the algorithms embedded in software governed? The following paper will explore these two aspects in turn, before drawing conclusions on understanding the normative frameworks embedded in technological systems.
Cited by:31
Resources:[PDF] from ntnu.no
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What Does Cyber Do? Epistemology and Functional Logic of Cyber
2016
Ben Wagner, Kilian Vieth
Zeitschrift für Außen-und Sicherheitspolitik 9, 213-222
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Kilian Vieth
Publication date:04/01/2016
Journal:Zeitschrift für Außen-und Sicherheitspolitik
Volume:9
Pages:213-222
Publisher:Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
Description:This article studies the operational logic of cyber in the area of power and space. Based on a short explanation of the origins of cyber and cyberspace, we show in what ways cyber and security are connected. We analyse that, due to the advanced securitisation of the word cyber, we can today witness a process of cyberfication that functions as securitisation. Therefore, we advocate a shift in research towards the practices of cyber, in order to better understand its significance and effects. In conclusion, the linguistic, institutional and practical considerations about cyber are summarised in five functions which could serve as a foundation for further analyses of cyber.
Cited by:2
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Confronting the Internet’s Dark Side: Moral and Social Responsibility on the Free Highway
2016
Ben Wagner
Jahrbuch für Recht und Ethik/Annual Review of Law and Ethics 24, 495-496
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:01/01/2016
Journal:Jahrbuch für Recht und Ethik/Annual Review of Law and Ethics
Volume:24
Pages:495-496
Publisher:Duncker & Humblot GmbH
Description:Cohen-Almagor, a new book which attempts to provide a philosophically sound critique of all things nefarious on the Internet. From child sexual abuse material, to racism, hate speech and bullying, there are numerous examples of bad things happening on the Internet that are discussed in the book. The author calls upon Internet users (or Netusers as they are termed in the book), states and, private companies to take their respective moral and social responsibility seriously in order to make the Internet a better place. Without this kind of “responsible cooperation, Net abusers will prevail and our children will suffer”(Cohen-Almagor 2015: 304). Having spent large parts of my academic career working on the boundaries of freedom of expression, I find the ideas discussed in this book very appealing and they make the book interesting to read. Often they manage to elucidate the conflicts we face in moral and ethical …
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Security v access: The impact of mobile network shutdowns, case study Telenor Pakistan
2015
Lucy Purdon, Arsalan Ashraf, Ben Wagner
Internet Policy Observatory Retrieved October 18, 2020
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Authors:Lucy Purdon, Arsalan Ashraf, Ben Wagner
Publication date:09/01/2015
Journal:Internet Policy Observatory Retrieved October
Volume:18
Pages:2020
Description:Network shutdowns impacting an entire country are now almost non-existent, but the practice of shutting down communications in certain cities or areas of a country, or suspending certain services continues globally. This has happened over the past decade or so for a variety of reasons, sometimes due to national security concerns but also to prevent the organisation of protests or the spread of civil unrest. Due to the extremely sensitive nature of the subject, most telecommunications operators rarely address publicly the issue of network shutdowns and associated policies. Therefore, relatively little is known about the reasons for shutdowns, the mechanism through which governments affect such shutdowns, or the economic and social impacts of shutdowns on telecommunications companies, users, and society at large. Without such information, there is little opportunity to understand the avenues for prevention, mitigation and redress for business, users, or civil society.
Cited by:21
Resources:[PDF] from core.ac.uk
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Between international relations and arms controls: Understanding export controls for surveillance technologies
2015
Ben Wagner, Joanna Bronowicka
Political Science Revolution 3, 153-65
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Joanna Bronowicka
Publication date:08/01/2015
Journal:Political Science Revolution
Volume:3
Pages:153-65
Description:Export Controls are becoming an increasingly important dimension of international relations, however there is still relatively little literature on their usage and implementation. The following article attempts to show the development and problems surrounding export controls in a new area: surveillance technologies. These have recently been integrated into international frameworks for export controls, bringing with them a row of challenges and questions for policy makers. Based on extensive conversations with practitioners and key experts in the field, this paper attempts to sketch out key ideas and solutions in this area as well as important responses that have been developed to (perceived) challenges.
Cited by:4
Resources:[PDF] from icm.edu.pl
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Surveillance and censorship: The impact of technologies on human rights
2015
Ben Wagner, Joanna Bronowicka, Cathleen Berger, Thomas Behrndt
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Joanna Bronowicka, Cathleen Berger, Thomas Behrndt
Publication date:04/16/2015
Publisher:< bound method Organization. get_name_with_acronym of< Organization: European Parliamentary Research Service>>
Description:As human lives transition online, so do human rights. The main challenge for the European Union and other actors is to transition all human rights to the digital sphere. This report argues that the human rights-based approach can be helpful in focusing discussions about security on individuals rather than states. It provides an overview of countries and companies that pose risks to human rights in the digital sphere. It lists the most relevant international laws and standards, technical standards, business guidelines, Internet principles and policy initiatives that have been crucial in transitioning the human rights regime to the digital sphere. It also analyses the impact of recent EU actions related to Internet and human rights issues. It concludes that different elements of EU strategic policy on human rights and digital policy need be better integrated and coordinated to ensure that technologies have a positive impact on …
Cited by:12
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Seeing Like a Data Set: Reimagining Security Through Big Data
2015
Thomas Behrndt, Ben Wagner
Jahrbuch für Recht und Ethik/Annual Review of Law and Ethics, 129-147
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Authors:Thomas Behrndt, Ben Wagner
Publication date:01/01/2015
Journal:Jahrbuch für Recht und Ethik/Annual Review of Law and Ethics
Pages:129-147
Publisher:Duncker & Humblot
Description:Due to the onset of big data we can no longer speak of risk in the classical sense. Risk has become detached from the notion of probability, which creates general truths about an (average) population. Instead, the turn toward after risk means standing in relation to a particularized and perpetually singular subject. In the context of big data and its ramifications it becomes imperative to ask how data and new security practices implicate our understanding of security itself, as well as its operational rationale, and what kind of subjects are being produced by it. In response this paper asks: How does' big data'as a conceptual category influence the way in which security operates as a governing technology? In order to answer this question, the paper relates the phenomenon of'big data'to the conceptual discussion on risk and security, based on a reading of Ewald, Scott and Hacking. The paper will provide a conceptual …
Cited by:2
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Internet & Human Rights in Foreign Policy: comparing narratives in the US and EU Internet Governance agenda
2014
Ben Wagner, Kirsten Gollatz, Andrea Calderaro
Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Research Paper No. RSCAS 86
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Kirsten Gollatz, Andrea Calderaro
Publication date:09/01/2014
Journal:Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Research Paper No. RSCAS
Volume:86
Description:The intricate relationship between Internet, on the one hand, and Human Rights, on the other, is increasingly becoming relevant in foreign policy. Discussions are animated by different actors, providing contributions from multiple perspectives, yet the debate on Internet and Human Rights is still fragmented and has not evolved into a unified agenda. This paper explores this on-going debate over competing perspectives, and frames the current discussion on Internet and Human Rights in foreign policy by providing an overview of the key governmental conferences addressing the Internet and Human rights over the first 3 years (2010-2012) since the beginning of the debate. It then proceeds to analyze key narratives, stakeholders and agendas within these conferences, as well as questions of power and legitimacy. Finally, it argues that the conferences draw from a common discourse and language, but are also representing divergent agendas between stakeholders and states.
Cited by:4
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The politics of internet filtering: The United Kingdom and Germany in a comparative perspective
2014
Ben Wagner
Politics 34 (1), 58-71
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:02/01/2014
Journal:Politics
Volume:34
Issue:1
Pages:58-71
Publisher:SAGE Publications
Description:Debates around appropriate regulation of Internet content have become increasingly common in liberal democracies, despite the fact that relatively little is known about the actual processes of Internet content regulation. The following article studies the institutional development of content regulatory institutions in the United Kingdom and Germany to explore this phenomenon. It will be argued that the divergent paths of Internet filtering in both countries can be understood by looking at the development of the relevant regulatory institutions. As most Internet filtering and content regulation is implemented through private actors, the article will explore the relationship between public and private actors in both countries in the evolving regulatory debate. In this context it can be argued that the ability of the UK and Germany to enforce their own policy goals depends primarily on the ability of the state to make credible …
Cited by:31
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Finding a formula for Brazil: Representation and legitimacy in internet governance
2014
Milton Mueller, Ben Wagner
Internet Policy Observatory 8
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Authors:Milton Mueller, Ben Wagner
Publication date:01/01/2014
Journal:Internet Policy Observatory
Volume:8
Description:In the summer of 2013, Edward Snowden’s extraordinary leaks about US National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance destabilized the foundations of international Internet governance. Speaking at the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2013, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff denounced NSA spying in the strongest terms, and, together with ICANN, started planning conference in Sao Paulo in April 2014 to reinvent Internet governance. This article analyses these events and tries to make sense of what they might mean for the future of global Internet governance. It begins by looking at how the Brazil-ICANN initiative alters the political alignment of actors in the world. Second, it places these developments into a longer historical context, showing how it echoes recurring attempts to develop legitimacy and principles for Internet governance. Third, it applies critical political analysis to the process of organizing and managing the summit itself, with a particular focus on legitimacy and representation. After exploring these arrangements, the paper makes prognoses about impacts and outcomes of the meeting in Brazil.
Cited by:33
Resources:[PDF] from core.ac.uk
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Governing internet expression: How public and private regulation shape expression governance
2013
Ben Wagner
Journal of Information Technology & Politics 10 (4), 389-403
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:10/01/2013
Journal:Journal of Information Technology & Politics
Volume:10
Issue:4
Pages:389-403
Publisher:Routledge
Description:Governing public expression has historically constituted a key element of public policy, and in the 20th and the 21st century has remained an important tool for both state and nonstate actors. The following article will look at two specific cases of expression governance—the content regulatory regimes in the U.S. and on Facebook—in order to understand how the process of content regulation plays out in public and private contexts. This institutional distinction between public and private, and the manner in which content regulatory practices traverse it, has important implications for both outcomes and process of content regulation.
Cited by:42
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The Constitution of the Internet the EU needs to develop a common Strategy for Cyber Security
2012
Annegret Bendiek, Ben Wagner
Internationale Politik 67 (6), 85-92
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Authors:Annegret Bendiek, Ben Wagner
Publication date:11/01/2012
Journal:Internationale Politik
Volume:67
Issue:6
Pages:85-92
Publisher:BIELEFELDER VERLAGSANSTALT GMBH
Cited by:10
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After the Arab spring: New paths for human rights and the Internet in European Foreign Policy
2012
Ben Wagner
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:07/04/2012
Publisher:< bound method Organization. get_name_with_acronym of< Organization: European Parliamentary Research Service>>
Description:Following the Arab Spring there have been numerous public debates about appropriate policy responses to events in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). One of the largest public debates has centred on communications and the Internet and attempted to understand how EU policy could have prevented, mitigated or avoided some of the negative effects of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) during the Arab Spring. The following briefing paper provides an overview of the actions taken by governments in the MENA region to limit the positive impact of ICTs and the use of ICTs for harmful purposes. It then looks at key cases in the MENA region, analysing the events in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Libya and Bahrain before and during the Arab Spring. It then develops specific policy recommendations for European foreign policy, which are categorised by priority into short, medium, and long-term …
Cited by:20
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Push-button-autocracy in Tunisia: Analysing the role of Internet infrastructure, institutions and international markets in creating a Tunisian censorship regime
2012
Ben Wagner
Telecommunications Policy 36 (6), 484-492
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:07/01/2012
Journal:Telecommunications Policy
Volume:36
Issue:6
Pages:484-492
Publisher:Pergamon
Description:Internet censorship and control have been commonplace in Tunisia since the Internet became available to then public in 1996. It was not until the last days of the Jasmine revolution in January 2011 that the Tunisian government shut down the censorship regime, raising numerous questions about Internet censorship in Tunisia. This article will look at how former Tunisian president Ben Ali was able to shut down the Internet censorship regime within a matter of hours. In order to answer this question, it looks at the history of the Tunisian Internet and its Internet censorship regime, before analysing Internet architecture, Internet institutions, functional differentiation between elements of the regime and the role of international technology markets. Each of these factors contributes to the overall censorship regime and helps understand how former President Ben Ali was able to shutdown Internet censorship within a matter of …
Cited by:50
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Exporting censorship and surveillance technology
2012
Ben Wagner
Netherlands: Humanist Institute for Co-operation with Developing Countries (Hivos). Acc…
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:01/01/2012
Journal:Netherlands: Humanist Institute for Co-operation with Developing Countries (Hivos). Accessed July
Volume:7
Pages:2014
Cited by:29
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The Arab Spring|” I Have Understood You”: The Co-evolution of Expression and Control on the Internet, Television and Mobile Phones During the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia
2011
Ben Wagner
International Journal of Communication 5, 8
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:09/02/2011
Journal:International Journal of Communication
Volume:5
Pages:8
Description:The mass demonstrations that led to the Jasmine Revolution in late 2010 and early 2011 have radically changed the media and communications landscape in Tunisia. All forms of information technology were until recently either heavily regulated by the Tunisian state or were owned by individuals with close links to then-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. This analysis looks at regulatory regimes across three media and communications technologies during the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia—Internet, television and mobile phones—and shows that the regulatory regimes of media and communications technologies co-evolved with the protests. As expression about public protests became increasingly pervasive within these media, efforts to control them became increasingly restrictive. Thus changes in the media and communications landscape are discussed in the context of the co-evolution of regulatory regimes.
Cited by:50
Resources:[PDF] from ijoc.org
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Deep Packet Inspection and Internet Censorship: International Convergence on an’Integrated Technology of Control’
2009
Ben Wagner
Available at SSRN 2621410
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Authors:Ben Wagner
Publication date:06/23/2009
Journal:Available at SSRN 2621410
Description:The academic debate on deep packet inspection (DPI) centres on methods of network management and copyright protection and is directly linked to a wider debate on freedom of speech on the Internet. The debate is deeply rooted in an Anglo-Saxon perspective of the Internet and is frequently depicted as a titanic struggle for the right to fundamentally free and unfettered access to the Internet.
Cited by:23
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Alexander Wendt’s auto-critique and social constructivism
2008
Ben Wagner, Jonas Gebauer
Available at SSRN 2621415
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Jonas Gebauer
Publication date:06/22/2008
Journal:Available at SSRN 2621415
Description:Alexander Wendts Auto-Critique of his Social Theory of International Politics has significant implications on social constructivism. By using quantum physics as the basis for this theory rather than classical physics, he creates a framework for the reformulation of social constructivism and social sciences in general. This paper will first discuss the mind body problem and look some of the solutions that have been proposed for it in IR.
Cited by:5
Resources:[PDF] from ssrn.com
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Humans in the Loop: Exploring the Challenges of Human Participation in Automated Decision-Making Systems
Ben Wagner, Johanne Kuebler, Monika Zalnieriute
Frontiers in Political Science 7, 1611563
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Johanne Kuebler, Monika Zalnieriute
Journal:Frontiers in Political Science
Volume:7
Pages:1611563
Publisher:Frontiers
Description:"Human in the loop" (HITL) refers to a process or system design where human oversight, intervention, and collaboration are integrated into Automated Decision Making Systems (ADMS) at strategic points (Mosqueira-Rey et al, 2023). The apparent paradox of inserting human oversight into systems which use algorithms, data analysis, and predefined rules to make decisions with minimal or no human intervention, stems from the realization that gains in efficiency are offset with a potential for serious harm in the instances when ADMS err. Errors can occur through bias amplification in predictive systems, a lack of contextual awareness in high-stakes scenarios and an automated system’s inability to recognize outliers (Angwin & Larson, 2022). HITL is seen as a critical ethical safeguard against AI systems making consequential decisions without appropriate scrutiny. Many emerging AI regulations and frameworks (EU AI …
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BEING PROFILED: COGITAS ERGO SUM| LEGAL AND POLITICAL THEORY IN DATA-DRIVEN ENVIRONMENTS artificial intelligence. To provide just one example, here the position of the European …
BEN WAGNER
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Authors:BEN WAGNER
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INTERNET PRIVACY A N D FREEDOM OF EXPRESSI O N
Toby Mendel, Andrew Puddephatt, Ben Wagner, Dixie Hawtin
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Authors:Toby Mendel, Andrew Puddephatt, Ben Wagner, Dixie Hawtin
Description:The need for privacy is deep-rooted in human beings. In its essential form, privacy is based on the notion of personal integrity and dignity. However, this is also hard to define with any agreed precision–in different contexts it embraces the right to freedom of thought and conscience, the right to be alone, the right to control one’s own body, the right to protect your reputation, the right to a family life, the right to a sexuality of your own definition. In addition these meanings vary from context to context. Despite its ubiquity there is no one definition of privacy that is universally understood in the same way. Privacy in the modern world has two dimensions–firstly, issues to do with the identity of a person and secondly, the way their personal information is handled. Understandings of privacy have long been shaped by available technologies. At the most obvious level privacy involves restricting invasions of physical space, and …
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Morocco’s Governance of Cities and Borders
Sylvia I Bergh, Issam Cherrat, Francesco Colin, Katharina Natter, Ben Wagner
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Authors:Sylvia I Bergh, Issam Cherrat, Francesco Colin, Katharina Natter, Ben Wagner
Description:Owing to advances around artificial intelligence (AI), such as computer vision and facial recognition, digital surveillance technologies are becoming cheaper and easier to use as everyday tools of governance worldwide. 1 Typically developed by companies and governments in the Global North and tested in the Global South or on the ‘periphery’of powerful actors, 2 they are becoming key tools of governance in both democratic and authoritarian contexts. 3 As the AI Global Surveillance Index
Resources:[PDF] from academia.edu
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LE RESPECT DE LA VIE PRIVÉE SUR L’INTERNET ET LA LIBERTÉ D’EXPRESSION
Toby Mendel, Andrew Puddephatt, Ben Wagner, Dixie Hawtin, Natalia Torres
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Authors:Toby Mendel, Andrew Puddephatt, Ben Wagner, Dixie Hawtin, Natalia Torres
Description:La nécessité du respect de la vie privée est profondément ancrée chez les êtres humains. Dans sa forme essentielle, le respect de la vie privée est fondé sur la notion d’intégrité et de dignité personnelle. Toutefois, cela est aussi dif cile à dé nir avec un degré convenu de précision–dans différents contextes, cela englobe le droit à la liberté de pensée et de conscience, le droit d’être seul, le droit de contrôler son propre corps, le droit de protéger sa réputation, le droit à une vie familiale, le droit à une sexualité qu’on a soi-même choisie. De plus, ces notions varient d’un contexte à un autre. En dépit de son ubiquité, il n’y a pas de dé nition de la vie privée qui soit universellement comprise de la même façon. Dans le monde moderne, la vie privée comporte deux dimensions–premièrement les questions relatives à l’identité d’une personne et deuxièmement la façon dont les informations personnelles sont traitées. L’idée …
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Common Narrative-Divergent Agendas
Ben Wagner, Kirsten Gollatz, Andrea Calderaro
International Conference on, 19
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Authors:Ben Wagner, Kirsten Gollatz, Andrea Calderaro
Journal:International Conference on
Pages:19
Description:The following paper provides an overview of the key conferences on the Internet an human rights and the Internet in the last 3 years. It then proceeds to analyse key narratives, stakeholders and agendas within these conferences, as well as questions of power and legitimacy. It will argue that the conference draw from a common discourse and language but are actually representing divergent agendas between stakeholders and states. This tension will be discussed throughout the article, before the main reasons for this are considered in the conclusion.
Resources:[PDF] from psu.edu
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