[Air-L] CFP - GIGARTS 2020: Online Information Governance. 7-8 May 2020, Vienna

[Mauro SANTANIELLO]

Dear AoIR members,

The Fourth European Multidisciplinary Conference on Global Internet
Governance Actors, Regulations, Transactions and Strategies *(GIG-ARTS)*
will be held in Vienna, 7-8 May 2020.

The general theme of this edition is "*Online Information Governance - More
Expression, Less Freedom?*"

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

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

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

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


*Theme rationale and main topics*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Mauro Santaniello (PhD)
*Internet & Communication Policy Centre *
*Department of Political and Social Studies *
*Università degli Studi di Salerno *
*Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132 84084 Fisciano (SA) - Italy *

*E. msantaniello at unisa.it <msantaniello at unisa.it> *
*W. http://docenti.unisa.it/mauro.santaniello
<http://docenti.unisa.it/mauro.santaniello>*
*Skype: internetpolicy *
*T. twitter.com/webvoodoo <http://twitter.com/webvoodoo>*