Session
Organizer 1: Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Organizer 2: Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Organizer 3: Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Organizer 2: Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Organizer 3: Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 1: Maciej Gron, Technical Community, Eastern European Group
Speaker 2: Angela Onyegbuna, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 3: Jeanette Hofmann, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4: Katsuhiko Takeda, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 5: Lubos Kuklis, Government, Eastern European Group
Speaker 6: David Miles, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Angela Onyegbuna, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 3: Jeanette Hofmann, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4: Katsuhiko Takeda, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 5: Lubos Kuklis, Government, Eastern European Group
Speaker 6: David Miles, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Format
Roundtable
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: A roundtable provides for best conditions for sharing knowledge and expertise of participants onsite and online. We will build the deliberations on experiences of users, representatives from online platforms and regulators having been confronted with various types of content and thus having dealt with the topic to be discussed themselves. Introduction: Overview on different approaches to deal with non-curated and illegal content and objectives to be achieved. Input: Speakers from the technical community, industry, civil society and government will bring in their expertise. Discussion: Participants and speakers will discuss the benefits and pitfalls of different strategies to address non-curated content on the one hand and to illegal content on the other. Participants will be encouraged to discuss technological approaches, policies and regulations as well as community-led efforts. Wrap-up: Summarising key takeaways and phrasing policy recommendations, including steps for governance and a regulatory framework to achieve the above mentioned benefits.
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: A roundtable provides for best conditions for sharing knowledge and expertise of participants onsite and online. We will build the deliberations on experiences of users, representatives from online platforms and regulators having been confronted with various types of content and thus having dealt with the topic to be discussed themselves. Introduction: Overview on different approaches to deal with non-curated and illegal content and objectives to be achieved. Input: Speakers from the technical community, industry, civil society and government will bring in their expertise. Discussion: Participants and speakers will discuss the benefits and pitfalls of different strategies to address non-curated content on the one hand and to illegal content on the other. Participants will be encouraged to discuss technological approaches, policies and regulations as well as community-led efforts. Wrap-up: Summarising key takeaways and phrasing policy recommendations, including steps for governance and a regulatory framework to achieve the above mentioned benefits.
Policy Question(s)
A. How to respect, protect and fulfil human rights in a community-led digital environment, giving a special focus to children as vulnerable group?
B. Does content moderation generally lead to some kind of censorship, and if monitoring and moderating content is dispensed of, how does that impact fighting illegal content like f.e. CSAM?
C. What governance structures and regulations are necessary to make a mix-methods approach successful?
What will participants gain from attending this session? This session has the objective to address an increasing amount of non-curated and/or illegal content on the Internet. Participants will get insights in policy frameworks of regulations, technological approaches to content moderation based on AI and discuss also benefits of community involvement. Key stakeholders will bring in their expertise in regard of benefits and disadvantages of various concepts and strategies to address mis- and disinformation, explore a mixed-methods approach and deliberate how to deal with accusations of censorship. Eventually at least a preliminary response to the following questions shall be achieved.
Description:
Repeated exposure to mis- and disinformation, false and fake news reduces the accuracy of people’s beliefs, it also decreases confidence in reliable sources. Content monitoring and moderation have been the instrument of choice when it comes to identify these types of content as well as to counteract illegal content for several years now. But, in January 2025 Meta announced fundamental changes to the way these phenomena are handled. Professional fact checking by external organisations shall be replaced by so called ‘Community Notes’, a concept that was formerly known as ‘Birdwatch’ on Twitter, and it is to be assumed that other platforms will follow the same path. The session will introduce different approaches to ensure reliability and quality of content on online platforms and discuss how the right to access to information and freedom of expression can best be guaranteed in an ever evolving digital environment. It will give special attention to vulnerable groups, e.g. children that may need provision and support in order to navigate safely and independently digital spaces and build their opinion on facts.
Repeated exposure to mis- and disinformation, false and fake news reduces the accuracy of people’s beliefs, it also decreases confidence in reliable sources. Content monitoring and moderation have been the instrument of choice when it comes to identify these types of content as well as to counteract illegal content for several years now. But, in January 2025 Meta announced fundamental changes to the way these phenomena are handled. Professional fact checking by external organisations shall be replaced by so called ‘Community Notes’, a concept that was formerly known as ‘Birdwatch’ on Twitter, and it is to be assumed that other platforms will follow the same path. The session will introduce different approaches to ensure reliability and quality of content on online platforms and discuss how the right to access to information and freedom of expression can best be guaranteed in an ever evolving digital environment. It will give special attention to vulnerable groups, e.g. children that may need provision and support in order to navigate safely and independently digital spaces and build their opinion on facts.
Expected Outcomes
1. Increased Knowledge and Awareness in regard of different strategies to address non-curated content of the flip-side type, i.e. mis- and disinformation, illegal content, false and fake news, etc.
2. Actionable steps forward in regard of how to activate and enable the community to make use of concepts like ‘community notes’ .
3. Identification of regulatory approaches to ensure universal access to reliable information for all and to avoid censorship.
Hybrid Format: Participants onsite and online will be enabled to bring their own perspective to the table based on their expertise and individual experiences. The following references which display a variety of perspectives on the issue of non-curated and of illegal content will be made available via the IGF website with links to the resources in advance, https://anti-rumour.eu/, https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/87882, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/20563051231179694. In addition, we will use a menti.com to gather feedback during the session to gain further insights from the community and on their readiness to engage in concepts like ‘community notes’. The onsite and the online moderator will support equal sharing of speaking slots among participants in the room and online, taking care of the chat as an additional channel for input.