AI, Media & Democracy Lab on MozFest on March 15

The AI, Media & Democracy Lab is organizing a workshop on MozFest on March 15, 2021 starting at 19:15 pm. Login to register here.

What would happen if Facebook or Google decided tomorrow to follow the Australian example and leave the Netherlands, say because they do not agree with the direction in which the debates around the Digital Service Acts are evolving? A thought experiment so far, and yet the experience of Australia and the powerplay between government and tech giants has shown us that it can become reality all of a sudden. Where would that leave governments and the Dutch news sector that in so many ways depend on the big tech companies – for visibility and access to readers, for advertising revenues, for tools and technology, as a data source for investigative journalism and funder of R&D?

With the help of this thought experiment, experts, together with the audience, will map the state of entanglement between platforms and news sector today, identify positive synergies between platforms & news, identify critical dependencies, and what the sector itself, as well as law & policy can do to prevent a second Australian showdown. The resulting insights will be used to draft suggestions for an innovation and R&D agenda.

The panel is co-organized by the Amsterdam Ai, Media & Democracy Lab  and the City of Amsterdam.

A conversation featuring Marietje Schaake (Stanford), Alexandra Borchardt (Reuters Institute, University of Oxford), Hella Hueck (Financieel Dagblad), Ger Baron (City of Amsterdam), Johan Oomen (Beeld & Geluid) & Mark Deuze (Journalism and Media Culture, UvA), as well as the City of Amsterdam and the AI, Media & Democracy Lab.