Digitalisation Research and Network Meeting (DigiMeet 2025)

Platform Governance & Power: Between control, ethics and societal dynamics

The Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt), the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS), the Leibniz Institute for Media Research – Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI), and the Weizenbaum Institute (WI), invite doctoral and postdoctoral researchers to present their work at the joint Digitalisation Research and Network Meeting – DigiMeet.

DigiMeet will take place virtually on 06 November 2025, 9:30 am – 4:00 pm CET. Its special topic for 2025 is Platform Governance & Power.

The main purpose of this interdisciplinary event is to provide a forum for early career researchers with a focus on digitalisation-related topics. DigiMeet offers opportunities for networking, discussing results and ideas, and gathering inspiration for new and ideally collaborative research projects.

Programme:

09:30 – 10:00: Welcome and Introduction, Greeting by Wolfgang Schulz (Director HBI)

10:00 – 10:45: Keynote by Tobias Mast, Head of the research programme “Regulatory Structures and the Emergence of Rules in Online Spaces” at HBI, and member of the advisory board of the German Coordination Office for Digital Services at Bundesnetzagentur.

11:00 – 12:30: Parallel Sessions

Track 1: Platform regulation and community building – Regulatory frameworks (Chair: Matthias Kettemann, HBI)

• Tamás Pongó, University of Szeged (HUN): “The human rights responsibility of social media platforms – Meta and the Oversight Board”
• Sophia Salziger, University of Groningen (NED): “Balancing democratic values and accountability within the CJEU’s civil liability regime for non-material damage under Article 82 GDPR”
• Vincent Heimburg, Victorine Verlooy, Maximilian Schreieck & Manuel Wiesche, TU Dortmund (GER) & University of Innsbruck (AUT): “The Gatekeeper’s Gambit: How Platforms Strategically Adapt to the Digital Markets Act”
• Sophia Graf, WI/FU Berlin (GER): “Governing synthetic non-consensual intimate imagery on major adult platforms in the EU”

Track 2: Platforms as shapers and instruments of governance – Opportunities and challenges of AI (Chair: Tim Majchrzak, Director CAIS)

• Adrian Schadl, KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (GER): “Generative AI as the New Complementor: Transforming Power Relations and Innovation Governance in Platforms”
• Bárbara Maria Farias Mota, FU Berlin (GER): “The AI Media Divide: How Global North and South News Frame Risk and Promise”
• Nils Riekers, Marten Risius & Tong Chen, HS Neu-Ulm (GER) & University of Queensland (AUS): “Explainable Decision-Making for Hate Speech Moderation via AI Multi-Agent Systems”
• Maurice Stenzel, HIIG (GER): “Governing Moderation through Codes of Conduct: Co-Creating a Soft Law Framework for Platform Governance”

12:30 – 13:30: Lunch Break

13:30 – 13:45: Kick-Start Afternoon Sessions with Martin Krzywdzinski (Director WI)

13:45 – 15:15: Parallel Sessions

Track 1: Platform regulation and community building – Networks and discourses (Chair: Andreas Jungherr, bidt)

• Marcus Bösch, University of Münster (GER): “Vibes, TikTok Edits, and Audio Memes: Participatory Propaganda in the 2025 German Federal Election Campaign”
• Regina Cazzamatta, University of Erfurt (GER): “From Moderation to Chaos: Meta’s Fact-Checking Fallout—A Win for Free Speech or a Loss for Truth?”
• Lama Ranjous, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg (GER): “Social Media Platforms: From Carriers of Activism to Documenting and Mediating Violence in Syria”
• Philipp Riederle, OII/University of Oxford (UK): “Digital Platform Interoperability – Strengthening User Choice, Reducing Platform Power?”

Track 2: Platforms as shapers and instruments of governance – Platforms as governance facilitators (Chair: Annett Schulze, WI)

• Richard Uth, Julian Vangheluwe & Markus Langer, University of Freiburg (GER): “AI in Charge of Our Health – How Interaction, Autonomy, and Decision Focus Shape User Responses”
• Frederike Eulitz, Jonathan Jensen, Jörg Claussen and Tobias Kretschmer, LMU Munich (GER): “How Online Labor Markets Shape Participation Through Governance: Evidence from Upwork“
• Beltsazar Krisetya, University College London (UK): “Supporting Procedures, Avoiding Politics: Platform (Dis)Engagement in Indonesia’s 2024 Election”
• Timon Sengewald, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg (GER): “Empowering Municipal Resilience: Digital Platforms for Citizen-Driven Innovation in Crisis Management”

15:30 – 16:00: Group debate – Visions for the ideal platform of the future

16:00: Farewell and End

Registration:

Please register via: https://eveeno.com/618998500

About the convening institutions:

bidt: As an institute of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt) contributes to a better understanding of the developments and challenges in digital transformation. In doing so, we lay the foundations to shape the digital future in dialogue with society responsibly and for the common good.

CAIS: The Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) in North Rhine-Westphalia promotes the active shaping of the social, political, economic, and cultural changes that digitalization brings about. The Center sees itself as a place for innovative interdisciplinary research and as a source of inspiration for a critical public that wants to find agreement on models for a self-determined life in the digital society.

HBI: The Leibniz Institute for Media Research – Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) examines media change and the related structural shifts in public communication. It combines basic research and research on knowledge transfer from cross-media, interdisciplinary and independent scholarly perspectives. Thus, the institute is a valued provider of problem-specific knowledge for politics, commerce and civil society.

WI: The Weizenbaum-Institute for Networked Society (WI) is the German Internet Institute, a place of excellent research on the transformation and design processes of digital change. In the spirit of Joseph Weizenbaum, we research the necessary framework conditions, means and processes for individual and social self-determination in a networked society. We understand self-determination as a design principle that is central to the preservation of human dignity and democracy.