Events
Check this space for upcoming events, or browse our past events below.
The Platform Governance Research Network Conference 2023: Imagining Sustainable, Trustworthy, and Democratic Platform Governance
PlatGovNet2023: Imagining Sustainable, Trustworthy, and Democratic Platform Governance
The two main research days of the conference will happen virtually on April 3rd and April 4th, with sessions running between 1100-1700 UTC on each day. Confirmed sessions include panels on a wide range of topics, ranging from the regulation of labour platforms to content moderation in the global context.
Registration is free and available here. Confirmed registrants will have access to session recordings, so please register and spread the word widely with interested colleagues, collaborators, and students.
Digital Policy Rounds: Mis/disinformation and the question of authenticity
Join us for our next #DigitalPolicyRounds event
Digital Policy Rounds: Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence
Join us for our next #DigitalPolicyRounds event
Digital Policy Rounds: Health Communications
Join us for our next#DigitalPolicyRounds event
Call for Abstracts
The Platform Governance Research Network call for abstracts is open. Deadline to submit is December 18 at midnight.
2022 Annual Beaverbrook Lecture (livestreamed and in person)
The 2022 Beaverbrook Annual Lecture, featuring Frances Haugen (Facebook whistleblower and advocate for accountability & transparency in social media) and Jameel Jaffer (Director of the Knight First Amendment Institute, Columbia University), will consider the US Supreme Court cases involving Florida and Texas’s social media laws while addressing broader questions surrounding free speech and social media regulation.
Global Governance of Online Harms: Conference
Global coordination and potentially new international regimes for online regulation are needed. No single government can effectively protect democratic values from the triple impact of the transnational flow of information, the asymmetric power of tech companies, and the illiberal behavior of particular governments. The goal of this multi-event conference is to address this global governance challenge head-on.
Saving Social Media: An Evening with Frances Haugen
A reception and featured conversation between Frances Haugen and the Centre’s Director of Policy and Engagement, Supriya Dwivedi, on how we can strengthen the information environment for a healthier democracy, and build social media that brings out the best in humanity.
“Discriminating Data” Book Discussion with Wendy Hui Kyong Chun
Research Director Sonja Solomun chatted with Wendy Hui Kyong Chun about her newly published book, “Discriminating Data: Correlation, Neighborhoods, and the New Politics of Recognition” (MIT Press).
National Approaches to Online Harms Regulations
The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, the Ada Lovelace Institute, and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) hosted a discussion of the challenges and opportunities raised by legislation aimed at addressing “online harms” and how regulators charged with enforcing these powers might consider proceeding.
Our Social Dilemma: Confronting Online Harms in Canada
This event introduced the Cybersecure Policy Exchange’s new report, Rebuilding Canada’s Public Square, and responded to the Government of Canada’s recent proposal for new legislation to address illegal online content, presenting the results of a new survey of 2,500 Canadians’ perspectives of social media.
Regulating the Internet: Can Canadian Democracy Save Big Tech?
The Max Bell School of Public Policy and the Max Bell Foundation, hosted Regulating the Internet: Can Canadian Democracy Survive Big Tech?, a panel discussion on whether the government should regulate online platforms and the internet more broadly.
Against Platform Determinism Workshop with Data & Society
The second series of the “Against Platform Determinism” online academic workshop was hosted in partnership with Data & Society. The workshop explored how platform governance is mediated and shaped through interactions and entanglements with users, industries, and infrastructures.
Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy WTF/WFH Virtual Reading Group: Democracy is 20/20
Democracy is in peril. A steady stream of evidence from around the world – from election interference and ubiquitous surveillance, to massive data abuses, coordinated mis/disinformation campaigns and rising extremism and online hate – point to our digital infrastructure as the culprit. The Centre hosted a monthly reading group exploring related themes.
Platforms for Harm?
Centre Director Taylor Owen joined Rita Trichur, the Honourable Catherine McKenna, Daniel Bernhard, and Heidi Tworek to discuss the state of platform governance and the ways in which free speech and rule of law can coexist to manage harmful content online.
This event was co-hosted by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.