#publicsphere (133 results)

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A data scientist had found that their work (the algorithm depicted on their laptop screen) has ‘jumped’ out of the screen and threatens to cause problems with a variety of different industries. Here a hospital, bus and siren could represent healthcare, transport and emergency services. The data scientist looks shocked and worried about what trouble the AI may cause there.
Yasmin Dwiputri & Data Hazards Project / Better Images of AI / AI across industries / Licenced by CC-BY 4.0

Publication, 1 August 2023

Making sense of the Digital Services Act

How to define platforms’ systemic risks to democracy

It remains unclear how the largest platforms and search engines should go about identifying “systemic risks” to comply with the DSA. AlgorithmWatch outlines a methodology that will serve as a benchmark for how we, as a civil society watchdog, will judge the risk assessments that are being conducting at this very moment.

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Illustration: Julia Schwarz

Story, 19 July 2023

Algorithmic Accountability Reporting

Peeking into the Black Box

Welfare fraud scoring, predictive policing, or ChatGPT: Lawmakers and government officials around the world are increasingly relying on algorithms, and most of them are completely opaque. Algorithmic Accountability Reporting takes a closer look at how they work and the effects they have. But only very few media outlets conduct such reporting. Why?

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Foto von Christian Lue auf Unsplash

Position, 4 July 2023

Battle in Strasbourg: Civil society fights for safeguards against AI harms

With negotiations on a Convention on Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the Council of Europe entering a crucial stage, a joint statement by AlgorithmWatch and ten other civil society organizations reminds negotiating states of their mandate : to protect human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. To adhere to this mandate and to counter both narrow state interest and companies’ lobbying, the voice of civil society must be listened to.

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Foto von Ricardo Arce auf Unsplash

Position, 21 June 2023

Political Ads: EU Lawmakers must uphold human rights to privacy and free expression

In light of a leaked “non-paper” from the European Commission, AlgorithmWatch and 26 other civil society organizations have called on EU co-legislators to address our serious concerns about the proposed regulation on Targeting and Transparency of Political Advertising.

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Photo by wim hoppenbrouwers on Flickr

Position, 5 June 2023

Joint statement

A diverse auditing ecosystem is needed to uncover algorithmic risks

The Digital Services Act (DSA) will force the largest platforms and search engines to pay for independent audits to help check their compliance with the law. But who will audit the auditors? Read AlgorithmWatch and AI Forensics' joint feedback to the European Commission on strengthening the DSA’s independent auditing rules via a Delegated Act.

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Foto von thom masat auf Unsplash

Position, 31 May 2023

Open letter

DSA must empower public interest research with public data access

Access to “public data” is key for researchers and watchdogs working to uncover societal risks stemming from social media—but major platforms like Facebook and Twitter are cutting access to important data analytics tools to study them. The EU must now step in to ensure that researchers aren’t left in the dark.

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Marten Newhall via Unsplash

Position, 26 May 2023

Call for Evidence: new rules must empower researchers where platforms won’t

The ink may have dried on the Digital Services Act (DSA), but key data access provisions are still being written with input from researchers and civil society experts. Read AlgorithmWatch’s submission to the European Commission.

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Foto von Brett Jordan auf Unsplash

Position, 25 April 2023

The EU now has the means to rein in large platforms. It should start with Twitter.

The European Commission today announced the platforms that will have to comply with the strictest rules the Digital Services Act imposes on companies. Twitter has to be on top of its list in enforcing these rules.

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Position, 7 March 2023

France: the new law on the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games threatens human rights

France proposed a new law on the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games (projet de loi relatif aux jeux Olympiques et Paralympiques de 2024) which would legitimize the use of invasive algorithm-driven video surveillance under the pretext of “securing big events”. This new French law would create a legal basis for scanning public spaces to detect specific suspicious events.

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Position, 6 March 2023

A joint statement on Digital Services Act implementation at the national level

As the political process of negotiating the landmark new set of EU rules for a safer and more accountable online environment has concluded, civil society organisations from across Europe joined forces to offer suggestions on how to strengthen the harmonization of the DSA implementation process across EU member states.

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If you want to learn more about our policy & advocacy work on ADM in the public sphere, get in touch with:
John Albert
Policy & Advocacy Manager