13.05.2019

Institutskolloquium: Ignore or Delete? : Governing graphic visual content on social media

Gabi Schlag (IfP Tübingen) am Mittwoch, 15. Mai 2019,· 16:00 c.t. – 18:00 · Raum 124, Institut für Politikwissenschaft

Graphic visual content uploaded and distributed on the Internet has become a public concern. In the opening sequence of the documentary “The Cleaners” (2018), content managers of Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, located in Manila, look at posts notified as problematic: “ignore or delete” – that is the question nowadays.

Given the omnipresence of the Internet in our everyday and professional life, this presentation asks who governs the Internet, how and why. More precisely, it focuses on the EU’s approach to regulate graphic visual content uploaded, distributed and viewed on social media platforms. What kind of regulations does the EU propose? How much are social media platforms involved in formulating these policies? How are graphic pictures and videos regulated on Facebook and YouTube? What are the rules and procedures that are applied when content is moved offline? How contested are these rules and norms? Who defines what is filtered, monitored and/or deleted? How effective are these rules and procedures? Finally, who has the authority and legitimacy to govern the World Wide Web and how should a legitimate regulation of graphic content look like?

Dr Gabi Schlag is a senior lecturer at Institute of Political Science at the Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen.