AI, Social Media and Democracy: How do we make it work? Workshop on perspectives from Policy, Philosophy, and Practice

We are excited to share this upcoming interdisciplinary workshop on AI, social platforms and democracy that we are organizing in Prague at the Center for Environmental and Technology Ethics (CETE-P). 

The problem of social media platforms and AI for democracy is rather well-known today, with various books dedicated to this topic specifically (e.g. Coeckelbergh, 2024; Di Nucci, 2021; Smuha, 2024; Zuboff, 2019). Among the greatest challenges are the erosion of trusted information environments, as more and more people rely on social media platforms to receive news. Many scholars speak of an 'information disorder' online, characterised by different forms of false or misleading information, which can be clustered into misinformation and disinformation. Polarisation online is widespread and influences political discourse and societies at large. Further, various actors aim to influence user behaviour on- and offline through targeted content recommendation, using different techniques to exert influence. The Cambridge Analytica scandal of 2016 has been eye-opening for the public on the challenge that social media platforms pose for democracy. 

There has also been a policy response to this by the European Union, including, for example, the General Data Protection Regulation (2016), the Digital Services Act (2022) and the AI Act (2024). At the same time, academic research is often siloed, fragmented and limited in its capacity to inform ethical policy development. Therefore, presenters will have had a policy brief training with Daniel Cassidy of the Centre for European Policy Studies the previous day to acquire the necessary skills for effective policy communication. 

This academic workshop, co-organized by Paula Gürtler, John Dorsch, and Tuğba Yoldaş from the Centre for Environmental and Technology Ethics-Prague, brings together a community of researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds to investigate the impact of social media platforms and AI on democracy and develop concrete policy recommendations to counteract the negative impact. We aim to identify additional pathways for action and instruments to address the issues. 

The questions that motivate this workshop are: 

• What are the harmful impacts of algorithmic systems, AI and social media platforms on democracy?  
• What means (legal, technical, political…) are available to us to hold platforms and/or creators accountable? 
• How can we effectively address these issues and what policies are needed for an effective approach? 

Each talk lasts 30 minutes and is followed by a 15 minutes discussion of the policy proposal put forth by the presenter. The workshop program is as follows:

9.30-10.00 Arrival

10.00-10.45 "AI and Online Manipulation: Preserving Epistemic Agency" - John Dorsch & Tuğba Yoldaş, Postdoctoral Researchers at CETE-P

10.45-11.30 "AI & Democracy: Elements, Risks and EU Digital Laws" - Matúš Mesarčík, Ethics and Law Specialist at KInIT

11.30-11.45 Coffee break 

11.45-12.30 "AI social integration and informational harms" - Andrew McIntyre, Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Amsterdam

12.30-13.45 Lunch 

13.45-14.30 "Leveraging Algorithmic Auditing of Social Media Recommenders" - Jakub Šimko, Lead and Researcher at KInIT

14.30-15.15 "Title tbd" Jacqueline Bellon, Doctoral Researcher at University of Tübingen

15.15-15.30 Coffee break 

15.30-16.15 tbd 

16.15-17.15 Joint Discussion: Toward Policy Options 

17.15-17.30 Closing

The goal of the workshop is to develop an actionable proposal on how to strengthen democracy vis-à-vis new technologies. This requires interdisciplinary exchange between philosophy, political and social sciences, media studies, computer science, and legal studies. This workshop offers opportunities for the public to participate.