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Recommender systems -Shaping our news?

A speech by Damian Trilling

How can we ensure trust and responsibility in the use of generative AI? What role does it hold in the future of media? What are recommender systems and how do they shape our news feeds?

These were the key questions discussed at the Media Futures Annual Meeting in Bergen, Norway, which brought together over 130 participants from organizations such as @BBC Verify, TV 2, Nokia Bell Labs Cambridge, Amazon Web Services, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Dataminr.
TWON-consortium leader Damian Trilling, professor at Vrjje Universiteit Amsterdam, discussed one of the above mentioned questions in his closing speech: He outlined the impact of different responsible recommender systems for news, as there needs to be a balance between user engagement and ethical considerations.
The Twin of Online Social Networks (TWON) can help to find out, what this balance shall look like and what the impacts of a disbalance are.

The event also featured insightful keynotes that discussed emerging ethical challenges and technological strategies to tackle them, assessed the potential of AI in disaster response, stressed the addressing of falsehoods in uncertain times or showed the impact of regular and early smartphone usage on our world view.

We are happy about the success of the SFI MediaFutures Annual Meeting 2024, fostering collaboration between researchers, industry experts and practitioners.

How to counter Antisemitism online – The European Practitioners network against Antisemitism meets

How does antisemitism appear on social media? What is the role of platform operators when it comes to the moderation of hateful content? And how to counter antisemitism online?

These were only some of the questions discussed during DialoguePerspective’s European Practitioners Network Against Antisemitism meeting in Belgrade this November. In a number of input sessions and workshops participants exchanged the challenges and developed possible solutions, with a focus on intersectionality and younger generations. A visit to a local synagogue gave the chance to grasp realities of Jewish life in Serbia.

In the panel discussion TWON’s Jonas Fegert discussed with Katharina von Schnurbein (European Commission’s Coordination on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life), Friedrich Enders (TikTok) and Misko Stanisicšić (Terraforming). Moderated by Jo Frank (DialoguePerspectives) they talked about countering antisemitism online. Jonas Fegert stressed the importance of understanding platform mechanisms, as there is currently a lack of transparency. A Twin of Online Social Networks (a TWON), such as the one we are currently building, is a crucial tool to understanding the effects of platform design choices. The researcher access to platform data guaranteed by the Digital Services Act (DSA) is a chance to shed light in this field. But it is also the responsibility of platform operators to create transparency and cooperate with researchers.

The event was kicked off by remarks by Anke Konrad (German Ambassador to Serbia), Avivit Bar-Ilan (Israeli Ambassador to Serbia), Edward Ferguson (UK Ambassador to Serbia), Brankica Janković (Commission for Protection of Equality, Serbia) and Katharina von Schnurbein.

Thank you for the great discussions with practitioners, activists, policy makers and platform operators!