EuroDIG 2009

14 - 15 September 2009

Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 10.30 – 12.00

Plenary 2: Online social media – governance issues from a user perspective

Focus of the plenary

Freedom of expression with regard to users image, identity and intimacy, as well as their right to reply and other means of redress. Privacy issues: the implications of "profiling". Right to anonymity for users on social networks? What do users expect from providers and from governments? What rules for online social media? How will they develop their own internal rules? How do we manage diverse nationally applicable laws?

Organising team

Facilitator: Lee Hibbard, Council of Europe, FR

Richard Bartle, Games designer, Professor, UK
Bertrand de la Chapelle, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, FR

Patrice Chazerand, P2C, FR

Malte Cherdron, StudiVZ, DE
Jean Marc Dinant, University of Namur, BE

Adriano Farano, CafeBabel,
Marco Gercke, University of Cologne, DE
Elfa Yr Gylfadottir, Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Iceland
Srd Kisevic, JEF-European Youth Forum, Croatia
Jovan Kurbalija, Diplo Foundation, CH
Giuseppe de Martino, DailyMotion, FR
Yuliya Morenets, TAC-Together against Cyber Crime, FR
Monika Pawlik, Ministry of Justice of Saxony Anhalt, DE

Simona Popa, Association of Commercial Television - ACT, BE

Maja Rakovic, Ministry of Culture, Serbia

Katitza Rodriguez, Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC)

Moderator

Matthias Traimer, Ferderal Chancellery, AT

Key participants

Format of the Plenary

1 – Introduction (10 mins)

Introducing the online social media phenomenon (social networks, user-generated content, micro-blogging) and the main differences with traditional media and other Internet-based applications.

2 – User perspectives on main policy issues related to online social media (45 minutes)

European user perspectives on several classical policy issues which take a new dimension in the sphere of social media, including but not limited to:

Management of freedom of expression and the management of image, identity, intimacy,

Dealing with privacy challenges and issues concerning the protection of personal data,

Users’ expectations and needs regarding the delivery of and rules for online social media,

Raising awareness of users’ rights and freedoms with particular reference to their right to reply and other means of redress.

The purpose is to identify the various emerging challenges and the general policy landscape related to those applications in order to raise awareness and feed into further national and international debates.

3 – Governance WITHIN and OF Social Networks (15 minutes)

Beyond the external rules applicable to social networks, what internal governance exists of these large communities? How do (or should) these platforms, with several tens or hundreds of millions of members, elaborate and implement their internal policies and terms and conditions? How in particular, can individual users participate in such discussions?

4 – Wrap-up, takeaways and messages (20 mins)

With the user at the heart of this dialogue, the expected outcome of this plenary is a clear mapping of the European perspectives from the various stakeholder groups as to expectations of, and rules for, online social media, including social networks.

The results are expected to feed into other international processes and in particular the sessions dedicated to that subject at the Global 2009 IGF in Sharm El Sheikh.