Talk: Using AI to Rethink Platform Content Moderation

Siddhartha Datta (University of Oxford), 21 August 2024, 11:00 - 12:00 CEST, via Zoom and in Person in Maastricht

Tomorrow, the RegTech4AI project will officially start. We kick-off with a talk that challenges how we think about content moderation on digital platforms and about tackling digital harms more generally.

Harms in user interfaces are widespread. In current scholarship, some of these harms are often referred to as dark patterns or deceptive practices. Other harms, such as hate speech or age-inappropriate content, are also frequently mentioned. However, such categorisations can be too simplistic: what is perceived as harmful often depends greatly on the individual.

This is why, over the past few years, Siddhartha Datta from the University of Oxford (and I) have been exploring how to use state-of-the-art machine learning methods to modify user interfaces on desktop and mobile devices in real-time, and to build personalised models to reduce digital harms. In other words, rather than relying on platforms (and Elon Musk) to take the lead on content moderation, we have been working to devolve some of the power and responsibility for content moderation to end-users.

For sign-up, please contact regtech4ai@maastrichtlawtech.eu. Note that the talk will be relatively technical in nature but leave time for in-depth discussion of the underlying concepts.