This summary shows the red line throughout the course and contains all areas and topics covered + examples and presentation notes. The document also contains all the readings for this course that are very relevant for the exam.
The topics covered are:
Week 1 - Introduction & Technology as a re...
➔ lear formulation of research question and problem statement
➔ Clear (comparative) analysis of key notions making use of course material
➔ Argumentation line builds up to conclusion
➔ Consistency and relevance of the example(s) given.
➔ Knowledge of the reading material
★ Discuss the four modalities of regulation, the different regulatory actors and regulatory
fora, as well as the prospects and difficulties of regulation of and by technology.
★ Discuss the mutual shaping of technology and society → red line
○ How they interact
○ How society reacts
○ How programmers react when technology is pushed back by society
★ Explain the tension between fundamental values and new technologies
★ Provide an analysis of a legal and/or ethical issue in one of the domains covered by the
course and argue how regulation has influenced and/or is influenced by technology.
○ 3 domains: Digital rights, facial recognition, climate change and shale gas
★ Provide an analysis of the trends and tendencies of regulation of new technologies
(based on the domains covered by the course) in a chosen nation or region of the world
○ Not focus on this in exam
★ Illustrate and compare the similarities and differences among different regions of the
world of regulation of new technologies
○ Writing answers: examples from different countries and presentations
,New Technology
Technology as a regulatory target
→ not necessarily that we regulate new technology itself but certain aspects of it
e.g. users, design, …
❖ Disruptive Technology
- ‘disruptive’ technologies incorporates an element of newness
● Deep Fakes = new technology is used to generate synthetic media with the purpose of
appearing realistic and deceiving the real world
● = Deep Fakes are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is
replaced with someone else's likeness
Example:
➔ Obama and Tom Cruise Video → fake videos
➔ Mostly used to excerpt violence against women or to harass them → used in
Pornography
● Software to produce fictional videos with little cost and expertise
● Software can be used in elections
● Targets more women (deep fakes in pornograpghy to harass women) than politicians
● Can cause social and legal issues
○ Response from society and government: adapt law which can lead to over
regulation
○ Little cost and little expertise
○ Threat to elections → election fraud → threat to democracy →
International crisis
○ Excerpts violence against women
● Deep Fakes Accountability Act - Bill in US Congress
= Risk Regulation Reflex / Knee - Jerk Regulation
○ = ”new law is required to cope with technological innovation”
○ Moment to acknowledge there is a risk for society
○ Risk Reflex is based on assumption that law is insufficient
● Knee - Jerk Reaction: law is flawed and new ones must be adopted
○ = Flawed Law Syndrome: ‘ ..the urge to call law or regulation outdated or flawed
(disconnected) and the desire to fix the problems by addressing the law, rather
than using other ways to mend the assumed gaps’ Ronald Leenes “Regulating New
Technologies in Times of Change”
● This can lead to Over Regulation and misuse of resources
, ● Effects of Over Regulation:
1. Creates needless direct costs for society
2. Inefficient use of government effort (resources) → if it would be used to
tackle potential election fraud and not the threat that women are
harrassed
3. Needless restriction of individual liberties and privacy
4. Constraints on technological innovation
● Alternative to new laws
○ Governments can use existing laws if this law is technological neutral to combat
the issue of technology
○ criminal laws can be used for crimes of “deep fakes” and information
regards e.g. elections→ law of the horse (Easterbrook, Frank H. "Cyberspace and
the Law of the Horse." U. Chi. Legal F. (1996): 207)
○ Platforms that host those can ban them (regulates our behavior) →
happened in Pornhub
1. What is regulation? → not just law
2. What are the social and legal issues caused by this technology? (Deep Fakes) with the
potential risk
3. What exactly should we be regulating?
a. Software?
b. Companies that sell it?
c. Platforms?
d. Malicious use?
1. Write down 3-5 legal & social issues resulting from the technology that might require
intervention by regulators/legislators.
- Social issues can result from deep fakes that influence the politics within a country
- Legal issue might be that it is hard to track whether it is an actual deepfake and if so how
and whom to held responsible
- If it concerns e.g. elections it can lead to mistrust and social chaos
- Defamation of Character → liability and tort
- Privacy issues
- Using actors’ faces without permission to include them in the movie → film
industry
- Copyright - is your face copyright ?
- Criminal investigation → honey trapping by police enforcement
- Disinformation regarding elections
1. Write down what should be regulated. I.e. is it a part of the technology or characteristic, or the
use of it.
, - Probably not the technology itself, but the fundamental characteristic and one may also
determine in which circumstances it is allowed to use
❖ LTS Model
The LTS Model
New technology
a socio-technical lens we should determine what the technology of focus actually is, what its relevant
characteristics are and which interests are at stake or are being promoted
● creates new issues
● What is the feature which must be discussed?
● What relevant factors create a new issue?
● What technology
↓
Issues
all sorts of distinctions can be made with respect to the issues;
● New concern e.g. autonomous vehicle
○ Problem
■ such as autonomous vehicles causing accidents on public roads
○ Potential Risk
■ E.g. autonomous vehicles may have to make decisions about whether to
hit the child chasing a ball on our side of the road, or the elderly couple
crossing the street from the other side → who are the stakeholders?
■ E.g. defamation regards public figures
⇒ Existing regulation / regulatory gap
the socio-technical context as well as the various stakeholders came into play
● What problem / risk
● Why
● Which stakeholders
● what does the current law have to say about this problem/technology
↓
Intervention
If there is a regulatory gap, then it calls for intervention → Regulation
Forms of Regulation
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