Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society

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https://www.weizenbaum-library.de/handle/id/25

The Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society is an interdisciplinary, free open access journal that investigates processes of digitalization in society from the perspectives of different research areas.

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AI Literacy for the Common Good
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2024-07-16) Ullrich, Stefan; Messerschmidt, Reinhard
Artificial Intelligence (AI) does not provide solutions to pressing social questions, such as those pertaining to a peaceful, sustainable, and socially acceptable world. However, when employed in a purposeful and critically reflective manner, it can assist in formulating more effective inquiries that can enable a better understanding of the terms “AI” and “common good.” Through implementation in response to sustainability issues and given its potential as an inclusive technology, AI could be a powerful and useful tool for the common good. Despite the possibility of useful machine learning applications in terms of a positive cost-benefit calculation for its life cycle energy and resources, the majority of AI is far too energy-hungry for model training and to scale inferences. Despite the considerable variation observed in terms of certain aspects, it is evident that AI is currently neither sustainable in itself nor primarily used for sustainability purposes to address the grand challenges of global society in a world characterized by rapid acceleration. This demands a critical understanding of how AI systems work to enable society to decide upon the areas in which we should, can, or even definitely must not use AI. Based on the UNESCO Framework for AI Competency and the Dagstuhl Declaration of the German Informatics Society, we advocate for a type of critical AI literacy that can be best taught through practical use, that is, “learning by making.” This approach leads to a concise overview of existing options that facilitate a more reflective approach to using and understanding AI, including its potential and limitations. We conclude with a practical example.
Algorithmic Governmentality, Digital Sovereignty, and Agency Affordances: Extending the Possible Fields of Action
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2023) Pop Stefanija, Ana; Pierson, Jo
In today’s socio-technical constellations, our daily online and offline lives are increasingly governed by what can be termed algorithmic governmentality. Understood as the governing of the social based on the algorithmic processing of big data, algorithmic governmentality significantly limits human agency and individuals’ abilities to control data inputs and algorithmic outputs. An antidote and a solution to governance of this kind require assembling conditions for enabling digital sovereignty. Seen as a counter-conduct to governmentality, sovereignty concerns agency, control, autonomy, authority, self-reflection, and self-determination. Foregrounded on empirical research that relates specifically to platform algorithms, this article discusses the requirements for the digital sovereignty of individuals and the socio-technical conditions that should enable that sovereignty. By introducing and conceptualizing the notion of agency affordances, the article provides several illustrative examples of how this sovereignty can be inscribed through the technical and unfold via the societal.
Algorithmic Management in the Food Delivery Sector – a Contested Terrain?
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2024-10-04) Wotschack, Philip; Hellbach, Leon; Butollo, Florian
Forms of algorithmic management (AM) play an essential role in organizing food-delivery work by deploying artificial intelligence-based systems to coordinate driver routes. Given the risks of precarity and threats posed by AM, which are typically related to (migrant) platform work, the question arises to what extent structures of co-determination can positively shape this type of work and the technologies involved. Based on an in-depth case study within a large food-delivery company, this article is guided by two questions: (1) How do companies use algorithm-based management and performance control, and how do the couriers perceive them? (2) What priorities, strategies, resources, and achievements do works councils and trade unions have with regard to co-determination practices? Our analyses indicate that algorithmic management poses problems of non-transparency and information asymmetry, which in turn call for new forms of and procedures for co-determination. Our study does not find evidence that AM practices aim to individually profile and discipline couriers. The main challenges for the works council and trade unions arise from the couriers’ generally precarious working and employment conditions; data- and AM-related issues do not represent the central area of conflict. However, our study identifies new demands regarding the co-determination of AM and underlines the importance of institutional regulation at the legal and sectoral level.
An Introduction to Open Educational Resources and Their Implementation in Higher Education Worldwide
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2024-07-03) Atenas, Javiera; Ebner, Martin; Ehlers, Ulf-Daniel; Nascimbeni, Fabio; Schön, Sandra
The digitization of (higher) education has exposed copyright infringement issues, as the unauthorized use of copyrighted materials has become more visible. This article explores the importance of open educational resources (OER) in higher education, focusing on their development, how they are understood, and the opportunities they offer. OER are defined as learning materials released under open licenses, allowing no-cost access, reuse, adaptation, and redistribution. The article discusses the OER movement, its milestones, and its integration into educational practice. It also presents arguments for OER: they enable free access to education, improve teaching practice, diminish legal issues, and foster open science. In addition, it highlights criticisms, including resistance from traditional publishers and concerns about marketing influence. The article concludes by examining current OER implementation in higher education and its promise of innovation. While OER are increasingly adopted, proprietary resources still dominate. The article emphasizes the need for educators to use open licenses meaningfully and innovatively and presents research on OER acceptance and usage. The monitoring of OER development in higher education is essential, but approaches may vary across countries.
Automation and Its Impact on Productivity and Workers: Lessons from the History of the Car Industry
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2025-04-17) Jürgens, Ulrich
This article explores the historical development and impact of automation in the automotive industry, focusing on the production systems of Ford, Toyota, and Volkswagen, and addresses two key research questions: How has automation evolved over time? What are its effects on productivity and labor? Drawing on company archives, empirical fieldwork, and the existing literature, the study uses a wcase study approach. The findings reveal that automation progressed in uneven, layered trajectories rather than through disruptive leaps. While machining, press, and paint shops have become highly automated, final assembly remains largely manual. Automation’s influence on productivity has declined over time, with product complexity and shorter model cycles emerging as constraints. Employment effects are nuanced, and shaped by automation, outsourcing, and customization trends. Ultimately, the study cautions against deterministic views of technological change and highlights the persistent role of organizational and institutional factors. The transition to electric vehicles may trigger further automation – but not necessarily through disruptive technologies alone.
Can Sustainable Shopping Recommendations in Online Retail Help Reduce Global Warming?
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2024-04-25) Hoffmann, Marja Lena; Nanevski, Ivana; Gossen, Maike; Bergener, Jens; Flick, Alexander; Santarius, Tilman; Biessmann, Felix
Two dominant and contradictory narratives describe the apparent contribution of information and communication technology (ICT) to climate change. On the one hand, ICT can reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by, for example, supporting energy efficiency or promoting sustainable consumption. On the other hand, the increased energy demands of emerging software components leveraging artificial intelligence or machine learning can be directly and indirectly responsible for GHG emissions. This makes it critical to assess whether ICT mitigates or exacerbates net climate impacts and the contributing factors. The impacts of software have received relatively little attention and require the development of new approaches to conduct such assessments. In particular, the net effect of complex real-world applications is frequently not measured. In this study, we provide a detailed step-by-step assessment to quantify the net global warming potential of an online shopping recommendation system that encourages users to make sustainable consumption decisions. We consider the energy consumed and associated GHG emissions in the development and use of the software and compare these to the potentially avoided GHG emissions associated with more sustainable recommended options. The results demonstrate that the software has the potential to indirectly avoid more emissions than it causes and that changes at different steps of the software can amplify this.
ChatGPT and Its Text Genre Competence: An Exploratory Study
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2024-06-24) Brommer, Sarah; Frick, Karina; Bursch, Adriana; Rodrigues Crespo, Marina; Schwerdtfeger, Laura Katrin
Being able to reciprocate and produce different kinds of texts is a key quality and a core professional competence. Therefore, genre competence is fundamental in not only educational and academic contexts but also professional environments. This paper addresses the extent to which text-generating AI tools could support the development of genre competence and how suitable they are as a tool for genre-based writing didactics. To answer this, it is necessary to examine whether AI tools, such as ChatGPT, are competent in terms of text genres. To do this, the research explores whether ChatGPT is capable of producing and revising genre-specific texts or identifying and analyzing genre-specific patterns and whether it produces different outputs in terms of genre. To examine these questions, we have conducted a pilot study that includes several different text types and several areas of application (generating, revising, summarizing, classifying, and analyzing). The paper’s results relate to three aspects of “Education in the Digital World”: a) competencies, b) possible changes to educational and learning processes using AI tools, and c) appropriate tools for education in general.
Coming into Force, not Coming into Effect?
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2022) Brieske, Jasmin; Peukert, Alexander
The EU legislator responded to the challenges of the digital transformation and the increase of online communication with Directive 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market (CDSMD), which intends to establish a legal framework for the use of copyright and related rights in the online environment. Germany transposed art 17 CDSMD through a new Act on the Copyright Liability of Online Content Sharing Service Providers (OCSSP Act), which entered into force on August 1, 2021. This paper examines whether the terms and conditions and other publicly accessible copyright policies of eight services (i.e., YouTube, Rumble, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, and Pinterest) changed upon the entry into force of the OCSSP Act. For this purpose, we reviewed and analyzed the relevant German-language websites of the services four times between July 2021 and November 2021. Our data collection reveals few changes in the terms and conditions of platforms over time but significant differences between the services in relation to their use of content recognition technology. The concluding section discusses the implications of these findings for the future of copyright policy in the EU.
Commodification and Disruption
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2023) Seidl, Timo
There is little disagreement that digital technologies are transforming contemporary economies and societies. However, scholars have only begun to systematically think about how digitalization – the process whereby more and more of what we say, think, and do becomes mediated by digital technologies – is both driven by and transformative of capitalism. This paper argues that when one speaks about digitalization, one cannot be silent about capitalism. It reconstructs commodification and disruption as key features of capitalist development. It then shows how three digital revolutions – the platform, (big) data, and artificial intelligence revolutions – have ushered in a new wave of commodification and disruption, giving rise to digital capitalism. Finally, it discusses the challenges commodification and disruption pose in the form of redistribution of resources, rebalancing of power, rule adaption, and market re-embedding. The paper brings together a wide range of scholarship to offer a historically and theoretically grounded framework for how to think about and study the rise of digital capitalism.
Communicative Feedback Loops in the Digital Society
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2024-05-27) Trilling, Damian
Contemporary communication is often characterized using metaphors as “echo chambers” or “filter bubbles.” Despite the popularity of these terms, however, growing concerns about vague definitions are complemented by empirical evidence that contests their widespread existence. Nonetheless, today’s media environment offers ample opportunities for human and/or algorithmic selection processes with undesirable outcomes. To reconcile these two observations, I propose taking a feedback-loop perspective. Such a perspective explains how processes can reinforce themselves without producing catastrophic consequences. This can solve the paradox that while extrapolating from typical filter bubble and/or echo chamber models results in full radicalization within a short period, this outcome has not, despite the long-standing presence of the relevant technologies, become omnipresent. After mapping different types of feedback loops in communication research, I review various empirical approaches, discuss how they can improve research on feedback-loop phenomena, and consider how this can enable us to build better theories of communication in the digital society.
Comparative Analysis of the Essential Factors for the Adoption of Massive Open Online Courses in Higher Education of a Developing Country: Pre and Post COVID-19
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2024-06-27) Chavoshi, Amir; Jandaghi Shahi, Sara
Although massive open online courses (MOOCs) offer numerous benefits to students, developing countries are still in the early stages of promoting their implementation. This study aims to investigate how the factors influencing MOOC adoption have evolved in response to the increased usage of online courses during the pandemic. The proposed model is based on the Technology Acceptance Model, and research hypotheses are presented based on six different factors: Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Openness, Self-Efficacy, Quality of Service, and Reputation of the MOOC Provider. To test these hypotheses two surveys were conducted, one before and one after the COVID-19 period. Analyzing the data from these two time periods provides insight into the level of influence each of these factors has had on increased MOOC usage. Survey data was tested using the novel Partial Least Squares-Artificial Neural Network approach, which can effectively analyze complex human decisions. The findings indicate that Perceived Usefulness was the most influential factor in the adoption of MOOCs both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Interestingly, changes have been observed in the impact of Openness between the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods.
Content Moderation and the Quest for Democratic Legitimacy
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2022) Fichtner, Laura
The paper analyzes the public controversy incited by the introduction of the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) in Germany. This law obliges social media platforms to delete unlawful content from their sites and has received international attention as a regulatory blueprint for governing corporate content moderation. The paper describes different ways in which NetzDG was framed in German media reporting, which offered distinct assessments of whether the new law endangered or supported democratic principles and values. Major differences in the public controversy over NetzDG revolved around, for instance, what freedom of expression and the rule of law meant for content moderation and how NetzDG’s regulatory intervention would interact with platforms. The paper finds that a major point of contention thus concerned how to ground content moderation practices and policies in democratic legitimacy. Its analysis demonstrates that the governance of content moderation on social media platforms can open up a site for renegotiating democratic values and principles. As the NetzDG case shows, this can happen without substantively challenging existing laws but by raising the question of how to legitimately apply them to platforms. At stake in this controversy were the underlying logics by which to govern speech online. Different perspectives on this built on distinct understandings of democracy, attributing particular roles and responsibilities to platforms, state institutions, and users. Thus, the paper illuminates that the public controversy over NetzDG, and over the right way to uphold speech laws on platforms, concerned more fundamental questions about the shape of democracy and the distribution of power, agency, and responsibility.
Coordinating Digital Transformation: The Discursive Context of Production in the Knowledge Economy
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2022) Rothstein, Sidney
This article introduces the concept of the “discursive context of production” in order to explain how the transition to the knowledge economy affects working conditions. Past episodes of economic adjustment saw national institutions in corporatist countries protect working conditions by facilitating coordination between employers and workers in the workplace. Where workers had the capacity to enforce these institutions, they succeeded, for instance, in defending against mass layoffs. Digital transformation, however, has led managers to adopt the market discourse of the knowledge economy, which allows them to dissuade workers from mobilizing. With their mechanisms for enforcement undermined, national institutions are less effective in protecting workers from employer discretion, thereby exposing them to the threat of job loss during economic adjustment. Relying on a case study of mass layoffs at a technology firm in Germany, this article uses process tracing to illustrate how discourse constitutes an important contextual feature that conditions the causal linkage between digital transformation and the ineffectiveness of national institutions. Understanding how digital transformation affects working conditions requires tracing how discursive change in the workplace reconfigures power relations between managers and workers.
Counter-Hegemonic Neoliberalism
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2022) Staab, Philipp; Sieron, Sandra; Piétron, Dominik
The platforms that hold the power in the digital economy, and the politics that surround them, are a central topic in contemporary political economy. The EU is widely perceived as a digital laggard, as it is home to very few leading digital corporations, and it is exposed to the market hegemony of the Big Tech platforms. Moreover, the EU is often considered the pioneer of digital regulation, and its platform politics have gained momentum as the EU Commission has unleashed a swathe of new regulatory initiatives, ranging from competition policies to governance of digital content, data flows and platform work. In this essay, we treat platform control and regulation as a matter of contested market design. We offer an analysis of the recent stream of EU platform regulation, questioning how it relates to the historical trajectory of the platform economy and established path dependencies within the EU. We argue that it is characterized by a critical approach to the power of digital platforms and a continuation of negative integration in the EU, and we suggest that it should be understood as a manifestation of counter-hegemonic neoliberalism, as it essentially enforces market-based governance of society through political market design.
Dark Patterns and Addictive Designs
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2025-05-12) Ye, Xin
The proliferation of digital platforms has given rise to manipulative design practices known as “dark patterns,” which exploit users’ vulnerabilities to influence behavior, leading them to make decisions against their own interests. Among these, addictive designs have emerged as a particularly concerning subset, systematically capturing and manipulating user attention to create compulsive engagement. This paper explores the concept of addictive designs as a type of dark pattern, examining their manipulative nature, impact on user autonomy, and potential harm to well-being. By analyzing the current legal framework in the European Union related to dark patterns, including the General Data Protection Regulation, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, the Digital Services Act, this paper identifies significant gaps in how the challenges posed by addictive designs are addressed. The paper makes three key suggestions for effectively regulating these practices and protecting users’ rights: clarifying the definition and scope of dark patterns to encompass both interface designs and algorithmic systems; recognizing the value of attention in shaping personal autonomy and considering attention rights as a distinct category of protection in digital regulations; and amending consumer protection laws to address the online manipulation of digital markets.
Deepening China’s Infrastructural Capitalism: The Hard Landing of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Automated Technology
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2024-12-05) Pun, Ngai
This paper explores the rise of China’s infrastructural capitalism, a stage of global capitalism marked by state-led infrastructure development and the advent of digital platforms. Drawing on political economy and cultural studies, the author frames the current artificial intelligence and big data race between China and the United States as a new Cold War driven not by ideology but by competing capitalist logics. China’s model is seen as a response rather than an alternative to the limits of neoliberal capitalism, merging extractive, industrial, and digital forms of capital. The paper emphasizes the contradictions inherent in this system, particularly the exploitation of labor and environmental degradation. At the center of the analysis lies the concept of the “infrastructural power of labor,” which highlights how various worker subjects (e.g., factory, logistics, platform, and data laborers) are both shaped by and shape infrastructural capitalism. The paper calls for renewed attention to labor struggles and solidarity in the face of growing precarity in the artificial intelligence and automation-driven economy.
Defending Informational Sovereignty by Detecting Deepfakes? Opportunities and Risks of an AI-Based Detector for Deepfakes-Based Disinformation and Illegal
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2023-09-25) Tahraoui, Milan; Krätzer, Christian; Dittmann, Jana; Aden, Hartmut
This paper investigates possible contributions that an AI-based detector for deepfakes could make to the challenge of responding to new forms of cyberthreats, including fraud and disinformation as a threat to democracy. The paper investigates the implications of such a tool for the emerging European discourse on digital sovereignty in a global environment. While cybersecurity and disinformation are certainly not new topics, recent technological developments relating to AI-generated deepfakes have increased the manipulative potential of video and audio-based content spread online, making it a specific but important challenge in the global and interconnected information context.
Democratic Oversight of Government Hacking by Intelligence Agencies: A Critical Analysis of Brazil and Germany
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2025-04-17) André Ramiro
Regulating intelligence services is a challenge for modern societies worldwide. Their very modus operandi relies on tight secrecy protocols for the information gathered, internationally and domestically. Evolving surveillance techniques include exploiting the vulnerabilities of digital services, dealing on unregulated surveillance markets, and developing tailored tools. Theoretically, these actions aim at the public interest by, for instance, anticipating terrorist attacks or dismantling pedophilia networks. Nevertheless, they are increasingly used to surveil civil society without proper and demonstrated necessity or proportionality. Given the demand for increased transparency and accountability for intelligence agencies, especially when using hacking technologies, what institutional design and civic participation avenues for oversight may be proposed? How can (existing and yet-to-exist) institutions improve democratic external oversight activities in this realm? Through a comparison of Germany’s and Brazil’s legal frameworks and institutional ecosystems, the paper critically explores the meaning of “democratic oversight” of intelligence agencies, specifically observing oversight models for hacking operations. Looking at previous contributions by intelligence studies scholars in these countries and globally, the paper offers a critical-comparative analysis of institutional and political architectures to assess the levels of democratic participation. On this basis, it makes recommendations for both countries, which can be appropriated by external intelligence oversight bodies.
Digital Volunteers during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Care Work on Social Media for Socio-technical Resilience
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2023) Schmid, Stefka; Guntrum, Laura; Haesler, Steffen; Schultheiß, Lisa; Reuter, Christian
Like past crises, the COVID-19 pandemic has galvanized individual volunteers to contribute to the public response. This includes digital volunteers who have organized physical aid and conducted social media activities. Analyzing German volunteering support groups on Facebook and related Reddit threads in the context of COVID-19, we show what types of help are offered and how social media users interact with each other to cope with the situation. We reveal that most users offering help online mostly perform typical care work, such as buying groceries or giving advice. Crucially, volunteering is characterized by relationships of care. This means it builds on affirmative interactions. In spite of some misdirected offers and regressive interruptions, people use the possibility to make their voices heard and, showing empathy, help each other to live with the crisis. Social media like Facebook mediate societal structures, including relationships of care, offering a space for the continuous, cumulatively resilient conduct of care work. Reflecting on the traditional division of labor in crisis volunteering and counter-productive dynamics of care and empathy, we aim to articulate a feminist ethics of care that allows for interactions on social media that foster generative computer-supported collaboration.
Disinformation Resilience in Backsliding Democracies: Media Trust, Civil Society, and Institutional Capture
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2025-04-25) Peißker, Antonia; Cowburn, Mike; Klinger, Ulrike
Societies’ resilience to disinformation is often linked to democratic backsliding, but the relationships between these concepts remain poorly understood. To measure structural resilience to disinformation, we expand the framework developed for consolidated Western democracies by Humprecht et al. (2020) to democracies that are experiencing varying degrees of democratic backsliding; the Visegrád Group of Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. Our application leads us to generate additional macro-level features that should be incorporated when thinking about disinformation resilience in states experiencing democratic backsliding. Specifically, we identify how the role of civil society operates differently depending on the level of democracy and that the value of media trust is conditioned by the degree of institutional capture, adding these complementary measures to the original framework. Our updated empirical analyses suggest that, of our cases, Slovakia had the greatest and Hungary had the least resilience to disinformation. The advancement of the framework enables its application beyond consolidated democracies by identifying additional aspects that help build structural resilience to disinformation elsewhere.

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