Program

The 2024 IEEE Digital Platforms and Societal Harms (DPSH) combines a traditional conference (with peer review papers published in proceedings) with elements of the highly successful Tech-Forum on Digital Platforms and Societal Harms that occurred in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Conference registration is required to participation in the full program.

Alternatively you can join us for free online for just the keynote panels by completing this form.

Conference Schedule

Schedule for Monday October 14

Time	Constitution Hall	Room A	Room B
8:30	Registration opens
9:00	Welcome address Dr Andre Oboler, Conference General Chair Prof. Diana Burley, Vice Provost for Research and Innovation, American University
9:30	Panel on Extremism and Exploitation Moderator: Skip Gilmour Public policy: Brian Hughes AI: Cristina López G Technology: Briana Kablack Government: Tom Sobocinski See speaker biographies.
11:00	Coffee Break
11:15	IEEE TechEthics Workshop Navigating the Ethical Landscape of Digital Platforms	Talks 1-3	Talks 4-6
12:15	Lunch and networking
13:30	Public Policy Worksop and Standards Workshop IEEE Global Public Policy Committee IEEE European Public Policy Committee IEEE Standards Association
15:10	Coffee Break
15:30	Panel on Misinformation and Disinformation Moderator: David Matas Public Policy: Joel M. Rubin AI: Zois Boukouvalas Technology: Lisa Singh Standards: Maike Luiken See speaker biographies.
17:00		Talks 7-9	Talks 10-12
18:00	Conference dinner and keynote address

Schedule for Tuesday October 15

Time	Constitution Hall	Room A	Room B
8:30	Registration opens
9:00	Welcome to day 2
9:10	Panel on Hate Speech Moderator: Prof. Pam Nadell Public Policy: Mark Weitzman AI: Andre Oboler Technology: Mallory Knodel Government: Paul Giannasi See speaker biographies.
10:40	Coffee Break
11:00	Plenary session
12:00		Lunch and networking
13:00		IEEE TechEthics Workshop Gigwork on Digital Platforms A detailed description is below.	Talks 13-18
15:00		Coffee Break
15:30		Talks 19-22	Talks 23-25

The conference will end at 17:00 on Tuesday the 15th of October.

Paper Presentations and talks

The following paper presentations and short talks will be delivered during the presentation sessions. Those registered for the full conference can attend these talks in-person or online. Each talk will be 15 minutes with 5 minutes of questions and answers with the author(s).

The times for the presentation of each talk are shown both below and in the main schedule above (cross referenced by the talk number). A Zoom link for each room will be emailed to registered participants a few days before the conference starts.

Full papers are now indicated and participants registered for the full conference (online or in-person) can be seen on the proceedings page, the password for the proceedings page will be email to you along with the room connection details.

Talk	Talk Title	Authors
14 October at 11:15 am to 12:15 am (Washington DC time)
Room A
1	Can GPT-4 Detect Subcategories of Hatred? [Full Paper]	Raza Ul Mustafa; Noman Ashraf; Nathalie Japkowicz
2	Trials and Challenges Measuring Online Hate	Andre Oboler
3	Leveraging Explainable AI and Sarcasm Features for Improved Cyberbullying Detection in Multilingual Settings [Full Paper]	Tanjim Mahmud; Michal Ptaszynski; Fumito Masui
Room B
4	Modeling Offensive Content Detection for TikTok [Full Paper]	Kasper Cools, Ir.; Gideon Mailette de Buy Wenniger; Clara Maathuis, Ir.
5	Prevention of Disinformation Dissemination Based on Local Wisdom; Case Study of the Mystical Sect “Perjalanan” West Java Indonesia	Catur Nugroho; Rizca Haqqu; Chairunnisa Widya Priastuty; Astri Wulandari; Zalfa Qathrunnada; Jasmine Alya Pramesthi
6	EU Policy and Legislative Initiatives to Fight Against Online Harmful Content	Massimo Pellegrino
14 October at 5 pm to 6 pm (Washington DC time)
Room A
7	Addressing AI-Driven Mis- and Disinformation Risks at the Local Governance Level Through Coordinated, Youth-Empowered Policy Projects With City and State Governments	Carolyn Wang; Kaitlyn Cui; Sam Jung; Oluwamodupe Esther Akintan; Katherine S He; Kayla Huang; Sofia Renee Rodriguez; Jennifer Wang
8	Bridging the Protection Gap: Innovative Approaches to Shield Older Adults From AI-Enhanced Scams	LD Herrera; London Van Sickle; Ashley Podhradsky
9	Towards a Prototype to Leverage Archival Diplomatics to Develop a Framework to Detect and Prevent Fake Video [Full Paper]	Nicholas H Rivard; Hoda Amal Hamouda; Victoria Lemieux; Tracey P. Lauriault; Michel Barbeau
Room B
10	Combatting Hate Speech: An Assessment of a Proposed Canadian Law on Digital Platforms and Societal Harms	David Matas
11	Evolutionary Psychology and the Roots of Hate Speech	Helen Abadzi
12	Comparative Analysis of Online Antisemitism After October 7 on Mainstream Social Media Networks and "Dark Platforms" [Full Paper]	Jasmine Beinart
15 October at 1 pm to 3 pm (Washington DC time)
Room B
13	Breaking the Porn Silence: Exposing the New Digital Threats Posed by VR and AI in the ‘harmless’ Fantasy Genre	Karen Phillips
14	The Mapping of Patterns Project. Dissemination of Political Hate in Spanish Digital Media	Sergio Arce-Garcia; Julio Montero-Díaz
15	Assessing the Impact of Algospeak on Sentiment Analysis Models [Full Paper]	Sebastian Leal-Arenas; Roberto Corizzo
16	Detection of Deepfake Content Representing Social Harmful Events for Image Forensic Applications Using Machine Learning [Full Paper]	Saswata Sarkar; Sourav Dey Roy; Mrinal Kanti Bhowmik
17	The Psychological Impacts of Algorithmic and AI-Driven Social Media on Teenagers: A Call to Action [Full Paper]	Sunil Arora; Sahil Arora; John D. Hastings
18	Dark Patterns in Shopping, Education & Health Apps [Full Paper]	Parinda Rahman; Ifeoma Adaji
15 October at 3:30 pm to 5 pm (Washington DC time)
Room A
19	The Hatemedia Project. Analyzing and Monitoring Hate Expressions in Digital Environments in Spain	Elias Manuel Said-Hung, Prof.; Julio Montero-Díaz
20	Monitoring the Evolution of Antisemitic Hate Speech on Extremist Social Media [Full Paper]	Raza Ul Mustafa; Nathalie Japkowicz
21	Seeking Optimal Human/Machine Collaborative Practice in Antisemitic Terminology Detection [Full Paper]	Wendy Melillo; Jessica Emami; Solene Guarinos; Dhanush Kikkisetti; Melanie Klein; Lisa Liubovich; Raza Ul Mustafa; Nathalie Japkowicz
22	The Impact of Emojis on User Engagement With Trolling Content in an Online Platform [Full Paper]	Diya Saraf; Yuhong Liu; Hooria Jazaieri
Room B
23	Online Anti-Muslim Hate and Racism Against Palestinians and Arabs	Andre Oboler, Eliyahou Roth, Christopher Noonan, Kerstin Steiner, Amira Mohammed, Jasmine Beinart, Jessen Beinart, Willem Oliver, Stephen McNamara,.
24	From Campus to City Hall: Leveraging Student Expertise for Local Ethical Technology Governance With the Paragon Model	Sofia Renee Rodriguez; Carolyn Wang; Kaitlyn Cui; Jennifer Wang; Kayla Huang; Quinn Wilson
25	Making Online Forums Safer by Encouraging Civil Discourse With Micropayments	Brian Colder

TechEthics Workshops

Gigwork on Digital Platforms: Unpacking social opportunities and societal harms with GIGLANE

Powered by advances in machine learning, digital platforms have emerged as ubiquitous infrastructure to constitute contemporary political-economy in at least two ways. Firstly, they represent a new business model, in the form of “online marketplaces that involve at least three parties where the platform provider serves as an intermediary coordinating supply and demand sides of the other two parties”.[1] Secondly, the rapidly growing platform economy offers work opportunities which fall into two categories.[2] One, is employment i.e, when a person is hired by the platform for its operations, with a legally-defined employment relationship. This category constitutes a tiny fraction of those hired. By contrast, the vast majority of hires perform platform-mediated individual ‘gigs’ or tasks, and are categorized as self-employed or independent contractors with few legal protections.

While gig work offers economic opportunities for many who may have few alternatives, and platforms project themselves as “a revolution in labour markets”, able to help lift people out of poverty,”[3] the ILO takes a dimmer view. It does not term gig work as decent work, or “work that is productive; ensures equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men; delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families; provides prospects for personal development; and gives workers the freedom to express their concerns, organize and participate in decisions that affect their working lives.”[4]

The session will draw on the experience of the Workshop Coordinator, who is the Principal Investigator of the Fairwork India project. Over the past six years, the project has examined the experiences of gig workers to ask if it is possible for technology-mediated gig work to be more decent or fair. To trigger a discussion among participants about gig work in their own countries, the session will rely on Fairwork principles of pay, conditions, contracts, management (human and algorithmic), and representation, to explore how the reliance on gig work to provide services, by the publicly-accessible but privately-owned platforms, violate the tenets of Sustainable Development Goals 8 (promotion of full and productive employment and decent work for all)., and how they might be mitigated through policy and technology design. In addition, to enable participants to ‘experience’ gig work, the session will rely on the board game GIG LANE developed by the Fairwork India research team at the Center for Information Technology and Public Policy, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore.

[1] Scholtz, T. 2016. Platform Cooperativism: Challenging the Corporate Sharing Economy. New York, NY: Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. p.4 It should be noted that as infrastructure mediating between different groups, platforms hardly need be digital. For example, shopping malls that bring together various stores, and customers seeking different products, are examples of platforms providing infrastructure that is physical. See, Rysman, M. 2009. The economics of two-sided markets. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 23(3), 125-143.

[2] International Labour Organization (ILO). 2021. World Employment and Social Outlook: The Role of Digital Labour Platforms in Transforming the World of Work. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO.

[3] Graham, M., Lehdonvirta, V., Wood, A., Barnard,, H., Hjorth, I., and Simon, D. P. 2017.The Risks and Rewards of Online Gig Work at the Global Margins. Oxford, UK: Oxford Internet Institute. p.2

[4] Berg, J., Furrer, M., Harmon, E., Rani, U. and Silberman, M.S. 2018.Digital Labour Platforms and the Future of Work: Towards Decent Work in the Online World. Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Organization. p.10

Navigating the Ethical Landscape of Digital Platforms

As digital platforms continue to shape the contours of society, the ethical dilemmas they present have become critical points of discussion. This panel will bring together thought leaders from industry, academia, and policy-making to explore the ethical considerations digital platforms face in today’s hyper-connected world. From data privacy, deep fakes and misinformation to algorithmic bias and mental health impacts, the conversation will address how companies can balance technological innovation with their responsibility to minimise societal harms.

Panellists will debate key questions such as:

How do we protect user privacy in an era of relentless data collection?
How can digital platforms maintain transparency while protecting competitive algorithms?
Where should the boundaries lie between content moderation and freedom of expression?
What is the role of corporate governance in ensuring AI fairness and combating misinformation?
How can we effectively engage stakeholders in tech ethics to address and regulate technology-driven issues?
What are effective strategies for content moderation without infringing on free speech?
How can we counter the monopolistic practices of tech giants to foster ethical innovation and competition that has the people’s interest at heart?
How can we democratise digital platforms and ensure citizens are informed of their rights and protections?
How will policy, regulation and social conversation shape the future of safety around digital platforms?
How do we safeguard the people who are responsible for content moderation and ensuring the safety of vulnerable people online?

The session will feature live audience polling to gauge opinions on hot-button issues and a Q and A segment, allowing participants to directly engage with panellists.

Public Policy and Standards Session

This session included presentations by Andre Oboler, Brendan Godfrey, Annette Reilly, Maike Luiken, and Massimo Pellegrino. The sides of these presentations, which share details of IEEE’s work in these areas are below. The content reflects the personal views and reflections of the speakers.