Digital Constitutionalism Network members Marta Maroni and Mariëlle Wijermars organized a two-day workshop entitled “Governing or Governed by Digital Platforms? Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Constitutionalism, the EU, and Corporate Power” at Maastricht University on January 16th and 17th, 2025. The workshop examined the political, legal, and societal implications of recent regulatory attempts, including the Digital Services Act, the AI Act, and the Digital Markets Act, in light of the challenging relationship between governments and corporations.

Convening scholars from a variety of backgrounds, the interdisciplinary panels explored platform governance and digital constitutionalism. Two of the five panels focused specifically on content moderation, a timely topic in light of recent decisions by major platforms to dismantle their content moderation teams. The panels considered the threats posed by unregulated AI characters and political deepfakes, and they also looked at the Brussels effect in the case of Brazil. DCN members Edoardo Celeste, Dennis Redeker and Marianne Franklin presented on the final panel of the conference, with Marianne presenting on the feasibility of decolonization of the Internet and Edoardo and Dennis speaking on the role that independent supervisory bodies can play in platform governance (based on the cases of Ireland and Georgia). Among other topics, other panels discussed technology neutrality, the limits of current legal frameworks with regard to corporate power in the digital economy, and the advantages and pitfalls of legal instruments like the Digital Services Act.

For friends of human rights in the digital context, Maastricht University was a great place to be last week. Look for more exciting academic opportunities regarding digital constitutionalism on our Events page. Congratulations to Marta Maroni, Mariëlle Wijermars, Edoardo Celeste, Dennis Redeker and Marianne Franklin, and other participants for an excellent workshop!

The workshop was hosted with the support of the Law Events Office, co-hosted by the Maastricht University, the Globalization & Law Network, and the Digital Constitutionalism Network and funded by Universiteitsfonds Limburg/SWOL. The workshop program can be found here: https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/events/workshop-governing-or-governed-online-platforms-interdisciplinary-perspectives 

Photo credit: Marta Maroni