Program

Big Tech as an Actor of Global Security and Geopolitical Conflicts 

Salle des conseils du Centre Panthéon, Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas

CONFERENCE PROGRAM 

May 2nd 

10:00-10:45 - The Privatization of Covert Operations: Insights from the Research of the Citizen Lab

a keynote lecture by Ronald Deibert, Professor of Political Science, founder and Director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto

10:45-11:15 - Coffee break @ salle des Professeurs/Salle Goullencourt 

11:15-13:15 - Panel 1 - Infrastructuring the Digital World: Privatization, Power and Digital Sovereignty (Chaired by Rikke Frank Jørgensen, Danish Institute for Human Rights)

Big Tech on the World Stage: Corporate or Foreign Affairs?

Zoe Jay Hawkins (Australian National University)

Cloud Wars on the Sea Floor? Explaining Submarine Cable Investments by Big Tech Companies

Olivier Chatain and Madhulika Kaul (HEC Paris)

QUIC, or the battle that never was: a case of re-infrastructuring control over Internet traffic

Clément Perarnaud (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and Francesca Musiani (Centre internet et société, CNRS)

Techno-Nationalism or Techno-Internationalism? The Development Pathway and Surviving Strategy of Huawei in Europe after the 5G Technology Turbulence

Zhan Zhang (University of Nottingham Ningbo China)

The GIFCT hash-sharing database as Global Security Infrastructure

Gavin Sullivan (University of Edinburgh)

13:15-14:15 - Lunch break 

14:15-15:00 - Big Tech and Civil Society - Friends or Foes? 

a keynote lecture by Natalia Krapiva, Esq., Senior Tech Legal Counsel, AccessNow 

15:00-15:30 - Coffee break @ salle des Professeurs/Salle Goullencourt

15:30-17:30 - Panel 2 - Dealing with “Dangerous” Speech, between Surveillance and Censorship (Chaired by Maud Quessard, IRSEM and Marguerite Borelli, CARISM)

Big tech platforms, digital transnational repression, and the globalized security risks of human rights defenders

Siena Anstis and Marcus Michaelsen (Citizen Lab, Munk School, University of Toronto)

Big Tech and Russian wartime censorship: Comparing state platform conflict dynamics of Russia’s platform bans

Mariëlle Wijermars (Maastricht University)

Social Media Censorship and Repression in Palestine and Israel

Nadah Feteih (Berkman Klein Center, Harvard University)

Security from a distance. The role of Big Techs in the fight against violent extremism in Iraq

Anne Bellon (UTC Compiègne)

Big Tech, Algorithmic Content Moderation and the War of Terror

Valentine Crosset (Université de Genève) and Benoît Dupont (Université de Montréal)

17:30-19:30 - Cocktail @ salle des Professeurs/Salle Goullencourt

May 3rd

9:30-10:15 - The New Axis of Evil? Big Tech as Diplomatic Actors

a keynote lecture by Dr. Ilan Manor, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Communication Studies, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, and member of Oxford University’s Digital Diplomacy Research Group

10:15-10:45 - Coffee break @  salle des Professeurs/Salle Goullencourt

10:45-12:45 - Panel 3 - The Global Geopolitics of Big Tech (Chaired by Zhao Alexandre Huang, Paris Nanterre University)

The Great Game: How video game servers map Eastern Europe

Françoise Daucé (CERCEC, EHESS)

Content delivery platforms’ data storage practices’ unintended spillovers on emerging countries’ Internet resilience: the case of Pakistan

Nowmay Opalinski (GEODE, Paris 8)

Jerusalem contested: Israel, Palestine and U.S Big Tech in the Holy City

Margherita Monti (Università di Bologna) and Davide Blotta (Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo")

Normative dislocation: how Brazilian militarism was left (un)moderated throughout the Brazilian elections of 2022

Emilie V de Keulenaar (University of Groningen) and Marcelo Alves Dos Santos Junior (Pontíficia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro)

12:45-13:45 - Lunch break 

13:45-14:30 - Mediating Operational Images : Visibilizing the ‘Invisual’ in the Ukrainian War

a keynote lecture by Anna Leander, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, Geneva Graduate Institute 

14:30-15:00 - Coffee break @ Hall de la salle des Professeurs/Salle Goullencourt

15:00-17:30 - Panel 4 - Big Tech as an Actor of Contemporary Warfare (Chaired by Julien Nocetti, Advisor, digital and cyber affairs, Centre for analysis, planning and strategy (CAPS), French MFA)

Analysing the growing “infrastructural” role of platform corporations within warfare

Jasper van der Kist (University of Antwerp)

Platform Wars: Big Tech, the Power of Metaphors and the Future of Warfare

Marijn Hoijtink (University of Antwerp)

Software as Warfare: Humanitarian Action in the Age of AI

Sarah W Spencer (DoveTail & University of Cambridge)

Platforms in war: A comparative analysis of the digital platforms in transnational conflicts

Matti Pohjonen and Mervi K Pantti (University of Helsinki)

Big tech at war: Reconfiguring public-private relations through infrastructural power

Tobias Liebetrau (University of Copenhagen) and Jeppe Jocobsen (Royal Danish Defence College)

BigTechinSec_Program