690 research outputs found

    Assessing the Role and Regulatory Impact of Digital Assets in Decentralizing Finance

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    This project will explore the development of decentralized financial (DeFi) markets since the first introduction of digital assets created through the application of a form of distributed ledger technology (DLT), known as blockchain, in 2008. More specifically, a qualitative inquiry of the role of digital assets in relation to traditional financial markets infrastructure will be conducted in order to answer the following questions: (i) can the digital asset and decentralized financial markets examined in this thesis co-exist with traditional assets and financial markets, and, if so, (ii) are traditional or novel forms of regulation (whether financial or otherwise) needed or desirable for the digital asset and decentralized financial markets examined herein? The aim of this project will be to challenge a preliminary hypothesis that traditional and decentralized finance can be compatible; provided, that governments and other centralized authorities approach market innovations as an opportunity to improve existing monetary infrastructure and delivery of financial services (both in the public and private sector), rather than as an existential threat. Thus, this thesis seeks to establish that, through collaborating with private markets to identify the public good to which DeFi markets contribute, the public sector can foster an appropriate environment which is both promotive and protective of the public interest without unduly stifling innovation and progress

    "Hair for freedom" movement in Iran : interreligious dialogue in social media activism?

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    After the death of Masha Amini at the hands of the Iranian Morality Police for not wearing the hijab, in accordance with what they considered appropriate in September 2022, a social media campaign called "Hair for Freedom" was sparked on different platforms, with videos of women cutting their hair in protest over Iranian women's rights and Amini's death. This paper analyzes whether this digital feminist movement enacted an interreligious dialogue (IRD). Based on content analysis and topic modeling of the publications retrieved from three major platforms, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, the results indicate that this was mainly a Western movement focused on women's bodies as a political symbol in authoritarian Islamic regimes and has not achieved an IRD since most social media posts reproduced the hashtag #HairForFredom without opening a religious discussion. As observed in other digital movements, conclusions indicate that social media activism does not offer an opportunity to engage in dialogues to enlightenthe public sphere. On the contrary, the focus appears to provide users with the opportunity to enhance their reputation by engaging in popular social media campaigns that promote social change

    Digital politics and voting geography. Potential connections between online storytelling and electoral results in the Campania regional elections

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    Digital political communication has undergone a revolution due to the emergence of new digital media platforms, significantly impacting electoral campaigns. However, there remains limited understanding of the implications of digital communication in local elections and its correlation with territorial vote concentration. The objective of this study is to investigate these relationships during the 2020 regional elections in Campania. Specifically, the focus is on four candidate profiles from the outgoing president’s political list. The employed methodology follows a quantita- tive approach, entailing a secondary analysis of an extensive dataset encompassing the candi- dates’ digital profiles and electoral outcomes within the Naples district. The digital content from their public Facebook pages is extracted using Api strategies, encompassing textual aspects, language style, political communication sentiment, and follower engagement. Through spatial analysis of the candidates’ obtained votes, potential relationships between the geographical distribution of votes and candidates’ digital activity are identified and summarized using the Digital activity index. The findings suggest promising avenues for future research concerning the evolution of political communication in the digital era and its interplay with electoral outcomes

    Translating transactions: markets as epistemic and moral spheres

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    In this Modern Asian Studies book symposium, scholars of South Asia analyse the political, ethical, and epistemic aspects of market life. They build on the 2020 Cambridge volume, Rethinking Markets in Modern India: Embedded Exchange and Contested Jurisdiction, edited by Ajay Gandhi, Barbara Harriss-White, Douglas Haynes, and Sebastian Schwecke. This interdisciplinary conversation approaches transactional realms from the disciplines of history, anthropology, development studies, and political economy. The symposium’s contributors examine a range of pertinent issues that encompass customary forms of exchange and capitalist aspects of trade. Among the topics discussed are those of market fetishism, bazaar knowledge, social embeddedness, forms of transactional representation and translation, and institutional and regulatory contexts for commerce.Global Challenges (FGGA

    Blockchain and Freedom to Conduct a Business: Between Myth and Reality

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    Recent advances in technology have demonstrated the enormous flexibility of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), whose potential goes well beyond the cryptocurrency trading. This article explores the potential impact that the utilization of a permissioned blockchain could have on listed companies and how this could be an appropriate instrument for a more effective implementation of the provisions of the Shareholder Rights Directive II. This technological infrastructure could attest the correct formation of will within the shareholders’ meeting and contribute to the creation of a truly democratic space for the meeting and discussion among shareholders, thus allowing achievement of freedom to conduct a business. However, the most advanced use of blockchain technology has a disruptive effect and exposes us to the great danger of an “algocratic” drift. Therefore, this article analyses the main critical issues from both a technical and legal viewpoint of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)

    The politics of content prioritisation online governing prominence and discoverability on digital media platforms

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    This thesis examines the governing systems and industry practices shaping online content prioritisation processes on digital media platforms. Content prioritisation, and the relative prominence and discoverability of content, are investigated through a critical institutional lens as digital decision guidance processes that shape online choice architecture and influence users’ access to content online. This thesis thus shows how prioritisation is never neutral or static and cannot be explained solely by political economic or neoclassical economics approaches. Rather, prioritisation is dynamically shaped by the institutional environment and by the clash between existing media governance systems and those emerging for platform governance. As prioritisation processes influence how audiovisual media services are accessed online, posing questions about the public interest in such forms of intermediation is key. In that context, this research asks how content prioritisation is governed on digital media platforms, and what the elements of a public interest framework for these practices might be. To address these questions, I use a within case study comparative research design focused on the United Kingdom, collecting data by means of semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Through a thematic analysis, I then investigate how institutional arrangements influence both organisational strategies and interests, as well as the relationships among industry and policy actors involved, namely, platform organisations, pay-TV operators, technology manufacturers, content providers including public service media, and regulators. The results provide insights into the ‘black box’ of content prioritisation across three interconnected dimensions: technical, market, and regulatory. In each dimension, a battle between industry and policy actors emerges to influence prioritisation online. As the UK Government and regulator intend to develop new prominence rules, the dispute takes on a normative dimension and gives rise to contested visions of what audiovisual services should be prioritised to the final users, and which private- and public-interest-driven criteria are (or should) be used to determine that. Finally, the analysis shows why it is crucial to reflect on how the public interest is interpreted and operationalised as new prominence regulatory regimes emerge with a variety of sometimes contradictory implications for media pluralism, diversity and audience freedom of choice. The thesis therefore indicates the need for new institutional arrangements and a public interest-driven framework for prioritisation on digital media platforms. Such a framework conceives of public interest content standards as an institutional imperative for media and platform organisations and prompts regulators to develop new online content regulation that is appropriate to changing forms of digital intermediation and emerging audiovisual market conditions. While the empirical focus is on the UK, the implications of the research findings are also considered in the light of developments in the European Union and Council of Europe initiatives that bear on the future discoverability of public interest media services and related prominence regimes

    Impacted Communities Leading Authentic Legal Mobilization: A Refugee-Led Access-To-Justice Story

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    (Excerpt) I have a modest proposal to begin addressing the civil access-to-justice problem in the United States: eliminate the barriers for refugees to provide legal representation. In discussions of access to civil justice, immigration and immigrant rights compel our attention—images of children as young as three facing deportation without representation and non-citizens detained because of civil immigration infractions come to mind. But we hear less about the access-to-justice challenges of immigrants fighting for their rights to safe housing, public benefits, education for their children, or often-contingent or under-the-table jobs. The cries of immigrant communities about informal and formal threats from immigration enforcement—and harassment and exploitation beyond the formal legal system—are rarely treated as civil access-to-justice problems. All of us who work with immigrants are forced to turn down most very needy potential immigration clients, despite knowing that there is nowhere else for them to go. To fill in the gaps, many hold meetings, conduct know-your-rights or organizing sessions, or try to write about complex immigration law issues in ways that people can understand—all of which make us feel better because we think it might do some good or narrow the breach in our unkept promise of fairness, due process of law, or the dignity of human possibility. All of us who do this work also meet people every day who have been refugees, are seeking asylum, or have otherwise encountered the immigration system—and who, given the chance and a little training, could do at least as well as immigration and human rights attorneys. In my more honest moments, I admit that they likely would do my job much better than I can. They might find ways to do that work differently, and my generation of immigration advocates must admit that, however much we tried to change the immigration system for the better, we failed. We were not prepared nor fit for the challenges of the Trump and Biden administrations. And even if we had, there will never be enough lawyers to satisfy immigrant communities’ needs, even if every lawyer had the knowledge, attitude, and commitment to do so—and fat chance of that

    The regulation of digital platforms: the case of pagoPA

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    How can EU regulation affect innovation. Digital revolution: How big data have changed the world and the legal landscape. The regulation of digital platforms in Europe. Digital revolution: How distributed ledger technologies are changing the world and the legal landscape. Regulation of digital payments: the case of pagopa

    Reversing the Irreversible: Mitigating Legal Risks of Blockchain-Based Data Breach through Corporate Governance

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    The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) embodies a set of enforceable data subject rights, data controller and processor obligations, and compliance requirements. The GDPR outreach is extraterritorial and impacts US blockchain-based businesses that collect and process personal data of individuals from the EU. Given the ambiguities of the law itself surrounding what is considered as personal data on blockchain, and who data controllers and processors are, this research examines the corporate governance response to the GDPR as a bottom-up solution for compliance. To secure the sustainability of the business models based on blockchain solutions there is an immediate need to revisit traditional agency theory of corporate governance. Modern theory of corporate governance must inevitably integrate Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental, Social, and Governance standards into its policies and procedures to mitigate risks and hedge against breaches of data security and privacy
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