Viral Information. How States and Platforms Deal with Covid-19-Related Disinformation: an Exploratory Study of 20 Countries. Report on Belgium.

In January 2021, a great “deplatforming” took place: Numerous internet platforms suspended the accounts of Donald Trump and his supporters. Private power over public speech is often contested, but the conflicts are magnified when this power is asserted over parties, political candidates and office holders that function as focal points for public debates. While most platforms’ terms of use and enforcement systems are global, opinions relating to any preferential treatment of speech by well-known political figures and office holders vary across national political and legal contexts. This study examines the interplay between these national conceptions and global private ordering systems by synthesizing answers to nine questions submitted by more than 30 researchers from 15 countries within the GDHR Network. It provides a first overview of how societies and governments conceive of and react to private power over political actors

Viral Information: How States and Platforms Deal with Covid-19-Related Disinformation; an Exploratory Study of 20 Countries

This study explores the spread of disinformation relating to the Covid-19 pandemic on the internet, dubbed by some as the pandemic's accompanying "infodemic," and the societal reactions to this development across different countries and platforms. The study’s focus is on the role of states and platforms in combatting online disinformation. Through synthesizing answers to questions submitted by more than 40 researchers from 20 countries within the GDHR Network, this exploratory study provides a first overview of how states and platforms have dealt with Corona-related disinformation. This can also provide incentives for further rigorous studies of disinformation governance standards and their impact across different socio-cultural environments

Exploring the Ethical Dimensions of Public Service

Interest in ethical issues faced by government officials dates back at least to Plato’s “Republic,” and ethics can be considered so salient that some public administration scholars have gone as far as to define it as “the most important public policy” (Maletz and Herbel 2000). The three chapters of my dissertation have the overall aim of contributing to our understanding of ethics in public administration and, more specifically, within complex public organizations. To do so, after an exercise of stocktaking and systematization of what we know (Chapter 1), my work investigates critical questions on ethics in the empirical context of healthcare organizations (Chapters 2 and 3). In Chapter 1, I systematically review 160 articles from six top-ranked journals discussing ethics in public administration scholarship, thus illuminating ethical issues and dynamics emerging at different levels of public administration life. Furthermore, I offer a three-pronged classification of ethics in public administration that allows organizing ethical issues at the institutional, managerial, and individual levels. Results suggest that dilemmas and challenges arise from conflicting interests and values inside and between levels. Moreover, this chapter highlights the importance of including a level that has remained fairly overlooked by previous studies, i.e., the managerial level. I posit that recognizing and addressing the ethical dilemmas experienced at the managerial level may have positive spillovers on individuals and communities. Therefore, in the second and third chapters, I explore ethical issues characterizing the decision-making processes of public managers, as well as the strategies through which public managers pursue their core mandate in contexts replete with dilemmas. In Chapter 2, I explore the ethical dilemmas experienced in decision-making processes by public health managers when confronted with trade-offs between individual patients’ interests and the community interest in public health. Through a sequential mixed methods design, the chapter aims at understanding how healthcare managers perceive such ethical dilemmas and the relative importance of different factors influencing their preferences. Findings show that health managers’ experience of a health emergency is characterized by negative emotions and difficulty balancing their responsibilities as clinicians and their duties as managers. Chapter 3 explores the implementation of the contentious policy issue of voluntary termination of pregnancy in Italy, characterized by conflicting although legitimate interests. On the one hand, the woman has the legitimate interest to request the interruption of her pregnancy; on the other hand, the legitimate right to conscientiously object to providing this service is granted to gynecologists and other health professionals. Conscientious objection has divisive consequences on the workplace collective. Owing to societal developments such as value pluralism and professionalism, as well as to advancements in biotechnology, this provision is likely to spread across policy domains and countries. Yet, little is known about the role of managers in orchestrating the delivery of public services that trigger an ethical division in the workplace, such as elective abortion. This is exactly the focus of this chapter, which builds on studies on conflicting values and ethical dilemmas in public services, as well as on the notion of ‘dirty work.’ Through a qualitative research design based on semi-structured interviews, our findings illuminate strategies through which managers ensure service delivery with a divided workforce by attending to the ethical dilemmas in their discursive, structural, and organizational strategies

Framework for privacy-aware content distribution in peer-to- peer networks with copyright protection

The use of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks for multimedia distribution has spread out globally in recent years. This mass popularity is primarily driven by the efficient distribution of content, also giving rise to piracy and copyright infringement as well as privacy concerns. An end user (buyer) of a P2P content distribution system does not want to reveal his/her identity during a transaction with a content owner (merchant), whereas the merchant does not want the buyer to further redistribute the content illegally. Therefore, there is a strong need for content distribution mechanisms over P2P networks that do not pose security and privacy threats to copyright holders and end users, respectively. However, the current systems being developed to provide copyright and privacy protection to merchants and end users employ cryptographic mechanisms, which incur high computational and communication costs, making these systems impractical for the distribution of big files, such as music albums or movies.El uso de soluciones de igual a igual (peer-to-peer, P2P) para la distribución multimedia se ha extendido mundialmente en los últimos años. La amplia popularidad de este paradigma se debe, principalmente, a la distribución eficiente de los contenidos, pero también da lugar a la piratería, a la violación del copyright y a problemas de privacidad. Un usuario final (comprador) de un sistema de distribución de contenidos P2P no quiere revelar su identidad durante una transacción con un propietario de contenidos (comerciante), mientras que el comerciante no quiere que el comprador pueda redistribuir ilegalmente el contenido más adelante. Por lo tanto, existe una fuerte necesidad de mecanismos de distribución de contenidos por medio de redes P2P que no supongan un riesgo de seguridad y privacidad a los titulares de derechos y los usuarios finales, respectivamente. Sin embargo, los sistemas actuales que se desarrollan con el propósito de proteger el copyright y la privacidad de los comerciantes y los usuarios finales emplean mecanismos de cifrado que implican unas cargas computacionales y de comunicaciones muy elevadas que convierten a estos sistemas en poco prácticos para distribuir archivos de gran tamaño, tales como álbumes de música o películas.L'ús de solucions d'igual a igual (peer-to-peer, P2P) per a la distribució multimèdia s'ha estès mundialment els darrers anys. L'àmplia popularitat d'aquest paradigma es deu, principalment, a la distribució eficient dels continguts, però també dóna lloc a la pirateria, a la violació del copyright i a problemes de privadesa. Un usuari final (comprador) d'un sistema de distribució de continguts P2P no vol revelar la seva identitat durant una transacció amb un propietari de continguts (comerciant), mentre que el comerciant no vol que el comprador pugui redistribuir il·legalment el contingut més endavant. Per tant, hi ha una gran necessitat de mecanismes de distribució de continguts per mitjà de xarxes P2P que no comportin un risc de seguretat i privadesa als titulars de drets i els usuaris finals, respectivament. Tanmateix, els sistemes actuals que es desenvolupen amb el propòsit de protegir el copyright i la privadesa dels comerciants i els usuaris finals fan servir mecanismes d'encriptació que impliquen unes càrregues computacionals i de comunicacions molt elevades que fan aquests sistemes poc pràctics per a distribuir arxius de grans dimensions, com ara àlbums de música o pel·lícules

Security protocols suite for machine-to-machine systems

Nowadays, the great diffusion of advanced devices, such as smart-phones, has shown that there is a growing trend to rely on new technologies to generate and/or support progress; the society is clearly ready to trust on next-generation communication systems to face today’s concerns on economic and social fields. The reason for this sociological change is represented by the fact that the technologies have been open to all users, even if the latter do not necessarily have a specific knowledge in this field, and therefore the introduction of new user-friendly applications has now appeared as a business opportunity and a key factor to increase the general cohesion among all citizens. Within the actors of this technological evolution, wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) networks are becoming of great importance. These wireless networks are made up of interconnected low-power devices that are able to provide a great variety of services with little or even no user intervention. Examples of these services can be fleet management, fire detection, utilities consumption (water and energy distribution, etc.) or patients monitoring. However, since any arising technology goes together with its security threats, which have to be faced, further studies are necessary to secure wireless M2M technology. In this context, main threats are those related to attacks to the services availability and to the privacy of both the subscribers’ and the services providers’ data. Taking into account the often limited resources of the M2M devices at the hardware level, ensuring the availability and privacy requirements in the range of M2M applications while minimizing the waste of valuable resources is even more challenging. Based on the above facts, this Ph. D. thesis is aimed at providing efficient security solutions for wireless M2M networks that effectively reduce energy consumption of the network while not affecting the overall security services of the system. With this goal, we first propose a coherent taxonomy of M2M network that allows us to identify which security topics deserve special attention and which entities or specific services are particularly threatened. Second, we define an efficient, secure-data aggregation scheme that is able to increase the network lifetime by optimizing the energy consumption of the devices. Third, we propose a novel physical authenticator or frame checker that minimizes the communication costs in wireless channels and that successfully faces exhaustion attacks. Fourth, we study specific aspects of typical key management schemes to provide a novel protocol which ensures the distribution of secret keys for all the cryptographic methods used in this system. Fifth, we describe the collaboration with the WAVE2M community in order to define a proper frame format actually able to support the necessary security services, including the ones that we have already proposed; WAVE2M was funded to promote the global use of an emerging wireless communication technology for ultra-low and long-range services. And finally sixth, we provide with an accurate analysis of privacy solutions that actually fit M2M-networks services’ requirements. All the analyses along this thesis are corroborated by simulations that confirm significant improvements in terms of efficiency while supporting the necessary security requirements for M2M networks

Trust and exchange : the production of trust in illicit online drug markets

Au cours de la dernière décennie, les marchés illicites en ligne sont passés de niches de marchés à plateformes économiques à part entière. L’un des aspects de cette expansion semble reposer dans l’abandon de l’articulation traditionnelle de la relation de confiance entre vendeurs et acheteurs pour l’adoption de transactions régies par les principes d’atomisation sociale et d’anonymat. Se situant au cœur d’une sociologie économique des marchés illicites encore émergente, cette thèse cherche donc à étudier l’élaboration de la confiance au sein des marchés de drogues illicites en ligne. En m’appuyant sur la notion d’institutions en tant que constructions sociales, j'avance la thèse selon laquelle ces marchés illicites modernisent les modalités de transaction des marchés licites traditionnels : des contrats sont proposés ; des tribunaux sont érigés; la sanction est formalisée ; et la gouvernance est transformée. Cette approche permet de révéler un schisme fondamental de la littérature et de ses postulats à l’égard de l'ordre social régnant au sein des marchés illicites en ligne -- rupture qui s’exprime notamment par l’opposition entre 1) une conception de ces marchés comme socialement atomisés et régis uniquement par la réputation ; et 2) l’idée selon laquelle les serveurs restent sous le contrôle des administrateurs. Afin de pallier cette discordance, je propose un modèle d’élaboration de la confiance notamment issu des approches cognitives et comportementales. Premièrement, je soutiens qu'un ensemble de mécanismes actifs de renforcement remplace fonctionnellement les principes sociaux traditionnels de la confiance. Deuxièmement, je soutiens que la confiance, aussi bien interpersonnelle qu’abstraite (à savoir, la confiance accordée aux institutions), est principalement produite selon un processus bayésien d'accumulation d'expériences. Dans cette perspective, l'article « Uncertainty and Risk » examine l'ensemble des mécanismes actifs de renforcement de la confiance -- première composante de ce modèle -- et révèle que les vendeurs ajustent les prix non seulement en fonction de la réputation, mais également des contrats et du statut. Dans les articles suivants, le processus bayésien d'accumulation d'expériences -- deuxième partie du modèle -- est abordé. L’étude menée dans l‘article « Building a case for trust » met ainsi en lumière une association entre les échanges répétés avec le vendeur et une tendance à effectuer des transactions de plus en plus importantes. Le troisième article (« A change of expectations? »), quant à lui, met en exergue le fait qu’un faible nombre d’expériences satisfaisantes suffit à augmenter la certitude de l’acheteur quant à la qualité du produit illicite. Dans leur ensemble, ces deux articles soutiennent l’idée selon laquelle le processus d'accumulation d'expériences favorise la coopération et les attentes. Enfin, ce travail s’achève par l’articulation des deux composantes de ce modèle et, de manière plus générale, par l’articulation de la thèse de la modernisation et d’une conception de la confiance dont l’élaboration repose sur un processus d’accumulation d’expériences sociales. L’apport unique d'une sociologie économique dans l’étude criminologique des marchés illicites est notamment souligné et des pistes de recherches futures sont discutées.During the last decade illicit online drug markets have grown from niche markets into full-fledged platform economies. It seems that over the course of a few years, sellers and buyers have left the social bases of trust behind preferring to exchange under conditions of social atomization and anonymity. Situated in an emerging economic sociological approach to illicit markets, this work examines the production of trust in illicit online drug markets. Drawing on economic sociology, namely, the notion of institutions as social constructions, I advance the thesis that these markets modernize the premodern exchange modes of traditional illicit markets: Contracts are implemented; courts are erected; sanctions are formalized; and governance transforms. This analysis reveals a fundamental schism in the literature and its assumptions about the social order of illicit online markets. Specifically, a conception of these markets as socially atomized and governed only by reputation, versus the recognition that servers remain under the control of administrators. Building off the modernization thesis and the schism, I propose a model for the production of trust that is sensitive to both cognitive and behavioral approaches to trust. First, I propose that a set of active trust producing mechanisms functionally replace the bases of trust that have eroded as illicit markets move online. Second, I argue that trust is primarily produced through a Bayesian process of accumulating experience, which produces both interpersonal and abstract trust. In the article Uncertainty and Risk I examine the first component, the active production of trust. I revisit a key debate in the literature, the pricing of illicit goods. We find that sellers set prices adjust prices not only with respect to reputation, but also contracts and status. In the following two articles, I examine the second part of the model, the bayesian process of experience accumulation. In the article Building a Case for Trust, I find that repeated exchanges with a seller are associated with a propensity towards larger transactions. In the third article, A Change of Expectations?, I find that even a few experiences increases expectations in the performance of the market institution. Thus, the two articles provide evidence that the process of experience accumulation promotes cooperation and expectation. I conclude the work by reconciling a tension between the two components of the model, the proposition that markets are modernized, but that trust is produced primarily through a process of experience accumulation. On this basis, I continue to highlight the contributions and analytical advantages of the economic sociological approach to illicit markets

Situated Information and Communication Moralities : An Investigation into the Personal Use of the Internet in the Office Workplace

Cette thèse remet en question la perception négative, dominante dans la littérature et largement répandue dans les organisations, de l'utilisation personnelle d'Internet au travail. Une étude de cas a été réalisée auprès d’environ 80 d’employés et superviseurs dans un bureau d’un département du gouvernement canadien. La thèse confirme que, non seulement ces employés de bureau transgressaient-ils régulièrement des règles explicites conçus pour cadrer l’utilisation des technologies d’information et de communication (TIC), ces comportements étaient largement tolérés au sein du département. L’analyse des pratiques et interactions quotidiennes a révélé une relation entre des gestionnaires et leur personnel basée sur une confiance réciproque, mais pas absolue. Il ressort une moralité située fondée sur la promotion du professionnalisme et le maintien de la productivité. Le relâchement de contraintes organisationnelles autour de l’utilisation de l’Internet à des fins personnelles est utilisé comme outil de gestion par les superviseurs et cette flexibilité accrue est bien accueillie par les employés pour des raisons à la fois pragmatiques et psychologiques. Une sondage, des entretiens approfondis avec un certain nombre d’employés et gestionnaires et l’observation participante ont révélé un désir de paraître professionnel malgré les activités non liées au travail; une perception généralisée de l’utilisation d'Internet comme compensation informelle pour temps et effort; et un sens partagé de confiance entre des salariés et leurs superviseurs, ce qui favorise la satisfaction au travail et productivité. Avec ces observations, on offre des éléments de réponse pour expliquer comment les employés de bureau négocient ce qui est acceptable en termes de leur utilisation d’Internet non liée au travail, et comment les gestionnaires justifient leur application subjective des règles à ce sujet. Finalement, la recherche montre que l'utilisation personnelle d’Internet au travail peut rapporter des bénéfices et ne devrait donc pas toujours être vu comme du "cyber-loafing" ou du "time banditry" comme la littérature l’a principalement représentée depuis que l’Internet est arrivé massivement sur les lieux du travail. La forme et la faisabilité de restrictions organisationnelles sur ces pratiques devront faire objet de réflexion dans le contexte de brouillage accru de frontières entre le travail et la vie personnelle des employés de bureau du 21e siècle.This case-study investigation challenges the negative perception by organizations and researchers towards the personal use of the Internet in the workplace. While confirming that office employees in the field site were breaking explicit rules governing the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), this thesis provides evidence of informal relations between managers and their staff built on a tacit toleration of rule-violation. Their daily practices and interactions revealed a relationship that was shown to satisfy the conditions of a situated morality in promoting desired occupational identities and relaxing organizational constraints. Survey results, interview responses and observations of about 80 office workers and supervisors in a Canadian government department uncovered a desire to appear professional in spite of the non-work-related activity; Internet use as an informal compensation for time and effort; and a shared sense of trust to foster job satisfaction and productivity. Through these findings, answers are offered to explain how office workers negotiate what is acceptable in terms of non-work-related Internet use, and how supervisors justify their subjective enforcement of rules. Lastly, the research showed that personal Internet use in the workplace can yield positive outcomes and should not always be seen as “cyber-loafing” or “time banditry” as the literature has predominantly portrayed it since the Internet age entered the workplace. Lastly, this thesis raises questions as to the value of employee monitoring and organizational restrictions amid the increasing blurring of work and personal lives of 21st Century office workers

Legitimation of the economic community of West African states (ECOWAS): a normative and institutional inquiry

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University LondonThis study is an attempt at determining the normative legitimacy of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). At its core, it scrutinizes the current mandate of the organization following the layering of economic integration objectives with human rights protection, sustenance of democracy, and the rule of law. The study discusses the elements of legitimacy across disciplines mainly, international law, international relations and political science. Legitimacy is eventually split along two divides, the normative and descriptive/sociological aspects. The study traces the normative content (shared/common values) underlying integration in Africa, concluding that integration has been born on new ideals such as human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Expectedly, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) as building blocks of the prospective African Economic Community (AEC) under the African Union (AU) regime are mandated to play a vital role in moving the continent forward upon these values. The inquiry is extended to the institutions of ECOWAS to determine their capacity to effectively implement the new mandate of the organization and operate supranationally. In the process, key legal and institutional shortcomings are discussed, particularly in relation to national institutions. It is argued that while human rights protection enhances the normative legitimacy of ECOWAS, it must not be pursued in isolation. Economic integration and protection of citizens’ rights are co-terminus and mutually reinforcing. Hence, community institutions must reflect this link if they are to be effective. The study concludes on the note that, while ECOWAS possesses layers of legitimacy, and have carried out legitimation steps, it cannot be considered a legitimate organization if Member States continue to be non-compliant with community objectives and if key legal questions remain unaddressed. It is submitted that ECOWAS is merely undergoing legitimation, whether it can eventually be considered a legitimate organization is dependent on addressing the identified challenges