The Normative Foundations of Social Media Platforms

Max Planck Institute for Human Development

Berlin, December 12-14, 2026

In collaboration with the IDea_Lab (University of Graz), the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and COLIBRI (University of Graz), PhilMod is hosting a research event that brings together 26 researchers from philosophy, political science, law, psychology, sociology, media studies, and computer science, as well as platform builders.

Organizers

Participants

  • Lennart Carstens-Behrens, Fraunhofer SCAI

  • Johannes Domnick, IDea_Lab, University of Graz

  • Jennifer Forestal, Loyola University Chicago

  • Robert Gehl, York University

  • Hussam Habib, IDea_Lab, University of Graz

  • Ralph Hertwig, MPI for Human Development

  • Chris Howard, McGill University

  • Julia Kamin, Prosocial Design Network

  • Jaz-Michael King, IFTAS

  • Anastasia Kozyreva, MPI for Human Development

  • Stephan Lewandowsky. University of Bristol

  • Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, TU Dresden

  • Jennifer Mitchell, Gander Social

  • Luise Müller, FU Berlin

  • Victor Odouard, Princeton University

  • Nikolaus Pöchhacker, IDea_Lab, University of Graz

  • Viktoria Robertson, WU Vienna

  • Aaron Rodericks, Bluesky

  • Nathan Schneider, University of Colorado Boulder

  • Rachel Sterken, University of Hong Kong

  • Luke Thorburn, MIT

AI and the Future of Platforms

University of Hong Kong, April 1-3, 2026

In April 2026, PhilMod held its second in-person event by jointly co-hosting a workshop on AI and the Future of Platforms in collaboration with the Department of Philosophy and the AI & Humanity Lab at the University of Hong Kong. Many thanks to Rachel Sterken and Sean Donahue for making this workshop possible!

Organizers

  • Rachel Sterken (University of Hong Kong)

  • Sean Donahue (University of Hong Kong)

  • Étienne Brown (University of Ottawa)

  • Jeffrey Howard (University College London)

Speakers

  • Janny Leung (University of Hong Kong): Fighting Fire with Fire: Content Moderation in the Era of Gen AI

  • Sarah Fisher (Cardiff University): Speech Norms in the Digital Age

  • Sean Donahue (University of Hong Kong): A Plea for Strict Platforms

  • Adrian Yee (Hong Kong Baptist University): Methodological Issues for Machine Learning Models of Misinformation

  • Pu Yan (Peking University): From Everyday Rumours to Ai Labelling: What Ethnography and User Behavioural Research Reveal That Platform Policies Miss

  • Kangyu Wang and Sean Donahue (University of Hong Kong): Deception and the Combatant/Non-Combatant Distinction

  • Rachel Sterken (University of Hong Kong): AI Agents, Proxy Speech, and User-Alignment

  • Jeffrey Howard (University College London): Mistakes and Mechanised Censorship

  • Juan Espindola (National Autonomous University of Mexico): Weapons of Cartel Destruction: Content Moderation for Traffickers

  • Luzhou Li (Monash University): AI as Platform Order: Governance, Extraction, and the Limits of Regulation

  • Luke Thorburn (King’s College London): Community By Design

  • Weiyu Zhang (National University of Singapore): Civic Tech as Alternatic Tech: The Challenges

  • Étienne Brown (University of Ottawa): Interoperability and Content Moderation

  • Tim Book and Janna Lasser (University of Graz): Designing Social Media Recommendation Algorithms for Societal Good

  • Celine Song (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology): Invisible Governance: Algorithmic Authority in the Platform-Agent Era

First International Conference on the Philosophy of Content Moderation

April 12-15, 2025, Asilomar Hotel and Conference Grounds

To celebrate its second anniversary, PhilMod held the first international conference on the philosophy of content moderation at the Asilomar Conference Grounds from April 12th to April 15th, 2025. Thanks to all participants (pictured below)!

Organizers

  • Étienne Brown (San José State University)

  • Hanna Kiri Gunn (UC Merced)

  • Jeffrey Howard (UCL)

Speakers

  • Michael Swenson (Reddit): Communities of Virtue: Identity and Moral Formation for Community Moderators

  • Sean Donahue (ANU): Platform Tyranny, Rule of Law, and Virtual Community

  • Jennifer Saul (University of Waterloo): Dogwhistles, Figleaves and Content Moderation

  • Michael Randall Barnes (Notre Dame University): Responsibility for Recommendations

  • Diana Acosta Navas (Loyola University Chicago): Bridging Over Troubled Waters

  • Scott Aikin (Vanderbilt University): An Arguer's Model of Free Speech

  • Mark Satta (Wayne State University): Freedom of Discussion on Social Media Platforms

  • Conor Sanchez (Meta): A Framework for Behavior-based Online Enforcement

  • Chloé Bakalar (Meta): The Right to AI Free Speech

  • Elizabeth Stewart (University of Canterbury): What Fact Checkers Check: From Truth to Justification

  • Subbu Vincent (Santa Clara University): Democratizing Digital News Distribution: Norms and Supply Chains

  • Jonathan Gingerich (Rutgers University/UCL): Spontaneous Freedom and Content Moderation

  • Christopher Bousquet (Syracuse University): Social Media Moderation and Political Equality: The Case Against Viewpoint-Based Regulations

  • Juan Espindola Mata (UNAM): Weapons of Cartel Destruction: Content Moderation and Drug Trafficking

  • James Gresham: Incentives in Trust & Safety Operations: Alignments, Misalignments, and Their Impacts on Stakeholders

Discussants

  • Tim Aylsworth (Florida International U.)

  • Clinton Castro (University of Wisconsin at Madison)

  • Nikolas Kirby (University of Glasgow)

  • Hannah McHugh (University of Utrecht)

  • Stefano Merlo (LSE)

  • Bilyana Petkova (University of National and World Economy in Bulgaria)

  • Rob Reich (Stanford University)

  • Rachel Sterken (University of Hong Kong)