On 21 November 2024, 12:30h - 13:30h CET, LSTS visiting scholar Eric Repetto (PhD Candidate at the Center for International Studies (CERI) in Sciences Po Paris) will present his work-in-progress, entitled ‘Sovereign bullies? How Big Tech companies perform (or challenge) state sovereignty during state-company interactions’ followed by discussion.
Abstract:
The debate on sovereignty as a discourse has overwhelmingly focused on states, treated as the actors that shape and maintain the concept of sovereignty as a cornerstone of their perceived authority and subjecthood. This has consistently overlooked how our conception of sovereignty is reproduced also through the ways companies and public officials interact: what parts of our understanding of state sovereignty are shaped within these arenas, how do private actors contribute to them explicitly or implicitly, and to to what extent are conflicts and challenges inherent in these processes? My research compares the actions and discourse of Big Tech companies in relation to state officials in Australia, and to EU officials in Brussels, to answer these questions. The policy processes under analysis are three: the approval of the News Media Bargaining Code in Australia, the drafting of the CoP against Disinformation in the EU, and the implementation of the systemic risks assessment framework in the EU.
This event will be in a hybrid format (both on-campus and online). Interested participants wishing to take part can register by sending an email to Pablo.Rodrigo.Trigo.Kramcsak@vub.be.