27 Jul 2026 The beautiful game in a connected world
In this World Cup, we took home an invisible trophy. Outrage spread online, flowing parallel to the real-time streaming of the game....
29 Apr 2026 The hidden cost of AI: Digital colonialism and the Global South
A recent WACC Europe discussion featured a presentation by journalist Ingo Dachwitz on the largely invisible workforce, concentrated in the Global South, enabling artificial intelligence and social media feeds. The myth of artificial intelligence When Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the US Congress in 2018, facing questions...
09 Feb 2026 Spain takes a stand: Regulating Big Tech to protect children
According to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, social media platforms have become a “toxic, unpunished world” that “children were never meant to navigate alone.” This sharp critique, delivered at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on 4 February, reflects growing global concern about the unchecked power...
12 Jan 2026 Trust, civic engagement, and shared responsibility in the digital age
Germany’s far-right political party Alternative für Deutschland recently relaunched a youth wing called Generation Deutschland. One of its posters portrays a young blond Aryan woman instantly recalling – for those who have not forgotten 20th century European history – Hitler’s League of German Girls and...
22 Jan 2025 WACC Europe webinar highlights diverging views on social media engagement
Should churches and NGOs be active on social media platforms or leave them entirely due to ethical and rights concerns? Should civil society be doing more to hold social media platforms accountable?Three prominent voices offered differing perspectives on the role of social media for civil...
13 Jan 2025 Meta: Freedom of expression for whom?
We expected 2025 to be a challenging year for human rights defenders, if only from the global political turmoil U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump is promising. For many, though, Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement on 7 January that Meta would replace fact checkers on Facebook and Instagram with the...
19 Aug 2024 Far-right conspiracies and extremist ideologies depend on social media
How to regulate social media platforms effectively has become the quest of liberal and illiberal governments alike. The one to eradicate hate speech, and the other to control rebellious populations. The UN defines hate speech as “any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour, that...
17 Jun 2024 It doesn’t have to be hate speech to harm
June 18 is the International Day for Countering Hate Speech and June 20 is World Refugee Day. With migrants and refugees often targeted by hate, it can be natural – and even useful – to mark the days together. Certainly WACC Europe, after their 2017 media...
15 Jan 2024 The Economics of Freedom of Expression
Substack is the latest digital communication platform to set off a freedom of expression debate after the co-founder Hamish McKenzie stated that the platform would not demonetize those posting extremist content on the newsletter platform — namely Nazi and white supremacists. The comments sparked both condemnation...
09 Dec 2022 Webinar breaks ground for ecumenical gender and media observatory
An introductory webinar to social media monitoring on 8 December took the first steps towards establishing a global, ecumenical observatory to gather evidence on gender-based violence content in the media and advocate for change.The hands-on event “Rooting Out Gender Cyberviolence” was organized by WACC in...