Hate Speech and Artificial Intelligence Tools

Bruno Liebhaberg is Director General of the think tank Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) which he founded in 2010. From 2018 to 2021, he was also the first Chairman of the European Union Observatory on the Online Platform Economy. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles’ Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (SBS-EM ULB) where he taught from 1979 to 2018. Earlier in his career, he advised former European Commission President Jacques Delors on industry and R&D matters related to the completion of the EU Single Market. He holds a Master in Management Sciences from SBS-EM ULB and a Ph.D. in Industrial Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Michael O’Flaherty is Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights since December 2015 and adjunct Professor of Law at the National University of Ireland Maynooth.

He has previously served as Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.  From 2004-2012, he was a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, latterly as a Vice-Chairperson.

Mr O’Flaherty has been a member of the UK Foreign Office’s advisory bodies on freedom of expression and the prevention of torture and the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs’ human rights advisory committee.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and has sat on the advisory boards of numerous human rights groups and journals internationally.

Michèle Finck is a Senior Research Fellow at the Munich-based Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition and a lecturer in EU law at Keble College (University of Oxford) (since 2013). Michèle’s research focuses primarily on digital platforms, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology as well as EU law.

She studied law at King´s College London, the Sorbonne and the Florence-based European University Institute when she got an LLM degree. She also has a doctorate in law from the University of Oxford. She was a visiting researcher at New York University in 2013-14 and a fellow at the London School of Economics in 2015-17.

Tom De Smedt is Senior Researcher at the Computational Linguistics Research Group (CLiPS) of the University of Antwerp.

He is a language technology expert, with an interest in AI & Ethics, human creativity, and diversity. In 2016, he co-founded Textgain, a language technology start-up company that offers real-time predictive text analytics.

Mr De Smedt is also co-founder of the Experimental Media Research Group (EMRG, St Lucas School of Arts, Antwerp).

He holds a doctoral degree in arts, a master’s degree in new media art and a bachelor’s degree in software engineering.

Erik Mannens is Proffessor at Ghent University – IDLab since 2005 and Research Valorisation Director at imec, the world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies.

He received his PhD degree in Computer Science Engineering (2011) at UGent, his Master’s degree in Computer Science (1995) at K.U. Leuven, and his Master’s degree in Electro-Mechanical Engineering (1992) at KAHO Ghent.

He currently heads the Data Science team of more than 50 semantic technologies & artificial intelligence researchers.

Jeremy Olivier is Public Policy Manager for Content Distribution & Algorithm Policy at Facebook.

Prior to joining the  online social media and networking service, he served as Head of Internet Policy at Ofcom, the UK’s regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries. At Ofcom, he was responsible for policy development across a broad range of issues, including the evolution of audio-visual media regulation, net neutrality, the protection of minors, and the regulation of OTT services.

Prior to joining Ofcom, Mr Olivier was Head of Strategy for new media at the BBC.

Emmanuel Crabit is Director for Fundamental Rights and Rule of Law at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Justice and Consumers. Previously, he was Head of the ‘Fundamental rights and rights of the child’ unit in that same DG.

Before working for DG Justice and Consumers, Mr Crabit worked in the Internal Market and Services Directorate General where he dealt with Commission initiatives in the field of data protection, media pluralism, e-commerce and services.

He holds a PhD in public law and was Senior Lecturer in public law before joining the European Commission.

Camilla Bustani is Director, International at Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, where she is responsible for Ofcom’s international strategy across the sectors it regulates. She has been actively engaged in European regulatory debates for the last 15 years, prior to which she worked as a lawyer at Clifford Chance LLP in London for 8 years.

She got her bachelors’ degree from Harvard University and a masters’ degree from Columbia University, and a law degree from Oxford University.

Sally Broughton Micova is a CERRE Academic Co-Director and an Associate Professor in Communications Policy and Politics at the University of East Anglia (UEA). She is also a member of UEA’s Centre for Competition Policy.

Her research focuses on media and communications policy in Europe.

She completed her PhD in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), after which she was an LSE Teaching and Research Fellow in Media Governance and Policy and Deputy Director of the LSE Media Policy Project.

President of the Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM), the communications regulator in Italy, since 2012, Professor Angelo Marcello Cardani was appointed by Prime Minister Mario Monti.

Professor Cardani has had a long academic career, which includes tenure at Università Bocconi from 1985 to 2012.

In his non-academic career, he was Special Advisor to the Chief Competition Economist at DG Competition between 2004 and 2005, and prior to that he served as Deputy Head of Cabinet of Mario Monti, when he was European Commissioner for Competition Policy (1999-2004).

He served as a member of the Cabinet of Mario Monti, the European Commissioner for Internal Market, Financial Services, and Taxation (1995 -1999), and was Director General and Board Member of the International Management Institute of St. Petersburg (IMISP) from 1989 to 1995.

The author of numerous academic papers on management and economics topics, Professor Angelo Marcello Cardani has a degree in Economics from Università Bocconi and completed his studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Winston Maxwell is Director of the Law & Digital Technology Studies department at Télécom Paris – Institut Polytechnique de Paris, where he teaches and writes on subjects related to the regulation of data, AI and telecommunications. He previously had a career in private practice as a partner of the international law firm Hogan Lovells.

Winston completed his law degree (JD) at Cornell, his PhD in economics at Télécom Paris, and his HDR (Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches) at the University of Paris Panthéon Sorbonne. His research focuses on the regulation of AI, and in particular human control over algorithmic systems, explainability and bias. Winston co-ordinates the “Operational AI Ethics” program at Telecom Paris, which includes AI Ethics teaching at Institut Polytechnique de Paris. In addition to being a research fellow at CERRE, Winston is a member of the Data and AI Ethics Council of Orange, the Scientific Advisory Board of ARCOM, the Ethics Board of the Paris Institute of Advanced Studies. He also contributes to standardisation activities on trustworthy AI within ISO/IEC JTC21/WG 4.

Maria Luisa Stasi is Senior Legal Officer at ARTICLE 19, a London-based non-profit organisation defending people’s freedom of opinion and expression. She contributes to the development of the organisation’s policies on infrastructure, competition, and regulatory framework for telecoms, internet providers and online service providers. She also provides legal support to the organisation’s regional offices on digital rights and media policy issues.

Prior to joining ARTICLE 19, Ms Stasi coordinated various projects at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute, where she conducted research, policy and capacity building activities in the telecoms and media sector.

Alexandre de Streel is the Academic Director of the digital research programme at CERRE and Professor of European law at the University of Namur where he chairs the Namur Digital Institute (NADI). Alexandre is also visiting professor at the College of Europe (Bruges) and SciencesPo Paris. Besides, he chairs the expert group on the online platform economy advising the European Commission and is a part-time judge at the Belgian Competition Authority.

His main areas of research are regulation and competition policy in the digital economy as well as the legal issues raised by the developments of artificial intelligence.

Previously, Alexandre held visiting positions at New York University Law School, European University Institute in Florence, Barcelona Graduate School of Economics and University of Louvain. He also worked for the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister, the Belgian Permanent Representation to the European Union and the European Commission.

Milan Zubíček is a Public Policy and Government Relations Manager at Google in Brussels, where he covers topics related to platforms’ content liability, disinformation and violent extremism.

Before moving to Brussels in September 2018, he worked for two years at Google’s Central and Eastern European public policy team, coordinating data governance in the region and was responsible for government relations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Previously, he was Program Manager at the Aspen Institute Central Europe and a Public Affairs Consultant at Grayling.