#DPEForum2024 - a platform for young talents

Professor Martin Selmayr spoke at the Passau Redoute about regulatory principles behind the EU's digital acts.

Martin Selmayr, Academic Director of the Centre for European Law at the University of Passau and currently Visiting Professor of European Law at the University of Vienna, gave insights behind the scenes of the negotiations on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which took place during his time as Head of Cabinet of former EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. The GDPR set global standards, unlike the previous European Data Protection Directive from 1995, which was left to the member states to transpose into national law. "Nobody knew this directive, but everyone knows the GDPR," said Selmayr. One reason is the market place principle in Article 3, according to which companies based outside Europe must also comply with these rules if they process the data of European citizens. This principle led to a protest call from the White House during the negotiations. Juncker's response: "Looks like we're doing something right." In the meantime, Article 3 has led to the "Brussels effect", meaning that the GDPR rules have also been adopted into national law elsewhere, including in some US states.

Someone in the audience wanted to know whether the AI Act recently adopted by the member states would set similar standards. That remains to be seen, Selmayr replied. However, the basis for a strong "Brussels effect" is there. After all, the AI Act also contains the market place principle. Selmayr found it interesting that the White House issued an executive order on artificial intelligence just a few months ago, almost as if it wanted to get ahead of the Europeans. "A Brussels effect is already taking place, at least in people's minds."

Warrants to combat misinformation

The second keynote speaker was from the US. While the passionate European Selmayr discussed the possibilities of regulation, US professor Marshall Van Alstyne focused on the potential of the 'marketplace of ideas'. His thesis: government intervention is not necessary to combat misinformation, deepfakes and propaganda. The market could clean itself up if it was corrected. "In fact, I believe this would be the superior solution and could create better platform ecosystems," said Professor Van Alstyne.

So far, polarising news and hate speech on social media have been rewarded with reach, making them more valuable than less exciting facts. He compared the situation to pollution: The market does not work because the polluter does not have to pay the cost. There is now a certificate solution for reducing CO2 emissions. Something similar is conceivable for misinformation. This means that the person who spreads it has to pay. To illustrate that this could work, Van Alstyne showed several experimental studies that he and his team had carried out. The results showed that when people risked paying for spreading false information, they were more likely to choose less exciting but true news.

Professor Van Alstyne, who came to the University of Passau from Boston University, was something of a star in his field for the young researchers present. He was one of the founders of the platform economy theory, according to which platform companies operate in a fundamentally different way. He was able to explain their enormous growth in terms of reciprocal network effects. The more users there are, the more attractive the platform becomes for providers, who in turn attract more users, and so on.

Panel discussions with renowned researchers from all over the world

The conflicting goals of regulation and innovation were also the subject of the next day's workshops and panel discussions at the University of Passau's ITZ building. Professor Van Alstyne was joined on stage by other renowned experts from academia and from Germany's highest competition authority, the Bundeskartellamt. The "DPE Forum" brought researchers from all over the world to Passau. Guests from Australia, South Korea, the USA and Argentina travelled the furthest.

The workshops that followed the panels were once again a chance for young researchers to present their work and discuss it with the big names in their field. In order to present at the DPE Forum, young researchers had to apply through a call for papers. The programme reflected the diversity of topics in platform research: from narcissistic CEOs and trust in communication with avatars to the opportunities and possibilities of platform companies for countries in the Global South.

A similarly broad range of topics can be found in the Passau Research Training Group, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), where 15 doctoral students and two postdocs, who have also come to Passau from all over the world to take part in the Early Career Research Programme, are now conducting research. These young talents are thus continuing a tradition established in Passau, which Prof Selmayr describes as the "Passau effect" in reference to the "Brussels effect": "Passau's strength is its connectedness with the world. The DPE Forum is a platform for young talents. The event will take place every two years.