Enabler: Simplified concealment

The growing threat of ransomware attacks – current trends and challenges

Ransomware encrypts data and extorts money for its release. Thanks to better technology and digital payments, these globally lucrative and difficult-to-trace attacks are on the rise.

Hate speech in social media

Hate speech on social media contributes to social division and the escalation of conflicts. Platforms change the dynamics of hate speech and make this form of digital violence particularly explosive.

Digital communities

Digital communities are based on algorithmically mediated social relationships in digital space. They enable flexible participation and intensive interaction and thus represent a new dimension of communitization.

Online misogyny: manifestations and dynamics towards politically active women

Online misogyny is embedded in existing political structures of discrimination and oppression and affects women who belong to minorities or historically disadvantaged groups with particular severity.

Dark social – digital communication without publicity?

Dark social media are communication services that cannot be viewed by third parties. They enable private and pseudonymous interactions that can often take on public dimensions and profoundly change our social discourse.

Digital voting procedures for political elections

Examples from Estonia, the USA, India and Brazil show this: Political elections can certainly be digitized – in Germany, the main thing missing is a suitable organizational and governance structure.

Digital disinformation to influence political elections

Can deliberately false, digital news reports (disinformation) influence the outcome of elections? Who spreads such false reports and what can be done about it?

Self-Sovereign Identities

Self-sovereign identity describes a paradigm for designing data-sovereign, digital identity management systems with the aid of cryptographic building blocks.

The effect of social bots on political discussions in social networks

Social bots influence political discourse in social media. Find out how they shape opinions and what strategies exist to minimize their effects.