Research area: Law and Ethics

DigiMeet connects young researchers and promotes dialogue on the social, political and technological conditions of digital transformation. Focus for 2025: Design and regulation of digital platforms.

How do social media influence political communication? At the 2025 Medientage München, bidt Director Andreas Jungherr discussed algorithms, emotions and how digital public spheres are becoming more democratic.

BR24’s #Faktenfuchs investigates fake videos that have gone viral on TikTok. Bidt researcher Fay Carathanassis explains when false claims are punishable by law – and what limits apply to freedom of expression.

bidt Director Dirk Heckmann was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for his services to digital law. With this order, the Federal Republic honours individuals whose life’s work has strengthened science and society.

The Tagesgespräch on BR2 and ARD alpha takes stock of 100 days of the black-red coalition. Margret Hornsteiner is a studio guest who assesses developments from a political science perspective.

How do we understand trust in AI in interdisciplinary research? This article addresses the conceptual ambiguity between different research disciplines and proposes a possible common working concept of trust in AI.

Generative AI also opens up completely new possibilities in law enforcement, including the use of deepfakes to infiltrate criminal organisations. But would this be technically possible, ethically justifiable and legally feasible?

At the two-day event, we will present current results from bidt research projects and discuss them with experts from science, politics, business and society.

Our researchers will be represented at this year’s re:publica with talks and panels on digitalisation. The festival for the digital society in 2025 has the motto “Generation XYZ”.