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The state of content moderation for the LGBTIQA+ community and the role of the EU Digital Services Act

Published: 21 June 2021
E-paper
Platforms can empower groups that have previously been silenced. However, platforms also host hateful and illegal content, often targeted at minorities, and content is prone to being unfairly censored by algorithmically biased moderation systems. This report analyzes the current environment of content moderation, particularly bringing to light negative effects for the LGBTIQA+ community, and provides policy recommendations for the forthcoming negotiations on the EU Digital Services Act.

Algorithmic misogynoir in content moderation practice

Published: 21 June 2021
E-paper
Existing content moderation practices, both algorithmically-driven and people-determined, are rooted in white colonialist culture. Black women’s opinions, experiences, and expertise are suppressed and their online communication streams are removed abruptly, silently, and quickly. This paper explores algorithmic misogynoir in content moderation and makes the case for the regular examination of the impact of content moderation tactics on Black women and other minoritized communities.

"Get Lost!": European Return Policies in Practice

Published: 25 September 2020
Study
Current EU migration policies' increased focus on returns raises concerns on the adequacy of such measures with EU standards and fundamental rights. This publication highlights the problems and difficulties returnees face in Afghanistan, Syria, Tunisia, Senegal and Kosovo.

Money against Migration: The EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa

Published: 18 March 2019
Study
The EU-Africa migration summit in Valletta in November 2015 gave birth to a new European funding instrument: the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF). This study comes to the conclusion that the implementation of migration policy projects supported by EUTF funding primarily benefits the (wealthier) member states of the EU.

People on the Move in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2018: Stuck in the corridors to the EU

Published: 21 February 2019
Migrants
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has been part of the “Balkan route” for smuggling people, arms and drugs for decades, but also a migrant route for people who have been trying to reach Western Europe and the countries of the EU in order to save their lives and secure a future for themselves. This report offers insight into the situation on the field: is there a system responsible for protection, security, and upholding fundamental human rights? What has the state response been like? What is the role of the international community?

Deterrence, Detention, & Deportation: Child Migrants in the United States & the European Union

Published: 14 August 2015
Scenes of migrants stranded at the southern borders of the European Union and the United States have become increasingly regular news items, causing debates on immigration policies to intensify. Meanwhile, child migrants face dangerous conditions, detention, and deportation. How are these policies enacted in the EU and US and in comparison to the standards set by international law? By Nicole Johnson, intern at the HBS North America Office. 

Thirty Years of Bundestag Presence

Published: 10 January 2013
In the run-up to the 2013 German federal elections, this publication considers three decades of a changing political landscape with the emergence of the Green Party. The authors discuss how the Green Party built its “brand” and, in so doing, ushered in a fundamental change in German politics and society.

Democracy, Democratization and Climate Change

Published: 12 December 2012
Relationships between democracy and more particularly democratization on the one side and climate change and responses to that on the other are underexplored in the two literatures on democratization and climate change. A special issue of the journal DEMOCRATIZATION, with contributions by several Heinrich Böll Foundation authors, explores a variety of facets of this complex and interdependent relationship.