Organisation: Privacy in Germany (PinG) / Deutscher Anwaltverein (DAV)
Room: Online 2
Timing: 11:45 - 13:00 on 28 January 2021
In the past years, member states like Germany (Network Enforcement Act) and France (Loi Avia) have passed laws containing new obligations for social media providers to protect and enforce rights in the digital sphere. This controversial legislation (the Loi Avia has been declared partly unconstitutional) is about to be amended on the national and EU level. The EU Digital Service Act is supposed to set new rules for the liability of intermediaries and improve enforcement.
While it seems hard to argue with the goals of fighting hate speech, fake news and the spread of conspiracy ideologies, this legislation has some serious side effects: Overblocking, blurred lines between public and private tasks, and — of course — data protection issues concerning social media users. This panel will discuss experiences with national legislation and possible "collateral damages“ of the new European approach.
• How will the EU Digital Service Act change the role of intermediaries?
• How will it help to improve the enforcement of laws in the digital sphere?
• What side effects might it bring for free speech, data protection, and other goods?
• How does the Digital Service Act relate to similar national legislation?
• Studied at Freien Universität Berlin
• Trainee in the judicial service in Berlin and Chicago
• 1989 to 1993 academic assistant at Freien Universität Berlin, Prof. Dr. Detlef Leenen (privat law)
• Admission to the bar in 1993
• Partner at HÄRTING Rechtsanwälte since 1996
• Professor at the Hochschule für Recht (HWR Berlin) since 2012
Bojana is the President of Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP's Centre for Information Policy Leadership (CIPL), a preeminent global information policy think tank located in Washington, DC, London and Brussels. With more than 20 years of experience and deep knowledge of global data privacy and cybersecurity law, compliance and policy, she has a proven industry record in designing strategy, and building and managing data privacy compliance programs. Bojana was one of 20 privacy experts to participate in the transatlantic “Privacy Bridge Project” from 2014 – 2015 that sought to develop practical solutions to bridge the gap between European and US privacy regimes.
Ms. Suzanne Vergnolle holds a Ph.D. from University Paris II Panthéon-Assas. Her work explores the effectiveness of protecting individuals’ rights by data protection law.
She has been a professor and a guest speaker in various programs in France and the United States. She is the author of several papers on subjects including privacy, data protection, open data, international criminal cooperation and comparative law.
Dr. Arnd Haller, Senior Legal Director, Google Arnd Haller heads up Google´s legal department in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, BeNeLux and Scandinavia. He leads the EU legal affairs for Google and is a member of the German Management Team. He has been working as legal counsel for the company since 2005. Arnd Haller is admitted to the bar and has several years of experience at the international Firm Taylor Wessing in Hamburg, advising clients from media, IT and Internet industries. He studied law in Würzburg, Münster, Hamburg and Granada (Spain) and graduated from the Law Faculty of the University of Münster. He completed research projects in Argentina, and traineeships at the German Embassy in Bolivia and the Council of the European Union in New York.
Tiemo Wölken is a Member of the European Parliament from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats since 2016. A lawyer by profession, he specialised in European public law at the University of Osnabrück and holds an LLM in International Law from the University of Hull. He is S&D’s coordinator in the Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee, and was the committee's rapporteur for the own-initiative report on the Digital Services Act. One of the youngest members of the EP and an active YouTuber, he cites sustainability, healthcare and digitalisation as his top priorities.