University of Rennes Postdoctoral Researcher┋Legal regulation of online disinformation
- Organisation/Company: Université de Rennes
- Department: IODE
- Research Field: Juridical sciences » European law
- Researcher Profile: Recognised Researcher (R2)
- Country: France
- Application Deadline: 1 May 2023 - 23:59 (Europe/Paris)
- Type of Contract: Temporary
- Job Status: Full-time
- Hours Per Week: 35
- Offer Starting Date: 1 May 2023
Offer Description
Project title: Legal regulation of online disinformation
Call for expression of interest description
The Marie S. Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) programme is a highly prestigious renowned EU-funded scheme. It offers talented scientists a unique chance to set up 2-year research and training projects with the support of a supervising team. Besides providing an attractive grant, it represents a major opportunity to boost the career of promising researchers.
The University of Rennes, and the Western Institute of Law and Europe (Institut de l’Ouest: Droit et Europe -IODE), are thus looking for excellent postdoctoral researchers with an international profile to write a persuasive proposal to apply for a Marie S. Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship grant in 2023 (deadline of the EU call set on 13 September 2023). The topic and research team presented below have been identified in this regard.
Main Research Field: Social Sciences and Humanities (SOC)
Research sub-field(s): Law, digital law, european union law
Keywords: Disinformation, foreign interference, cyber security, cyber defense, fake news
Research project description
From political advertising to attempts at disinformation and manipulation, digital platforms are an obvious vector for disrupting democratic processes: this is linked to the systemic effects of their economic model, to the fact that this model is based on the massive collection of data that makes it possible to establish a very precise profile of users, and thus to target the content that is sent to them.
The recommendation algorithms are fed by this data, thus targeting the individual preferences of individuals. This profiling is conducive to the viral diffusion of information, especially false information.
If the very large platforms have been able to feed these phenomena, sometimes even without their knowledge, the new digital uses have amplified the risks: the information bubble in which citizens who only get their information from social networks have also contributed to maintain this phenomenon, which largely revolves around these digital platforms.
The stakes of the activity of platforms, especially social networks, on democracies are considerable, because they reveal new vulnerabilities, in particular the question of the manipulation of public opinions and disinformation conveyed by these digital platforms.
The capture of public debate by digital platforms is becoming a fundamental democratic issue. They are the place for all kinds of excesses: from online hatred to multiple forms of disinformation, including the censorship of a sitting president, the stakes are high.
These democratic stakes are not however dissociated from the economic stakes since the disinformation factory feeds a whole economy.
The fight against disinformation requires first of all the identification of the forms of disinformation: from strategies of influence to cyber attacks, the forms are multiple and do not all require the same legal response.
It also requires an understanding of the vectors of disinformation in order to adopt relevant regulations: we think first of all of digital platforms, but we must not forget the role of individual and collective uses and behaviors.
Disinformation campaigns are often part of a hybrid war that includes cyber attacks and network hacking. Protecting the integrity of elections and democratic processes therefore also involves the issue of cyberattacks that can target critical electoral infrastructures.
These different forms of disinformation do not all require the same legal and political response.
The axes of research will focus on:
- the notion of disinformation and its balance with freedom of expression (criterion of intentionality, distinction with caricature or satire, etc).
- a behavioral approach to legal regulation (how not to feed conspiracy phenomena by giving the impression of an official truth)
- issues of regulation of social networks (moderation, risk of over-censorship, information bubble)
- cybersecurity issues (foreign interference, manipulation of democratic elections)
- new issues with deepfakes
Supervisor(s)
Brunessen Bertrand is full professor of public law, specializing in European Union law and digital law. She conducts her research on EU law in the research laboratory called IODE. She holds a Jean Monnet Chair on data governance, where she works on issues of digital sovereignty, health data, and environmental data. She is involved in several multidisciplinary research projects (on blockchains, on digital platforms), and in international research projects (on inclusive artificial intelligence).
Publications
The partnership between the European Union and Africa in the digital field, in Perspectives internationales du droit des activités numériques en Afrique, A-T Norodom et A. Abdou Hassan (dir.), Bruylant.
Commentaire de la directive NIS et du Cybersecurity Act, Code de la cybersécurité, Dalloz, M. Sejan, M. Watin-Augouard (dir.), 2022 ( à paraître).
- The European Union's policy on artificial intelligence: between sectoral and transversal approaches, C. Castets-Renard (dir.), L’intelligence artificielle, regards croisés, 2021.
- La souveraineté numérique de l’Union européenne : une pensée en actes ?, RTDEur, 2/2021.
- La conception européenne du partage de données dans l’Union européenne, Europe, février 2020.
Links to web pages :
https://iode.univ-rennes1.fr/interlocuteurs/brunessen-bertrand
https://univ-droit.fr/universitaires/21713-bertrand-brunessen
The Postdoctoral Fellow will be supervised by Brunessen BERTRAND
Department/Research
IODE is a law research laboratory with the status of a joint research unit (UMR 6262). As such, it benefits from a double attachment: on the one hand, to the University of Rennes 1 and, on the other hand, to the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). This UMR status was renewed following the HCERES evaluation for the period 2017-2021 (see Evaluation Report).
IODE includes 3 CNRS researchers, 64 teacher-researchers on a principal basis, 53 associate researchers and 68 PhD students.
Within IODE, research takes two complementary and mutually enriching forms.
The research carried out aims first of all to contribute to the reflection, but also to provide elements of response, on major societal issues. This is particularly true of research on environmental challenges, on issues related to technological developments, and on the consequences of globalization (the place of the European Union in world governance, the future of continental liability law, the circulation of legal models, etc.). One of IODE's strengths in carrying out this research lies in the presence of researchers covering the entire spectrum of the legal field: legal historians, publicists with a strong European law orientation, and private practitioners. The other advantage is more methodological and lies in the ability to develop multidisciplinary approaches whenever scientifically relevant (bioethics, ICT, environment, etc.), to respond to calls for projects and to place the work in a European and international dimension.
The research also aims at developing a real expertise in various branches of law through systematic analyses of positive law and prospective reflections resulting from these analyses. To do so, IODE relies on the wide range of specializations of its members: personal law, liability law, social protection law, criminal law, property law, institutional and substantive law of the European Union, fundamental rights.
Projects :
Blockchain and Privacy Project
Funding body: Labex CominLabs
The PriCLeSS project (for Privacy-Conscious Legally-Sound Blockchain Storage) of Labex CominLabs is co-sponsored with LS2N and Inria (Davide Frey).
Scientific leaders for IODE: Brunessen BERTRAND and Sandrine TURGIS
Health-e project
Funding agency: GIS Marsouin
Scientific leader: Brunessen BERTRAND
European scientific network LAwTTIP: Legal Ambiguities withstanding
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
Scientific leaders: Isabelle BOSSE-PLATIÈRE and Cécile RAPOPORT
Duration: from September 2016 to September 2019
Labex CominLabs Profile 2016 project
Analysis and mitigation of risks related to online profiling: construction of a global approach at the intersection of law, computer science and sociology
Funding agency: Labex CominLabs (funded under the program "Investissements
d'avenir")
Scientific leaders: Sandrine TURGIS and Benoît BAUDRY
Jean Monnet Chair
Governance of Data
Chairholder: Brunessen BERTRAND
Location: Faculty of Law, University of Rennes; Rennes
Suggestion for interdisciplinary / intersectoral secondments and placements: Internships within the Rennes industrial ecosystem are possible.
Brunessen BERTRAND participates with a number of industrialists in a working group within the Cyber Pole of Excellence on information manipulation. This working group is going to publish a white paper which crosses the views of industrialists and actors of this subject.
Skills Requirements
- Specific Skill Requirements: Taste for research, desire to be part of a research team; research work in European Union law and digital law or Cyber law
- Required Languages: French
- Publications: at least 1 per year since the PhD as 1st author
Eligibility criteria
for applicants
Academic qualification: By 13 September 2023, applicants must bein possession of a doctoral degree, defined as a successfully defended doctoral thesis, even if the doctoral degree has yet to be awarded.
Research experience: Applicants must have a maximum of 8 years full-time equivalent experience in research, measured from the date applicants were in possession of a doctoral degree. Years of experience outside research and career breaks (e.g. due to parental leave), will not be taken into account.
Nationality & Mobility rules:Applicants can be of any nationality but must not have resided in France more than 12 months between 13/09/2020 and 13/09/2023
Application process
We encourage all motivated and eligible postdoctoral researchers to send their expressions of interest through the EU Survey application form (link here), before 1st of May 2023. Your application shall include:
- a CV specifying: (i) the exact dates for each position and its location (country) and (ii) a list of publications;
- a cover letter including a research outline (up to 2 pages) identifying the research synergies with the project supervisor(s) and proposed research topics described above.
Estimated timetable
- Deadline for sending an expression of interest: 1st of May 2023
- Selection of the most promising application(s): May – June 2023Writing the MSCA-PF proposal with the support of the above-mentioned supervisor(s):June – September 2023
- MSCA-PF 2023 call deadline: 13 September 2023
- Publication of the MSCA-PF evaluation results: February 2024
- Start of the MSCA-PF project (if funded): 1st of May 2024 (at the earliest)
Requirements
Research Field: Juridical sciences » European law
Education Level: PhD or equivalent
Skills/Qualifications
- Specific Skill Requirements: Taste for research, desire to be part of a research team; research work in European Union law and digital law or Cyber law
- Required Languages: French
Publications: at least 1 per year since the PhD as 1st author
Languages: FRENCH
Level: Good
Additional Information
Eligibility criteria
Academic qualification: By 13 September 2023, applicants must bein possession of a doctoral degree, defined as a successfully defended doctoral thesis, even if the doctoral degree has yet to be awarded.
Research experience: Applicants must have a maximum of 8 years full-time equivalent experience in research, measured from the date applicants were in possession of a doctoral degree. Years of experience outside research and career breaks (e.g. due to parental leave), will not be taken into account.
Nationality & Mobility rules:Applicants can be of any nationality but must not have resided in France more than 12 months between 13/09/2020 and 13/09/2023
Selection process
We encourage all motivated and eligible postdoctoral researchers to send their expressions of interest through the EU Survey application form (link here), before 1st of May 2023. Your application shall include:
- a CV specifying: (i) the exact dates for each position and its location (country) and (ii) a list of publications;
- a cover letter including a research outline (up to 2 pages) identifying the research synergies with the project supervisor(s) and proposed research topics described above.
Estimated timetable
Deadline for sending an expression of interest: 1st of May 2023
Selection of the most promising application(s): May – June 2023
Writing the MSCA-PF proposal with the support of the above-mentioned supervisor(s): June – September 2023
MSCA-PF 2023 call deadline: 13 September 2023
Publication of the MSCA-PF evaluation results: February 2024
Start of the MSCA-PF project (if funded): 1st of May 2024 (at the earliest)
Website for additional job details: https://2pe-bretagne.eu/en/marie-s-curie-promotional-initiative-postdoctoral-ca…
Work Location(s)
Number of offers available: 1
Company/Institute: IODE-University of Rennes
Country: France
State/Province: France
City: Rennes
Where to apply
Website: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/2023_Formulaire-candidature-demarche-MSCA-…
Contact
Campus de Beaulieu 263 avenue Général Leclerc CS 74205 35042 Rennes Cedex France
