WEBCAST OCT 25 – What’s in a Joke? Assessing Humor in Free Speech Jurisprudence and Content Moderation
On Friday October 25, 2024, at 14:30-17:30 EDT (18:30-21:30 UTC) Columbia Global Freedom of Expression (CGFoE) hosts a panel and roundtable on the upcoming toolkit ‘What’s in a Joke? Assessing Humor in Free Speech Jurisprudence and Content Moderation‘ at
Columbia University in NYC.
Humor is often at the center of complex legal cases and content moderation decisions regarding free speech and its limits. How can judges – or social media platforms – navigate the gray areas between satire and defamation, provocative jokes and hate speech, or parody and copyright violation? These challenges have become increasingly daunting in the digital age, with ironic ambiguity and context collapse playing a key role in online communication. Moreover, generative AI (e.g. deepfakes) has further muddled the line between legitimate creative reuse on the one hand (as in parody or satire), and the violation of personal or IP rights on the other.
The toolkit, which is scheduled for release in January 2025, is primarily intended for legal professionals and Trust & Safety agents, with the aim of helping them establish an informed, well-balanced, and consistent approach to humorous expression in light of both human rights law and interdisciplinary humor research. However, it will also be of interest to policymakers and advocacy groups, by addressing topical questions concerning both the protection of lawful humorous expression and the adjudication of illegal or borderline (albeit superficially humorous) content. Lastly, it aims to assist humor creators of all types – from comedians and cartoonists to ‘ordinary’ social media users – in gaining awareness of their rights, while also highlighting the links between certain types of derogatory humor, hate, and harm.
The authors will present on the four main sections of the toolkit: I. Interpreting humor in context, II. Authoritarian crackdowns on humor and satire, III. Humor, online harm and content moderation, and IV. Humor and Intellectual Property law. This will be followed by an open Q&A ,and a roundtable with four members of the project’s Advisory Board.
(All times EDT = UTC-4)
14:45 Toolkit presentation and open Q&A
Alberto Godioli (University of Groningen)
Sabine Jacques (University of Liverpool)
Ariadna Matamoros Fernández (Queensland University of Technology),
Jennifer Young (University of Groningen)
Moderator: Hawley Johnson (Columbia Global Freedom of Expression)
16:00 Roundtable and Q&A on humor and free speech
Lady Justice Stella Isibhakhomen Anukam (African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights)
JUDr. Barbora Bukovská (ARTICLE 19)
Mehdi Benchelah (UNESCO)
Judge Darian Pavli (European Court of Human Rights)
Moderator: Laura Little (Temple University Law School)
Moderator: Alberto Godioli (University of Groningen)
The event will be simulcast by the Internet Society New York Chapter
LIVESTREAM https://livestream.com/internetsociety/cgfoe-humor
PARTICIPATE VIA ZOOM https://bit.ly/4fhedCJ
TWITTER #HumorToolkit @ColumbiaGFoE @albertogodioli @Sabine_Jacques @unesco
@article19org
#HumorToolkit MASTODON | BLUESKY | INSTA
SIMULCASTS
https://twitter.com/ISOC_Live
https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive
https://www.facebook.com/liveisoc/
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