Anne Weibert

Social media technologies have been empowering to some human rights activists, providing a platform for exercising free speech and mobilization. However, many activists have voiced concerns and shared experiences they understand as considerable censorship on these platforms, under the guise of content governance. In an effort to increase the understanding and transparency of content moderation practices during conflicts, this study investigates the perceived reasons for censorship as understood by activists and the explanations made visible to activists by social media platforms, if any were given. Our case study to examine these platforms-activists relations is the events which occurred in May 2021 in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which was a significant moment in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and garnered international attention. The over enforcement of content moderation faced by Palestinians and their allies during these events on social media raised concerns about freedom of speech and the role of technology in activism. Our study deepens understanding through findings from a survey of 201 social media users who reported potentially unfair moderation decisions, and from 12 interviews with political influencers to grasp the broader implications of content moderation on activism. The findings of this study indicate a substantial disparity between the official explanations made visible to the activists by the social media platforms, and the reasons as perceived by users. This has significant implications, both socially and for social media platforms -- as CSCW and Group work environments --- on activist groups and the potentialities of democratic discourse. This study serves as an important contribution to the debate on the role of social media content moderation in human rights activism, particularly in conflict zones.

There has been a growing body of work on migration within the HCI community, as well as within the social science and public policy communities. More specifically, human-centered security researchers have been exploring the needs and concerns of migrants, starting to contend with the harms created by digital technologies and experienced by those who are and have been marginalized. Case studies through which migration and (digital) security within the HCI domain intersect have been localized to specific contexts such as, e.g., particular issues related to data processing and sharing in refugee camps, or a narrow set of security threats and harms experienced by migrant workers in their new places of work. However, more holistic approaches to understanding the intersections of migration and (digital) security are yet to be fully explored while accounting for the past (including home country security practices, use of localized digital technologies, and interactions with technologies throughout the migration journey), the present (current security practices and experiences in the place or country migrants are situated), and the future migrants are trying to secure for themselves and their families. This workshop aims to build a community of HCI researchers interested in how migration and (digital) security intersect to braid together research narratives, perspectives, and methods, design for inclusive technologies, and build an agenda for future research and practice.

This study explores the global phenomenon of migration at the local, neighborhood level of a mid-sized city in Germany. Focusing on a long-term interactive storytelling-initiative, it studies the emergence of Arrival Literacy as a bi-directional skill-set. It describes the development of individual, local responses to global migration consequences, among both newcomers who migrated, as well as long-term citizens who never moved. The analytic lens of Arrival Literacy brings forward the complexity and difficulties of the arrival process, where the individual is navigating the consequences of political decisions that were made at a broader level. Digital storytelling as an element is a method to 1) creatively develop a skill of expression for one's own positionality, and 2) to connect with the positionalities of others, thus supporting the process of dealing with arrival at the local community level and beyond.

This work studies the creation process of an interactive art installation. Set in a mid-sized city in Germany, it deployed crafting and making as techniques to explore and different conceptualizations of Europe through art form. Findings indicate that the interplay of haptic crafting elements and digital techniques can serve as an entry-point to otherwise abstract topics. The creation process as well as the display of the artwork as part of an exhibition in a museum was able to foster discourse about different political ideas, experiences of exclusion and discrimination, but also of hope and opportunities.

This paper focuses on tools to approach the practices inherent to the formal and informal e-waste value-chains in Ghana. Our series of field trips and interviews with e-waste collectors and scrap workers, repairers and retailers at their respective workplaces, as well as with domestic electronics users captured a situation in flux, where local authorities had implemented their decision to demolish the Agbogbloshie scrapyard site in Accra in July 2021 and relocate the workplaces within the city. In this situation, our exploratory perspective on tools and practices serves as a lense to identify possibilities of socio-technical support for repairing and upcycling and related community building.

We present here the “e-Portfolio” concept, which aims to provide access to documented design case studies of design researchers’ practices. Our e-Portfolio has its origins in Grounded Design. We examine here how the e-Portfolio concept grew out of Grounded Design, the way it instantiates values, and how it contributes to our understanding of the ways in which shifting values in practice can have an impact beyond the individual.

The case study presented in this chapter discusses the design and implementation of an online platform, “come_NET,” in the context of intercultural computer clubs in Germany. This tool was built in close cooperation with the children and adult computer club participants. It was designed to foster the sharing of ideas and experiences across distances, support collaboration, and make skills and expertise accessible to others in the local neighborhood contexts. In particular, the participatory-design process involving the children in the computer clubs fostered a profound understanding of the platform structure and functionalities. The study results show how younger children in particular were able to benefit, as the closed nature of the platform enabled them to gather experience as users of social media, but in a safe and controlled environment.

Studying the setup and development of an initiative of computer clubs in intercultural neighborhoods, this paper builds on the theory and method associated with value sensitive design to account for the use of off-the-shelf technology in a diverse cultural context, and over an extended period of time. We present three cases from one of these computer clubs, each at a different point in time in the club's development. Central factors are identified that impact the course of a socio-technical initiative. We highlight the challenges inherent in matching existing ICT with the values both explicitly identified in the initiative and which evolve over time. Our study highlights the relevance of open communication structures among researchers and local practitioners, as well as methodological support that is needed to span a wide range of user experiences. Both aspects are key to making value sensitive design a lived experience on the diverse community level.