N. Appelman

Naomi Appelman is a PhD researcher at the Institute for Information Law (IViR) working on the contestability of content moderation systems and online exclusion on social media. Her interdisciplinary research combines information law, specifically, online speech and platform regulation with (agonistic) political philosophy. Her interests lie in understanding how subversive actions and practices of resistance against exclusionary content moderation relate to the regulatory framework, as well as how the governance of online speech can be democratized. Concretely, her research asks how European law should facilitate contestation of the content moderation systems governing online speech.   Her PhD is part of the Digital Transformation of Decision-making project and the Digital Legal Studies sectorplan and is supervised by prof. Natali Helberger and Prof. Joris van Hoboken.   Connected to her PhD research she has co-authored several reports and papers on the topic of online speech regulation, such as the DSA, disinformation and access to justice for online harms. She has also published on regulatory aspects of automated decision-making. Finally, Naomi has previously done volunteer work at the Dutch digital rights NGO Bits of Freedom and is one of the founders of the Racism and Technology Center.