As geopolitical tensions increasingly play out online, the need for a democratic digital public sphere has never been more urgent. Political interests, platform governance choices, and regulatory gaps all shape how online debate unfolds, but what concretely needs to change?
These questions were at the heart of the TWON Policy Hackathon, which brought together experts from research, policymaking, digital law, platform governance, content moderation, and civil society to develop actionable, empirically grounded policy recommendations for online social networks.
The hackathon addressed the shared question of how online social networks must evolve in order to better enable democratic online debate and to safeguard democratic societies. Throughout the afternoon, participants exchanged perspectives on current and future challenges related to online social networks and their governance.
Building on the work of the TWON project, the hackathon connected research on platform design choices and online debate with policy perspectives and practical experience. Draft policy recommendations developed within the project served as a starting point for discussion and were critically examined during the workshop sessions.
The agenda combined a spotlight round on pressing challenges with two structured workshop sessions. Working in professionally mixed groups, participants discussed the current state of knowledge, experiences from practice and regulation, and open research questions. The second workshop session focused on identifying regulatory needs and developing policy recommendations.
We would like to thank all participants for their valuable contributions, thoughtful discussions and engagement throughout the event.
