Slovenia – Finland: Addressing the social harms of digitalization and algorithmic technologies through legal regulation: a socio-legal perspective

ABOUT THE PROJECT

For this project, the heads of bilateral cooperation and their teams in Slovenia and Finland will draw on their experience with socio-legal research across diverse settings to establish an internationally focused interdisciplinary research agenda and to plan a joint application for an EU-funded research project.

The project builds on the goals set out in 2022 during a research visit of the Slovenian head of bilateral cooperation at the University of Turku. During the visit, the Finnish team and the Slovenian head established that social and legal issues stemming from digital technology’s rapid development and the related social harms seem similar across the EU. However, EU regulations addressing the risks of new technologies are implemented in diverse ways, and public policies vary significantly between Finland, Slovenia, and other countries. Both research teams are interested in regulatory responses to social harms related to digitalization (e.g., automated bias and intersectional discrimination, spread of hate speech, automatic generation and spread of disinformation, corporate responsibility, social exclusion, mental health, children and youth, commodification of data, dark patterns, etc.). These harms manifest in various ways in diverse contexts and thus require researchers to have a cultural and contextual sensibility.

Project no: BI-FIN/25-27-007

Duration: 1. 1. 2025 – 31. 12. 2026