Program
Policy & Internet Conference
DAY 1 — Wednesday 30 September 2026
9:00 – 9:15 AM
Welcome
Policy & Internet Editor-in-Chief
9:15 – 9:45 AM
Opening Keynote
30 mins total, including Q&A
School of Journalism & Communications, Peking University
Online Safety
1 hour
9:45 AM – 10:00 AM
Nation-States, Civil Society and Social Media Regulation: Why There Was So Much Global Interest in Australia's Social Media Age Restrictions for Under-16s
University of Sydney
10:00 AM – 10:15 AM
Social Media Age Restrictions: More Safety or More Risk?
University of Sydney
10:15 AM – 10:30 AM
Lagging or Leading? How Aotearoa New Zealand Compares in Addressing Online Harms
Flinders University (Henry); University of Otago (Daubs)
10:30 AM – 10:45 AM
Towards a Safety by Design Framework for Online Harm Prevention
eiris (technology consultancy); Monash University (Suresh)
10:45 – 11:00 AM•Morning Tea
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Internet Policy for Better Childhoods (Panel)
1 hour
Internet Policy for Better Childhoods? A Research Panel by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child
ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child (Deakin University, Monash University)
12:00 – 12:45 PM•Lunch
12:45 – 1:45 PM
The Global Intelligence Divide (Panel)
1 hour
The Global Intelligence Divide — Mapping Institutional Power, Media Discourse, and the New Power Hierarchy from Global South Perspectives
University of Sydney (Li, Xu); University of Chittagong, Bangladesh (Ullah); Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Indonesia (Hapsari); Daystar University, Kenya (Obonyo); Mizoram University, India (Ajin, Ratnamala)
Digital Sovereignty
45 mins
1:45 PM – 2:00 PM
Sovereignty Through Control, Security and Resilience: Rethinking Digital Sovereignty Beyond Data Localisation
Microsoft Australia and New Zealand
2:00 PM – 2:15 PM
Negotiating Digital Sovereignty in Practice: Engineers, the State, and Internet Governance in Russia
School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Australia
2:15 PM – 2:30 PM
Operationalising Digital Sovereignty in the Global South: The Governance Gap and Strategic Autonomy in East Africa
Communication University of China
2:30 – 2:45 PM•Afternoon Tea
Digital Sovereignty (continued)
45 mins
2:45 PM – 3:00 PM
Comparative Study of Web3 Policies in China, US, EU and India under the Four-Dimensional Technological Sovereignty Framework
School of Journalism and Communication, Beijing Normal University, China
3:00 PM – 3:15 PM
Constructing Authority in the Digital Domain: The EU's Turn to Digital Sovereignty
Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, Heidelberg University, Germany
3:15 PM – 3:30 PM
Measuring Digital Sovereignty Across the G20 Countries
Department of Political Science, Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Brazil
3:30 – 4:30 PM
Chinese Internet Governance (Panel)
1 hour, hosted by Peking University
Chinese Internet Governance
6:00 PM•Conference Dinner
DAY 2 — Thursday 1 October 2026
9:30 – 10:00 AM
Conference Keynote
30 mins total, including Q&A
Media and Communication Studies, University of Toronto
10:00 – 11:00 AM
AI and Education (Panel)
1 hour
AI and Education — Prompt Engineering, Inclusive Governance, and AI Integration in Media Education
Toronto Metropolitan University (Chen); University of Toronto Scarborough (Khoo); University of Sydney (Zhang)
Governing Artificial Intelligence
1 hour
11:00 AM – 11:15 AM
The Consent Market: Data Privacy Law and the Commodification of User Consent
School of Communication, American University, Washington DC, USA
11:15 AM – 11:30 AM
Understanding the Darker Sides of GenAI – Policy and the Underspheres
University of Sydney
11:30 AM – 11:45 AM
Performing Trust: Symbolic Policies in Regulating Generative AI in the U.S.
Department of Media and Communications, University of Sydney
11:45 AM – 12:00 PM
AI-Voice Cloning and Voice Identification Evidence in Australia
Australian National University (Maitra); TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland (Hartridge)
12:00 – 12:15 PM•Morning Tea
Governing Artificial Intelligence (continued)
1 hour
12:15 PM – 12:30 PM
Regulating the Ghost: Frontier AI, Anthropomorphism, and Divergent Sovereignty Regimes
University of Sydney
12:30 PM – 12:45 PM
Enhancing AI Fact-Checking Response Quality Through User Dialogue: An AI Auditing Approach
School of Journalism and Communication, Guangxi University (Li); Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University (Huang)
12:45 PM – 1:00 PM
Process-Oriented Content Regulation on Generative AI Platforms in China
Communication University of China
1:00 PM – 1:15 PM
Human and Agent Identity as Digital Infrastructure: Rethinking Trust and Sovereignty in the Age of AI
Communication University of China
1:15 – 2:15 PM
Disability & AI (Panel)
1 hour
'Disability & Digital Governance Beyond AI'
Western Sydney University, Nanyang Technological University, Curtin University, Monash University, University of Sydney
2:15 – 3:00 PM•Lunch
3:00 – 3:15 PM•Afternoon Tea
Digital Politics, Geopolitics, Policy and Power
1 hour 45 mins
3:15 PM – 3:30 PM
From Information Disorder to Information Integrity: Towards a Coherent Information Policy
UTS Centre for Media Transition
3:30 PM – 3:45 PM
Shadow AI as Governance Diagnostic: Epistemic Infrastructures and the Limits of Prohibition in Public Administration
Transdisciplinary School, University of Technology Sydney
3:45 PM – 4:00 PM
Your Data, Their Power: Corporate Sovereignty in a Networked World
University of Canberra (Payne); European Institute of Policy Research and Human Rights (Aarheim)
4:00 PM – 4:15 PM
Situating India in the Evolving Geopolitics of Data and Digital Technologies
Human Sciences Research Centre, IIIT Hyderabad, India
4:15 PM – 4:30 PM
Cross-Border Platform Power and Legal Fragmentation: The Impact of Algorithmic Accountability on Political Trust
Faculty of Law, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
4:30 PM – 4:45 PM
Digital Governance Affordances: Introducing a Sociotechnical Vocabulary for the Effects of Adopting Digital Technology in Governance Interactions
Brussels School of Governance
4:45 PM – 5:00 PM
Whose Freedom of Speech? Norm Localisation in Social Media Governance in Indonesia
Faculty Campus Fryslân, University of Groningen, the Netherlands / Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia
5:00 PM•Launches — Drinks & Canapes
DAY 3 — Friday 2 October 2026
Platforms
1 hour 30 mins
9:00 AM – 9:15 AM
Policy Discourses of Online Pornography: Age Verification Laws, Porn Panics, and Public Perception Gaps
University of Southern Mississippi
9:15 AM – 9:30 AM
Algorithmic Content Moderation and Digital Due Process: Platform Transparency, Accountability, and Enforcement
College of Communication, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
9:30 AM – 9:45 AM
Anonymity as the Illusion of Privacy: Mapping Data Flows, Consent and Safety in Flo's Anonymous Mode
Department of Information Studies, UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles)
9:45 AM – 10:00 AM
Not Safe for Health? Internet Content Moderation and Regulation and Sexual and Reproductive Health Communication
National Association of People Living with HIV Australia / NAPWHA (Reeders); Swinburne University of Technology (Albury)
10:00 AM – 10:15 AM
Mapping Violence Perceptions through YouTube Comments: A New Approach to Real-Time Violence Monitoring
University of Sydney; Institute for Economics & Peace, Sydney; Monash University
10:15 AM – 10:30 AM
Burying the Evidence? Platform Regulation on Political Advertising in Brazil and Their Implications for Transparency
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
10:30 – 10:45 AM•Morning Tea
Platforms (continued)
1 hour 45 mins
10:45 AM – 11:00 AM
Consumer Preferences and the Future of Platform Regulation in Australia
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN)
11:00 AM – 11:15 AM
Empathy and Human Judgement in Government Interactions with Algorithms
School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney
11:15 AM – 11:30 AM
Aestheticized Surveillance: Spotify Wrapped, Social Harm, and the Limitations of Digital Platform Governance
Independent Criminology Researcher (Windani); Cultural Studies, Sanata Dharma University (Setyawan)
11:30 AM – 11:45 AM
The Roles of Myanmar Diaspora, the National Unity Government (NUG) and Local Youth Communities in Online Fundraising for Revolution in Myanmar
Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
11:45 AM – 12:00 PM
Negotiating Belonging: Online Discrimination and Minority Identity in Singapore
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
12:00 PM – 12:15 PM
Same Misconduct, Different Punishments: Differentiated Governance of Influencers' Ethical Transgressions by Chinese Short-Video Platforms as Digital Bureaucrats
Department of Media and Communication Studies, Universiti Malaya
12:15 PM – 12:30 PM
Platform Power and Content Moderation in Global Digital Marketplaces
Department of Market Research, ESIC Business & Marketing School, Barcelona, Spain