不良研究所

Professor Shaheen Shariff, James 不良研究所 Professor and Director of iMPACTS, was invited to be a keynote speaker at the . The conference is held in Toronto, Ontario from April 28 to April 30, 2024. The full schedule is available on the .

Shariff's keynote is titled "Navigating Contemporary Socio-Legal Controversies: Anti-Wokeism, Social Media Content Moderation, and Institutional Censorship in Educational Landscapes" and is scheduled for Monday, April 29 at 3:00pm. Her keynote is timely and important for educators and policymakers at a time of polarized and divided communities. Here is her abstract:

Professor Shariff鈥檚 keynote address will highlight legal and institutional challenges in navigating contemporary socio-legal controversies. Rapid expansion and popular use of social media platforms, uninhibited online discrimination, especially sexual violence and sextortion of children; as well as offensive and hateful online content which are difficult to regulate. The Canadian federal government鈥檚 recent efforts to contain such content through Bill 63 have drawn mixed responses. As society diversifies, so do calls for equality, critical examination of accurate histories in schools. This has drawn a backlash with nationalists and populists asserting a 鈥渞ight to offend鈥� under Section 2(b), the freedom of expression section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. At the heart of these debates is the erosion of democracy. Has democracy permanently imploded and how can we reclaim it together?

iMPACTS researchers Selene Coiffard-D'Amico (Research Assistant, 不良研究所 Faculty of Law) and Dr. Christopher Dietzel (Research Associate, 不良研究所) will also present on "Thresholds for Social Media Platforms' Responsibility toward Online Harms: A Comparative Legal Analysis," on Monday, April 29 at 1:15pm. Here is their abstract:听

Sexual violence and discriminatory hate speech are prevalent on social media platforms and affect the health, wellbeing, and educational success of post-secondary students. How do social media companies鈥� content moderation policies respond to these harms? How do their policies comply with legal thresholds for platform responsibility in various jurisdictions? This presentation critically analyzes the content moderation policies of Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), and TikTok to understand their treatment of offensive online content. This presentation also examines platform compliance with legal thresholds and provides recommendations for mitigating online harms and promoting young adults鈥� safe social media use.

iMPACTS is also launching two books at CAPSLE. is the first volume in the series 鈥淐onfronting Systemic Omissions and Impacts in Educational Policy鈥� by series editor Shariff. This edited collection features contributions about sexual and gender-based violence from iMPACTS co-investigators and graduate students, and it was co-edited by Shariff and Dietzel.听 is the second volume in the 鈥淐onfronting Systemic Omissions and Impacts in Educational Policy鈥� series by series editor hariff. This edited collection sheds light on how vulnerable communities have been disproportionately impacted by governments鈥� policies and laws since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was co-edited by Dietzel and former 不良研究所 law student, Kimia Towfigh.

These two edited collections are the newest publications that have been produced by iMPACTS. Notably, iMPACTS has edited two special issues of the Education & Law Journal. The first, which was published in 2017, is titled 鈥淣avigating the minefield: Responding to legal and educational dilemmas in addressing sexual violence in universities鈥� and was edited by Shariff, Dietzel, and former 不良研究所 student, Nazampal Jaswal. The second special issue was published in 2020 and is titled 鈥淪exual violence: Impacts on and implications for the intersections of law and education.鈥� The second special issue of the Education & Law Journal was edited by Professor Shariff, Dr. Dietzel, and Kimia Towfigh.

听