As digital platforms shape public discourse, influence politics, and impact economies, the role of Big Tech in modern democracies has come to be hotly debated. Silicon Valley’s dominance over information flows, data, and digital infrastructure raises pressing questions about corporate power, political accountability, and regulatory oversight. While Big Tech players set the global agenda for technological innovation, they are also being scrutinized for their role in amplifying political polarization and challenging traditional democratic institutions. Can democracies keep pace with the rapid expansion of digital power? What role should governments play in regulating online spaces while protecting free expression? And how do transatlantic differences in policy and governance play out in the digital realm? 

Please join us for a virtual discussion on the evolving power of Big Tech and the broader political implications with:

Marietje Schaake is the international policy director at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center and international policy fellow at Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. She is also the President of the Cyber Peace Institute. Between 2009 and 2019, she served as a Member of the European Parliament for the Dutch liberal democratic party where she focused on trade, foreign affairs and technology policies. Schaake is affiliated with a range of non-profit organizations like the European Council on Foreign Relations and the Observer Research Foundation in India. She writes a monthly column for the Financial Times. In 2024, she published The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy From Silicon Valley (Princeton UP).

Steven Feldstein is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program. His research focuses on technology and geopolitics, U.S. foreign policy, and the global context for democracy. Feldstein is the author of The Rise of Digital Repression: How Technology is Reshaping Power, Politics, and Resistance (Oxford, 2021), which was the recipient of the 2023 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. He has authored numerous essays, articles, book chapters, policy reports, and commentary in major media outlets and policy journals. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Berkeley Law. 

Prof. Dr. Christoph Bieber is a professor of political science at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Since 2011, he has been researching ethics and transparency in politics, public communication, as well as democracy and digitalization. Since 2018, he has been on leave at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) in Bochum, where he serves as a research professor leading the working group "Digital Democratic Innovations" until 2026. In the summer of 2022, Christoph Bieber was a fellow at the Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades, USA.

Jenny Joy Schumann is a journalist and professional moderator, specializing in international and economic policy, legal philosophy, and disruptive transformations driven by blockchain and artificial intelligence. As a financial economist with a background in law, she explores a diverse array of ethical, economic, and legal problems through an interdisciplinary lens. From 2016 to 2017, she served as a Junior Ambassador of the German Bundestag in the United States.

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This event is held in English. 

The event is kindly supported by the Federal Foreign Office. 

We cordially thank the Center for Advanced Internet Studies for their cooperation: