GiKii 2025
Gikii Amsterdam 2025 was hosted by the Institute for Information Law at the University of Amsterdam, and made possible with the support of the Research Group for the Law and Governance of Quantum Technologies (IViR, UvA), the Maastricht Centre for Law and Jurisprudence (Maastricht University) and the Internet Archive.
Technology in its Villain Era?
11 – 12 September 2025
Institute for Information Law (IViR)
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Day 1 (11 September 2025)
12:00 – 13:00: Lunch
13:00 – 13:10: Welcome
13:10 – 13:50: Gather around kids, we’re telling you phantasmagorical stories law and technology
- Speculative Invocation of AI by Three Vocations
Yeliz Figen Döker, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
Habibe Deniz Seval, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Etienne Gabriel Valk, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- From Fictional Vulnerabilities to Regulatory Imperatives: Aligning the Unease of Samantha Schweblin’s Kentukis with the Legal and Ethical Aspects of Cybersecurity
Oguzhan Yesiltuna, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
- Technology from the Perspective of Science Fiction: Cautionary Tales or Regulatory Phronesis?
Syamsuriatina binti Ishak, Maastricht University, Netherlands
- Gone for the Gold
Wendy Grossman Freelance writer, London, United Kingdom
Jon Crowcroft, Cambridge University, United Kingdom
Break
14:00 – 14:40: How high is hi-tech?
- When the vibes are off: The pitfalls of AI-assisted programming
Carolin Kemper, National Institute for Public Administration, Germany
- Legal Brainknots in the Age of AI Brainrot
Joanne Wong, Free University of Berlin, Germany
- Pseudo-mental healthcare and pseudo-regulation: bots, risks and unfounded confidence
Linnet Taylor, TILT, Tilburg University, Netherlands
Tjaša Petročnik, TILT, Tilburg University, Netherlands
- Left in the dark, literally: the inevitable demise of the Internet of Things and the protection of the consumer
Tim de Jonge, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Mattis van ‘t Schip, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Frederik Zuiderveen, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Break
14:50 – 15:30: Let’s meet the Big Beautiful Technology!
- No (super)man should have all this (unregulated) power
Eduardo Queimado, AQUAPOR, Lisboa, Portugal
- Big, Bigger, Biggest Tech [33]
Tim de Jonge, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Mattis van ‘t Schip, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Frederik Zuiderveen Borgesius, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Who stole the Moonstone? Reflections on big tech, privacy, and data protection through the lens of 19th century anti-imperialist literature
Ana Hriscu, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands
- The Power Of Images In The Age Of Technological Generativity
Philip Wälde, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Philipp Wagner, MPI For History Of Science, Berlin, Germany
Long Break
16:00 – 16:40: Remember when the World Wide Web promised all the good things?
- Foot fetish anxieties and (self-)censorship – Reproducing dominant sexual norms for internet points
Lan Anh Vu, Osnabrück University, Germany
- Entering the Manosphere: Platformed Misogyny and the Villain Arc of Networked Masculinity – an interactive exhibition
Rainbow Pill Collective, Germany
- LIVEg(r)ifters and the Romanian presidential elections of 2024-2025
Marijn Sax, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Catalina Goanta, Utrecht University, Netherlands
- MFI – The Menace Free Internet
Wendy Grossman, London, United Kingdom
Jon Crowcroft, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Break
16:50 – 17:40: Navigating the Data Deluge
- The App Store Nether: Mining the Dark Side of the Mobile Ecosystem
Julia Krämer, Erasmus School of Law, Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Out of sight, out of mind: Data portability as “The Silence”
Peter van de Waerdt, University of Groningen, Netherlands
Gerard Ritsema van Eck, University of Groningen, Netherlands
- The Right to Be Forgotten in the Villain Era: Can You Ever Delete a Meme of Yourself?
Dongshu Zhou, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
- A Human Work, A Legal Nightmare: Posthumous Data, Military Secrecy, and Biometric Exploitation in Neon Genesis Evangelion
Leila Debiasi, Maastricht, Netherlands
- Your Best Intentions Don’t Mean Much – Future Risks Becoming Reality in Consumer Genomics
Andelka Phillips, Centre for Health, Law and Emerging Technologies (HeLEX), University of Oxford and the Bioethics Institute Ghent (BIG), Ghent University
18:30 – 21:00: Dinner
Location (TBA)
Day 2 (12 September 2025)
9:30 – 10:00: Tea & coffee
10:00 – 10:40: It was all fun and games until….
- Social media, online games and virtual spaces. A vicious Netherland between normalisation and containment? Recent regulation and ethical concerns
Anna Maria Piskopani, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
Pavlos Panagiotidis, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
- Systems of Knowledge and Judgment Machines: Surveillance, Power, and Justice in Hoyoverse’s Genshin Impact
Rosie Fox, Leeds, United Kingdom
James Greenwood-Reeves, Leeds, United Kingdom
- Towards a players’ Bill of rights: Rethinking rights in gaming digital territories
Salvatore Fasciana, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom
- A Stranger Things fan game powered by large language models
Kristofer Erickson, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
Break
10:50 – 11:30: You can run, but you can’t hide (ever)
- 1 Reputation, –∞ Agency? Algorithmic Scoring Between Law, Platforms, and Gamified Surveillance Cultures
Kevin A. Laurent, Sciences Po Bordeaux and Université de Bordeaux, France
- Between CV Dazzle and Mask Tutorials: Anti-Surveillance Aesthetics as Everyday Resistance on Social Media?
Lior Weinstein, Hebrew University and Reichman University
- The Joker’s Algorithm: When Facial Recognition Becomes Gotham’s Greatest Villain
Paweł Urzenitzok, Kozminski University, Warsaw, Poland
- Privacy for Ghosts: Towards A Secure and Ethical Online Afterlife
Helen Oliver, Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom
Break
11:40 – 12:10: My child, someday… this land will be yours to sacrifice to the (tech) gods
- Moby Dick, but Make It Climate Tech: Legal Imaginaries, Sacrifice Zones, and the Remakings of the Ocean
Henrique Marcos, Maastricht University Faculty of Law, Netherlands; CEDMAR/USP, São Paulo, Brazil
- An Alternate Universe of Non-villain Arc Tech Bros: A Just Transition Utopia
Bilgesu Sumer, KU Leuven, Belgium
Ezgi Eren, KU Leuven, Belgium
- Re-enchanting Technology: Narrative Imagination, Territory, and the Rehabilitation of Techné
Homero Chiaraba, UESC, Ilhéus, Brazil
12:10 – 13:30: Lunch
13:30 – 14:10: Unmasking technology and catching its legal henchmen
- Inclusion Is a Trap!™: How NLP Gave Me a Seat at the Table, Then Ate Me
Kimberley Paradis, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Haven’t I Played These Games Before?”—A Critical Reflection of Gamified Spectacle Under Racial Capitalism
Hedye Tayebi Jazayeri, Universität Osnabrück, Germany
Mariana Castillo-Hermosilla, Universität Osnabrück, Germany
- Villain or Hero?: The Duality of Batman’s Harvey Dent/Two-Face Character and Technology’s Role in Public Corruption
Kimberly Breedon, Ohio Northern University College of Law, United States
- When Heroes and Villains Are Superposed: Entangled Ethics and the Illusion of Dualism in a Fragmented Quantum Innovation Landscape
Maria Palacio Barea, TU Delft, Netherlands
Break
14:20 – 14:50: Resisting the phantasmagorical stories of law and technology
- Redemption Stories: Rethinking AI and Blockchain Through the Fall of a Jedi
Israel Cedillo-Lazcanom Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP), San Andrés Cholula, Mexico
- Consumers Assemble
Tim van Zuijlen, University of Groningen, Netherlands
- Severance Season 2: When We Are Our Own Nemesis
Salil Mehra, Temple University School of Law, Philadelphia, United States
15:00 – 15:30: Reflections and closing