Naomi Appelman is a postdoctoral researcher on social justice, platform governance and AI governance at the Centre for Digital Policy and part of the School of Information and Communication Studies. Naomi is a Dutch interdisciplinary and socially engaged researcher with a background in information law and political philosophy. She is interested in how technology can reflect, obfuscate, or amplify social inequalities and how law, advocacy, and action can be used to dismantle systems of oppression. Naomi is the co-founder of the Racism and Technology Center, a volunteer-led NGO. She previously worked for the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights and has consulted for NGO’s such as ENAR, ELSC, Clara Wichmann and Bits of Freedom.

 

Research interests and projects

Naomi Appelman’s current research broadly focusses on how social justice movements do or do not use the law as a tool of resistance to specific AI applications such as facial recognition systems used in policing of content moderation systems used on social media platforms. Her research focuses on social justice and is situated in the intersection between AI and platform governance. In 2024 Naomi finished her PhD on at the University of Amsterdam titled ‘Contesting Online Exclusion. EU-Regulation of Content Moderation through an Agonistic Lens’. Her dissertation focussed on practices of resistance and contestation to content moderation on the large social media platforms.

Naomi has published widely on digital justice, content moderation, platform governance and human rights in journals such as JIPITEC, Internet Policy Review, and the German Law Journal. For an overview publications see: https://naomiappelman.net/writing/ .

 

Affiliations

Naomi is an associated researcher of the Technology, Power, and Domination group at the Weizenbaum Institute Berlin. She is also an associated researcher at the Institute for Information Law at the University of Amsterdam.

As the co-founder of the Racism and Technology Center, Naomi continues to work on a volunteer basis for the organisation.

Additionally, Naomi is a member of the advisory board of Bureau Clara Wichman, a foundation using strategic litigation to further gender equality in the Netherlands.

 

Media & public speaking

Naomi has broad experience with public speaking, moderating, and press interviews. For a selected overview of speaking engagements and press see https://naomiappelman.net/ .