Systemic Risks in the Digital Age

Trier Studies on Digital Law – Volume 5 • von Ungern-Sternberg / Raue / Kumkar / Rüfner (eds.)

The fifth annual conference of the Trier Institute for Digital Law in September 2025 will focus on a topic that is causing quite a stir in political circles.

In the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU legislator is pursuing a new regulatory approach that requires operators of very large online platforms such as X, Instagram or TikTok and very large search engines such as Google to analyse and mitigate ‘systemic risks’ (Articles 34 and 35 DSA). Whilst some hope that this approach will effectively counter the specific risks of online communication – such as the viral spread of hate speech and disinformation, or the manipulative exploitation of information asymmetries by platforms or third parties – others have voiced sharp criticism. The DSA has come under particularly intense criticism from the US. Vice-President Vance had already denounced the EU law as a threat to freedom of expression at the Munich Security Conference in February 2025.

This volume should therefore also be seen as a response to these and other allegations. With this current focus, it joins the series of previous conference proceedings – all available via open access – on content moderation, digital resilience, and AI and human rights.

This specific publication is currently only available in German

To the book (Open Access)

List of articles:

Systemic risks in the digital age | Antje von Ungern-Sternberg | p. 1
Systems and systemic risks | Ino Augsberg | p. 13
On the definition of the term ‘systemic risk’ in the field of financial supervision | Katja Langenbucher | p. 29
On systemic risks – On the objectives and self-image of European digital regulation | David Roth-Isigkeit | p. 33
Systemic risks in the Digital Services Act framework | Katharina Kaesling | p. 51
Systemic risks of digital media for democracy and the public sphere: concept, regulation and empirical assessment | Andreas Jungherr | p. 81
Systemic risks in the DSA: Adverse effects on public debate and electoral processes – A legal analysis | Jan Oster | p. 105

List of authors:

Ino Augsberg
Professor of Philosophy of Law and Public Law – Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.

Andreas Jungherr
Professor of Political Science, specialising in digital transformation – University of Bamberg.

Katharina Kaesling
Assistant Professor of Civil Law, Intellectual Property (specialising in patent law), and legal issues relating to AI – Dresden University of Technology.

Katja Langenbucher
Professor of Civil Law, Financial Market Regulation, Banking and Monetary Law, House of Finance – Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Affiliated Professor at the Ecole de Droit, Sciences Po, Paris; permanent visiting professor at Fordham Law School, NYC; SAFE Fellow at the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE; spokesperson for the ZEVEDI Group on AI and Finance.

Jan Oster
Professor of Civil Law, Commercial Law, Media Law, Data and Digitalisation Law – University of Osnabrück.

David Roth-Isigkeit
Professor of Public Law, specialising in Digitalisation Law – German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer.

Antje von Ungern-Sternberg
Professor of German and Foreign Public Law, State Church Law and International Law – University of Trier / Executive Director at the IRDT.

To the book (Open Access)