INDL-9 : Conference Report
The 9th edition of INDL (International Network on Digital Labour) was held in
Geneva, at the International Labour Organization (ILO), from 9 to 11 September.
Bringing together almost 120 presenters across 35 sessions, the conference
provided three days of discussion and exchange around current research on data
and platforms work.
The ILO was a particularly fitting setting for the conference, having just
adopted, in June 2026, the Convention on Decent Work in the Platform Economy
(No. 193), the first international labour standard specifically dedicated to
workers in the platform economy.
Data labour was explored through a wide range of perspectives, across eight
topics, including Gender and Digital Labour, New Frameworks for a
“Human-Centric” AI Supply Chain, and The Role of Social Dialogue in Governing
AI-Mediated Work.
Some of these presentations were given by DipLab members. Paola Tubaro presented
her article, Not all equal: A multidimensional vulnerability indicator for
platform data workers, which explores data workers and their relationship to
data work through the lens of vulnerability.
She also closed the conference with an engaging roundtable, chaired by Uma Rani
and joined by Timothy Newman and Alex Taylor. The discussion focused on Setting
up an Interdisciplinary Research Agenda on AI Supply Chains.
On the second day of the conference, Antonio Casilli presented his article Deep
Labor: Beyond the Platform/BPO Divide in Data Work. The paper challenges the
distinction between platform work and BPO work, proposing instead to examine
both through the broader lens of data work, or “deep labor”.
Mathilde Abel presented the paper Extracting Workers’ Cognition: An NLP Approach
to AI Annotation Guidelines, co-written with Thomas Le Bonniec, who also
presented One Arm of the Assembly Line of AI: EU Data Workers and Privacy
Regulation. The first paper explores how AI annotation work requires workers to
combine cognitive skills, such as interpreting and evaluating content, with the
ability to adapt to specific client requirements. The second paper examines how
EU data workers’ personal data is collected and exploited by AI companies,
arguing that giving workers greater control over their own data could also
strengthen data protection for the wider public.
Other DipLab-associated members also presented their work. Matheus Viana Braz
presented Psychosocial and Health-Related Risks in AI Value Chains: The Case of
Latin American Data Workers, which explores burnout risks among Latin American
data workers, highlighting how high work demands, income insecurity, algorithmic
surveillance, and limited autonomy can contribute to psychological exhaustion
and disengagement. He also presented another paper, Digital Autoethnography and
the Affective Economy of Data Work in the Global South, in which he draws on
nine months of personal experience working on microtask platforms to examine how
data work affects workers’ mental health and emotional well-being.
Lucas Santos presented an article entitled Regulating Platform Labour in Brazil:
Precarity, Contestation, and Workers’ Agency, exploring the debate surrounding
the regulation of platform-mediated work in Brazil.
Myriam Raymond presented her article From Atomized Workers to Digital
Solidarities: Everyday Resistance among Egyptian Data Workers, which examines
how Egyptian data workers use Facebook groups to share information, support one
another, and develop collective forms of resistance against precarious working
conditions and platform control.
One of the keynotes was delivered by Julian Posada, a DiPLab-associated
researcher, under the title [Data Work and Territory: The Latin American
Experience]. Drawing on his new book, Platform Extractivism, he examined the
reality of data work in Latin America, with a particular focus on Venezuela. His
keynote explored the political-economic factors that have shaped Venezuela’s
position within global AI supply chains, highlighting how data work is deeply
embedded in broader economic and territorial relations.
But the conference was also marked by several important announcements. One of
the most significant was the formal notification of Teleperformance regarding
the protection of Kenyan data workers.
On the final day of the conference, the first South Asian chapter of the
International Network on Digital Labour (INDL) was also announced. The workshop
will take place in Pondicherry from February 1 to 5, 2027.
Finally, it was announced that the next edition of INDL, INDL-10, will take
place in São Paulo.