We are pleased to announce that DiPLab’s co-director, Professor Antonio Casilli, contributed expert testimony to the International High-Level Expert Committee on Democracy at Work for the Spanish Government, whose final report will be publicly released tomorrow, Monday, February 2, 2026, at 11am CET in Madrid. ABOUT THE REPORT Established by the Ministry of Labour of the Government of Spain, the Expert Committee on Democracy at Work brought together international experts to examine critical challenges facing workers in the contemporary economy. The Committee’s comprehensive report represents months of research, deliberation, and expert testimony from leading scholars and practitioners worldwide. Professor Casilli’s testimony, delivered at online hearings in May 2025, focused on “The Crisis of Informality and the Global Value Chain,” bringing DiPLab’s groundbreaking research on data work and AI labor into this crucial policy conversation. In his testimony, Professor Casilli presented findings from DiPLab’s extensive research programme on Digital Platform Labor, highlighting a frequently overlooked dimension of algorithmic management: the externalized, largely invisible labor that powers artificial intelligence development. Professor Casilli’s complete testimony to the Committee is available below: Hearing_Casilli_Democracy_Work_Spain_May_2025Download The presentation examined data work as an essential but systematically undervalued component of AI production systems. Drawing on DiPLab’s field research across multiple continents—including French- and English-speaking countries in Africa (Madagascar, Kenya, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, Egypt), Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America (Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina), and South and Southeast Asia (India, Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal, China)—Professor Casilli documented stark disparities in compensation and working conditions. As Professor Casilli emphasized, while AI appears to be “produced” in the Global North where major technology companies maintain their headquarters, this masks a complex reality: data production remains concentrated in the Global South, with labor flowing through established patterns that reflect linguistic, colonial, and economic connections. REPORT RELEASE When: Monday, February 2, 2026, at 11:00 AM CET Where: Ministry of Labour, Madrid (live-streamed) Live stream: https://www.youtube.com/live/frTjUx2TOb8 The complete report will be published in both English and Spanish at noon CET on the dedicated website: * English: https://reportondemocracyatwork.org/en/home/ * Spanish: https://reportondemocracyatwork.org/es/home/

We are delighted to announce that DiPLab PhD researcher Thomas Le Bonniec contributed the France country analysis to a significant new report on worker data rights under the GDPR, published by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Future of Work programme and AK Vorarlberg. Read the full report: Worker Data Rights under the GDPR and Beyond: Enforcement and Legal Mobilisation Across the EU Featuring contributions from leading national experts across Europe, the report presents a comprehensive comparative analysis of how workers’ data protection rights are enforced—and mobilized—across 10 EU Member States. It arrives at a critical juncture for European digital labor governance, as the EU navigates the Digital Omnibus, the Quality Jobs Act, and ongoing debates around a potential Directive on Algorithmic Management. The comparative analysis reveals several crucial insights: * Limited and fragmented enforcement: Workplace GDPR enforcement remains uneven across the EU, affecting both traditional data protection issues and emerging challenges related to algorithmic management. * Focus on traditional monitoring: Most enforcement cases still concern conventional forms of workplace surveillance—CCTV, email monitoring, GPS tracking—while data-intensive managerial practices, including algorithmic management systems, often remain under-enforced. However, promising enforcement initiatives are beginning to emerge in select Member States. * Underutilized collective mechanisms: Workers’ representatives could play a significantly stronger role in data protection, but existing mechanisms—including Article 80 GDPR—remain insufficient, inconsistently implemented across countries, or practically unused in practice. * Need for EU harmonization: The report emphasizes the urgent need for clearer EU-level harmonization and guidance on GDPR implementation and enforcement, more consistent reporting procedures and practices among Data Protection Authorities, preservation of the right of access under Article 15 GDPR (currently at risk under the Digital Omnibus proposal), and strengthening of collective data-protection rights in the workplace.

We are pleased to announce that DiPLab co-director Paola Tubaro presented at the annual conference of the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), dedicated to the age of artificial intelligence. In her presentation, she challenged common narratives of automation by revealing a fundamental truth: behind the “magic” of contemporary AI lies intensive human labor. This includes the often-invisible work of data annotators, content moderators, translators, voice actors, and numerous other workers who make AI systems function. Paola Tubaro’s research highlights how OSH issues in AI production arise directly from the organization of this work. The combination of outsourcing, offshoring, and digital intermediation creates precarious labor conditions that significantly affect workers’ mental health and well-being. Her presentation focused on three critical dimensions of occupational health risks: * Stress from uncertainty and long/unusual working hours: Data workers face unstable employment conditions, irregular schedules, and the constant pressure of uncertain income streams. * Social isolation: The digitally mediated nature of this work, often performed remotely and with little direct human contact, contributes to profound feelings of isolation among workers. * Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Content moderation workers, in particular, face severe psychological consequences from repeated exposure to disturbing, violent, or traumatic content. The ETUI annual conference on Occupational Safety and Health brought together researchers, trade union representatives, policymakers, and practitioners to examine the challenges and opportunities that artificial intelligence presents for workplace safety and health across Europe. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Défenseur des droits, France’s national rights watchdog, has just made public their latest decision (Decision No. 2025-086) concerning a major French platform that offers internet users micro-tasks in exchange for payment. This landmark ruling follows an in-depth investigation into discriminatory recruitment practices—based on nationality, bank domiciliation, and place of residence—brought to light with the support of DiPLab’s research, after the French data authority CNIL – Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés had already flagged the platform. DiPLab’s 104-page anonymized report “Discriminations and vulnerabilities in France’s micro-work platforms” (in French) provided critical evidence and analysis. Our key scientific contribution was the development of a “vulnerability index,” a novel statistical measure that reveals how economic precarity can lead to indirect discrimination among microworkers. This tool—pioneering in its application to platform-based data work—helped demonstrate how structural conditions on these platforms can unfairly disadvantage certain groups. The Défenseur des Droits’ final recommendations to the platform include eliminating discriminatory registration criteria, increasing transparency in worker evaluation and payment systems, limiting intrusive personal data collection, and auditing algorithmic systems for potential biases. This decision carries significant implications for DiPLab. Being formally consulted and cited in such a high-level ruling affirms the scientific value and societal relevance of our work. It validates our methodological innovations—particularly the vulnerability Inde—as tools for understanding and addressing structural inequalities in digital labor. The outcome strengthens DiPLab’s position as a trusted partner for institutions, NGOs, and regulators working on platform fairness and algorithmic accountability, while providing a concrete case study that will inform future research. For a preview of our continuing work in this area, we invite you to attend our upcoming presentation at the INSNA Sunbelt Social Network Conference (June 23–29, 2025, Paris). Paola Tubaro, Antonio Casilli, José Luis Molina, and Antonio Santos-Ortega will present a comparative study on data worker vulnerability in France and Spain (see link in comment).