The present study, exploratory in nature, aims to present an analysis of hate speech reasons through those for hate in general, and suggest a potential approach for dealing with hate speech from an early educational time, through a systemic perspective meant to change behaviors. We start from the premise that fake news and hate speech are closely intertwined, with mutual determinacy (hate speech influences fake news transmission and received fake news further stimulate hate speech) and many similar consequences in terms of confusion, lack of trust, inappropriate behaviors and crises’ sharpening effects. Once we know the reasons for which people hate, we are able to work on those causes, and stop or at least diminish the problem, and not just the symptoms. It is an exploratory study, with a literature review type analysis for hate, in general and hate speech in particular, followed by a pilot survey on a small sample of students and then a suggested educational behavioral approach for diminishing hate related behaviors. We suggest three disciplines for the educational content – intercultural management, interdisciplinary education and critical thinking – together with three system changes – collaborative, second-order type of change, rethinking of students’ and professors’ assessments and building of well-being frameworks.

The high deliberative quality of political conversation among citizens is a valuable component when taking political decisions. However, online discussions often do not correspond to deliberative standards which can be found in the theory of deliberative democracy. In this paper, argumentation (reasoning) and communicative culture (civility and incivility) as the most relevant parameters of deliberation are analyzed in order to assess the quality of Russian and American social networks’ deliberation. The research is based on a methodology of discourse analysis which allows to identify the deliberative quality of political discourse. The article presents the results of online discussions’ analysis on significant issues in the Russian and American socio-political discourses – the court verdict of Alexei Navalny and the second impeachment of Donald Trump. As an empirical basis of study, online discussions on the pages of Vkontakte social network of four Russian media and discussions of four American media on Facebook are used. The authors conclude that social media deliberation as a form of public dialogue in Russia is poorly developed in terms of argumentation and culture of speech while American online deliberation is more developed, reasoned, polite and respectful.

Disinformation are considered an important issue of the modern digital era, specially manifested during the rise and spread of new media. Disinformation are a complex phenomenon, with regards to their aims, creation, spreading, concerning why recipients trust them, but this complexity is also evident in the disinformation solutions and response activities. There is no one and absolutely effective tool to tackle disinformation, and therefore a combination of soft and hard solutions is being applied in practice. The aim of the article is to analyze the role of public authorities in responding disinformation, what can be considered as one of many different solutions and disinformation response activities. A special focus will be placed on the concrete examples of public authority's disinformation response activities in the Slovak Republic, covering different levels of policy making and public administration execution.

Digitalization of education has been emphasized of interest for decades. The COVID-19 pandemic created conditions that demanded rapid changes in teaching and learning methods. An adequate preparedness was often lacking, but we can take the situation as an experiment that offers the experience to promote effective e-learning. The study focuses on Moodle, the most popular system for supporting learning worldwide. Its applicability is beyond dispute, but several factors may influence the utilization level and satisfaction locally. The goal of the study is to compare the utilization and satisfaction with Moodle before and during the pandemic. The differences allow exploring the effects of the forced use of the system. The results in this paper are based on a voluntary survey among public service students. The survey includes evaluating the tools of acquiring a curriculum for exploring some aspects of the learning habits. Furthermore, the functions, design, supporting role, and utilization are investigated. The sample consists of 100 responses before and 100 responses during the pandemic situation, randomly selected. All respondents are students at the Ludovika University of Public Service. The results show a moderate change in most factors. Time spent in Moodle has remarkably increased, and its role has been appreciated in the communication between students and teachers. Satisfaction has increased about the usability of the system, but its design, speed, and customization options are judged worse. Moodle's appropriateness for learning support is confirmed by the study. Since the purpose of Moodle is to support effective learning, the supply-side of Moodle-based learning must be strengthened, including teachers’ competencies in exploiting the opportunities. Long-term benefits can be promoted by a higher level of integration with other educational systems.

Fake news is defined as “false stories that appear to be news, spread on the Internet or using other media, usually created to influence political views or as a joke”, thus, it is not necessary false information, although often refers to false information [1]. COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the generation as well as consumption of fake news. Afraid of the unknown virus, people started to consume all possible information they found on internet, while various parties with specific opinions or ideas started to generate and circulate false information and fake news. Fake news have impacted even to the health of people [2]. The paper analyses the five on-line surveys conducted by the author and her research team between December 2020 and March 2022. There are differences among the answers, mostly due to the COVID-19 situation as well as the differences in government measures. From these surveys, it emerged that the personality strongly impacts one's perception as well as behaviour changes. The paper discusses about the findings from the surveys in comparison to the literature to identify the limitation and future research topics.

The COVID-19 challenged the everyday life as previously had been thought. Several restrictions were introduced on citizens and previous forecasts were turned upside down. The national governments should have adopted rapidly their performance to the changed circumstances. The resilience of public administration institutions is challenged. One of the priorities of the Hungarian public administration development was the spread and improvement of digital public administration services in the last decade. The infrastructural capabilities faced a sudden rise of users as a consequence of restriction imposed by the COVID-19. Public sector institutions can more efficiently implement new institutions if there is a common trust in institutions. This paper examines those factors of public administrations which can provide a successful adaptation to the new circumstances in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary.

Rural areas face common challenges, but at the same time there are many opportunities based on its under-utilized assets and territorial capital. There is a growing recognition that empowering tools offered digital transformation in general and the EU Smart Village Concept in particular requires tailor-made solutions according to each rural community's unique needs and resources. However, relatively little attention has been paid to transferring and downscaling the elements of a supportive environment, as well as measurement methodologies that has proven successful in a case of smart city development. Relying on the main findings of the literature and the preliminary results and experiences of the Digital Success Programme launched in Hungary, with particular focus on the pre-conditions of the Digital (Smart) Village Programme, the paper seeks to address the basic steps towards implementing smart village strategies.

There are many activities involved in building and maintaining smart infrastructure requires a good level of training in the science, technology and design of smart settlements. This paper aims to prepare the staff of local public organizations and NGOs to initiate innovative public-private partnerships for the implementation of the new direction in technological development and application in agricultural production, which is the internet of things (IoT). Harnessing the potential of the local innovation system, which includes entrepreneurs, local universities and research centers, among others, Living Labs is essential to meet the challenge of adapting the Smart Village concept.

Falling sales figures, declining customer frequencies, store closures – the success of online retailing and the accompanying structural changes have posed a significant threat to brick and mortar retailers for some years now. In order to secure the future of retail stores in the long term, it will be necessary to combine offline and online retailing. This article examines for Baden-Württemberg (Germany) what expectations retailers and service providers have of local online marketplaces as a possible strategy, and focuses on the following research questions: What are the attitudes of retailers and service providers in Baden-Württemberg towards local online marketplaces? and Which particular services are in demand or needed by retailers and service providers in Baden-Württemberg? Furthermore, this article investigates whether there is a relationship between company expectations and company size as well as retailers’ and service providers’ previous online presence.

Governments have adopted e-government worldwide to improve efficiency and effectiveness in their organization. However, the public sector employee's non-adaptive behavior is hampering the digitalization effort. Therefore, this paper aims to present a conceptual model for measuring factors of e-government adoption among government employees and determining the relationship between use and user satisfaction with the job performance of employees. For measuring the adoption of e-government systems, eleven dimensions of this proposed model are identified from the review of the state-of-the-art literature in this field. Eleven dimensions of the proposed model are derived from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology and Delone and Mclean IS Success Model, including system quality, information quality, service quality, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition, intention to use, use, user satisfaction, and net benefits. The outcome of this paper will provide future opportunities for governmental agencies, private sectors, or other related parties to assist government and employees in improving the e-government system and adoption. Subsequently, enable the public sector to improve the performance and efficiency of service delivery to citizens. In return, this leads to a more sustainable and resilient e-government effort for the future.

While local governments in Germany still have great difficulties in introducing digital services, those responsible are asking themselves which methods can lead to an acceleration. Studies show that digitisation in local entities is progressing only slowly, but must inevitably be driven forward in consideration of legal requirements and the expectations of citizens and companies. One way to accelerate digitisation in German local governments is seen in using process management methods. Applying process management methods can serve to identify, design, document, implement and ultimately control and improve processes in a structured and goal-oriented manner, but can it really be considered an accelerator for digitisation?

The so-called post-postmodern cyber era is spectacularly looming upon users of versatile digital communication platforms and omnipresent virtual reality dimensions. The ‘brave new times’ have also resulted in the rising importance of various computerized applications aiming for spreading mass persuasion, disinformation, propaganda, and fake news, primarily targeting users belonging to two distinguished age groups: teenagers, young adult and senior citizens. The pandemic and the war in East Europe have also demonstrated the enormous power and influence of informational warfare and cyber security operations, which may threat even the normal operation of democratic societies and jeopardize the right of millions for reliable and authentic information resources and knowledge. The article presents a designated educational module on media literacy with the objective to prepare both students and educators for the various challenges of the cyber era. The paper also highlights upon the most ardent threats, various challenges posed by social media sites and all the new phenomena endemic of these virtual reality platforms.

The paper analyses anti-corruption effects of Open budget policies and practice for five Eurasian Economic Union countries (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia). We engage the data of international organizations which analyze current situation in these countries. We assess the impact of open finance data (according to Open data inventory, ODIN, produced by Open Data Watch) on corruption for five EAEU countries covering the period between 2015 and 2020 with use of unbalanced panel data analysis.

Digitalization enables significant opportunities for individuals as well as for society as a whole. However, the number of "offliners" remains high. It is true that pressure to use social media has increased in recent years, especially as a result of the Corona pandemic, as many shops and authorities had closed and in many cases appointments could only be made online. However, the so-called "age gap" has only decreased slightly in recent years. Previous support programmes by the state for older people using more internet services had only moderate success. But not everyone can use digital media, and many do not want to. However, it must be asked whether it is the right of every individual not to use digital media. What do we do with those? Caritas in Luxembourg has revived what itself is an "old idea": the establishment of a "writer" - here: the establishment of a "digital writer".

Road Traffic Accidents constitute a significant concern around the world. Understanding the primary and contributing factors may combat traffic accidents and mitigate their impact. Based on an actual traffic accidents dataset of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) between 2012-2019, we investigate the importance of data science and Business Intelligence (BI) in visualizing traffic accidents in a descriptive format. The proposed BI solution provides visual data exploration for authorities to analyze and make informed decisions. This paper provides an example of how open data can save lives and resources. The design and implementation of the BI solution and its features are also presented in this paper.

Industrial automatization and robotization make the manufacturing and all industrial processes more effective and robust. Industrial control systems consist of many specific computer-based elements, behaving somewhat differently than business IT. They can be used in many sectors and, from the regulatory aspect, might be controlled by more EU regulations. The NIS Directive currently has the base role of prescribing the obligation for Member States to address cybersecurity issues. However, in spite of security controls, threat actors try to compromise ICT services and infrastructure, causing confidentiality, integrity, or availability-related security incidents. These attacks may cause not only financial loss but also more complex effects may arise, as analyzed in the paper.

eGovernment potential benefits and challenges are similar for Latin America and the European Union, although they have different levels of development. In seeking to advance in the development and application of eGovernment, Latin America has followed, as in other areas of law, the example of the European Union of cooperating among the countries of the region, agreeing on a common agenda for the development of digitization covering the provision of government services, government portals, and privacy protection. However, it can be concluded that while Latin America is focusing on expanding Internet coverage and deploying digital infrastructure, the European Union is at a point of technological development that allows it to focus its efforts on issues such as privacy protection. In the area of privacy protection, Latin America has cases of state espionage and cyber criminality coming from guerrilla groups and drug trafficking gangs that affect citizen's trust in the mechanisms used by eGovernment. This paper proposes Latin America to improve security based on its own social and economic context.

Academic institutions are increasingly implementing digital services and new technologies, for a modern and accessible educational environment. But the virtual environment creates unknown vulnerabilities that need to be addressed properly. The holistic approach to cybersecurity in academia as a system has major benefits. But the main question is how this can be done in practice, as long as universities are heterogeneous complex environments. The proposed solution can be used to implement a security system in academia, is compliant with the security standard ISO 27001 and developed by applying the scientific method of Security Requirement Engineering.

Public administrative bodies play a key role in governmental level data asset management. A centralized regulation and toolset of these bodies is a strategic goal, but the experience of the implementation confirms that a meticulous and careful task must be faced. The diversity of the administrative bodies works against a quick change. The study aims to review the information protection obligations of Hungarian public administration bodies, emphasizing the importance of standard-based legal regulation and the centralizing and unifying nature of public administration IT developments. In addition to the historical and legal review, the authors also pay attention to the description of the standard application experience. The goal is to establish a comprehensive and effective regulatory system that may be available through the management system standards, especially the ISO 27000 standard family. It can be concluded that beyond the regulatory intentions in a diverse infrastructure, targeted training and more emphasis on promoting the acceptance of information security is necessary for success.

Citizens’ participation became quite common in municipal settings in Germany in the recent years. If the registration and identification methods used are examined, nearly each participation process relies on the possession of a simple email-address as a sole requirement. More secure methods, like introduced by the eIDAS-regulation and the Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and hence commonly available, are totally neglected. The paper analyzes different types of citizens’ participation, derives the theoretical minimum requirements for proof of the identity of the participants and provides insights collected from interviews with organizers of participation processes. It concludes with recommendations which will hopefully lead to a more sustainable and resilient e-participation for the future.

Publishing is one of the central components of scientific endeavor and has undergone significant developments lately, due to the digitisation of scholarly communication and consequent emergence and uptake of open access movement. This also led to the rise of “predatory publishing”, motivated by profit and compromising research integrity. Similar to fake news, predatory publishing outlets “are characterized by false or misleading information”, often spreading misinformation in the academic community and corrupting science. Evidence shows that the Global South and low-resources, developing countries (e.g. Republic of Moldova) are particularly prone to predatory journals and conferences. This paper examines the extent to which the scientific community in the Republic of Moldova is affected by predatory, pseudo-scientific publications, based on a case study. It then comes with several recommendations to tackle the issue of predatory publishing, tailored to the national academic environment.

COVID-19 accelerated the drive towards distance learning, typically supported by web-based eLearning resources. There are also studies reviewing the transition to such as teaching style, whether in conjunction with traditional classroom teaching or as a supplement. This paper will focus on ERP-based teaching within a larger program to establish tertiary distance education in eGovernment in Germany (“eGov Campus”). It attempts to structure the topic and to advance some hypotheses that will be empirically tested against real-world data and experience from introducing this style of teaching in the eGov Campus.

The manufacturing industry in Hungary is responsible for 24,3% of the GDP. In overall Hungarian companies’ labour productivity reaches only 70% of the EU average. This study shows that digitalisation may contribute to higher labour productivity. In this study a new index to measure digital business process integration (DBII) is introduced based on Porter's Value Chain model. Historic data from a questionnaire is used to categorize companies based on DBII. The association between DBII, organization IT capabilities and business performance indicators (labour productivity and profit per employee) is analysed with the help of cross tabulation and SPSS. It is also shown that higher DBII can be associated with higher labour productivity. Positive association between organization IT capabilities and labour productivity is also presented. A weaker but significant association between DBII and profit per employee suggests, that organizations still need to work out ways how digitalisation can help to harvest the gains from increased labour productivity.

Over the past few years, we have seen a rise in spoofed content across the Internet, including fake news and fake reviews. Fake news is false information that imitates real news intending to damage a reputation or make financial gains. Similarly, fake online reviews, commonly referred to as opinion spamming, have impacted customers and retailers. The main problem is that there is no efficient way to distinguish between genuine and fake reviews; even humans find it difficult to do so. This paper compares two tools used to detect opinion spamming and analyzes their results. We have compiled our research using 100 reviews from travelers who evaluated Istanbul's top five best-value hotels.

In the present research, I want to examine what trends and current events are taking place in the application of artificial intelligence in the administrative decision-making. At the same time, I want to shed light on the limitations and the required level of competence. Besides, I would like to point out the limitations of the application of artificial intelligence. I examined the good practices of many OECD countries on the subject. The results show that the prepared human factor is indispensable, and at the same time, it is always necessary to ensure the transparency, legality and fairness of the applications.

The objective of this paper is to show how system dynamics modelling can be applied to simulate the behavior of information communication technology based platforms to formulate and validate strategies or development policies of these platforms in the public sector. We show three typical yet very different public administration platforms; the Hungarian clientgate, an Italian Government-As-A-Platform example, and a Finnish mobility-as-a-service concept as illustrations. We then develop a general dynamic model based on classic two-sided market economics and extended management models, and theoretically show how cross-group and within-group externalities determine the behavior of platforms. Through the introduction of a conceptual system dynamics model we finally show how the behavior of public administration platforms can be simulated and what type of conclusions can be drawn from these models. Further research and practical implications are also shown by potential developments and refinements.

We use Facebook as a case study to investigate the complex relationship between the firm's public discourse (and actions) surrounding data privacy and the performance of a business model based on monetizing user's data. We do so by looking at the evolution of public discourse over time (2004–2021) and relate topics to revenue and stock market evolution. Drawing from archival sources like Zuckerberg, we use Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling algorithm to reveal 19 topics regrouped in 6 major themes. We first show how, by using persuasive and convincing language that promises better protection of consumer data usage, but also emphasizes greater user control over their own data, the privacy issue is being reframed as one of greater user control and responsibility. Second, we aim to understand and put a value on the extent to which privacy disclosures have a potential impact on the financial performance of social media firms. There we found significant relationship between the topics pertaining to privacy and social media/technology, sentiment score and stock market prices. Revenue is found to be impacted by topics pertaining to politics and new product and service innovations while number of active users is not impacted by the topics unless moderated by external control variables like Return on Assets and Brand Equity. Further, the inclusion of negative connoting words and “hate speeches” can have a disruptive impact on the financial performance of firms due to discontentment among users.

Electronic voting via the Internet holds a number of promises, particularly in relation to citizens abroad and it may also replace postal voting, which is subject to postal delays and insecure lines of communication. This paper conducts an in-depth analysis of two prominent eVoting protocols, namely the Token protocol and the Envelope protocol explaining their strengths and weaknesses in relation to the Recommendations of the Council of Europe CM/Rec(2017)5. The findings show that Envelope protocols do not fulfil the requirements of the Recommendations, whereas Token protocols can fulfil the requirements, providing certain technical provisions are met.

As the New Public Governance (NPG) paradigm gains importance for public administrations, future civil servants will need the skills and the willingness to implement citizen participation. The paper answers the question as to whether participation can be taught by assessing the impact of a module on citizen participation in a communal setting. The aim of the module is to promote citizen participation among public administration students and to strengthen their skills on how to implement participation formats. We compared student groups based on survey data and evaluated the skills and willingness of citizen participation in time t0, before the course, and time t1, after course completion. The empirical results show that the module seems to “work” in the sense that we experience slight changes in the participants’ perceptions of citizen participation. All in all, the very small changes in perception suggest that the module should be redesigned and retested to accomplish its educational purpose.