Call for Participation

SplinterCon: Nordics will take place December 3–5, 2026, in partnership with the Global Initiative on the Future of the Internet at the European University Institute.

SplinterCon is built by you, our participants: your work, experiences and communities. With this in mind, we are looking for researchers, technologists, civil society organizations, policymakers, journalists and practitioners to submit ideas for presentation at SplinterCon. These can be in the form of talks, research, demonstrations, workshops, roundtables and case studies.

For this edition, we will be exploring the theme of Fragmentation in the Age of AI.

Network fragmentation is deepening. National networks are maturing, and the infrastructure and tools for controlling freedom of expression and engagement online are becoming increasingly sophisticated and commercially available. At the same time, AI is changing how networks are controlled and how people reach information. AI systems can classify and act on network traffic at the infrastructure layer, at scale and in real time. While chatbots and AI-enabled interfaces increasingly stand between users and the information they consume.

As these forces come together, SplinterCon Nordics asks: what is the role of AI in the splinternet?

Thematic Focus

We are interested in submissions at the intersection of AI, network fragmentation and the movement of information online. While this is broad in general, we are looking for more than AI-based solutions and are particularly interested in direct work on AI and network fragmentation, including access to information.

We are open to submissions across the following 4 Areas:

1. AI and Network Control
   AI creates new possibilities for observing, classifying and controlling network activity at scale and in real time. We want to understand how this reveals itself in the real world.
   
   Area 1 looks for submissions that address how AI and machine learning are evolving the landscape for censorship, surveillance and network-management systems.
   
   Proposals under Area 1 should address:
   • How these technologies impact, automate or accelerate deep packet inspection, traffic classification, content filtering and enforcement? This can be theoretical or already happening.
   • What new capabilities do they enable, and for whom… and/or what new dependencies do they create?
   • And importantly, what new opportunities for circumvention and for protection of digital rights do they create?
     
     We welcome empirical research, technical analysis, measurement studies and case studies examining these developments.
     
2. AI and Access to Information
   
   The splinternet is not only about infrastructure. Access and search is splintering. The experience of a reader exploring content is shifting towards an AI-mediated future. We no longer simply access a website or an article, we ask a chatbot and the system summarizes 10 articles, 2 articles, or a hundred. 
   
   Area 2 seeks submissions that investigate the following questions:
   • What happens when AI becomes an intermediary between individuals and information?
   • How do censorship, training data, model design, localization and platform policies influence engagement, from slight bias to out right suppression of information?
   • What does access to information mean when the reader no longer has a direct connection to the source? 
     
     We are interested in research and practical experience examining questions of provenance, trust, information integrity, linguistic and geographic disparities, and access to independent information through AI-mediated systems.
3. AI in Controlled and Fragmented Networks
   
   We are also interested in what these changes mean for people already living in regions or communities facing censorship, shutdowns and national or isolated networks.
   
   Area 3 should focus on environments where fragmentation is underway. Submissions in this area can focus on the end users and communities…
   • Can AI be applied to help users discover, preserve, translate or distribute information when access to the global internet is restricted?
   • How do models operate and can they operate effectively and safely in disconnected (or intermittently connected) environments?
   • Can local and open models offer new forms of information resilience?
     
     Or the mechanisms of control…
   • Does the emerging reality of national or corporate centralized AI infrastructure create another point of control?
   • What are the risks or opportunities when governments limit access to models, manipulate their information environment, or deploy their own alternatives?
   • “Sovereign AI” projects, national large language models and the export of AI-enabled control technologies.
   • Fragmentation of the AI stack itself: components and computation capacities, training data, model access, sanctions and export controls.
     
     We welcome work that examines both the possibilities and limitations of AI in these environments.
4. Resilient Technologies for the Splinternet
   
   SplinterCon’s general focus remains communication with and within fragmented and isolated networks.
   
   With this in mind, we also open up this process to work focusing on censorship circumvention, decentralized and peer-to-peer systems, wireless connectivity, network measurement, privacy-enhancing technologies, resilient hosting and content distribution, protocol obfuscation, alternative communications infrastructure and other approaches to maintaining access to information under adverse network conditions.
   
   Submissions under Area 4 are not required to include AI. However, Area 4 submissions should be grounded in practical technologies, original research and lessons from communities directly experiencing internet shutdowns, censorship and network isolation.