Workshops and Forums @ WebSci’26
This year’s WebSci features four workshops and two forums. All workshops invite participants to submit workshop papers which will be published in a companion volume along with the WebSci’26 proceedings. Forums, on the other hand, are designed as interactive events or retreats that aim to engage the community for specific topics or to serve as tutorials to new topics. Thus, forums will not include a call for papers.
Please note that all workshops are independently organized and thus, the exact dates for submission deadlines may differ. Please check the respective call for paper for more information.
DHOW: Diffusion of Harmful Content on Online Web
Type: Workshop
Paper Submission Due: March 15, 2026
Organizers: Thomas Mandl, Haiming Liu, Gautam Kishore Shahi, Amit Kumar Jaiswal, Luis-Daniel Ibáñez, and Durgesh Nandini
Abstract. With the advancement of digital technologies and gadgets, online content is easily accessible. At the same time, harmful content also gets spread. There are different harmful content available on different platforms in multiple languages. The topic of harmful content is broad and covers multiple research directions. But from the user’s aspect, they are affected by them all.
We will bring the research on harmful content under one umbrella so that research on different topics (hate speech, misinformation, disinformation, self-harm, offensive content, etc.) can bring some novel methods and recommendations for users, leveraging text analysis with image, audio, and video recognition to detect harmful content in diverse formats. The workshop will cover the ongoing issue of war or elections in 2026.
Website/CfP: https://dhow-workshop.github.io/2026/2/
TSWW’26: Towards a Safer Web for Women – Second International Workshop on Protecting Women Online
Type: Workshop
Paper Submission Due: March 17, 2026
Organizers: Miriam Fernandez, Christine de Kock, Alba Morales, Arianna Muti, and Ángel Pavón Pérez
Abstract. Towards a Safer Web for Women (TSWW’26) is the second international workshop on protecting women online, bringing together interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners at Web Science 2026 to address the persistent and evolving problem of online violence against women and girls. Building on insights from the first edition, this year’s workshop places a strong emphasis on preventive rather than reactive approaches, focusing on identifying emerging threats, anticipating harms linked to rapidly developing technologies (e.g., generative AI, agentic systems), and designing mitigation strategies before risks fully materialise. Through a keynote, poster presentations, and structured interactive discussions, the workshop will review recent progress, surface early warning signals, and discuss forward-looking research and policy agendas. By convening experts from computing, social sciences, law, and industry, TSWW’26 aims to foster international collaboration and proactive solutions to ensure that future web technologies are designed with women’s safety and digital rights at their core.
Website/CfP: https://tsww26.github.io/
ABIS 2026: The Effects of the Adaptive Web on Society
Type: Workshop
Paper Submission Due: March 17, 2026 March 24, 2026
Organizers: Laura Stojko, Eelco Herder, Jannis Stecker-Bischoff, Julia Seitz, Thomas Neumayr, Enes Yigitbas, and Mirjam Augstein
Abstract. ABIS is an international workshop organized by the SIG on Adaptivity and User Modeling in Interactive Software Systems of the German Gesellschaft für Informatik. For more than 30 years, the ABIS workshop has served as a highly interactive forum for discussing the state of the art in personalization, user modeling, and related areas. The 2026 edition will focus on personalization and recommendations, with particular attention to adaptation on the Web and its societal effects. To explore and discuss the effects of the adaptive Web on society, the workshop aims to bring together researchers and practitioners to share insights and discuss emerging findings and future developments. Our goal is to identify current trends, newly observed effects, and future research directions, with the overarching aim of fostering the development of this discipline and encouraging new collaborations.
Website/CfP: https://fg-abis.gi.de/veranstaltung/abis-2026
Program
09:00–09:15 — Welcome & Preparation
09:15–09:30 — Exploring the Limits of Predicting User Watching Behavior with Short-Form Videos on TikTok (Carolina Coimbra Vieira, Sepehr Mousavi, Oshrat Ayalon, Abhisek Dash, Krishna Gummadi, and Savvas Zannettou)
09:30–09:45 — LLM-Mediated XAI Explanations: A Decision Co-Pilot for Fast and Calibrated Judgments on Potential Misinformation (Valentin Grimm, Eelco Herder, Jessica Rubart, and Carsten Röcker)
09:45–10:00 — Structuring the Last Mile with ReActV: Tool-Augmented Delivery Planning with Verification (Pushkal Agarwal, Joyjit Chatterjee, Akash Marar, and David Gamtenadze)
10:00–10:30 — Break
10:30–10:45 — Reflection I: Summary of Effects on Society
10:45–11:00 — Detecting Persona-Generated AI Text with Interpretable Linguistic Features (Elena Slavova, Angelina Parfenova, and Juergen Pfeffer)
11:00–11:15 — Tracking Childhoods: Inter-generational Perspectives on Parent-Child Relationships and the Ethics of Digital Monitoring (Eelco Herder and Ana Cîrnu)
11:15–11:30 — Evaluating LLM-Based Bias Detection on Wikipedia: A Prompt Strategy Analysis Using NPOV Guidelines (Ashik Ahamed, Max Wang, and Jeanna Matthews)
11:30–11:40 — Literacy Level based Nutrition Education in Virtual Reality (Dennis Wüppelmann, Sarah Claudia Krings, Carina Micheel, and Corinna Ostwinkel)
11:40–11:55 — Reflection II: Summary of Effects on Society
11:55–12:00 — Wrap-Up & Closing
SDW: First International Workshop on Science-Related Discourse on the Web
Type: Workshop
Paper Submission Due: March 24, 2026
Organizers: Katarina Boland, Dimitar Dimitrov, Michelle Riedlinger, Philipp Meier, Sebastian Schellhammer, and Stefan Dietze
Abstract. In recent years, there has been a strong public interest in scientific knowledge. Ordinary citizens, politicians, journalists and other stakeholders have actively participated in discussions about scientific knowledge and science itself through online platforms. This typically rather informal and sometimes decontextualized science-related discourse on the Web may result in deliberate or accidental oversimplification, misrepresentation and instrumentalization of scientific knowledge which may hamper decision-making by politicians, have a negative impact on citizens’ trust in science and ultimately increase the polarization of society.
This workshop shall serve to advance interdisciplinary research concerning science-related discourse on the Web by providing a platform for the exchange of research and resources including computational methods for platform-specific and cross-platform data extraction and analysis as well as social scientific insights into science-related communication on the Web and possible societal effects.
Website/CfP: https://sdw2026.wordpress.com/
Program
13:00–13:10 — Welcome & Introduction
13:10–13:55 — Keynote: Monika Taddicken. “The Public Construction of Scientific Evidence: Trust, AI, and Scientific Authority in Digital Science Communication”
13:55–14:25 — Presentation: Will Grant, Aphrika Gregson and Matthew Nurse. ‘Beekeepers Love Facebook!’ Examining the Flows of Misinformation in the Australian Varroa Mite Outbreak”
14:25–14:30 — Lightning Talks / Poster:
- Yavuz Selim Kartal, Kevin Schott, Alisa Rieger and Dagmar Kern:
“Trust in Scientific Content and Human vs. AI Generated
Comments in Social Media” - Sebastian Schellhammer, Dimitar Dimitrov, Stefan Dietze:
“Negative Citation Detection on Social Media” - Marc Feger, Stefan Dietze: “EMO-SCI: Exploring the Interplay
between Emotions and Distortion in Informal Science Discourse”
14:30–15:10 — Coffee Break & Poster Session
15:10–15:40 — Presentation: Nicola Peters and Monika Taddicken. “Evidence Practices in Agonistic and Antagonistic Conflicts in Climate-Skeptical Counterpublics on Telegram”
15:40–16:20 — Keynote: Steffen Lemke. “The Science-Media Interface”
16:20–16:50 — Presentation: Philipp Meier, Katarina Boland, Laura Kallmeyer and Stefan Dietze. “Identifying Scientists on X”
16:50–17:00 — Closing
MESHARE: Method Sharing Retreat
Type: Forum
Organizers: Muhammad Taimoor, Ran Yu, Felix Victor Münch, Fakhri Momeni, Stephan Linzbach, Arnim Bleier, and Johannes Kiesel
Abstract. The Method Sharing Retreat (MESHARE) is aimed at researchers who have developed a computational method for their research but have never found the time to make it reusable for others. The organizing team consists of the team behind the Methods Hub, a new community platform for sharing computational methods with a focus on a strict editorial process that ensures the reusability and reproducibility of methods. In the first part of the proposed event, participants are introduced to best practices for method sharing. In the second and main part of the event, the organizing team will work together with the participants towards bringing the participants’ methods through the editorial process into the Methods Hub. Please visit our page for further details and queries about your methods.
Website: https://methodshub.gesis.org/community/websci26-meshare/
Program
09:00 – 09:40 | Welcome, method submission, and quick start
09:40 – 11:40 | Choosing method, teaming and experimenting with method template (with coffee break)
11:40 – 12:00 | Take-aways (concluding morning session)
Lunch break
13:00 – 15:00 | Morning recap, method development (with coffee break)
15:00 – 15:30 | Automated review and update
15:30 – 16:00 | Discussion, feedback, and next steps
Info from the Organizers: Interested participants can reach out to us through GitHub issue (on https://github.com/BDA-KTS/MESHARE-at-WebSci2026/issues/1) for any questions, suggestions, method ideas, or just to show their willingness to attend the event. The participants must bring their own laptops with Python or R installed.
WebPol: Getting Involved in Technology Policy for Web Researchers
Type: Forum
Organizers: Michel Beaudouin-Lafon, Virginia Dignum, Eelco Herder, Jeanna Matthews, Tom Romanoff, and James Hendler
Abstract. WebPol is organized by the leaders of ACM’s Technology Policy work, including the global Technology Policy Council (ACM TPC), the Europe Technology Policy Council (Europe-TPC), the US Technology Policy Council (US-TPC) and the Expanding Regions Technology Policy Council (Expand-TPC) which currently has subcommittees focused on India, Asia Pacific more widely, Latin America, Africa and Canada as well as being open to any ACM member working in technology policy anywhere in the world.
The workshop is structured to combine shared experience with active participation. We begin by distilling key lessons learned from ACM’s technology policy work, focusing on how different policy groups operate in practice, what has proven effective, and where challenges remain. Building on these insights, the workshop then moves to interactive sessions in which participants identify relevant policy issues for Web researchers, explore concrete ways to get involved, and define actionable next steps.
Website: https://www.acm.org/public-policy/tpc/websci26
PhD Symposium
Organizers: Haiming Liu and Luis-Daniel Ibáñez
Agenda
13:00-13:05: Introduction: Luis-Daniel Ibáñez & Haiming Liu
Session 1 – Project Presentations
13:05-13:35 Alexander Loth: The Indistinguishability Threshold: Measuring Cognitive Vulnerabilities to AI-Generated Disinformation
13:35 – 14:05 Matt Javanshir: Applying Actor-Network Theory to the UK’s Public Policy of Generative Artificial Intelligence and the Creative Industries
14:05 – 14:35 Melyssa Ortiz Quintairos Jorge: AI Governance and Public Engagement: Rethinking the Instrumentalisation of Public Trust to Drive Innovation
14:35 -15:00 Coffee Break
Session 2- Round Table
15:00 – 15:45 Round Table: When AI Overwhelms Humans: Where Should Intervention Happen?
As generative AI enables high-volume, highly persuasive synthetic content, traditional defenses like fact-checking are increasingly overwhelmed. This round table explores a critical question at the heart of the new information ecosystem: where should we intervene to mitigate harm? What type of interventions could be practically feasible and acceptable by the public?