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Building a Digital Democracy
A healthy democracy requires an informed citizenry online and offline. To combat disinformation, we need to change the incentives for platforms and level the playing field for reputable sources of information.
Rules of the Game
New Report Finds ‘Algorithmic Audits’ Need More Clarity to Bring Accountability...
11/21/22
New Report Finds ‘Algorithmic Audits’ Need More Clarity to Bring Accountability...
Authors recommend guidelines for designing and deploying audits of opaque AI systems to mitigate algorithmic harms to users and society. WASHINGTON –...
IN THE NEWS: Elon Musk takes on the world’s regulators, Twitter-style
04/28/22
IN THE NEWS: Elon Musk takes on the world’s regulators, Twitter-style
Elon Musk’s pending purchase of Twitter has sent tremors through politics, activism and journalism circles as people try to understand what implications...
Assessing the NUDGE Act
02/14/22
Assessing the NUDGE Act
Last week, Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) introduced the Nudging Users to Drive Good Experiences on Social Media Act, dubbed...
Disinformation, Radicalization, and Algorithmic Amplification: What Steps...
02/07/22
Disinformation, Radicalization, and Algorithmic Amplification: What Steps...
Editor’s note: This article is part of a series from leading experts with practical solutions to democratic backsliding, polarization, and political...
Immediate Bipartisan Fixes for Social Media
12/14/21
Immediate Bipartisan Fixes for Social Media
The Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Files , and other recent reporting such as by ProPublica and MIT Review’s Karen Hao, demonstrate the failure...
Designing Against Dark Patterns
07/12/21
Designing Against Dark Patterns
Summary Policy that seeks to regulate the Internet must reckon with its design. As recent regulatory efforts—including the European Union’s General...
The Stakes of User Interface Design for Democracy
06/30/21
The Stakes of User Interface Design for Democracy
Summary The January 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol demonstrated that rampant disinformation and conspiracy theories pose an existential threat to...
Transparency and Accountability Mechanisms for Facial Recognition
02/03/21
Transparency and Accountability Mechanisms for Facial Recognition
This brief is one of two presenting strategies for addressing challenges associated with facial recognition. These briefs provide policymakers concrete...
Facial Recognition in the Public Sector: The Policy Landscape
02/03/21
Facial Recognition in the Public Sector: The Policy Landscape
This brief is one of two presenting strategies for addressing challenges associated with facial recognition. These briefs provide policymakers concrete...
Opinion: Three steps to help treat America’s debilitating information...
01/13/21
Opinion: Three steps to help treat America’s debilitating information...
This op-ed originally appeared in The Washington Post on January 13, 2021. The alarm many of us have sounded — that what happens online is not just...
Platform Regulation Should Focus on Transparency, Not Content
12/02/20
Platform Regulation Should Focus on Transparency, Not Content
Despite efforts by digital platforms to curb the tsunami of disinformation surrounding U.S. elections, cyberspace remains awash in conspiracy theories...
Facial Recognition Is Here But We Have No Laws
07/08/20
Facial Recognition Is Here But We Have No Laws
At protests against police violence across the country, law enforcement authorities have deployed the tanks, tear gas and military equipment that they...
Roadmap for Safeguarding Digital Democracy
03/24/20
Roadmap for Safeguarding Digital Democracy
Executive Summary Even before a global pandemic hit, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced that the Doomsday Clock had advanced for the first time...
CIVIC INFRASTRUCTURE
New Report Finds ‘Algorithmic Audits’ Need More Clarity to Bring Accountability...
11/21/22
New Report Finds ‘Algorithmic Audits’ Need More Clarity to Bring Accountability...
Authors recommend guidelines for designing and deploying audits of opaque AI systems to mitigate algorithmic harms to users and society. WASHINGTON –...
A "Full Stack" Approach to Public Media in the United States
07/26/21
A "Full Stack" Approach to Public Media in the United States
Over the course of U.S. history, and especially in turbulent times, the federal government and civil society have sought to promote civic information....
Broadband as Civic Infrastructure: Community Empowerment, Equity, and a...
03/23/21
Broadband as Civic Infrastructure: Community Empowerment, Equity, and a...
The coronavirus pandemic has shined a spotlight on equity issues in communications policy. As policymakers turn their attention to digital equity, they...
Building Back Better with Distributed Computing
01/19/21
Building Back Better with Distributed Computing
The United States can create jobs, better compete against China, and at the same time address major social challenges if it leverages the emerging combination...
A Public Option to Fund Public Interest Journalism
05/04/20
A Public Option to Fund Public Interest Journalism
Today, democracy is challenged by the structures of the digital media landscape, as public interest media, especially local journalism, has shrunk dramatically,...
Five Steps to Combat the Infodemic
03/26/20
Five Steps to Combat the Infodemic
GMF’s Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative released on March 24 a Policy Roadmap to safeguard the information ecosystem. Access to reliable information...
To Fight Online Disinformation, Reinvigorate Media Policy
06/13/19
To Fight Online Disinformation, Reinvigorate Media Policy
The doctored video falsely depicting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as ill or drunk spreading on social media is a wake-up call that even as the 2020 presidential...
International Digital Democracy Architecture
Major changes are coming to the EU’s digital landscape. Will they take...
07/18/22
Major changes are coming to the EU’s digital landscape. Will they take...
The Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) are poised to remake the EU’s regulatory environment. Julia Tréhu explains how, and...
The US Is Writing a New Digital Doctrine
07/13/22
The US Is Writing a New Digital Doctrine
Russia’s war in Ukraine has pushed the US into a new era in defense of both cybersecurity and the open internet. In its infancy, the commercial web was...
Key Changes Coming with the EU’s New Digital Regulation
07/06/22
Key Changes Coming with the EU’s New Digital Regulation
On July 5, the European Union adopted the long-awaited Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts in an overwhelming vote. The formally adopted texts will...
IN THE NEWS: EPISODE 52: THE DIGITAL MARKETS AND DIGITAL SERVICES ACTS:...
04/18/22
IN THE NEWS: EPISODE 52: THE DIGITAL MARKETS AND DIGITAL SERVICES ACTS:...
In this “Transatlantic Takeaway” episode, hosts Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson and Rachel Tausendfreund dissect sweeping new EU digital laws and their impact...
TTC in Context: Critical Technologies
10/20/21
TTC in Context: Critical Technologies
On September 29, the European Union and the United States held the inaugural meeting of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) in Pittsburgh. Through the...
TTC in Context: AI Regulation
10/20/21
TTC in Context: AI Regulation
On September 29, the European Union and the United States held the inaugural meeting of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) in Pittsburgh. Through the...
Splinternet or Democratic Data Alliance
01/08/21
Splinternet or Democratic Data Alliance
This year will be a pivot point when it comes to state sovereignty over data and the internet. The trend toward “digital sovereignty” began in China,...
The Biden Administration Should Pursue a Digital Trade Agreement
11/23/20
The Biden Administration Should Pursue a Digital Trade Agreement
Over the past four years, President Donald Trump has put international trade policy on the front page with regularity—at least when his own foibles and...
The Internet’s Lost Promise And How America Can Restore It
09/30/20
The Internet’s Lost Promise And How America Can Restore It
In the United States, Russia sought to help one presidential candidate over another in the 2016 election—not only through hacking and the release of...
On TikTok, the Trump Administration Is Adopting China’s Own Vision for...
09/22/20
On TikTok, the Trump Administration Is Adopting China’s Own Vision for...
Over the past seven weeks, the Trump administration has ordered the sale of TikTok to a U.S. buyer, declared that the U.S. government would take a cut...
China Tries to Push U.S. Tech Companies Around in Hong Kong. Here's How...
07/17/20
China Tries to Push U.S. Tech Companies Around in Hong Kong. Here's How...
At the same time that China becomes more assertive in clamping down on internet freedom, the U.S. is shooting itself in the foot. China expanded its attacks...
On Facial Recognition, the U.S. Isn’t China—Yet
06/18/20
On Facial Recognition, the U.S. Isn’t China—Yet
As protests grow, the police leverage their technological advantage. Widespread surveillance cameras capture the crowds, and facial recognition software...
The End of Techno-Utopianism
09/13/19
The End of Techno-Utopianism
Editor's Note: This piece is part of a full report, " Reassessing 1989 ," which looks at the major events of that year, including the fall of the Berlin...
