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Oumou Ly

Oumou Ly was a staff fellow at the Berkman Klein Center working on the Assembly: Disinformation Program.

Oumou holds an MSc from the London School of Economics, where she studied global politics and international security. Her MSc dissertation identified and assessed the corporate and institutional structures in the United States which act as impediments to enactment of a comprehensive regulatory framework on state-propagated disinformation.

Prior to joining the Berkman Klein Center, Oumou worked for four years as an aide to Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer. In this capacity, Oumou advised on national security policy, international affairs, and defense policy. Oumou also worked extensively on legislation to fund the federal government, including the defense authorization, appropriations legislation, and budget agreements. 

Oumou is deeply interested in regulatory best practices around disinformation, the privacy and security implications of regulation, mitigation and countermeasures, and the interplay between varying forms of legacy media and the disinformation ecosystem. 


Projects & Tools

Past

Assembly: Disinformation

The Assembly: Disinformation Program brings together participants from academia, industry, government, and civil society from across disciplines to explore and make progress on…


Publications

Publication
Oct 6, 2020

US Elections Disinformation Tabletop Exercise Package

Publication provides the intelligence community, social media companies, state election officials, and news media a resource to plan for the election.


News

News
Mar 12, 2021

The Breakdown: Lisa Kaplan on domestic disinformation

Q&A explores threat actors, early detection, and content moderation

News
Dec 19, 2020

When disinformation becomes a political strategy, who holds the line?

Oumou Ly explains the important role media and tech companies play in patrolling false information, in an op-ed for The Hill.

News
Dec 1, 2020

The Breakdown: Joan Donovan on domestic misinformation

Q&A covers election misinformation, content moderation, and COVID-19

Q&A covers election misinformation, content moderation, and COVID-19

News
Oct 27, 2020

The Breakdown: Foreign Interference and the U.S. 2020 Election

Election interference and platform interventions in the lead-up to November 3

News
Oct 6, 2020

Exercises simulate disinformation, foreign influence operations targeting November election

Publication provides the intelligence community, social media companies, state election officials, and news media a resource to plan for the election

Publication features four exercises designed for four key stakeholders working on the front lines of the election

News
Aug 14, 2020

The Breakdown: Daphne Keller explains the Communications Decency Act

Daphne Keller discusses CDA 230, the executive order, and content moderation

In this episode of The Breakdown, Oumou Ly is joined by Daphne Keller of the Stanford Cyber Policy Center to discuss the Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, content…

Jul 30, 2020

The Breakdown: Jonathan Zittrain reflects on 2019–2020 Assembly program, disinformation

Special two-part episode delves into BKC's Assembly program, big challenges with disinformation

News
Jun 18, 2020

The Breakdown: Brian Scully on government response to disinformation

Disinformation and the U.S. 2020 presidential election, COVID-19

Disinformation and the U.S. 2020 presidential election, COVID-19

Jun 4, 2020

The Breakdown: Claire Wardle on disinformation and today’s journalistic conventions

Unpacking journalists’ role in debunking (and inadvertently spreading) disinformation

Unpacking journalists’ role in debunking (and inadvertently spreading) disinformation

News
May 21, 2020

The Breakdown: evelyn douek on doctored media, platform response and responsibility

Do tech companies have a responsibility for false content beyond the impact of that content on the information environment on their sites?

The second episode of our new video series asks, do tech companies have a responsibility for false content beyond the impact of that content on the information environment on…

News
May 7, 2020

Introducing: The Breakdown

A brief interview series sharing an inside look at the work of BKC

Through brief interviews, The Breakdown shares an inside look into how members of the Berkman Klein Center community are working on and grappling with difficult topics, and brings…


Community

All Tech Is Human

Improving Social Media

Oumou Ly and Ethan Zuckerman featured in a publication from All Tech Is Human on Improving Social Media.

Feb 22, 2021
Things Go Boom Podcast

Aliens Among U‪s‬

Oumou Ly discusses conspiracy theories on the ‘Things That Go Boom’ podcast.

Feb 15, 2021
Harvard Law Today

‘Be the Twitter that you want to see in the world’

Platform governance and the 2020 Presidential Election

Nov 7, 2020
News

Q&A: Misinformation and Coronavirus

We asked members of Berkman Klein’s Misinformation Working Group their thoughts about misinformation and the virus.

Jan 30, 2020

Events

Oct 27, 2020 @ 12:00 PM

Election Chaos: Platform Preparations for the US Election

Video & Podcast: A discussion with evelyn douek and Julie Owono

Video & Podcast: Discover how platforms are preparing for disinformation campaigns in the forthcoming US election.