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Media, Democracy, & Public Discourse

The way we communicate online evolves and changes shape rapidly. Through research, the building of tools, and bringing together diverse viewpoints and underrepresented voices, we seek to examine, analyze, and address the variety of ways people engage online, the myriad of factors that may influence that engagement (or lack thereof) and to preserve a record for future generations.

Our Work 147

Event
Nov 14, 2024 @ 12:30 PM

Beyond the Big Lie

RSM Fall Speaker Series

The Institute for Rebooting Social welcomes Bill Adair to discuss his forthcoming book, Beyond the Big Lie: The Epidemic of Political Lying, Why Republicans Do It More, and How It…

Sep 26, 2024 @ 3:00 PM

Combatting Digital Misinformation: Lessons from Taiwan

An Intimate Conversation with Audrey Tang

Join Taiwan's former Minister for Digital Affairs Audrey Tang to discuss the lessons Taiwan can offer for combatting misinformation in a polarized political environment.

Event
May 8, 2024 @ 4:00 PM

Democracy and Technology

Democratic values are facing significant challenges globally, with democratic processes often feeling stagnant as social technologies become increasingly integrated into our…

News
Mar 19, 2024

Meet Jonathan Bellack, New Senior Director of the Applied Social Media Lab

Jonathan is Senior Director of the Applied Social Media Lab within the Berkman Klein Center. He is building a team of technologists to invent new social media approaches that…

News
Jan 25, 2024

Visualizing Boston's Urban Spaces Using Open Data

Research sprint re-imagines new and trustworthy data systems in Boston

Technological tools that use city-based data are encoded with the value systems of their designers. How might data-driven systems be designed for the agency and safety of…

Publication
Jun 12, 2023

Accountability Infrastructure

How to implement limits on platform optimization to protect population health

A white paper that builds upon the history of public health for addressing the systemic harms of online platforms.

Event
Apr 19, 2023 @ 5:30 PM

Impossible Choices: When Human Rights Work Comes at a Personal Expense

4/19: A conversation between TED Fellow and metaLAB affiliate Anjan Sundaram and BBC Editor and Nieman Fellow Ashish Dikshit

In this upcoming public event, co-hosted by metaLAB (at) Harvard, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, and the Human Rights…

Event
Apr 13, 2023 @ 4:00 PM

Student Salon Series: Balancing AI Innovation and Regulation - what is the role of AI auditing at the time of ChatGPTs arms race?

Join us on April 13, for the Berkman Klein Center’s second Student Salon Series event, Balancing AI Innovation and Regulation -- what is the role of AI auditing at the time of…

Event
Mar 23, 2023 @ 12:00 PM

“Weaponizing Misogyny”: Gender-Based Harassment’s Impact on Journalists and Free Expression

Join IfRFA for a discussion of how gender-based harassment online and off shapes our speech environment, leading to differing coverage and barriers to the free expression of ideas…

Event
Feb 9, 2023 @ 12:30 PM

Student Salon Series: Moral Futurism: Digital Citizenship and the Rights of Youth in the Metaverse and Beyond

The Student Salon Series is a student-led event series bringing Harvard students into dialogue about tech topics, hosted by the Berkman Klein Center.   This inaugural…

Publication
Mar 7, 2022

Digital Crime Scenes

The Role of Digital Evidence in the Persecution of LGBTQ People in Egypt, Lebanon, and Tunisia

Digital evidence has made it easier for law enforcement to identify, harass, and prosecute LGBTQ people...

Event
Nov 18, 2021 @ 12:00 PM

The Technology Future We Want: Imagining Positive Futures for Social Media

EVENT RECAP: "Psychedelic Bubbles and a Non-Euclidian Costume Party: Imagining positive futures for social media"

Oct 19, 2021 @ 1:00 PM

Private Social Media Data in the Public Interest: What’s Next?

VIDEO: This October 19 panel explored dilemmas, debates, and paths forward for public interest research access to social media data.

News
Aug 6, 2021

Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center Receives $2 Million From Knight Foundation To Combat Disinformation

James Mickens shares insights into the Center's new Institute for Rebooting Social Media.

News
Jul 22, 2021

Five Years of Assembly

Zenzele Best summarizes and celebrates five years of the Assembly Program

Event
May 20, 2021 @ 12:00 PM

Mistrust: How to revitalize civics at a moment of low public trust in institutions

Video & Podcast: A book talk with Ethan Zuckerman and Martha Minow

Video & Podcast: Author and digital communities scholar Ethan Zuckerman, in conversation with Martha Minow, discusses his new book on mistrust in American and global institutions…

Event
May 17, 2021 @ 4:00 PM

Assembly Project Fellowship Showcase

An inside look at the work of the 2021 Assembly Fellows on Disinformation, Privacy, and Ethical AI

An inside look at the work of the 2021 Assembly Fellows on Disinformation, Privacy, and Ethical AI

News
Mar 12, 2021

The Breakdown: Lisa Kaplan on domestic disinformation

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

News
Feb 12, 2021

Prediction from Lumen Database researchers cited by Vice

A new video shows Beverly Hills cops playing the Beatles to trigger Instagram's algorithmic copyright filter, raising concerns that some law enforcement are using copyright…

News
Jan 25, 2021

BKC Assembly announces 2021 Assembly Fellowship cohort

Five teams from inside and outside academia to further develop interventions in the areas of disinformation, cybersecurity, and ethical AI

Five teams from inside and outside academia to further develop interventions in the areas of disinformation, cybersecurity, and ethical AI

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

Event
Dec 1, 2020 @ 12:00 PM

The True Costs of Misinformation

Video & Podcast: Producing Moral and Technical Order in a Time of Pandemonium

Video & Podcast: Misinformation-at-scale is now a feature of most major social media platforms, what can be done to mitigate its effects on the public?

Event
Nov 17, 2020 @ 12:00 PM

Red and Blue Realities: Political Discourse and the 2020 Election

Video & Podcast: How asymmetrically polarized media in the United States shape political discourse

Video & Podcast: How asymmetrically polarized media in the United States shape political discourse

Publication
Oct 29, 2020

Polarization and the Pandemic: American Political Discourse

Public Discourse in the U.S. 2020 Election: March - May

Tracking political discourse in the U.S. for March, April, and May of 2020

Oct 28, 2020

Assembly welcomes 2020-2021 Harvard Student Fellows

Cohort from across the University will tackle disinformation on online platforms

Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society launched its third annual Assembly Student Fellowship cohort

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
Oct 2, 2020

Tracing the disinformation campaign on mail-in voter fraud

Research shows elites, mass media play an important role in spreading voting misinformation

Publication
Oct 1, 2020

Mail-In Voter Fraud: Anatomy of a Disinformation Campaign

Working paper shows Disinformation Campaign Surrounding the Risk of Voter Fraud Associated with Mail-in Ballots Follows an Elite-Driven, Mass Media Model; Social Media Plays a Secondary Role in 2020

Working paper explores disinformation campaign about mail-in voter fraud

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

News
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

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…

News
Apr 23, 2020

Responsibly and Accurately Reporting on COVID-19 Data

“Data Overload” emphasizes challenges reporters face covering pandemic and advice for journalists

“Data Overload” emphasizes challenges reporters face covering pandemic and advice for journalists

Event
Apr 21, 2020 @ 12:00 PM

[Virtual] Data Overload: Data, Journalism, & COVID-19

Responsibly and accurately interpreting and reporting complicated data

Discussing the challenges journalists face obtaining, analyzing, and explaining data about the current pandemic.

News
Apr 15, 2020

How much access to data should be permitted during COVID-19 pandemic?

Urs Gasser explores the risks and benefits of mining data to combat COVID-19

BKC Executive Director Urs Gasser is partnering with colleagues at Harvard Medical School and the T.H. Chan School of Public Health to pioneer the use of mobility data…

Event
Apr 7, 2020 @ 12:00 PM

[Virtual] Bot or Human? Unreliable Automatic Bot Detection

Video & Podcast: An Analysis of Botometer

Video & Podcast: Jonas Kaiser and Adrian Rauchfleisch discuss their paper on Botometer's diagnostic ability over time

News
Mar 31, 2020

Three new ideas for mitigating disinformation

Assembly discussion explores new ways to mitigate challenges of disinformation

Assembly discussion explores new ways to mitigate challenges of disinformation

News
Mar 31, 2020

The false positive problem of automatic bot detection in social science research

A study of Botometer's diagnostic ability over time

A study of Botometer's diagnostic ability over time

Publication
Mar 31, 2020

The false positive problem of automatic bot detection in social science research

A study of Botometer's diagnostic ability over time

A study of Botometer's diagnostic ability over time

News

Emergency Online Pedagogy

BKC co-director Terry Fisher put together a must-read collection of resources

BKC co-director Terry Fisher put together a must-read collection of resources for transitioning to online teaching, based on his experience teaching CopyrightX and other online…

Mar 13, 2020
News

Early reflections on transitioning to online teaching

Kathy Pham discusses the shift from in-person to Zoom

Mar 12, 2020
News
Feb 24, 2020

Announcing the 2020 Assembly Fellowship Cohort

We are thrilled to announce the 2020 Assembly Fellows cohort for the Assembly: Disinformation program at the Berkman Klein Center. The Assembly program gathers small…

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
News

Inside the Assembly Student Fellowship

Zenzele Best, Program Coordinator for Assembly: Disinformation, offers an inside look at the Assembly Student Fellowship.

Jan 29, 2020
Event
Nov 19, 2019 @ 12:00 PM

Sharenthood: How Parents, Teachers, and Other Trusted Adults Harm Youth Privacy & Opportunity

Featuring Leah Plunkett

VIDEO & PODCAST: How and why adults should not (or should) share information about kids and teens through digital technologies

Event
Oct 22, 2019 @ 12:00 PM

Conversion Via Twitter

FEATURING MEGAN PHELPS-ROPER AND BRITTAN HELLER

VIDEO & PODCAST: A discussion about Megan Phelps-Roper's book Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church.

News
Jun 12, 2019

Announcing AccessCheck

Track website accessibility around the world

A new tool to track website accessibility, worldwide, in real time

News
Apr 3, 2019

Comparative Approaches to Disinformation: Call for Extended Abstracts

Workshop at Harvard University & Special Journal Issues

From misleading news stories around the 2018 Brazil elections to a lynching linked to false social media messages in India in 2019, the deluge of digital disinformation is…

News
Mar 28, 2019

Freedom of Expression Without Frontiers

Berkman Klein Center Joins Columbia University Led Partnership for a Freedom of Expression Digital Teaching Portal

Close to 300 academic and training resources on the laws, institutions and actors that have founded a global system of freedom of expression, information and media

News
Mar 12, 2019

Announcing the Winners of the AI and the News Open Challenge

Seven projects that tackle artificial intelligence in the field of news and information

Event
Mar 12, 2019 @ 12:30 PM

Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics

How the Internet Era is Transforming Kenya

PODCAST & VIDEO: Join us for a conversation with author Nanjala Nyabola and 2017 Berkman Klein Fellow Grace Mutung'u about Nanjala's book, Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics:…

News

How to deal with cyberbullying

Berkman Kleins' Digital Literacy Resource Platform was recently rolled out in the UK to help teachers fight back against cyberbullying

Mar 5, 2019
Event
Feb 26, 2019 @ 12:00 PM

Waking Up to the Internet Platform Disaster

Featuring the author Roger McNamee in conversation with Lawrence Lessig

PODCAST & VIDEO: A former mentor to Mark Zuckerberg explains the danger posed by Facebook, Google and other internet platforms and what we must do about it.

News
Feb 20, 2019

Zittrain and Zuckerberg discuss encryption, ‘information fiduciaries’ and targeted advertisements

CEO visits with students from the University’s Techtopia program and Zittrain’s Internet and Society course

Should Facebook be considered an “information fiduciary” when it comes to the privacy of its clients?

Publication
Jan 16, 2019

Internet Censorship and the Intraregional Geopolitical Conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa

How do adversarial relationships between states translate into Internet censorship practices?

News
Jan 11, 2019

Get to Know Nieman-Berkman Klein Fellow Jonathan Jackson

Jonathan Jackson is looking for frameworks and unique ways to measure black cultural influence (and the economic impact of black creativity) in the US and around the world

News
Jan 11, 2019

Get to Know Berkman Klein Fellow Paola Ricuarte Quijano

a spotlight on one of our 2018-2019 BKC Fellows

by Mary Meisenzahl and Christina Chen This interview is part of a collaborative effort between the summer 2018 BKC interns and the Communications team to showcase the…

News
Dec 9, 2018

Network Propaganda named one of the best books of 2018

The Guardian celebrates some of our research as the most important of the year.

News

Facebook leader sits down with Harvard’s Jonathan Zittrain

Professor Jonathan Zittrain discusses the social media giant’s ‘long year’ with Facebook's head of global policy management Monika Bickert.

Dec 5, 2018
Event
Dec 4, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

“My Constellation is Space”: Towards a Theory of Black Cyberculture

Featuring Dr. André L. Brock, Georgia Tech

VIDEO & PODCAST: Utilizing critical technocultural discourse analysis, Afro-optimism, and libidinal economic theory, Dr. Andre Brock employs Black Twitter as an exemplar of Black…

Event
Nov 6, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

The State of Government Technology

Assessing Government Development, Deployment, and Use of Tech Tools

VIDEO & PODCAST: A close look at the inner workings of government, with a particular focus on the ways in which federal, state, and local government institutions leverage…

Event
Oct 30, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

Custodians of the Internet

Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions that Shape Social Media

Social media platforms face an irreconcilable contradiction: while platforms promise an open space for participation and community, every one of them imposes rules of some…

Oct 15, 2018

Network Propaganda

Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics

The most comprehensive study yet published on media coverage of American presidential politics from April 2015 to the one year anniversary of the Trump presidency

Event
Oct 4, 2018 @ 5:30 PM

Network Propaganda

Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics

VIDEO & PODCAST: New research on the media ecosystem around the 2016 US election offer new perspectives and methods for diagnosing the sources of, and potential solutions for, the…

Event
Sep 11, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

Antisocial Media

How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy

Siva Vaidhyanathan discusses his new book

Event
Apr 9, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

Remedies for Cyber Defamation

Criminal Libel, Anti-Speech Injunctions, Forgeries, Frauds, and More

“Cheap speech” has massively increased ordinary people’s access to mass communications -- both for good and for ill. How has the system of remedies for defamatory, privacy…

Event
Jan 23, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

The Dark Side of the Networked Public Sphere

featuring Jonas Kaiser, Berkman Klein Affiliate

In this talk, Berkman Klein affiliate Jonas Kaiser will share some of his research on the networked public sphere. "The right-wing is rising. Not only in the United States but…

Publication
Dec 10, 2017

Voices from the Atrato River

Digital Media and Internally Displaced People in Colombia

Andrés Lombana-Bermudez on citizen media and Afro-Colombian youth

Event
Dec 5, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Black Users, Enclaving, and Methodological Challenges in a Shifting Digital Landscape

featuring Sarah Florini, Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies, Department of English Arizona State University

Researchers often consider the technological practices of Black Americans for insight into race and cultural production. But, Black users are regularly at the digital vanguard,…

Event
Nov 21, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Badges of Oppression, Positions of Strength

Digital Black Feminist Discourse and the Legacy of Black Women’s Technology Use

The use of online technology by black feminist thinkers has changed the principles, praxis, and product of black feminist writing and simultaneously has changed the technologies…

Publication
Nov 9, 2017

An Open Letter to the Members of the Massachusetts Legislature Regarding the Adoption of Actuarial Risk Assessment Tools in the Criminal Justice System

This open letter — signed by Harvard and MIT-based faculty, staff, and researchers— is directed to the Massachusetts Legislature to inform its consideration of risk assessment…

Event
Oct 31, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

The March for Science: How a viral moment starts a movement

with public health researcher and educator Caroline Weinberg, MD, MPH

The March for Science went viral when it was nothing more than a name -- the very idea of a movement in defense of science in policy was enough to ignite the passion of more than…

Event
Oct 24, 2017 @ 5:00 PM

Safe Spaces, Brave Spaces

with author John Palfrey, Head of School at Phillips Academy, Andover

Often in today’s political climate our commitments to liberty and equality are set at odds with one another. This tension is nowhere more evident than when we pit free expression…

Event
Oct 17, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Will Wikipedia exist in 20 years?

Featuring Katherine Maher, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, in conversation with Harvard Law School Professor Yochai Benkler

Join us for a stimulating conversation highlighting different perspectives of the question, "Will Wikipedia exist in 20 years?"

Event
Oct 4, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Did Fake News Save Kenya from an Internet Shutdown? Emerging Trends in Tech and Elections in Africa​

featuring Grace Mutung'u, the 2016/17 OTF Information Controls Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center

Technology and elections and the politics of technology​. How use of technology in Kenyan elections is shaping Internet freedom in Africa.

Event
Sep 19, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

The Line Between Hate and Debate

featuring Monika Bickert, Facebook’s Head of Global Policy Management in conversation with Professor Jonathan Zittrain

As society figures out what is acceptable and what is harmful, can technology play a role in improving online debate?

News
Aug 16, 2017

Partisan Right-Wing Websites Shaped Mainstream Press Coverage Before 2016 Election, Berkman Klein Study Finds

The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University today released a comprehensive analysis of online media and social media coverage of the 2016 presidential…

Publication
Aug 16, 2017

Partisanship, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Online Media and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

In this study, we analyze both mainstream and social media coverage of the 2016 United States presidential election.

Publication
Aug 14, 2017

Perspectives on Harmful Speech Online

This collection of short essays and opinion pieces on harmful speech online covers a broad spectrum of thought and ideas from the Berkman Klein community.

News
Aug 8, 2017

Harmful Speech Online: At the Intersection of Algorithms and Human Behavior

A workshop exploring how algorithms and human behavior can both enable and prevent harmful speech online

How do algorithms and human behavior intersect to impact the spread and study of harmful speech online?

News
Jul 10, 2017

The Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund Commits $7.6 Million to Support the Development of AI in the Public Interest

With the Berkman Klein Center and  MIT Media Lab as academic anchor institutions, the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund announced today funding for nine…

Event
Jun 28, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Jonny Sun and Jonathan Zittrain in conversation

Author of the Book “everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too” by jomny sun (the aliebn)

Join Jonny Sun, the author of the popular Twitter account @jonnysun, for a conversation in celebration of his new book “everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too” by jomny sun (the…

Event
May 9, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Twitter and Tear Gas with Zeynep Tufekci

The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest

Join us for this firsthand account and incisive analysis of modern protest, revealing internet-fueled social movements’ greatest strengths and frequent challenges.

Event
May 3, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Digital Rights and Online Harassment in the Global South

featuring Berkman Klein Affiliate, Nighat Dad

An inside look at the challenges facing women, human rights defenders, and other internet users in Pakistan, from online harassment to privacy and free expression.

Event
Apr 25, 2017 @ 4:00 PM

The International State of Digital Rights, a Conversation with the UN Special Rapporteur

David Kaye in conversation with Nani Jansen Reventlow

UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, David Kaye, is joined in conversation by Nani Jansen Reventlow, a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center…

Event
Apr 19, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

A More Perfect Internet

Promoting Digital Civility and Combating Cyber-Violence

An exploration of issues related to digital incivility with an emphasis on cyber-violence. When digital turns incivil, how does the law respond?

Event
Mar 23, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Fake News, Concrete Responses

At the Nexus of Law, Technology, and Social Narratives

Join us for a special Harvard Law School-Berkman Klein Fake News Lunch Panel moderated by Martha Minow, Dean of Harvard Law School

Event
Mar 14, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

An Introduction to Media Cloud

Mapping the attention and influence of news

The recent US election, and related conversations about misinformation, have brought questions about media influence to the forefront of internet research and communications…

Event
Mar 10, 2017 @ 4:00 PM

#Republic: Divided

Democracy in the Age of Social Media

In this revealing book, Cass Sunstein, the New York Times bestselling author of Nudge and The World According to Star Wars, shows how today's Internet is driving political…

Event
Feb 23, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Public Health Echo Chambers in a Time of Mistrust & Misinformation - Digital Health @ Harvard, February 2017

with Berkman Klein fellows Natalie Gyenes and Brittany Seymour

Research shows that public health information networks online have been largely unsuccessful in driving an evidence-based information network narrative around key health topics…

News
Jan 10, 2017

Berkman Klein Center and MIT Media Lab to Collaborate on the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence

Supported by the Knight Foundation, Omidyar Network, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Hewlett Foundation, and more

Several foundations and funders today announced the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund, which will support interdisciplinary research to ensure that AI develops…

Publication
Dec 8, 2016

Grassroots Perspectives on Hate Speech, Race, and Inequality in Brazil and Colombia

Through interviews with leaders of civil society organizations (CSOs) and a review of existing literature, this study discusses efforts and interventions that CSOs have employed…

Publication
Dec 8, 2016

Preliminary Findings on Online Hate Speech and the Law in India

This briefing paper outlines preliminary issues that we noted while conducting a detailed study of hate speech laws in India. It teases out some of the major concerns that arise…

Dec 8, 2016

Understanding Harmful Speech Online

This paper offers reflections and observations on the state of research related to harmful speech online.

Publication
Dec 8, 2016

Defining Hate Speech

This essay seeks to review some of the various attempts to define hate speech, and pull from them a series of traits that can be used to frame hate speech with a higher degree of…

Event
Apr 27, 2016 @ 9:00 AM

Digital Racist Speech in Latin America: Narratives and Counter-Narratives

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society hosts a conference to explore the dynamics of hate speech targeted toward Afro-descendent populations in Latin America, and the existing…

Publication
Mar 9, 2016

Mobilization for Change

The role of the networked public sphere in advancing civic participation and collective action in the Arab region

“Mobilization for Change” is a series of reports examining the role of the networked public sphere in advancing civic participation and collective action in the Arab region.

News
Nov 8, 2015

Berkman at the Internet Governance Forum

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a multistakeholder forum for policy dialogue on issues of Internet governance. The Berkman Center and our colleagues from the Network of…

Publication
Jun 6, 2015

Youth Online and News: A Phenomenological View on Diversity

Journal Article

Cortesi, S., & Gasser, U. (2015). Youth online and news: A phenomenological view on diversity. International Journal of Communication. http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article…

Publication
Feb 10, 2015

Score Another One for the Internet? The Role of the Networked Public Sphere in the U.S. Net Neutrality Policy Debate

A new paper from the Media Cloud team concludes that a diverse set of actors working in conjunction through the networked public sphere played a central, arguably decisive, role…

Publication
Jun 4, 2014

Who Gets a Press Pass?

Media Credentialing Practices in the United States

This study, the first of its kind to perform a quantitative examination of media credentialing in the United States, surveys the experience of journalists throughout the country…

Publication
Oct 18, 2013

The Challenges of Defining 'News Literacy'

This brief seeks to stimulate a discussion among the grantees about different approaches to defining, framing, and understanding core concepts such as 'news' and 'news literacy',…

Publication
Jul 25, 2013

Social Mobilization and the Networked Public Sphere: Mapping the SOPA-PIPA Debate

This paper uses a new set of online research tools to develop a detailed study of the public debate over proposed legislation in the United States designed to give prosecutors and…

Event
May 4, 2013 @ 9:00 AM

Filling the News Gap in Cambridge and Beyond: Citizen Journalism and Grassroots Media

The event will explore the quickly expanding world of citizen journalism: how technology is fueling its growth; how that growth is changing the way we see our world, enact change,…

Publication
Jul 29, 2012

E-books in Libraries: A Briefing Document developed in preparation for a Workshop on E-Lending in Libraries

This briefing document was developed with helpful inputs from industry stakeholders and other practitioners in preparation for the “E-Books in Libraries” workshop, hosted on…

Publication
Apr 10, 2012

Salience vs. Commitment: Dynamics of Political Hashtags in Russian Twitter

Social media sites like Twitter enable users to engage in the spread of contagious phenomena: everything from information and rumors to social movements and virally marketed…

Publication
Apr 2, 2012

Guide to the IRS Decision-Making Process under Section 501(c)(3) for Journalism and Publishing Non-Profit Organizations

Until and unless there is action in Congress to facilitate tax exemptions for journalism non-profits, news organizations seeking 501(c)(3) status must learn how to structure their…

Publication
Mar 20, 2012

Mapping Russian Twitter

Drawing from a corpus of over 50 Million Russian language tweets collected between March 2010 and March 2011, the Berkman research team created a network map of 10,285 users…

Event
Mar 6, 2012 @ 9:00 AM

Truthiness in Digital Media

a symposium that seeks to understand and address propaganda and misinformation in the new media ecosystem

As the networked media environment increasingly permeates private and public life, driven in part by the rapid and extensive travels of news, information and commentary, our…

Publication
Mar 2, 2012

Exploring Russian Cyberspace: Digitally-Mediated Collective Action and the Networked Public Sphere

This paper summarizes the major findings of a three-year research project to investigate the Internet’s impact on Russian politics, media and society. We employed multiple methods…

Event
Oct 22, 2011 @ 9:00 AM

Media Law in the Digital Age: The Rules Have Changed -- Again

Co-produced by the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Kennesaw State's Center for Sustainable Journalism, Media Law in the Digital…

Event
Sep 22, 2011 @ 9:00 AM

Law School for Digital Journalists

A Pre-Conference of the Online News Association's 2011 Conference

The Online News Association, Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy present Law School for Digital Journalists, part of the…

Publication
Sep 20, 2011

Account Deactivation and Content Removal: Guiding Principles and Practices for Companies and Users

In partnership with colleagues at the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Berkman Center is pleased to release a report on “Account Deactivation and Content Removal: Guiding…

Publication
Dec 9, 2010

Political Change in the Digital Age: The Fragility and Promise of Online Organizing

In this paper, we discuss the possible impact of digital technologies in authoritarian and semi-authoritarian regimes.

Oct 19, 2010 @ 10:00 AM

Mapping the Russian Blogosphere

Hosted by USIP’s Center of Innovation for Science, Technology & Peacebuilding, researchers from the Berkman Center and their collaborators at Morningside Analytics will present…

Publication
Oct 18, 2010

Public Discourse in the Russian Blogosphere: Mapping RuNet Politics and Mobilization

This paper is the first release from the Berkman Center's Russian Internet research project. It analyzes the Russian blogosphere, with an emphasis on politics and public affairs.

Publication
Oct 14, 2010

2010 Circumvention Tool Usage Report

This paper evaluates the usage of blocking-resistant circumvention tools, simple web proxies, and VPN services and finds that overall usage of circumvention tools is still very…

Event
Sep 25, 2010 @ 9:00 AM

Media Law in the Digital Age: The Rules Have Changed, Have You?

We're pleased to announce that the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard's Berkman Center and the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University are co-hosting a…

Publication
Aug 30, 2010

The Rise of the News Aggregator: Legal Implications and Best Practices

This white paper attempts to answer the question of whether news aggregators violate current law by examining the hot news misappropriation and copyright infringement claims that…

Event
Apr 9, 2010 @ 9:00 AM

Symposium: Journalism's Digital Transition: Unique Legal Challenges and Opportunities

The Berkman Center's Citizen Media Law Project and Cyberlaw Clinic are pleased to announce a one-day symposium and CLE program to celebrate the launch of the Online Media Legal…

Event
Feb 16, 2010 @ 12:30 PM

Meme-tracking and the dynamics of the news cycle

Jure Leskovec, assistant professor of Computer Science at Stanford University

Jure will discuss his analysis of approximately 1.6 million mainstream media sites and blogs for a period of three months, covering about 1 million articles per day.

Event
Nov 23, 2009 @ 11:45 AM

CRCS Lunch Seminar: Media Cloud and Quantitative News Media Analysis

Hal Roberts and Ethan Zuckerman, Berkman Center

Ethan and Hal will present their prototype system to retrieve, tag, cluster and analyze blog and newspaper data, and discuss how the Media Cloud platform will be used in our…

Event
Jun 17, 2009 @ 10:00 AM

Online Discourse in the Arab World: Dispelling the Myths

at the United States Institute of Peace

The Internet & Democracy presents the Berkman Center's new research on the Arabic blogosphere, which analyzes over 10,000 blogs from 18 countries and which follows last year's …

Publication
Jun 16, 2009

Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture and Dissent

This case study is part of a series produced by the Internet and Democracy project. It analyzes the composition of the Arabic blogosphere and its possible impact on political and…

Event
Apr 21, 2009 @ 12:30 PM

Mediactive: Why media consumers, not just creators, need to be active users

Dan Gillmor, Berkman Fellow

The supply side of tomorrow's media is emerging quickly, if messily, in a democratization of media-creation tools that give us a vast and growing amount of content of all kinds,…

Publication
Mar 30, 2009

Three Case Studies from Switzerland: Smartvote, Electronic Voting, and Political Communication

With the globalization of Internet use, the deployment of technology to improve democracy has rapidly gained worldwide attention. These case studies are organized around three…

Event
Mar 5, 2009 @ 9:00 AM

The Internet and Democracy: Lessons Learnt and Future Directions

This event, organized in collaboration with the OII and the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism brought together leading researchers to assess the current state of…

Publication
Mar 5, 2009

2007 Circumvention Landscape Report: Methods, Uses, and Tools

A large variety of different projects have developed tools that can be used to circumvent Internet filtering, allowing people in filtered countries access to otherwise filtered…

Event
Mar 4, 2009 @ 5:00 PM

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Online Audiences and the Paradox of Web Traffic

Dr. Matthew Hindman, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Arizona State University

Many areas of Internet scholarship make strong--and often erroneous--assumptions about patterns of Web traffic. Still, there has been little comprehensive research on how online…

Event
Mar 3, 2009 @ 12:30 PM

The Tao of the Web: China and the future of the Internet

Rebecca MacKinnon

Most English-language discussions about "the future of the Internet" approach the subject from an Anglo-American and European perspective. But what if you take China - now with…

Event
Nov 25, 2008 @ 12:30 PM

The Blogging Revolution: Going online in repressive regimes

Antony Loewenstein

In 2007, Australian journalist, author and blogger Antony Loewenstein traveled to Egypt, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and China to investigate how the net was challenging…

Event
Oct 17, 2008 @ 8:30 AM

Russia Online: the Russian-Language Blogosphere and Participatory Internet

An all-day conference in New York City made possible by the collaboration of the Harriman Institute and the School of Journalism at Columbia University, and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

Conference Wiki: http://cyber.harvard.edu/russiaonline/Main_Page User: russiaonline PW: columbia This conference is open to the public. Seating may be limited. To reserve…

Publication
Sep 29, 2008

Digitally Networked Technology in Kenya's 2007-2008 Post-Election Crisis

Using the lens of the 2007-2008 Kenyan Presidential Election Crisis, this case study illustrates how digitally networked technologies, specifically mobile phones and the Internet,…

Publication
Sep 28, 2008

The Role of the Internet in Burma’s Saffron Revolution

This case study is part of a series produced by the Internet and Democracy project. It analyzes the role of the Internet and technology in the 2007 civic crises of Burma’s Saffron…

Event
Sep 16, 2008 @ 1:30 PM

Blogging, Journalism and Reality

Persephone Miel, Berkman Fellow

Persephone Miel presented her work on the Media Re:public project.

Event
May 6, 2008 @ 1:30 PM

Citizen Media Law Project @ 1

David Ardia, Sam Bayard, Tuna Chatterjee

David Ardia, Sam Bayard, and Tuna Chatterjee of CMLP discussed trends in online publishing and previewed the CMLP database of subpeonas, cease-and-desist letters, and other…

Publication
Apr 5, 2008

Mapping Iran’s Online Public: Politics and Culture in the Persian Blogosphere

(English and Persian translation)

This case study is part of a series produced by the Internet and Democracy project. It analyzes the composition of the Iranian blogosphere and its possible impact on political and…

Event
Mar 28, 2008 @ 6:00 PM

It’s 2013: Do You Know Where Your News Is?

Examining scenarios for the future

One of the few areas of agreement among observers of the news environment is that there is much more change to come. In this session we’ll discuss scenarios that illustrate…

Event
Mar 25, 2008 @ 7:30 PM

Digital Dilemmas: A Multi-stakeholder Response to Internet Censorship and Surveillance

NYU Law Information Law Institute Colloquium, co-sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School

Participants discussed the role that corporations should play in response to government-mandated Internet censorship and surveillance.

News
Mar 7, 2008

Berkman Buzz: Week of March 3, 2008

A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations.

Event
Feb 7, 2008 @ 10:05 PM

Digitally-Empowered Activists: Getting the Tools to the People Who Need Them

Hosted by the Internet & Democracy Project

The Berkman Center's Internet & Democracy Projected hosted an event on "Digitally-Empowered Activists: Getting the Tools to the People Who Need Them," in Istanbul, Turkey.

Event
Dec 18, 2007 @ 12:30 PM

Internet & Democracy

Victoria Stodden, Harvard Law School

Victoria Stodden By discussing the potentials and pitfalls of the internet in a democratic society, Victoria Stodden examined "Internet & Democracy."

Publication
Dec 1, 2007

The Citizen Journalism Web Site 'OhmyNews' and the 2002 South Korean Presidential Election

This paper is one of the first in a series of case studies that examines the impact of the Internet and technology on democracy. This specific case investigates the influence of…

Publication
Dec 1, 2007

The Role of Digital Networked Technologies in the Ukrainian Orange Revolution

This working paper is part of a series examining how the Internet influences democracy. This report is a narrative case study that examines the role of the Internet and mobile…

Publication
Mar 1, 2007

Reluctant Gatekeepers: Corporate Ethics on a Filtered Internet

Corporations are increasingly finding themselves caught in the crosshairs as they are asked by local authorities to carry out censorship and surveillance online. This chapter…

Event
Jan 17, 2006 @ 12:30 PM

Citizens' Media

Dan Gillmor, Berkman Fellow

Dan Gillmor on Citizens' Media and the Center for Citizen Media which exists to study, encourage, and enable new forms of grassroots media.


Community 687

The Conversation

The apocalypse that wasn’t

AI was everywhere in 2024’s elections, but deepfakes and misinformation were only part of the picture

Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders observe that AI's role in 2024 elections wasn't as disastrous as some had feared.

Dec 2, 2024
Science

Misinformation exploits outrage to spread online

Kate Klonick and coauthors test the hypothesis that misinformation exploits outrage to gain traction online.

Nov 28, 2024
theAnalysis.news

AI Border Surveillance Tech Profits Soar, Human Rights Across the Board Sink

Petra Molnar highlights how surveillance technology firms profit from harsh anti-immigration policies in the US, Canada, and the EU.

Nov 27, 2024
WIRED

Algorithms Are Coming for Democracy—but It's Not All Bad

Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders offer a potentially optimistic outlook on AI and politics.

Nov 26, 2024
Harvard Law Today

‘Facts can’t fix this’

Empathy, understanding, and less algorithmic amplification on social media platforms are the best ways to combat conspiracy theories, experts say at Berkman Klein Center event

BKC-Nieman Fellow Ben Reininga and Nieman Fellow Jesselyn Cook share their insights on how platforms navigate the spread of conspiracy theories, and the impact they have on…

Nov 24, 2024
The Hill

Democrats flee X for Bluesky amid Musk-Trump alliance

ASML's Jonathan Bellack weighs in on the uptick in Twitter/X users migrating to Bluesky.

Nov 23, 2024
New America

PIT in Action: Climate

Jasmine McNealy moderates a conversation exploring how technology can be a tool - though not a wholesale solution - in combatting the climate crisis.

Nov 21, 2024
Association for Computing Machinery

Code-ifying the Law

How Disciplinary Divides Afflict the Development of Legal Software

Ben Green and colleagues note disciplinary divides in the ways that computer scientists and legal experts translate law into code.

Nov 8, 2024
NPR

Social media's lax rules around misinformation worry election watchers

Marshall Van Alstyne raises concerns about platforms enabling election conspiracies.

Nov 4, 2024
EdTech Magazine

How Personhood Credentials Could Impact Higher Education

This new type of identity verification aims to separate humans from artificial intelligence.

Tom Zick weighs in on the utility of personhood credentials for combatting AI in higher education.

Nov 4, 2024
The New Yorker

The Artificial State

Can American politics reckon with the age of AI? Larry Lessig raises a warning flag.

Nov 4, 2024
Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

Sunset and Renew

Section 230 Should Protect Human Speech, Not Algorithmic Virality

We must rethink Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to both protect free speech and curtail harassment.

Oct 30, 2024
Everyday Better

Are Our Phones Making Us Lonelier?

Jeffrey Hall joins Leah Smart to discuss the toxic relationships we have with our phones.

Oct 28, 2024
Technology in Society

Digital Natives, Digital Activists in Non-Digital Environments

How the Youth in Zambia Use Mundane Technology to Circumvent Government Surveillance and Censorship.

Greg Gondwe explores Zambian youth's sophisticated digital activism in the wake of the 2020 youth protests.

Oct 21, 2024
The American Prospect

The SEC Whistleblower Program Is Dominating Regulatory Enforcement

Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders warn that AI will complicate the SEC's financially cutting in whistleblowers.

Oct 18, 2024
VC + POLICY

Reset for Growth

VCs and Policymakers Need a New Platform to Scale Responsible Innovation

Paul Fehlinger and Linda Griffin argue for a platform bridging the venture capital and policymaking worlds.

Oct 18, 2024
Politico

Tonight’s strange debate with an AI congressional candidate

Nathan Sanders weighs in on a debate between two Virginia congressional candidates and an AI bot.

Oct 17, 2024
Harvard Law Bulletin

Shine On

A catalog of takedown requests helps to illuminate efforts to shape the internet through means fair and foul

Adam Holland shares why tracking takedowns is critical public information.

Sep 30, 2024
The Atlantic

AI Could Still Wreck the Presidential Election

We could soon see the fallout from a hands-off approach to AI regulation.

Sep 24, 2024
Connected by Data

Global Citizen Deliberation on Artificial Intelligence

Options and design considerations

How could global citizen deliberation shape the future of artificial intelligence?

Sep 18, 2024
Citation Needed

Big publishers think libraries are the enemy

The recent Second Circuit decision in Hachette v. Internet Archive is only the latest battle in the war on libraries and the freedom to read.

Molly White links a recent Second Circuit decision to a larger pattern of publishers' interference with libraries and, more generally, with reading practices.

Sep 12, 2024
Nieman Lab

Want to fight misinformation? Teach people how algorithms work

Sociodemographic data bears on algorithmic literacy.

Sep 4, 2024
The New York Times

Why Brazil Banned X

Have the country's efforts to combat fake news gone too far?

Aug 31, 2024
MIT Science Policy Review

Mapping the space of social media regulation

Nathaniel Lubin, Kalie Mayberry, Dylan Moses, Manon Revel, Luke Thorburn, and Andrew West identify two modes of mapping the space of social media regulation and discuss the trade…

Aug 27, 2024
Salon

"Deliberately designed to deceive": Experts say Taylor Swift could sue Trump over fake endorsement

"I accept!" Trump declared on Truth Social after sharing AI-generated "Swifties for Trump" images

Rebecca Tushnet details some of the complex legal landscape of doctored celebrity endorsements.

Aug 20, 2024
The New York Times

How a Law That Shields Big Tech Is Now Being Used Against It

A Massachusetts professor has filed a lawsuit against Meta using a novel interpretation of Section 230, a law known primarily for shielding social media companies from liability.

The New York Times chronicles the latest in Ethan Zuckerman’s lawsuit against Meta.

Aug 20, 2024
VISIBLE Magazine

Cyberbullying Imane Khelif Is an Injustice To All Women

Ibtissam Bouachrine highlights the dangers of the targeted misogynistic and transphobic campaign against Algerian boxer Imane Khelif.

Aug 8, 2024
European Council on Foreign Relations

Operation Regulation: Strengthening Latin America’s AI Governance

By assisting Latin America in developing robust AI regulations, the EU can promote a cohesive global approach to AI governance, argues Victor Muñoz.

Aug 1, 2024
PBS News

Exploring the Links Between Political Polarization and Declining Trust in News Media

Martha Minow sits down with PBS News's Judy Woodruff to discuss the implications of political polarization and consumers' trust in the news media.

Jul 31, 2024
Coyote Chronicle

Women Journalists Face Increased Online Violence

Presenting at CSU, San Bernardino, Elodie Vialle highlights the risks of allowing harassment and violence against journalists to go unchecked.

Jul 22, 2024
Computer Says Maybe

What the FAccT? Evidence of bias. Now what?

Dasha Pruss and co-author Marta Ziosi discuss their paper, "“Evidence of What, for Whom? The Socially Contested Role of Algorithmic Bias in a Predictive Policing Tool."

Jul 12, 2024
The Texas Observer

‘TECH DOESN’T JUST STAY AT THE BORDER’: PETRA MOLNAR ON SURVEILLANCE’S LONG REACH

Petra Molnar discusses her new book and experience traveling around the world investigating the use of technology in migration management.

Jul 11, 2024
The Berkman Klein Center Collection

Fellows Spotlight: Johanna Wild, Investigative Journalist

Sam Hinds interviews Johanna Wild on the benefits and risks of using novel open source intelligence (OSINT) tools to enable a broader, more transparent global knowledge base.

Jul 11, 2024
Lawfare

Lawfare Daily: Anupam Chander, Kyle Langvhardt, and Alan Rozenshtein on the Supreme Court's Decision in Moody v. NetChoice

Anupam Chander discusses the SCOTUS NetChoice rulings and the ramifications of the opinions.

Jul 3, 2024
Tech Policy Press

Will Social Media Companies Ever Stop Platforming Extreme Anti-Trans Hate and Lies?

Amidst escalating online scapegoating, offline attacks are rising, writes Alejandra Caraballo.

Jun 27, 2024
Yale University Press

Loneliness and Screens: Causes and Consequences

Jeffrey Hall writes about the loneliness epidemic and how to address its core.

Jun 7, 2024
TIME

The Deadly Digital Frontiers at the Border

Petra Molnar discusses AI surveillance at the border.

May 21, 2024
The Regulatory Review

Is AI-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence the Next Pandemic?

"The rise of deep fakes and other AI-generated misinformation presents a direct threat to women’s freedom."

May 6, 2024
Tech Policy Press

What's Next for TikTok, and US Tech Policy

Anupam Chander reacts to the new law that could ban TikTok, underlining the need for greater accountability in the US government's tech regulation.

Apr 28, 2024
NBC News

A new book has amplified fierce debate around teens, mental health and smartphones

Joe Bak-Coleman speaks about the debate on kids' mental health and the relationship to social media and smartphones. “Ninety percent of this debate is basically just back…

Apr 3, 2024
Wonks and War Rooms

Counter-speech as Content Moderation with Kesa White

Kesa White joins Elizabeth Dubois to discuss her work on "dog whistling," and argues that, while counter speech can be helpful in limited situations, it does not fix the issue of…

Apr 3, 2024
WGBH

Transgender attorney says Musk's handling of X is 'extremely concerning'

Alejandra Caraballo discusses her experiences with content moderation issues on Elon Musk's X and the lack of trust and safety mechanisms on the platform.

Mar 28, 2024
Jacobin

The Grim High-Tech Dystopia on the US-Mexico Border

Petra Molnar writes about the AI technology incorporated at the southern border and the human rights implications.

Mar 28, 2024
The Guardian

Sam Bankman-Fried is going to prison. The crypto industry isn’t any better for it

Molly White discusses the state of the crypto industry following Sam Bankman-Fried's sentencing.

Mar 28, 2024
Social Movement Studies

Data in movement: the social movement society in the age of datafication

BKC Faculty Associate Stefania Milan and David Beraldo put the studies of data and social movements in conversation with each other.

Mar 28, 2024
Literal Humans

Democracy, Social Media, and the World’s Biggest Election Year

BKC Affiliate Sahar Massachi explores challenges and potential solutions for safeguarding online democracy in a rapidly shifting digital world. 

Mar 28, 2024
Tech Policy Press

Breaking the Silence: Marginalized Voices in the Tech Industry

Read about Nadah Feteih and Anika Collier Novaroli's conversation at the Berkman Klein Center on marginalized voices in the tech industry.

Mar 18, 2024
The Atlantic

What to Do About the Junkification of the Internet

Nathaniel Lubin writes about internet "junkification."

Mar 12, 2024
TIME

How to Use Apps to Actually Make Friends

Jeffrey Hall discusses making friends online.

Mar 6, 2024
The Ash Center

Can We Talk? An Argument for More Dialogues in Academia

BKC Employee Fellow Manon Revel argues that more communication is key to facing the world's toughest issues.

Feb 29, 2024
LA Times

Opinion: Many Americans believe migrants bring fentanyl across the border. That’s wrong and dangerous

Susan Benesch and Catherine Buerger use the context of fentanyl and border crossings to explain the dangers of combining facts, lies, and emotional language.

Feb 19, 2024
Politico

Nobody knows which political ads work and why

BKC Affiliate Nathaniel Lubin comments on a recent study released by himself and co-authors, as well as what political ads may look like this election cycle.

Feb 15, 2024
The Theatre Times

TOWARDS TRANSNATIONAL DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE

BKC Faculty Associate Magda Romanska and Kasia Lech provide the story and vision for The Theatre Times.

Jan 27, 2024
CyberScoop

CFPB’s proposed data rules would improve security, privacy and competition

Bruce Schneier writes about the CFPB's proposed data rules and its benefits.

Jan 24, 2024
WIRED

Social Media Is Getting Smaller—and More Treacherous

Ethan Zuckerman writes about social media getting smaller, allowing for more people to connect, but also more extremism to arise. 

Jan 24, 2024
The Washington Post

AI is destabilizing ‘the concept of truth itself’ in 2024 election

Aviv Ovadya speaks to The Washington Post about AI and the 2024 elections across the country. 

Jan 22, 2024
European Journal of Cultural Studies

The unbearable oldness of generative artificial intelligence: Or the re-making of digital narratives in times of ChatGPT

BKC Faculty Associate Nishant Shah offers accounts of two moments in computational history to reframe conversations around generative AI.

Jan 17, 2024
Nature

Can cities shape future tech regulation?

Aileen Nielsen writes about city lawmaking compensating for national regulations in technology. 

Jan 11, 2024
Harvard Law Today

Addressing the epidemic of high drug prices

Ruth Okediji discusses the Biden administration's recent proposal to use federal "march-in" rights to lower drug costs.

Jan 5, 2024
Foreign Policy

What AI Will Do to Elections

“It just makes the generation and dissemination of very realistic deepfakes and realistic-seeming deepfakes much, much easier,” Rumman Chowdhury told Foreign Policy when…

Jan 3, 2024
Oxford University Press

Algorithmic Institutionalism

In a new Oxford University Press book, Virgilio Almeida delves into the increasing presence of algorithms in everyday decisions, exploring their social and political impacts…

Dec 18, 2023
Faith & Leadership

How to identify and counter dangerous speech

BKC Faculty Associate Susan Benesch provides recommendations for recognizing and countering hateful online speech.

Dec 12, 2023
The Conversation

Online ‘likes’ for toxic social media posts prompt more − and more hateful − messages

RSM Visiting Scholar Joseph Walther explains the social approval theory of online hate: that posters of hateful messages are motivated by the approval of like-minded individuals.

Dec 4, 2023
The Conversation

With the end of the Hollywood writers and actors strikes, the creator economy is the next frontier for organized labor

RSM Visiting Scholar David Craig writes about creators and the upcoming labor revolution

Dec 4, 2023
Tech Policy Press.

Members of Congress Don’t Dance on TikTok

RSM Visiting Scholar Anupam Chander, and Donara Aghanjani and Alyanna Apacible discuss the fraught dynamic between Congressional distrust of TikTok and TikTok's potential for…

Nov 28, 2023
Time

How a TV Show Changed the Cold War

RSM Visiting Scholar David Craig recounts how a tv show changed the history of Cold War and comments on how media can impact society now.

Nov 20, 2023
The Washington Post

War in Gaza has some posting more than ever. Others are going dark.

Rebooting Social Media Visiting Professor Joe Walther comments on online communications during times of heightened tension.

Nov 11, 2023
Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center

Ten Ways AI Will Change Democracy

BKC Affiliate Bruce Schneier explores beyond AI generated disinformation to detail other novel ways in which AI might alter how democracy functions.

Nov 6, 2023
The Harvard Gazette

Should we be worried about rising heat of political discourse? Yes.

BKC Faculty Associate Susan Benesch discusses the relationship with heated political speech and real-world violence.

Oct 30, 2023
Journal of Democracy

Reimagining Democracy for AI

BKC Affiliate Aviv Ovadya argues that reinventing our democratic infrastructure is not just possible, it is necessary.

Oct 12, 2023
Tech Policy Press

Centering Community Voices: How Tech Companies Can Better Engage with Civil Society Organizations

Nadah Feteih and Elodie Vialle argue that companies should involve at-risk communities in the design process of new technologies.

Oct 5, 2023
Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters

Queer and feminist reflections on sextech

Zahra Stardust co-authors commentary reflecting on sextech futures.

Sep 15, 2023
SSRN

Effects of Negativity Type and Active Involvement on the Likelihood of Responding to Negativity in Stream Live Chats

RSM Visiting Scholar Jeffrey Hall studies whether chat negativity and the degree to which live chat rule sets encourage active (vs. passive) involvement influence participants’…

Sep 8, 2023
Science

Social media, extremism, and radicalization

BKC Faculty Associate Aaron Shaw discusses the connection between social media platforms and extremist movements. 

Aug 30, 2023
The Conversation

Re-imagining democracy for the 21st century, possibly without the trappings of the 18th century

BKC Affiliate Bruce Schneier reflects on his workshop that brought together a wide variety of people to discuss the reimagination of democracy for the twenty-first century.

Aug 7, 2023
The New York Times

The Future of Online Speech Shouldn’t Belong to One Trump-Appointed Judge in Louisiana

BKC Rebooting Social Media Visiting Scholar Kate Klonick writes about a federal court ruling that restricted the Biden administration’s communications with social media platforms.

Jul 13, 2023
Ethan Zuckerman

Competition for Twitter is good. Threads, thus far, is not.

BKC Faculty Associate Ethan Zuckerman argues that while competition for Twitter is a good thing, Threads, Facebook’s competitor to Twitter, leaves much to be desired.

Jul 7, 2023
Tech Policy Press

How to Assess Platform Impact on Mental Health and Civic Norms

BKC Affiliate Nathaniel Lubin writes about methods and approaches of evaluating effects of digital platforms on mental health.

Jun 22, 2023
The Atlantic

We've Been Thinking About the Internet All Wrong

BKC Affiliate Nathaniel Lubin writes about using the field of public health as inspiration for a new metaphor for the internet.

Jun 21, 2023
The Conversation

AI could shore up democracy – here’s one way

BKC Affiliate Nathan Sanders writes about the drawbacks and the opportunities AI can provide to strengthen democracy.

Jun 20, 2023
The Hill

Artificial intelligence doesn’t have to be inhumane

Sue Hendrickson and BKC Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury write about the role of global governance alongside the development of AI.

Jun 14, 2023
WIRED

There Will Never Be Another Twitter

BKC Faculty Associate Ethan Zuckerman discusses the fate of Twitter and the future of digital public squares.

May 31, 2023
WIRED

Molly White Tracks Crypto Scams. It’s Going Just Great

BKC Affiliate Molly White discusses her blog, Web3 Is Going Just Great, that tracks crypto scams and hacks.

May 30, 2023
Spotify

Uncommon Naledge: Meredith Clark

Jabari Evans talks with Incoming RSM Fellow Meredith Clark about media, journalism, and Black community.

May 23, 2023
GBH News

Legal questions surround Montana's TikTok ban

BKC Affiliate Bruce Schneier discusses the practical considerations of Montana's TikTok ban.

May 19, 2023
The Verge

A history of metaphors for the internet

BKC Faculty Associate Judith Donath discusses metaphors for the internet.

May 18, 2023
The Markup

Section 230 Just Survived a Brush with Death

Tweets by Rebooting Social Media Visiting Scholar Kate Klonick are referenced in a discussion of Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh.

May 18, 2023
CyberScoop

Rethinking democracy for the age of AI

BKC Affiliate Bruce Schneier delivers a keynote speech during the RSA Conference in San Francisco on April 25, 2023 about the risks and promise of AI for democracy.

May 10, 2023
Financial Times

Google draws backlash from Brazil with lobbying against ‘fake news’ bill

Rebooting Social Media Visiting Scholar and BKC Faculty Associate David Nemer discusses Google's lobbying against a Brazilian bill aimed at curbing the spread of “fake news.”

May 2, 2023
The Atlantic

Just Wait Until Trump Is a Chatbot

BKC Affiliates Nathan Sanders and Bruce Schneier write about how AI will change the nature of campaigning.

Apr 28, 2023
Rest of World

Twitter is complying with more government demands under Elon Musk

Rest of World reports on analysis of Twitter's compliance with government orders for censorship or surveillance using data from BKC's Lumen database.

Apr 27, 2023
Slate

How Artificial Intelligence Can Aid Democracy

BKC Affiliates Nathan Sanders and Bruce Schneier write about AI's potential to advance the public good by helping democracy.

Apr 21, 2023
The New York Times

The Future of Social Media Is a Lot Less Social

Jonathan Zittrain comments on BKC's Institute for Rebooting Social Media and its projects creating and experimenting with new social networks.

Apr 19, 2023
NBC News

Twitter quietly changes its hateful conduct policy to remove standing protections for its transgender users

Clinical instructor at the Cyberlaw Clinic Alejandra Caraballo comments on changes to Twitter's content moderation rules and enforcement since Elon Musk's takeover.

Apr 18, 2023
The Boston Globe

Twitter is for roasting Donald Trump. Building a democracy? Not so much.

BKC Affiliate Nathan Sanders' policymaking project, the Massachusetts Platform for Legislative Engagement, or MAPLE, is discussed as an alternative to Twitter.

Apr 13, 2023
WIRED

The Abortion Medication Ruling Threatens Free Speech Online

Clinical instructor at the Cyberlaw Clinic Alejandra Caraballo writes about how the US district court decision blocking access to the abortion pill mifepristone has also…

Apr 12, 2023
CNN

Teaching kids how to use social media smartly and safely

BKC Faculty Associate Judith Donath discusses the threat social media poses to children and realistic solutions to mitigate that threat.

Mar 25, 2023
NBC News

Grindr sends Egypt users a warning after alleged entrapments and arrests

BKC Affiliate Afsaneh Rigot comments on the arrests of LGBTQ+ people in Egypt.

Mar 23, 2023
Roll Call

Supreme Court to hear case on ‘Bad Spaniels’ v. Jack Daniel’s

Rebecca Tushnet discusses the Rogers test as a standard for trademark infringement which is implicated in a current Supreme Court case involving a dog toy company spoofing Jack…

Mar 21, 2023
GBH News

Has Asian representation in film improved with ‘Everything, Everywhere, All At Once’?

BKC Affiliate Jenny Korn sits down with GBH News to discuss whether the success of “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once” means that opportunities for Asian actors have paid off.

Mar 10, 2023
United Nations OHCHR

Stories on racial justice give power of memory to the slain

BKC affiliate Leonard Cortana was profiled by United Nations Human Rights for his work in human rights.

Mar 10, 2023
Miami Herald

Photographs have always been manipulated. Will AI make things worse?

BKC Fellow Juliana Castro-Varon writes as a graphic designer about the effect AI image generators will have on a potentially unsuspecting public who might not understand how the…

Mar 9, 2023
PolCommTech

Meta Oversight Board with Julie Owono

BKC Affiliate Julie Owono discusses Facebook and Instagram content moderation via the Meta Oversight Board, of which Owono is an inaugural member, and freedom of expression.

Mar 8, 2023
The Washington Post

A better kind of social media is possible — if we want it

Jonathan Zittrain is quoted discussing digital governance of social media platforms.

Mar 6, 2023
Harvard Law Review Blog

The Amendment the Court Forgot in Twitter v. Taamneh

Evelyn Douek writes with Genevieve Lakier about the free speech ramifications of Twitter v Taamneh...

Mar 1, 2023
WIRED

Platforms Are Fighting Online Abuse—but Not the Right Kind

BKC Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury co-writes a piece on the shortfalls of platforms fighting online abuse.

Feb 28, 2023
Nelson Mandela Foundation News

Teaching the legacy of Dulcie September and other assassinated anti-racist figures of resistance as poetry for collective liberation

"They erased Dulcie September, who remained a name in schools, streets, and cultural centers but nothing about her intellectual production and incredible life story as an anti…

Feb 22, 2023
The Atlantic

I Watched Elon Musk Kill Twitter’s Culture From the Inside

Rumman Chowdhury writes about her time at Twitter as the engineering director of the META team...

Feb 17, 2023
TechCrunch

Can ‘we the people’ keep AI in check?

"Emad [CEO] at Stability [AI, the open-source AI company,] says he’s ‘democratizing AI.’ Well, wouldn’t it be nice to actually be using democratic processes to figure out…

Feb 17, 2023
Wired

The Scramble to Save Twitter’s Research From Elon Musk

"We were rightfully worried about what this leadership change would entail...There's a lot of ideology and misunderstanding about the kind of work ethics teams do as being part of…

Feb 15, 2023
CNN

I am a student and activist. I won’t be silenced.

BKC Research Assistant Pratika Katiyar writes about the effort to silence student voices and the need to codify protections for student journalists.

Feb 15, 2023
Science Friday

ChatGPT And Beyond: What’s Behind The AI Boom?

"...what are the kinds of harms and stereotypes that exist in society that these machines can pick up on? These models are simply reflecting the data that is being put into them,…

Feb 10, 2023
PBS NewsHour

Expert warns of AI tools’ potential threat to democracy

"Democracy is fundamentally a human way of organizing ourselves, and where an AI, whether it's a ChatGPT that is writing human text or another AI that is figuring out human…

Feb 4, 2023
Mashable

ChatGPT could be a useful AI tool. So how are we regulating it?

"My observation would be that the serious legislation that's been successfully passed for regulating machine learning in general has been painfully slow and insufficient to keep…

Feb 2, 2023
Global Hip Hop Stories

Exploring the emotional and relational labour of Black women rappers in sexual dance economies on OnlyFans

BKC Faculty Associate Jabari Evans writes about the subscription platform OnlyFans and the Black women rappers and video models who use it.  “Ultimately, this study…

Jan 25, 2023
Prospect

Tech has an innate problem with bullshitters. But we don’t need to let them win

BKC Faculty Associate Ethan Zuckerman writes about technoculture's unique susceptibility to a mixture of falsehood and persuasive bluffing he refers to as "bullshit." "If we…

Jan 25, 2023

Misinformation in countries with limited technological literacies: How people in sub-Sahara Africa engage with fake news

BKC Faculty Associate Greg Gondwe writes about variations in digital access and literacy among people in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Jan 23, 2023
Mother Jones

Two Years Ago This Brazilian Expert on the Far Right Predicted Their Insurrection

BKC Faculty Associate David Nemer was interviewed about his accurate prediction of a "January 6-like event" following Brazil's elections. "I wasn’t totally surprised. I’ve been…

Jan 18, 2023
The New York Times

How ChatGPT Hijacks Democracy

"So while it’s impossible to predict what a future filled with A.I. lobbyists will look like, it will probably make the already influential and powerful even more so." BKC…

Jan 15, 2023
Washington Post

Social media can be polarizing. A new type of algorithm aims to change that.

BKC Affiliate Aviv Ovadya discusses social media algorithms that burst, otherwise known as bridging systems.

Jan 11, 2023
WAMC Northeast Public Radio

1/3/23 RT Panel

BKC Faculty Associate Fran Berman joined Alan Chartock of WAMC Northeast Public Radio, Jim Ketterer, and Sarah Rogerson in a roundtable discussion of issues in the news and beyond.

Jan 3, 2023
The Huffington Post

How To Ask People Not To Share Photos Of Your Kids On Social Media

BKC Youth and Media Director Sandra Cortesi commented on the practice of sharing photos of children on social media.

Dec 22, 2022
Politico

Why the ‘Twitter Files’ Are Falling Flat

Joan Donovan writes about the Twitter Files and Elon Musk’s failing attempts to shape the media’s narrative. “In fact, what the “Twitter Files” reveal is what we already knew…

Dec 15, 2022
Harvard Law Today

Facebook and the Problem of Truth

Jonathan Zittrain sits down with Jill Lepore in a podcast discussing his idea of assigning high school students the role of vetting advertisements, including political ads, on the…

Dec 15, 2022
WIRED

For Black Folks, Digital Migration Is Nothing New

Kishonna Gray discusses digital migration and Black Twitter with Chris Gilliard.

"Twitter changed leadership from one mercurial billionaire to another, and in that regard it affirms that the site was never 'ours'..."

Dec 13, 2022
The Atlantic

The Meta Oversight Board Has Some Genuinely Smart Suggestions

RSM Visiting Scholar Kate Klonick writes about the positive steps Meta’s Oversight Board recently took, and how it can improve separation within platforms.  “The board…

Dec 9, 2022
The Hill

Musk boosts Twitter’s right-wing appeal with moderation changes, ‘Twitter Files’

David Weinberger discusses the shift in Twitter’s appeal to the right following Musk’s takeover. “It’s easy to understand why the right is overall so happy with what Musk has…

Dec 8, 2022
The Atlantic

How to Decarbonize Crypto

BKC Affiliate Bruce Schneier writes about decarbonizing crypto and the opportunity to curb its massive environmental impact. "The good news is that cryptocurrencies don’t have…

Dec 6, 2022
The New York Times

Africa Is Waiting for What You Promised, Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey

Ifeoma Ajunwa reflects on the lack of benefits seen in Africa despite massive investments by tech billionaires with grandiose visions.

"A worry still is that these nations will never see any true benefits from tech investments until tech investors address the lack of the basic infrastructure necessary to support…

Dec 1, 2022
Harvard Law Today

Exhibition in Kansas centers voices of formerly incarcerated women

“How the Light Gets In,” created by Sarah Newman and metaLAB (at) Harvard, in collaboration with the KU Center for Digital Inclusion.

“Freedom is the most beautiful thing life has to offer.” “I am not a criminal I was a drug addict.” “Beautiful things are never perfect.” Those words, written by formerly…

Nov 29, 2022
Just Security

Incendiary Speech That Spurs Violence is Rising in US, But Tools Exist to Shrink It

Faculty Associate Susan Benesch writes about incendiary speech in political American discourse, and the rampant rise of it. "We have found that dangerous speech is uncannily…

Nov 21, 2022
Scientific American

Twitter Is Not Rocket Science—It’s Harder

RSM Assembly Fellow Joe Bak-Coleman writes about the challenges of managing human behavior, especially as applied to Twitter.  “On a social network, interactions between…

Nov 21, 2022
VICE

These Tiny Greek Islands Have Become Unlikely Laboratories for Global Corporations

BKC Fellow Petra Molnar discusses surveillance and the use of tiny islands as spaces for large tech companies.  Petra Molnar, a lawyer specialising in technology and human…

Nov 18, 2022
Reuters

Would Twitter get online publisher immunity in fake 'blue check' suits?

"Under that reasoning, said Alejandra Caraballo of the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic, the key question for Twitter is whether tweets from fake corporate accounts would have…

Nov 15, 2022
Council of Europe

The impact of the blockchains for Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law

BKC Fellow Florian Martin-Bariteau assembled a report to the Council of Europe on blockchain opportunities. "The impact of the blockchains for Human Rights, Democracy…

Nov 15, 2022
Rolling Stone

A Harvard Law Professor Breaks Down Vogue’s Lawsuit Against Drake and 21 Savage

Rebecca Tushnet breaks down Vogue's seven-figure lawsuit for copyright infringement against Drake and 21 Savage. "Part of what makes this case so interesting is that it…

Nov 14, 2022
Mother Jones

Why Does Every Tech Company Want to “Democratize” Something?

"Kendra Albert, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, has studied “legal talismans”—terms like “free speech” that tech companies use to give legitimacy to…

Oct 30, 2022
All Tech is Human Podcast

All Tech Is Human Library Podcast Series #15 | Sahar Massachi

Sahar Massachi joins David Ryan Polgar to discuss "the importance of fostering a generation of integrity workers to transform our technology ecosystem." “For me, I like the…

Oct 27, 2022
IGN

Stuck in the Mud: How a Tiny, Beloved Driving Game Sparked a Bizarre, Decade-Long Feud

Micaela Mantegna spoke to IGN about the Spintire controversy. "Given how confounding this entire investigation has been, I spoke with video game lawyer and Berkman Klein Center…

Oct 27, 2022
Last Archive Podcast

Trial By Teenager, Part I

With Jill Lepore, Jonathan Zittrain talks about his idea of using high school students as vetters of online political ads.

With Jill Lepore, Jonathan Zittrain talks about his idea of using high school students as vetters of online political ads. “Not only would you...have enough high school…

Oct 27, 2022
Protocol

'People were sucked into schemes': Inside Molly White’s campaign against crypto

BKC affiliate Molly White spoke about her interests, web3, & blockchain. "I'm hoping to keep doing what I'm doing. I feel like the site has been pretty successful…

Oct 20, 2022
The New York Times Opinion

We should try to prevent another Alex Jones

BKC Faculty Associate Zeynep Tufekci writes about disinformation and "prevent[ing] another Alex Jones." “It has become so easy to lucratively lie to so many people, and we…

Oct 16, 2022
The New York Times

How Social Media Amplifies Misinformation More Than Information

Rebooting Social Media Assembly Fellow and Integrity Institute Co-founder Sahar Massachi's work with the Integrity Institute's weekly misinformation dashboard was featured in The…

Oct 14, 2022
The Brazilian Report

Explaining Brazil #218: Demons, Freemasons, and cannibalism

Rebooting Social Media Visiting Scholar and BKC Faculty Associate David Nemer discusses social media strategies and their implications in the Brazilian presidential election…

Oct 12, 2022
Ars Technica

Rights holders got Google to remove 6 billion links from Search over 10 years

Lumen project manager Adam Holland and Rebecca Tushnet spoke about Google’s efforts to take down links considered pirated. “Google's partner in tracking all of its takedown…

Oct 4, 2022
STAT

Threats prompt hospitals to strip websites of info on gender-affirming care

Cyberlaw clinic’s Alejandra Caraballo discusses how children’s hospitals are taking down websites as a result of harassment and threats. Removing too much information comes…

Oct 3, 2022
The New York Times

Big Tech Should Support the Iranian People, Not the Regime

BKC Affiliate Afsaneh Rigot and Kendra Albert write about Big Tech and how they should support the Iranian people. "Expanded services...are no longer hindered by sanctions…

Sep 30, 2022
WBUR

How a Texas law could impact First Amendment rights and content moderation online

BKC Harvard affiliate Julie Owono discusses online content moderation. "Is it okay in a modern democratic society to leave two private companies the decision on what we can say…

Sep 30, 2022
Yale Law School

Forgetful Advertising: Imagining a More Responsible Digital Ad System

BKC Faculty Associate Ethan Zuckerman writes about responsible digital ad systems. “As Silicon Valley giants sketch their preferred future for digital advertising, an…

Sep 26, 2022
The New York Times

The Uber Hack Exposes More Than Failed Data Security

BKC Fellow Bruce Schneier writes about the Uber hack. "In all of these cases, the victimized organizations could have very likely protected our data better, but the reality is…

Sep 26, 2022
Bloomberg Law

First Amendment Hurdle Looms for California’s Social Media Law

Rebecca Tushnet discusses the potential challenges to California’s new social media law under the First Amendment.  “Knowing how many reports they got and whether or when…

Sep 16, 2022
NACLA

Brazil on Fire: Nazis on Your Street

David Nemer speaks about Brazil and the history of fascism, and the role cyberactivism plays in emboldening it. “Misinformation without hate, fortunately, doesn’t go very far…

Sep 13, 2022
Worldcrunch

Jair Bolsonaro, A Perfect Example Of Why Autocrats Hate Women

David Nemer analyzes the antipathy towards women that world leaders like Jair Bolsonaro have. 

Sep 8, 2022
ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society

Manifesto for Sex Positive Social Media

Zahra Stardust and collaborators set out seven demands for platforms, governments, and policymakers.

As part of her Berkman Klein fellowship, Zahra Stardust organized a Community Lab at RightsCon 2021 on "Alternative Frameworks for Sexual Content Moderation." The Lab was…

Aug 31, 2022
The Washington Post

GOP reacts to Trump search with threats and comparisons to ‘Gestapo’

Susan Benesch, faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, said when it comes to “dangerous speech ... what matters most is how…

Aug 9, 2022
Qualitative Sociology

Exploring Social Media Contexts for Cultivating Connected Learning with Black Youth in Urban Communities: The Case of Dreamer Studio

BKC Faculty Associate Jabari Evans writes about engaging Black youth in learning and career pathways through hip-hop and social media.

Aug 5, 2022
Marketplace

How industrial standards help explain Russia’s economic motives for invading Ukraine

Mark Wu discusses the economic motives behind Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Several former Soviet states use Russia’s industrial standards, which creates a captive market for…

May 17, 2022
AlJazeera

Why Elon Musk’s Twitter might be (more) lethal

Susan Benesch writes about how Elon Musk buying Twitter may be dangerous. “Dangerous speech forms a category because it is strikingly similar from one case to another, across…

May 5, 2022
Lawfare

Telegram’s Embrace of Contradiction

Will Marks and David Nemer assess Telegram's content moderation.

Apr 6, 2022
Prospect Magazine

How Wikipedia gets to define what’s true online

Ethan Zuckerman traces Wikipedia's transformation from controversial to trusted source.

Mar 3, 2022
Knight First Amendment Institute

Of Noisy Songs and Mighty Rivers

Is the "marketplace of ideas" fact or fantasy? Yochai Benkler assesses the future of free speech in a world of what he calls an "epistemic crisis" of disinformation and distrust.

Feb 10, 2022
StreetsBlog USA

Treating Social Media Like a City

Sahar Massachi speaks on a new way of fostering Internet health.

Feb 10, 2022
Slate

Spotify's Joe Rogan problem

evelyn douek speaks on Spotify's controversial involvement in the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

Feb 4, 2022
Business of Fashion

Why Hermès Probably Can’t Stop the MetaBirkin

Primavera De Filippi explains the implications of an NTF collection featuring fuzzy versions of Hermès bags.

Feb 1, 2022
Prospect

How to make better algorithms: start with the people who train the machines

Ethan Zuckerman writes that algorithms can be improved by focusing on the people who train the machines — and society at large.

Jan 27, 2022
VentureBeat

The Ethics of the Metaverse

Micaela Mantegna brings up crucial privacy and ethical concerns that come with the emergence of the metaverse.

Jan 26, 2022
Slate

Has Godwin’s Law, the Rule of Nazi Comparisons, Been Disproved?

Dariusz Jemielniak speaks on his research on Godwin's Law.

Jan 24, 2022
WIRED

Shared Autonomy & Work

Sandra Wachter assesses the benefits and drawbacks about autonomous robots and the future of work.

Jan 20, 2022
Centre for International Governance Innovation

Amid the Hype over Web3, Informed Skepticism Is Critical

Elizabeth Renieris urges skepticism amid the overwhelming hype around Web3.

Jan 14, 2022
Financial Times

Bolsonaro crafts new social media strategy ahead of Brazil election

David Nemer discusses Bolsonaro supporters’ migration from WhatsApp to Telegram.

Jan 12, 2022
AEI

The complexities of online content moderation

Julie Owono shares why digital rights should have the same protections as offline ones.

Jan 7, 2022
The Washington Post

Tech giants banned Trump. But did they censor him?

Chinmayi Arun discusses the consequences for democracy if major social media platforms arbitrarily blocked political leaders.

Jan 7, 2022
All Tech is Human

Inside the Institute for Rebooting Social Media

Hilary Ross dives deep into the mission of the Institute for Rebooting Social Media at All Tech is Human's Responsible Tech University Summit.

Dec 29, 2021
NiemanLab

Leave fact-checking to the fact-checkers

In Nieman Lab's predictions for journalism in 2022, Jonas Kaiser explores the need for fact-checking — and who should be doing it.

Dec 15, 2021
NiemanLab

A prayer for a humbler media

In the Nieman Lab's predictions for journalism in 2022, j. Siguru Wahutu expresses hope for a humbler media ecosystem.

Dec 15, 2021
Prospect

How to fix the internet

Ethan Zuckerman points to a mailing list in rural Vermont as a potential way forward for a more equitable Internet. "We need people to take responsibility for fixing…

Dec 9, 2021
New Media & Society

Does Godwin’s law (rule of Nazi analogies) apply in observable reality? An empirical study of selected words in 199 million Reddit posts

Godwin's Law states that the likelihood of referencing Nazis increases as online discussions grow. But after analyzing nearly 200 million Reddit posts, Dariusz Jemielniak and…

Dec 7, 2021
metaLAB (at) Harvard

#MeToo Anti-Network

A metaLAB (at) Harvard project illustrates how a movement such as #MeToo is constituted by masses of unobserved tweets.

Nov 23, 2021
Just Tech

Trends in Mobile Journalism: Bearing Witness, Building Movements, and Crafting Counternarratives

Allissa Richardson examines how African American mobile journalism became a model for marginalized people’s political communication across the United States.

Nov 17, 2021
Aeon

Learn from machine learning

The world is a black box full of extreme specificity: it might be predictable but that doesn’t mean it is understandable

"The inexplicability [of machine learning models] is not a drawback but a truth."

Nov 15, 2021
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Why Online Anonymity Matters

Afsaneh Rigot writes that requirements for real identities on the Internet pose immense safety and security issues — especially for marginalized persons.

Nov 9, 2021
Rest of World

Why the rest of the world shrugged at the Facebook Papers

evelyn douek offers an explanation for why the Facebook Papers have failed to make as much of an impact internationally.

Nov 9, 2021
Civic Source

Silos! Silos everywhere!

Katya Abazajian writes about the difficulties that arise when government agencies are reluctant to share information with each other.

Nov 8, 2021
Civic Source

Silos! Silos everywhere!

Katya Abazajian writes about the difficulties that arise when government agencies are reluctant to share information with each other.

Nov 8, 2021
The Conversation

Facebook has a misinformation problem, and is blocking access to data about how much there is and who is affected

Ethan Zuckerman points out room for improvement in Facebook's openness to misinformation research.

Nov 2, 2021
The Atlantic

Hey, Facebook, I Made a Metaverse 27 Years Ago

Ethan Zuckerman writes that his dismal experience creating and experiencing metaverses almost 30 years ago could be a lesson for Facebook.

Oct 29, 2021
Morning Brew

Behind the scenes: How Twitter decided to open up its image-cropping algorithm to the public

Twitter’s recent opening of its image-cropping algorithm is a step forward in social media research, Sasha Costanza-Chock tells Morning Brew.

Sep 27, 2021
Slate

Social Media Companies Need to Take a Lesson from 16th-Century Bavaria

John Bowers, Will Marks, and Jonathan Zittrain propose a path forward for how to improve content moderation

Aug 24, 2021
Boston Globe

A Harvard professor predicted COVID disinformation on the web. Here’s what may be coming next

Joan Donovan explains the dangers of spreading falsehoods on social media and the challenges with stopping misinformation.

Aug 23, 2021
Lawfare

The Lawfare Podcast: Facebook’s Thoughts on Its Oversight Board

evelyn douek explores the impacts of the Facebook Oversight Board

Aug 5, 2021
Washington Monthly

The Former Harvard Law Dean Who Wants Government to Save the News Business

Martha Minow explains why the government must save local news.

Jul 26, 2021
POLITICO

Public health’s next shot at fixing its data problem

Joan Donovan shares insights on the government's ability to control misinformation on social media.

Jul 21, 2021

Policy-palooza: How Congress, state and local governments can stabilize local news

Hilary Ross comments on how government may be able to help the state of local news. 

Jul 20, 2021
Harvard Law School

Design for Democratic Discourse

Jonathan Zittrain and Deb Roy will teach a seminar on the design of digital media at Harvard Law School in Fall 2021.

Jul 19, 2021
Day One Project

Expanding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Fund Local News

Hilary Ross calls for the expansion of public media to combat disinformation.

Jul 9, 2021
Lawfare

The Lawfare Podcast: Can America Save the News?

Martha Minow and evelyn douek share how the decline of local news hurts democracy.

Jul 8, 2021
Rest of World

3 Minutes with Julie Owono

Julie Owono shares challenges of maintaining freedom of expression on the internet.

Jun 23, 2021
Harvard Magazine

Can Disinformation Be Stopped?

Joan Donavan and Yochai Benkler share insights on the causes and effects of disinformation

Jun 16, 2021
SSRN

Deplatforming the far-right: An analysis of YouTube and BitChute

Jonas Kaiser and colleague evaluate the impact of deplatforming

Jun 15, 2021
Harvard Law Bulletin

Oh, what a tangled web we weave

The Harvard Law Bulletin showcases work from members of the Berkman Klein community on mis- and disinformation and the Center’s projects and programs that produce it.

Jun 14, 2021
Lawfare

The Empire (Facebook) Strikes Back (at the Oversight Board’s Trump Decision)

evelyn douek shares the limitations of the Facebook Oversight Board's ruling on Donald Trump's account.

Jun 10, 2021
The Atlantic

Facebook Won’t Talk About the Insurrection

evelyn douek and Joan Donovan comment on Facebook’s response to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Jun 7, 2021
Reveal

Where did the microchip vaccine conspiracy theory come from anyway?

Joan Donovan shares findings from her research on vaccine misinformation.

Jun 5, 2021
Reveal

Viral Lies

Joan Donovan explores vaccine disinformation and the election.

Jun 5, 2021
WIRED

More Content Moderation Is Not Always Better

evelyn douek says simply erasing things from the internet comes at a cost and it might not be worth it.

Jun 2, 2021
Wired

When to Reply on Social Media—and When to Not

Sameer Hinduja shares insights on how to address cyberbullying.

May 26, 2021
Johns Hopkins

Rechanneling Beliefs: How Information Flows Hinder or Help American Democracy

Bruce Schneier and colleague Henry Farrell published a new report via the Johns Hopkins Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

May 24, 2021
Just Security

Facebook Oversight Board’s Decision on Trump Ban in a Global Context: The Treatment of Political Leaders

Chinmayi Arun examines the Oversight Board’s decision in the context of the options before it.

May 17, 2021
Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University

Forum Logic: Topical, with a side of toxicity

Looking back at topic-based social networks may offer one way forward for social media

May 11, 2021
Wired

Fix Section 230 and hold tech companies to account

Danielle Citron says making social media sites act on content such as nonconsensual porn and violent conspiracies would make the internet more equal and free

May 6, 2021
WBUR

Stop Showing Violent Police Videos

Allissa Richardson interviewed by WBUR

May 6, 2021
The Atlantic

Somebody Has to Do It

evelyn douek says Facebook’s made-up court is filling an enormous legal void.

May 6, 2021
Lawfare

It's Not Over. The Oversight Board's Trump Decision is Just the Start.

evelyn douek explains details of Facebook Oversight Board’s recent decision and what they reveal about Facebook’s rules, and the FOB’s role in reviewing them.

May 5, 2021
The Washington Post

Facebook and Trump are at a turning point in their long, tortured relationship

evelyn douek weighs in on the Facebook Oversight Board’s upcoming decision

May 4, 2021
Medium

Delving into Disinformation

Harvard students explore disinformation on online platforms during the Assembly Student Fellowship

Zenzele Best provides an overview of the 2020-2021 Assembly Student Fellowship

May 4, 2021
Columbia Journalism Review

From the Existential Issue: Post-truth and the press

Joan Donovan discusses “post truth,” press manipulation, and right-wing media lies

May 4, 2021
SSRC

Trump in the Rearview Mirror: How to Better Regulate Violence-Inciting Content Online

Susan Benesch says human rights law could guide social media companies to regulate hateful speech

Apr 27, 2021
Slate

The Verdict, the Video, and the Unreasonable Burden of Proof

Allissa Richardson joins Slate’s Amicus podcast

Apr 24, 2021
The Washington Post

You have the right to film police. Here’s how to do it effectively — and safely.

Allissa Richardson discusses filming police encounters

Apr 22, 2021
The Atlantic

What Facebook Did for Chauvin’s Trial Should Happen All the Time

evelyn douek says that if Facebook can discourage hate speech and incitements to violence on a special occasion, it can do so all the time.

Apr 21, 2021
Vox

We have enough proof

Allissa Richardson argues against sharing videos of violent police encounters in an op-ed for Vox.

Apr 21, 2021
WUSA9

Here's why one journalism professor argues graphic video of Black deaths shouldn't be broadcast

Dr. Allissa Richardson spoke with WUSA9 about having Black deaths aired on TV

Apr 21, 2021
Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University

Platform Accountability Through Digital “Poison Cabinets”

Preserving records of what user content is taken down—and why—could make platforms more accountable and transparent

Apr 13, 2021
CNN

Inside QAnon

Joan Donovan discusses QAnon with CNN.

Apr 10, 2021
Politico

Trump faces a narrow path to victory against Facebook suspension

evelyn douek comments on the Facebook Oversight Board

Apr 9, 2021
Assembly

Assembly Student Fellowship: A Seminar with James Mickens

James Mickens discusses combatting disinformation in a seminar for the Assembly Student Fellows of 2021.

Apr 8, 2021
The Washington Post

YouTube says it’s getting better at taking down videos that break its rules. They still number in the millions.

Joan Donovan discusses disinformation on YouTube with The Washington Post.

Apr 6, 2021
Politico

Facebook's 'supreme court' struggles to set global free speech rules

evelyn douek speaks with Politico about the Facebook Oversight Board

Apr 1, 2021
Media Manipulation Casebook

Mitigating Medical Misinformation

Joan Donovan and colleagues publish a whole-of-society approach to countering spam, scams, and hoaxes

Mar 30, 2021
Vox

If Mark Zuckerberg won’t fix Facebook’s algorithms problem, who will?

evelyn douek and Julie Owono talk with Vox Recode about the Facebook Oversight Board

Mar 26, 2021
The New York Times

On Google Podcasts, a Buffet of Hate

Jessica Fjeld speaks with New York Times about content moderation on Google Podcasts

Mar 25, 2021
BKC Medium Collection

What we can learn from early online platforms

Berkman Klein event explores the early years of online platforms, the state of current platforms, and the future

Mar 25, 2021
Harvard Law Today

How ‘digital witnesses’ are documenting history and challenging the status quo

Three community members discuss how young Black people use technology for activism around the world

Mar 18, 2021
Buzzfeed

Amazon Is Pushing Readers Down A "Rabbit Hole" Of Conspiracy Theories About The Coronavirus

evelyn douek discusses Amazon profiting from sales of conspiracy theory books

Mar 15, 2021
Columbia Journalism Review

How a racialized disinformation campaign ties itself to The 1619 Project

Research from Joan Donovan and colleague shows how right-wing media enabled a disinformation campaign around The 1619 Project

Mar 11, 2021
Slate

COVID Skeptics Don’t Just Need More Critical Thinking

Crystal Lee speaks about her research on COVID skeptics with Slate

Mar 11, 2021
CNN

Anatomy of a lie: How the myth that Antifa stormed the Capitol became a widespread belief among Republicans

Joan Donovan talks to CNN about political disinformation campaigns.

Mar 2, 2021
All Tech Is Human

Improving Social Media: Misinformation & Free Expression

Jasmine McNealy joins a discussion on tackling misinformation and disinformation

Feb 25, 2021
Buzzfeed

India Has Its Own Alternative To Twitter. It's Filled With Hate.

evelyn douek discusses the increasing use of alternative platforms

Feb 23, 2021
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
The New York Times

Democracy Is Weakening Right in Front of Us

Yochai Benkler weighs in on tech's impact on democracy in The New York Times

Feb 17, 2021
International Journal of Communication

Fighting Zika With Honey: An Analysis of YouTube’s Video Recommendations on Brazilian YouTube

Jonas Kaiser and colleagues publish in International Journal of Communication

Feb 17, 2021
Things Go Boom Podcast

Aliens Among U‪s‬

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

Feb 15, 2021
The New York Times

Trump Isn’t the Only One on Trial. The Conservative Media Is, Too.

Jonathan Zittrain speaks to the New York Times

Feb 8, 2021
CNN

Zeynep Tufekci on why everyone should stop 'doomscrolling'

Zeynep Tufekci on why everyone should stop 'doomscrolling'

Feb 7, 2021
The New York Times

Lawsuits Take the Lead in Fight Against Disinformation

Yochai Benkler spoke to the New York Times about election disinformation lawsuits

Feb 6, 2021
Slate

The Case for Trump’s Permanent Ban From Social Media

Danielle Citron and colleague argue that Trump should not be allowed back on social media

Feb 5, 2021
Nature

Tracking QAnon: how Trump turned conspiracy-theory research upside down

Joan Donovan discusses QAnon, disinformation, and platform responsibility in Nature.

Feb 4, 2021
Politico

The GameStop Chaos Is Coming for Politics, Too

Joan Donovan draws parallels between Occupy Wall Street and GameStop

Feb 4, 2021
Harvard Law Today

Deconstructing the ‘Karen’ meme

Apryl Williams puts memes in historical, cultural context

Feb 3, 2021
International Affairs Forum

Effects of Democratic Strains on Journalism

An interview with james Siguru Wahutu

Feb 1, 2021
The Guardian

Big tech was allowed to spread misinformation unchecked. Will Biden hold them accountable?

Joan Donovan and colleague argue that antitrust enforcement will hold platforms accountable

Jan 27, 2021
Just Security

De-platforming Is a Fix, But Only a Short-Term One

Will Marks discusses the “Great Deplatforming” in Just Security.

Jan 27, 2021
Nation

Let’s fix Facebook’s content issues

Julie Owono says content moderation needs a more global approach

Jan 26, 2021
The New York Times

Why Is Big Tech Policing Speech? Because the Government Isn’t

evelyn douek discusses the deplatforming of Donald Trump with The New York Times.

Jan 26, 2021
Tufts Now

The High Cost of Online Attacks Against Women

Sarah Sobieraj on online attacks against women, what they mean for America, and what can be done about them.

Jan 25, 2021
The New Yorker

Biden’s Vital but Fraught Battle Against Domestic Terrorism

Joan Donovan describes how disinformation can contribute to radicalization in The New Yorker.

Jan 25, 2021
The New York Times

Facebook outsources its decision to ban Trump to oversight board

evelyn douek discusses Facebook’s decision to refer Trump’s case to its oversight board with The New York Times

Jan 21, 2021
NPR

Judge Refuses To Reinstate Parler After Amazon Shut It Down

evelyn douek discusses content moderation – and who makes the decisions – with NPR.

Jan 21, 2021
NiemanReports

How Participatory Media Promote Coverage of Social Movements

An excerpt of Ethan Zuckerman’s book, “Mistrust”

Jan 21, 2021
ACM CHI

Viral Visualizations: How Coronavirus Skeptics Use Orthodox Data Practices to Promote Unorthodox Science Online

Crystal Lee and colleagues publish a preprint of their paper ahead of ACM CHI 2021.

Jan 20, 2021
NiemanReports

Can We Restore A Collective Understanding of Reality, Please?

Joan Donovan and Rob Faris pen op-ed calling for media accountability

Jan 19, 2021
The Washington Post

‘Disinformation can be a very lucrative business, especially if you’re good at it,’ media scholar says

Joan Donovan discusses the Capitol attack and disinformation

Jan 19, 2021
The Atlantic

The Capitol Rioters Are Giving Insurrection a Bad Name

Ethan Zuckerman says insurrectionism can be a civically responsible form of social change

Jan 19, 2021
Harvard Law Today

For Prof. Ruth Okediji, ‘grievous’ Capitol insurrection holds hopeful lessons

Ruth Okediji reflects on the attacks on the U.S. Capitol, the state of democracy, and the role of digital technologies in politics today.

Jan 19, 2021
Misinformation Review

Disinformation creep: ADOS and the strategic weaponization of breaking news

Mutale Nkonde and colleagues publish in HKS Misinformation Review

Jan 18, 2021
The New York Times

Inside Twitter’s Decision to Cut Off Trump

evelyn douek weighs in on Twitter removing Trump

Jan 16, 2021
Newsweek

Twitter Under Pressure Over 'Double Standards' After Donald Trump, MAGA Crackdown

Shagun Jhaver speaks to Newsweek about his Twitter research

Jan 15, 2021
Los Angeles Times

Banning Trump from Twitter and Facebook isn’t nearly enough

Woodrow Hartzog and colleague argue social media companies should be held accountable

Jan 15, 2021
Politico

‘The Internet Is a Crime Scene’

Politico interviews Joan Donovan about misinformation

Jan 14, 2021
Lawfare

Jonathan Zittrain on the Great Deplatforming

Jonathan Zittrain joins the Lawfare Podcast

Jan 14, 2021
Harvard Law Today

Blocking the president

Harvard Law experts Yochai Benkler and evelyn douek weigh in on the suspension of President Trump’s social media accounts

Jan 13, 2021
Philadelphia Inquirer

The deadly consequences of Trump’s gradual and insidious rhetoric

Susan Benesch pens an op-ed about the dangers of Trump’s rhetoric.

Jan 13, 2021
Slate

Facial Recognition Technology Isn’t Good Just Because It’s Used to Arrest Neo-Nazis

Joan Donovan and colleague warn against using facial recognition technology in Slate

Jan 12, 2021
CNN

The real lesson of Trump's social media silencing

Ethan Zuckerman calls for a new vision of social media

Jan 12, 2021
Lawfare

The Facebook Oversight Board Should Review Trump’s Suspension

evelyn douek pens an op-ed on Facebook’s Oversight Board

Jan 11, 2021
The Guardian

The Capitol siege was the biggest media spectacle of the Trump era

Joan Donovan and colleagues say the storm on the Capitol was the culmination of a presidency defined by media manipulation and networked conspiracism

Jan 11, 2021
PBS

Twitter, FB have deplatformed Trump. Is it enough?

Joan Donovan on what lawmakers and companies need to do to address the weaponization of social media and disinformation

Jan 9, 2021
The Atlantic

Trump Is Banned. Who Is Next?

evelyn douek says tech giants must not treat their crackdown on the president’s social accounts as an edge case. The social web should be different now.

Jan 9, 2021
Journalist's Resource

Covering pro-Trump rallies and far-right groups

Joan Donovan shares four tips for journalists covering pro-Trump rallies and far-right groups for Journalist’s Resource.

Jan 8, 2021
OneZero

‘Free Speech’ Platforms Are Emerging as Facebook and Twitter Suspend Trump

evelyn douek speaks with OneZero about content moderation and alternative social media platforms

Jan 8, 2021
Marketplace Tech

Insurrection could be a turning point for social media

Joan Donovan joins Marketplace Tech podcast

Jan 7, 2021
The New York Times

Have Trump’s Lies Wrecked Free Speech?

Rebecca Tushnet in the New York Times

Jan 6, 2021
Slate

It’s Time to Kick Trump Off Twitter

Danielle Citron says Twitter should change their rules for public officials.

Jan 6, 2021
The Atlantic

The Year That Changed the Internet

In 2020, the need to contain misinformation about COVID-19 pushed Facebook and Twitter into a role they never wanted—arbiters of the truth.

Dec 28, 2020
WIRED

Better Than Nothing: A Look at Content Moderation in 2020

evelyn douek shares her thoughts on content moderation in 2020

Dec 27, 2020
Brookings

How YouTube helps form homogeneous online communities

Jonas Kaiser and colleague discuss YouTube's recommendation algorithm

Dec 23, 2020
Social Media + Society

Black Memes Matter: #LivingWhileBlack With Becky and Karen

Apryl Williams publishes in Social Media + Society

Dec 18, 2020
Marketplace Tech

We hardly ever talk about YouTube and disinformation. Not anymore.

evelyn douek joins Marketplace Tech podcast to discuss YouTube and disinformation

Dec 17, 2020
NiemanLab

Toward a wehrhafte journalism

Jonas Kaiser shares his predictions for journalism in 2021 with NiemanLab.

Dec 17, 2020
CNN

Social media bet on labels to combat election misinformation. Trump proved it's not enough

Yochai Benkler speaks with CNN about media coverage of misinformation

Dec 9, 2020
Good ID

Examining Digital Anonymity

Elizabeth Renieris spoke with Good ID about the importance of anonymity online

Nov 30, 2020
The New York Times

What Makes Trump’s Subversion Efforts So Alarming? His Collaborators

Trump and fellow Republicans are trying to dismantle beliefs in democracy, argue Bruce Schneier and Henry Farrell

Nov 23, 2020
WIRED

Why Isn't Susan Wojcicki Getting Grilled By Congress?

YouTube is a major vector for election and other disinformation. evelyn douek asks why its CEO wasn’t with Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey on Capitol Hill.

Nov 17, 2020
The New York Times

Twitter says it labeled 0.2% of all election-related tweets as disputed

evelyn douek discusses content moderation and the 2020 election

Nov 12, 2020
CNBC

Biden’s plan to fight online harassment could set up new confrontation with tech companies, experts say

Joan Donovan comments on platform approaches to harassment and what it means for researchers

Nov 10, 2020
Bloomberg

YouTube Election Loophole Lets Some False Trump-Win Videos Spread

evelyn douek talks with Bloomberg about YouTube’s election response

Nov 10, 2020
Harvard Law Today

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

Platform governance and the 2020 Presidential Election

Nov 7, 2020
The New York Times

The Danger in White Moderates Setting Biden’s Agenda

Tressie McMillan Cottom says the new president will be inclined to do less. He must be pushed to do more.

Nov 7, 2020
MIT Technology Review

Why social media can’t keep moderating content in the shadows

Online platforms aren’t transparent about their decisions—which masks the true costs of misinformation

Nov 6, 2020
The Guardian

Facebook removes pro-Trump Stop the Steal group over 'calls for violence'

Joan Donovan comments on Facebook’s takedown efforts during the election

Nov 5, 2020
The Washington Post

How viral videos helped blast voting lies across the Web

evelyn douek explains YouTube’s content moderation policies

Nov 5, 2020
The New York Times

Unclear Result a Recipe for Disinformation, Researchers Say

Joan Donovan discusses misinformation in the wake of the 2020 US presidential election.

Nov 4, 2020
MIT Technology Review

Election robocalls: what we know and what we don’t

Rebecca Tushnet talks First Amendment and voter suppression campaigns

Nov 3, 2020
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Tressie McMillan Cottom on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Tressie McMillan Cottom joined The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on election night to discuss early election results, American politics, and the electoral college.

Nov 3, 2020
Harvard Magazine

What Do COVID-19 and Extreme Inequality Mean for American Democracy?

Danielle Allen joins the Ask a Harvard Professor podcast to discuss COVID-19 and American democracy.

Nov 2, 2020
NPR

Where Is US Election Misinformation Coming From? Hint: It's Not Russia

Yochai Benkler discusses election misinformation with NPR

Nov 2, 2020
The New York Times

It’s the End of an Era for the Media, No Matter Who Wins the Election

evelyn douek and Zeynep Tufekci are cited by The New York Times

Nov 1, 2020
Today

How disinformation infiltrated the mainstream

Joan Donovan joins the Today show to talk about disinformation.

Nov 1, 2020
The New York Times

How Three Election-Related Falsehoods Spread

Joan Donovan talks to the New York Times about election misinformation.

Oct 30, 2020
ABC News

Disinformation in 2020

Joan Donovan explains recent disinformation campaigns

Oct 30, 2020
NPR

Poll Worker Numbers Have Many Election Officials Breathing Sigh Of Relief

Quentin Palfrey weighs in on poll workers in the lead-up to the November 3 election

Oct 29, 2020
The Washington Post

’Media Manipulation Casebook’ from Harvard teaches how to detect misinformation campaigns

A new resource from Joan Donovan and the Shorenstein Center was featured in a newsletter from The Washington Post.

Oct 28, 2020
MediaWell

Who Will Win the 2020 Meme War?

Joan Donovan asks, “when does a meme become disinformation?”

Oct 27, 2020
No More Normal Podcast

The Disinformation Age

Mutale Nkonde joined the No More Normal podcast to discuss misinformation and algorithms.

Oct 25, 2020
The New York Times

I Spoke to a Scholar of Conspiracy Theories and I’m Scared for Us

Joan Donovan profiled by New York Times for her work on disinformation

Oct 21, 2020
Good Morning America

Women and gamers of color detail experiences with online harassment in games like Call of Duty

Kishonna Gray discusses online harassment in gaming with Good Morning America.

Oct 21, 2020
The Guardian

A double-edged sword: hopes and fears for children as fast internet reaches Pacific

Amanda Third and colleagues produce report on online safety in the Pacific.

Oct 19, 2020
CNN

Benkler: Newest right-wing ‘email’ story seems like a rerun

Yochai Benkler joins Brian Selter on CNN’s Reliable Sources to discuss the US 2020 Election

Oct 18, 2020
The New York Times

Twitter Changes Course After Republicans Claim ‘Election Interference’

evelyn douek speaks to The New York Times about Twitter blocking the link to a New York Post article.

Oct 15, 2020
Start Making Sense

Black Cellphone Videos and Protest Journalism

Allissa Richardson talks protest journalism on the Start Making Sense podcast

Oct 14, 2020
Computers in Human Behavior.

Bigger than sports: Identity politics, Colin Kaepernick, and concession making in #BoycottNike

New paper published in Computers in Human Behavior

Oct 14, 2020
NiemanReports

How Not to Cover Voter Fraud Disinformation

Journalists should treat systematic disinformation campaigns from President Trump and his party no differently than those from Russian propagandists and Facebook clickbait artists

Oct 7, 2020
Centre for International Governance Innovation

Should Big Tech Be Setting the Terms of Political Speech?

evelyn douek, Dipayan Ghosh talk with the Centre for International Governance Innovation

Oct 5, 2020
The Chicago Tribune

To secure elections, paper ballots, risk-limiting audits and fighting misinformation are required

Abbey Stemler discusses the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to secure elections

Oct 2, 2020
Columbia Journalism Review

COVID at the White House, voter disinformation, and how to report around the propaganda

Yochai Benkler joins the Columbia Journalism Review’s podcast

Oct 2, 2020
NiemanLab

Allissa Richardson thinks it’s time to shatter a few myths about citizen journalism

Allissa Richardson discusses her new book and the myth of objective journalism

Sep 28, 2020
GBH

A 2020 Roundup Of Asian Representation In Film And TV

Jenny Korn discusses Asian representation in film and TV in 2020

Sep 25, 2020
The Guardian

Facebook's long-awaited oversight board to launch before US election

Julie Owono and evelyn douek discuss Facebook Oversight Board

Sep 24, 2020
BKC Medium Collection

International Human Rights Law Is Not Enough to Fix Content Moderation’s Legitimacy Crisis

Should tech companies follow human rights law to govern online speech?

Sep 16, 2020
Futurity

What the US needs to do to secure election 2020

Abbey Stemler and colleagues publish paper on disinformation and election insecurity

Sep 11, 2020
IJNotes

Mental health and journalism

Allissa Richardson on mental health of Black journalists covering the anti-police brutality and Black Lives Matter protests

Sep 11, 2020
Lawfare

Cheap Fakes on the Campaign Trail

Danielle Citron joins Lawfare podcast to discuss manipulated video and audio content.

Sep 10, 2020
The Atlantic

The Problem With Police-Shooting Videos

Smartphone footage of police brutality highlights a dire need to tell more humane stories about Black victims, Allissa Richardson says

Aug 30, 2020
The New York Times

TV Ratings for Biden and Trump Signal an Increasingly Polarized Nation

Yochai Benkler discusses partisan media with the New York Times

Aug 28, 2020
Gizmodo

Are We Already Living in a Tech Dystopia?

Gizmodo asks experts, including Jonathan Zittrain, for their answers

Aug 25, 2020
The New York Times

How Zeynep Tufekci Keeps Getting the Big Things Right

Zeyenp Tufecki featured in The New York Times

Aug 23, 2020
NPR

Police Monitoring Of Social Media Sparks Concerns In Black And Brown Communities

Desmond Patton interviewed by NPR about police monitoring social media

Aug 21, 2020
The Verge

How a TikTok ban would affect the influencer economy

The Verge interviews Taylor Lorenz

Aug 11, 2020
USA Today

Sick of unwanted Twitter replies? New feature lets users limit who can reply to tweets

Jasmine McNealy discusses the feature and the First Amendment

Aug 11, 2020
The Atlantic

Why All News Sounds the Same

Ethan Zuckerman uses Media Cloud to explain the narrowing media agenda

Aug 7, 2020
The New York Times

Facebook Must Better Police Online Hate, State Attorneys General Say

Danielle Citron spoke with The New York Times about Facebook’s hate speech policies.

Aug 5, 2020
Slate

Congress’ Antitrust Hearing Was Actually Pretty OK

Dipayan Ghosh and Stephen Wicker reflect on Congress’ antitrust hearing

Jul 31, 2020
Al Jazeera

Data collection is not the solution for Europe's racism problem

Structural racism can be combatted only if there is political will, not more data.

Jul 29, 2020
MIT Technology Review

Why Congress should look at Twitter and Facebook

“We cannot build a healthy democracy on top of an ailing communication system”

Jul 27, 2020
Lawfare

Twitter Brings Down the Banhammer on QAnon

Twitter’s QAnon response underlines “how powerful and unaccountable” companies are, evelyn douek says.

Jul 24, 2020
Slate

Twitter Finally Cracked Down on QAnon—but There’s a Catch

evelyn douek discusses Twitter’s recent plans to mitigate QAnon with Slate

Jul 24, 2020
Gizmodo

What Did People Use Before Google to Search the Web?

Ethan Zuckerman discusses web search before Google with Gizmodo

Jul 20, 2020
Scientific American

A Nixon Deepfake, a 'Moon Disaster' Speech and an Information Ecosystem at Risk

Jonathan Zittrain, Danielle Citron, and Joan Donovan provide expert commentary

Jul 20, 2020
The Atlantic

The Twitter Hacks Have to Stop

Bruce Schneier explains the recent Twitter hack

Jul 18, 2020
Museum of the Moving Image

Surveillance of Black Lives

Apryl Williams, Mutale Nkonde, and Allissa V. Richardson speak at event

Jul 16, 2020
BKC Medium Collection

On Platforms and Power

Elizabeth Renieris on social media platforms, their leaders, and democracy

Jul 16, 2020
The Guardian

'Too big to fail': why even a historic ad boycott won’t change Facebook

Susan Benesch talks to The Guardian

Jul 11, 2020
Oxford Internet Institute

Disinformation by Design: How Media Manipulation Campaigns Are Constructed

Joan Donovan discusses new article on platform design and disinformation

Jul 7, 2020
Mashable

#BlackLivesMatter saw tremendous growth on social media. Now what?

Jenny Korn discusses the use of #BlackLivesMatter on social media

Jul 2, 2020
Slate

What Does “Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior” Actually Mean?

There’s no clear definition, and that’s worrisome, evelyn douek says.

Jul 2, 2020
Wired

You Purged Racists From Your Website? Great, Now Get to Work

Joan Donovan says social media sites can—and must—take action to control the content on their sites.

Jul 1, 2020
BKC Medium Collection

Ken and Karen are White Supremacists

Apryl Williams explains that although memes are humorous, Karens and Kens of the world express a dangerous, audacious kind of White supremacy

Jul 1, 2020
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Advertisers retreating from Facebook amid backlash over hate speech on social media

evelyn douek joins Australian Broadcasting Corporation to discuss backlash over hate speech on social media

Jul 1, 2020
The Center for Journalism Ethics

A Guide to Covering Hate Speech Without Amplifying It

Jasmine McNealy says the U.S. Constitution needs to be understood within a power framework

Jun 29, 2020
The Atlantic

Twitter’s Least-Bad Option for Dealing With Donald Trump

Every plausible configuration of social media in 2020 is unpalatable, Jonathan Zittrain says.

Jun 26, 2020
Dangerous Speech Project

Proposals for Improved Regulation of Harmful Online Content

Report features seven recommendations for Internet companies

Jun 26, 2020
The Mandarin

Games may be the killer weapon to fight off disinformation

Julia Reda comments on media literacy to combat disinformation

Jun 25, 2020
TIME

How the 'Karen Meme' Confronts the Violent History of White Womanhood

Apryl Williams discusses the historical context, significance of the ‘Karen Meme’

Jun 25, 2020
ZDNET

Australia warned to not ignore domestic misinformation in social media crackdown

evelyn douek spoke to Australia’s Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media about misinformation.

Jun 22, 2020
Deutschlandfunk Kultur

Bot or not?

Jonas Kaiser talks with German radio station about social media bots, his recent paper

Jun 18, 2020
The New York Times

Who’s a Bot? Who’s Not?

Joan Donovan and Jonas Kaiser discuss challenges with studying automated bots on social media

Jun 16, 2020
Nature

Has Twitter just had its saddest fortnight ever?

Sorrow alone doesn’t tell the whole story, Desmond Patton says.

Jun 15, 2020
Slate

Why We Should Care That Facebook Accidentally Deplatformed Hundreds of Users

evelyn douek discusses content moderation and different types of speech

Jun 12, 2020
KUNM

Keeping An Eye On You

Mutale Nkonde joins panel to discuss data privacy, surveillance, sophisticated bots, racially biased tech and misinformation

Jun 12, 2020
Chicago Tribune

Anxiety from social media around the anti-racism movement

Kishonna Gray discusses social media during the anti-racism movement

Jun 12, 2020
The Markup

What Does President Trump’s “Crackdown” on Twitter Do?

A forthcoming article by Danielle Citron lends insight to this question

Jun 11, 2020
Detroit Today

White People: Learn How To Become Better Allies

Apryl Williams discusses how white allies can express solidarity without centering the conversations on themselves.

Jun 11, 2020
NPR

The 'Concerned Citizen Who Happens To Be Armed' Is Showing Up At Protests

Joan Donovan talks to NPR about riot rumors and disinformation

Jun 10, 2020
MIT Technology Review

Protest misinformation is riding on the success of pandemic hoaxes

Joan Donovan says misinformation about police brutality protests is being spread by the same sources as covid-19 denial.

Jun 10, 2020
Fatherly

What Is the Male Version of a Karen?

Apryl Williams on how to make sense of memes as an act of resistance, and what it means to be a Ken

Jun 9, 2020
The Hill

Conspiracy theories run rampant online amid Floyd protests

Joan Donovan explains the power social media has in spreading misinformation

Jun 3, 2020
MIT Technology Review

Why filming police violence has done nothing to stop it

Ethan Zuckerman says evidentiary images on their own don’t bring about change. What’s missing is power.

Jun 3, 2020
Digital Privacy News

Facebook’s Small Business Grants Come With a Big Catch: Your Data

Elizabeth Renieris spoke with Digital Privacy News about Facebook's small business grants program

Jun 3, 2020
The New York Times

People Can’t Stop Watching Videos of Police and Protesters. That’s the Idea.

Supercuts of police behavior are receiving enormous numbers of views.

Jun 2, 2020
Medium

Community and technology

Noa Gafni on how citizens are self-organizing during the COVID-19 crisis

Jun 2, 2020
Medium

Free Speech is Circular

Trump, Twitter, and the Public Interest

Jun 1, 2020
WIRED

Trump's Executive Order Is the Most Futile Attack on 230 Yet

Though his executive order follows a line of misguided, bipartisan swings at the protections for online platforms, this one is distinctively terrible, John Bowers says.

May 30, 2020
On the Media

Boiling Point

Apryl Williams examines the Karen meme and what it tells us about criticism of privilege in the pandemic and Jessie Daniels discusses the history of white women in racial dynamics…

May 29, 2020
The Atlantic

Trump Is a Problem That Twitter Cannot Fix

When a duly elected president is bent on spreading misinformation, tech companies can rein him in only so much, writes evelyn douek.

May 27, 2020
The New York Times

Twitter Grapples Anew With Its Trump Conundrum

Joan Donovan weighs in on Twitter creating a carve-out for public leaders

May 26, 2020
WGBH

Digital Bingeing: Time On Screens During COVID-19

We're turning to screens more than ever during the coronavirus pandemic. But what are the implications of spending so much time online?

May 22, 2020

Social Media Users Think Politicians Should Pay Heavy Price for Spreading False COVID-19 Information

Dipayan Ghosh explains why social media platforms need to be more transparent about their policies on politicians spreading misinformation.

May 20, 2020
Harvard Law Today

Ruth Okediji encourages the graduating class to cultivate the courage to try something new

The Harvard Law Professor and BKC director’s "Last Lecture"

May 20, 2020
KU News

Study shows vulnerable populations with less education more likely to believe, share misinformation

Hyunjin Seo leads the research, forthcoming in the journal New Media & Society

May 19, 2020
CNET

Political ads put Twitter, Facebook and Google in a bind. Here's why.

Joan Donovan weighs in on targeted ads on social media

May 18, 2020
Stanford Social Innovation Review

New Leadership for Global Health

How the Adaptive Leadership Framework can help the international health community

May 18, 2020
UNESCO

'Dangerous speech' fuelled by fear in crises can be countered with education

Fear is the biggest motivator in spreading 'dangerous speech' in times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, says BKC’s Susan Benesch

May 15, 2020
Los Angeles Review of Books

Social Network Construction Kit

Zuckerman discusses the history of public broadcasting, and potential alternative models for the future.

May 15, 2020
Lawfare

Real Reporting on Fake News

evelyn douek interviews Craig Silverman, the media editor for Buzzfeed News, for the Lawfare Podcast.

May 14, 2020
Centre for International Governance Innovation

Rethinking Digital Platforms for the Post-COVID-19 Era

As long as COVID-19 is a global concern, many aspects of daily life will be mediated by platform companies that see human interactions as content to be moderated, and as sources…

May 12, 2020
Frontier

Citation Needed

Mindy Seu talks about pursuing independent projects, the internet’s other histories and futures, archives, and spreadsheets with Frontier.

May 11, 2020
Columbia Journalism Review

evelyn douek talks about the Facebook Oversight Board

douek speaks with Columbia Journalism Review’s Mathew Ingram

May 11, 2020
The University of Chicago Law Review Online

“What Kind of Oversight Board Have You Given Us?”

evelyn douek explains Facebook’s Oversight Board

May 11, 2020
Just Security

The Facebook Oversight Board: An Experiment in Self-Regulation

Chinmayi Arun says Oversight Board might be the most interesting development in social media self-regulation in a decade

May 6, 2020

Disinformation by Design: The Use of Evidence Collages and Platform Filtering in a Media Manipulation Campaign

A new paper co-authored by BKC affiliate Joan Donovan explores tactics of disinformation to show how platform design and decentralized communication contribute to advancing the…

May 5, 2020
MIT Technology Review

Covid hoaxes are using a loophole to stay alive—even after content is deleted

Pandemic conspiracy theorists are using the Wayback Machine to promote “zombie content” that evades moderators and fact-checkers

Apr 30, 2020
WGBH

Waide Warner on the state of Internet connectivity in Massachusetts

Listen to the BKC affiliate on "In it Together" from WGBH

Apr 29, 2020
Study International

How Harvard’s medical and public health students are helping to #FlattentheCurve

BKC’s Jenna Sherman discusses the work of the group she co-founded at Harvard, Students against COVID-19. 

Apr 20, 2020
The Atlantic

The Internet’s Titans Make a Power Grab

Facebook and other platforms insisted that they didn’t want to be “arbiters of truth.” The coronavirus changed their mind overnight.

Apr 18, 2020
The Washington Post

Be very wary of Trump’s health surveillance plans

Danielle Citron on why technology’s promise is only as good as those who control it

Apr 16, 2020
Medium

COVID-19 and the Digital Rights Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an equally urgent digital rights crisis.

Apr 16, 2020
Nature

Social-media companies must flatten the curve of misinformation

The pandemic lays bare the failure to quarantine online scams, hoaxes and lies amid political battles.

Apr 14, 2020
Nieman Reports

Vote and Die: Covering Voter Suppression during the Coronavirus Pandemic

Journalists must cut through rampant disinformation around the pandemic to robustly report on efforts to suppress voting and delegitimize election results writes Joan Donovan

Apr 14, 2020
Bloomberg Law

Say Hello to Your New Local Bank—The Fed

BKC affiliate Patrick Murck on why newly introduced bills creating a U.S. “Digital Dollar” as part of the coronavirus stimulus package would radically upend the banking and…

Apr 13, 2020
Politico

Coronavirus-killing silver, fake tests, CDC impersonators: Feds rush to stamp out scams

Joan Donovan on the dozens, if not hundreds of scams that have popped up online as quickly as the coronavirus itself

Apr 11, 2020
TED Connects

An ethical plan for ending the pandemic and restarting the economy

Danielle Allen describes how the US could use technology to ethically and democratically address both the public health emergency and economic crisis by scaling up "smart testing."

Apr 8, 2020
Jeune Afrique

Her name was Marielle Franco…

Two years after the assassination of Marielle Franco, BKC fellow and filmmaker Leonard Cortana reflects on the subject of his documentary

Apr 7, 2020
Medium

We need a collaborative society more than ever

How collaborative society has come to the rescue where late capitalism has failed.

Apr 2, 2020
The Atlantic

Don’t Believe the COVID-19 Models

Zeynep Tufekci says that’s not what they’re for

Apr 2, 2020
The New York Times

Alarm, Denial, Blame: The Pro-Trump Media’s Coronavirus Distortion

Yochai Benkler discusses why Trump’s loyalists benefited from having told people not to believe what they were hearing.

Apr 1, 2020
The Lawfare Podcast

Location, Location, Location. And the Virus.

evelyn douek discusses content moderation and COVID-19

Mar 30, 2020
The Globe and Mail

Silicon Valley gets used to its new role as digital saviour as coronavirus leaves millions isolated

With many offices and schools now closed, people are seeking out human connection using the same online tools that have been widely criticized for fostering digital addiction and…

Mar 27, 2020
The Washington Post

As Trump signals readiness to break with experts, his online base assails Fauci

Rob Faris discusses the “politicization of public health”

Mar 26, 2020
Lawfare

COVID-19 and Social Media Content Moderation

evelyn douek on changes to content moderation on social media platforms as a result of the pandemic

Mar 25, 2020
New America

Confronting Viral Disinformation

Danielle Citron discusses misinformation about COVID-19

Mar 25, 2020
The Guardian

'Coughing while Asian': living in fear as racism feeds off coronavirus panic

Racist incidents are increasing while Trump promotes racism by calling coronavirus ‘the Chinese virus’

Mar 24, 2020
Medium

To Pre-Empt Future Pandemics, Governments Should Invest in the Welfare State, Not Private Surveillance

BKC affiliate Elettra Bietti and Jennifer Cobbe argue that governments should strengthen the social safety net, not technology companies.

Mar 24, 2020
NBC News

Coronavirus misinformation makes neutrality a distant memory for tech companies

Facing the prospect that hoaxes or misinformation could worsen a global pandemic, tech platforms are taking control of the information ecosystem like never before.

Mar 24, 2020
The Atlantic

It Wasn’t Just Trump Who Got It Wrong

America’s coronavirus response failed because we didn’t understand the complexity of the problem.

Mar 24, 2020
Undark

With Outbreaks Come Misinformation. Covid-19 Is No Exception.

In Covid-19’s wake, uncertainty about the emerging outbreak has propagated mis- and disinformation across the internet. BKC's Hal Roberts weighs in.

Mar 23, 2020
Medium

A side effect of COVID-19 is a booming collaborative society

BKC’s Dariusz Jemielniak on how "we can unite, rise up to the challenge and return stronger" despite the destruction caused by the pandemic

BKC’s Dariusz Jemielniak on how "we can unite, rise up to the challenge and return stronger" despite the destruction caused by the pandemic

Mar 20, 2020
Medium

How the Coronavirus Challenges our Model of Economic Growth

Despite heart-wrenching images in the media of people standing together and political calls for solidarity, the pandemic has laid bare the problems with globalisation and…

Mar 17, 2020
The New York Times

Why Telling People They Don’t Need Masks Backfired

To help manage the shortage, the authorities sent a message that made them untrustworthy.

Mar 17, 2020
MIT Technology Review

Here’s how social media can combat the coronavirus ‘infodemic’

With millions on lockdown, Facebook and Twitter are major sources of Covid-19 news. They’re also where misinformation thrives. How can platforms step up?

Mar 17, 2020
The Washington Post

In fast-moving pandemic, sources of falsehoods elude authorities

Misleading text messages claiming that President Trump was going to announce a national quarantine buzzed into cellphones across the country over the weekend, underscoring how…

Mar 16, 2020
The Lawfare Podcast

The Lawfare Podcast: Kate Starbird on Pandemics and Infodemics

evelyn douek speaks with Kate Starbird, an expert in crisis informatics, or the study of how information flows during crisis events.

Mar 16, 2020
BBC News

Minecraft ‘loophole’ library of banned journalism

BKC affiliate Helmi Noman weighs in on a library filled with articles by censored journalists, hosted in the game Minecraft

Mar 14, 2020
News

Emergency Online Pedagogy

BKC co-director Terry Fisher put together a must-read collection of resources

BKC co-director Terry Fisher put together a must-read collection of resources for transitioning to online teaching, based on his experience teaching CopyrightX and other online…

Mar 13, 2020
Medium

The Best of Worst Times

Fellows Advisory Board member Judith Donath on the privilege of working online

Mar 12, 2020
News

Early reflections on transitioning to online teaching

Kathy Pham discusses the shift from in-person to Zoom

Mar 12, 2020
NBC News

How new rules at Facebook and Twitter led to a warning beneath a Trump retweet

A video of Joe Biden that was deceptively edited to make it appear as if he endorsed President Donald Trump for re-election triggered warning labels from Twitter and Facebook

Mar 9, 2020
Fast Company

How Wikipedia’s volunteers became the web’s best weapon against misinformation

BKC affiliate Ryan Merkley on the importance of reliable access to knowledge when making important choices:

Mar 7, 2020
CNBC

In Facebook groups, coronavirus misinformation thrives despite broader crackdown

Dozens of public and private Facebook groups totaling hundreds of thousands of members have become a haven for conspiracy theories, medical equipment promotion and unproven cures.

Mar 6, 2020
Scientific American

Preparing for Coronavirus to Strike the U.S.

Getting ready for the possibility of major disruptions is not only smart; it’s also our civic duty

Feb 28, 2020
Reason Podcast

Taylor Lorenz Makes Sense of Online Culture for the Rest of Us

The BKC affiliate reveals how social media is encouraging individual expression.

Feb 26, 2020
WGBH

Don't Panic, It's Just The Collapse Of Neoliberalism

Video of a recent talk by Yochai Benkler at the Shorenstein Center

Feb 26, 2020
The Knight Foundation

The Internet Unleashed

BKC affiliate Joan Donovan spoke at the Knight Media Forum

Feb 26, 2020
BBC World Service

Ethiopia’s new law banning online hate speech

Julie Owono explains the concern over the law

Feb 25, 2020
Slate

Podcast: Election Meltdown

BKC faculty associate Danielle Citron joins former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, director of the ACLU’s voting-rights initiative Dale Ho, and election law…

Feb 22, 2020
The Atlantic

How the Coronavirus Revealed Authoritarianism’s Fatal Flaw

China’s use of surveillance and censorship makes it harder for Xi Jinping to know what’s going on in his own country.

Feb 22, 2020
Medium

5 Questions on Data and Context with Desmond Patton

The BKC faculty associate discusses the importance of meaningful interaction with the people behind data

Feb 21, 2020
Pew Research Center

Many Tech Experts Say Digital Disruption Will Hurt Democracy

Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center canvassed technology experts in the summer of 2019 to gain their insights about the potential future…

Feb 21, 2020
Jeune Afrique

« Les Misérables », affaire classée ?

Leonard Cortana on why France’s entry for the Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards, Les Misérables, should be inscribed in the history of…

Feb 19, 2020
Ideas on Fire Podcast

Imagine Otherwise: Sasha Costanza-Chock on Design Justice

How can putting marginalized people at the very center of design and technology change the world for the better?

Feb 19, 2020
Marketplace

Under whose thumb? Inside a Rolling Stones copyright mystery

BKC faculty associate Jennifer Jenkins on the differences between European and US copyright law when it comes to the rights of musicians

Feb 18, 2020
The Lawfare Podcast

The Hard Tradeoffs of the Internet

Alex Stamos discusses his experience at Facebook handling 2016 election interference, as well as his work on cybersecurity, disinformation, and end-to-end encryption with evelyn…

Feb 13, 2020
The Knight First Amendment Institute

The Rise of Content Cartels

evelyn douek urges transparency and accountability in industry-wide content removal decisions

Feb 11, 2020
Digital Trends

China’s coronavirus app will only inspire panic, experts say

Dariusz Jemielniak on a Chinese app that tracks the spread of the coronavirus.

Feb 11, 2020
Medium

The Speaker, the President, and the Case of (the) Ripped Up Speech

Jonathan Zittrain argues that while platforms might consider labeling videos like these as manipulated, they should not remove them entirely.

Feb 10, 2020
BU Today

How Campaigns Can Counter Deepfakes

Danielle Citron devised an eight-point plan for political campaigns to protect against fabricated video and audio

Feb 10, 2020
Heinz Radio

Understanding Internet Culture

Taylor Lorenz shares her views on “Ok Boomer,” the “flattening” of politics by social media and the internet, and the causes of the United States’ internet regulation vacuum.

Feb 10, 2020
WebMD Health News

Coronavirus Rumor Mill Rampant With Bogus News

For those who want help finding out what’s true when it comes to the coronavirus, BKC affiliate Mary Minow says public libraries are a great resource.

Feb 5, 2020
NBC News

'Wake-up call': Iowa caucus disinformation serves as warning about 2020 election

The specificity of both Twitter and Facebook’s rules around disinformation leave room for known disinformation agents to work during elections, said Joan Donovan.

Feb 4, 2020
The Atlantic

Who Needs the Russians?

Don’t blame shadowy foreign hackers for the chaos in Iowa. Blame Shadow’s caucus app, says faculty associate Zeynep Tufekci.

Feb 4, 2020
New Books in Technology Podcast

The Paradoxes of Network Neutralities

Russell Newman joins Jasmine McNealy to dicuss his book, “The Paradoxes of Network Neutralities”

Feb 3, 2020
Jeune Afrique

Le « blackface », une hypocrisie française

Leonard Cortana on the inadequate response of the French media to racist incidents

Jan 31, 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
NBC News

Coronavirus misinformation surges, fueled by clout chasers

Joan Donovan and Natalie Gyenes spoke to NBC News about the coronavirus and misinformation

Jan 30, 2020
News

Inside the Assembly Student Fellowship

Zenzele Best, Program Coordinator for Assembly: Disinformation, offers an inside look at the Assembly Student Fellowship.

Jan 29, 2020
Vox

Facebook announces new details about independent oversight board for content moderation

evelyn douek weighed in on the upsides and shortcomings drawbacks of Facebook‘s new content moderation policy. 

Jan 28, 2020
The Washington Post

Facebook, Google and Twitter scramble to stop misinformation about coronavirus

Joan Donovan spoke to The Washington Post about the coronavirus and misinformation.

Jan 27, 2020
Sunday Civics

Intersection of Race and Technology

BKC fellow Mutale Nkonde in conversation about disinformation targeted towards Black communities.

Jan 26, 2020
Quartz

How YouTube shields advertisers (not viewers) from harmful videos

The difference between the protections YouTube offers its advertisers and those it provides consumers is stark.

Jan 22, 2020
The Knight First Amendment Institute

Digital Public Infrastructure… and a few words in defense of optimism

Ethan Zuckerman argues the case for Digital Public Infrastructure

Jan 17, 2020
WGBH

How To Spot Fake News

Joan Donovan participated in a panel of scholars who study media manipulation, digital resources, and the spread of misinformation on how to spot “fake news” in an age of…

Jan 13, 2020
Columbia Journalism Review

YouTube and Radicalization

Joan Donovan talks with Mathew Ingram of Columbia Journalism Review

Jan 11, 2020
Vox

Tech companies tried to help us spend less time on our phones. It didn’t work.

Ethan Zuckerman adds to the discussion about whether concerns about “time well spent” are overblown.

Jan 9, 2020
The Atlantic

The Future of Politics Is Robots Shouting at One Another

They’ll be controlled by foreign actors, domestic political groups, even the candidates themselves, says BKC fellow Bruce Schneier.

Jan 7, 2020
Left Voice

“Marielle’s Legacy Will Not Die”

An interview with the documentary filmmaker and BKC fellow Leonard Cortana

Jan 7, 2020

Internet Deception Is Here to Stay—So What Do We Do Now?

Judith Donath’s work from 1998 on the effects of trolling on Usenet groups was highlighted in a recent Wired article on disinformation.

Dec 30, 2019
CNBC

Social media hosted a lot of fake health news this year.

Here’s what went most viral.

The most common concerns among health professionals when it comes to misinformation online is compliance with health treatments or prevention efforts.

Dec 29, 2019
Nieman Lab

A call for context

Jasmine McNealy on why “context is ever more important in this era of data-driven elections, social media, and emerging technology.”

Dec 20, 2019
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

"Technology isn't the driver of social movements, it's the other way around"

A Q&A with BKC faculty associate Sasha Costanza-Chock

Dec 19, 2019
Nieman Lab

Russian bots are just today’s slacktivists

Jonas Kaiser on what journalists can learn from the late 2000s when it comes to misinformation

Dec 18, 2019
Nieman Lab

Western journalists, learn from your African peers

Faculty associate james Wahutu on what he hopes media organizations in the U.S. and the UK will do in 2020.

Dec 16, 2019
City on the Hill Podcast

Mutale Nkonde on Race-Based Disinformation

BKC fellow discusses the role race plays in election interference efforts on the City on the Hill podcast.

Dec 2, 2019
Columbia Journalism Review

Building a More Honest Internet

Ethan Zuckerman imagines a different kind of Internet—one propelled by public concerns instead of the interests of large corporations.

Dec 1, 2019
Medium

High school students, social media and the illusion of free speech

Joan Donovan shares insights on a recently released report on high school students’ views on First Amendment protections

Nov 20, 2019
Bloomberg

Hardly Anybody Shares Fake News

Radio and cable TV are bigger conduits for conspiracy theories.

Nov 16, 2019
The Atlantic

Let Juries Review Facebook Ads

Social-media giants can’t decide how far is too far, but a panel of regular people can.

Nov 14, 2019
University of Washington

Building better online communities

Researcher uses high-performance computing to understand how online communities work

Nov 13, 2019
The Boston Globe

Facebook’s new dating service is flopping.

BKC fellow Apryl Williams sheds light on online dating and context collapse

Nov 8, 2019
Centre for International Governance Innovation

What Does Twitter's Ban on Political Ads Mean for Platform Governance?

Joan Donovan and Elizabeth Dubois weigh in

Nov 5, 2019
Digital Journalism

Connecting the (Far-)Right Dots: A Topic Modeling and Hyperlink Analysis of (Far-)Right Media Coverage during the US Elections 2016

Research discusses the relevance of alternative media for the US (far-)right

Nov 5, 2019
New York Magazine

Danielle Citron on Deepfakes and the Representative Katie Hill Scandal

Danielle Citron reflects on her career, current events, and the future

Oct 31, 2019
Columbia Journalism Review

Facebook, free speech, and political ads

Jonathan Zittrain and evelyn douek weigh in on the power of platforms like Facebook

Oct 31, 2019
Harvard Law Today

Israeli Supreme Court Justice on combating propaganda in elections

Yochai Benkler moderated a discussion on measures the Israeli Supreme Court took to shut down deceptive election posts

Oct 29, 2019
Galley by Columbia Journalism Review

evelyn douek talks Facebook and Speech

BKC affiliate discusses free speech, platform regulation, political advertising, and Facebook’s oversight board.

Oct 29, 2019
Centre for International Governance Innovation

Protecting Information Consumers

Jonathon Penney proposes a new comprehensive regulatory framework to hold social media platforms accountable

Oct 28, 2019
Centre for International Governance Innovation

Navigating the Tech Stack: When, Where and How Should We Moderate Content?

Joan Donovan describes content moderation in the context of a tech stack

Oct 28, 2019
MIT Technology Review

How memes got weaponized: A short history

Memes come off as a joke, but some people are starting to see them as the serious threat they are.

Oct 24, 2019
MediaWell

Cautionary Notes on Disinformation and the Origins of Distrust

We need to look at long-term patterns of loss of trust in institutions, Yochai Benkler says.

Oct 17, 2019
Scroll.in

Facebook’s new Oversight Board is a step forward – but it can’t help Kashmiris

If Facebook decides incorrectly that local laws in India require it to silence Kashmiri calls for self-determination, the Board will not be able to review this.

Oct 17, 2019
Nature

Guns on social media: complex interpretations of gun images posted by Chicago youth

“How should we interpret gun images on social media?” Desmond Patton asks

Oct 15, 2019
PBS

The Modern Bystander Effect

Desmond Patton talks to PBS about violence Facebook Live

Oct 14, 2019
On The Media, WYNC

Sticks and Stones

Susan Benesch discusses our complicated legal right to speak.

Oct 11, 2019
Medium

Why International Human Rights Law Cannot Replace Content Moderation

CJEU’s Ruling in Glawischnig-Piesczek v. Facebook and the Conflicting Regulation of Prior Restraint in Regional Human Rights Systems

Oct 9, 2019
The New York Times

Do We Need to Break Up Facebook?

Breaking up Facebook isn’t enough, says evelyn douek

Oct 4, 2019
NiemanReports

Trudeau’s Blackface: The Chilling Effects of Disinformation on Political Engagement

During election season, journalists should be ready for even more sophisticated attempts to plant false narratives and to spin disinformation via legitimate news stories

Oct 3, 2019
The Globe and Mail

Donald Trump plays a dangerous game with rhetoric of ‘treason’ and ‘civil war’

Susan Benesch says it isn’t normal for American presidents to suggest that their political opponents be arrested for treason

Oct 3, 2019
The Washington Post

In an impeachment hearing, we are all jurors

If this is our moment of something like national jury duty, what are we called to judge?

Oct 2, 2019
International Journal of Communication

Whose deaths matter? New research on Black Lives Matter and media attention

A Quantitative Analysis of Media Attention to Deaths of Black Americans in Police Confrontations

Oct 2, 2019
Vox

An inspiring conversation about democracy

What a democratic policy agenda would look like, how to talk to strangers, and why we need to reform civic education.

Sep 30, 2019
Truthout

Why White Supremacists Love Facebook

Far from deplatforming racists, Facebook is moving toward private groups that will be harder to monitor.

Sep 28, 2019
98.5 The Sports Hub

Using digital information to manipulate public opinion

Joan Donovan explains how digital information is weaponized

Sep 22, 2019
The New York Times

Facebook Expands Definition of Terrorist Organizations to Limit Extremism

evelyn douek shares her perspective with The New York Times

Sep 18, 2019
The Atlantic

Finally, Facebook Put Someone in Charge

Deciding which postings to take down is a difficult and unpopular job. So Mark Zuckerberg is outsourcing it, says evelyn douek

Sep 18, 2019
Columbia Journalism Review

Source hacking: How trolls manipulate the media

Data & Society report aims to create a taxonomy of trolling tactics.

Sep 12, 2019
The New York Times

Host Violent Content? In Australia, You Could Go to Jail

Australia has held itself up as a model for cracking down on violent extremist material online since the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand. But the limits to its approach have…

Sep 11, 2019
C-SPAN

Policing User Content on Social Media

Policy experts debate what legal responsibility social media companies should have under the 1996 Communications Decency Act

Sep 6, 2019
Data & Society

Source Hacking: Media Manipulation in Practice

Data & Society report uses case studies to illustrate four main techniques of source hacking

Sep 4, 2019
Buzzfeed News

With This Statement, I Give Notice That Instagram Owns Your Soul

People posting a pseudo-legal declaration may believe they're in a two-way dialogue with the company. The opposite is true.

Aug 23, 2019
ArXiv.org

Auditing Radicalization Pathways on YouTube

Research from faculty associate paints a comprehensive picture of user radicalization on YouTube

Aug 22, 2019
Scientific American

Researchers Model Online Hate Networks In Effort to Battle Them

Susan Benesch provides an external review of the study

Aug 21, 2019
The New York Times

How YouTube Misinformation Resolved a WhatsApp Mystery in Brazil

WhatsApp and YouTube formed a powerful feedback loop of extremism and misinformation

Aug 15, 2019
Medium

Announcing Assembly: Disinformation

New program explores disinformation in the digital public sphere from a cybersecurity perspective

Aug 14, 2019
The Washington Post

Fox News has no comment on its venomous rhetoric

Network Propaganda research on media ecosystems informs recent events

Aug 12, 2019
Foreign Policy

8 Ways to Stay Ahead of Influence Operations

With election meddling inevitable in 2020, the United States needs a powerful kill chain

Aug 12, 2019
The New York Times

How YouTube Radicalized Brazil

Research informs New York Times investigation into YouTube’s recommendations

Aug 11, 2019
The Weekly

What is YouTube Pushing You to Watch Next

Research shows that YouTube’s recommendation system pushes users toward extremist content.

Aug 9, 2019

Combating Hate Speech Through Counterspeech

What we can learn from cataloging extremely toxic speech on social media platforms and engaging with practitioners of “counterspeech”

Aug 9, 2019
MIT ILP

Exploring the good – and very bad – political impacts of social media

Ethan Zuckerman discusses the opportunities and consequences of participatory media.

Aug 7, 2019
Journal of Design and Science

On the Internet, Nobody Knows You’re a Bot

An exploration of what happens when politically motivated humans impersonate vulnerable people or populations online to exploit their voices, positionality and power.

Aug 7, 2019
The Guardian

From Trump to Fox News to 8chan: the web of white supremacist rhetoric is wide

Trump is a politician perfectly fitted for a media ecosystem that amplifies extreme emotion and allows the loud to drown out the calm

Aug 6, 2019
The Atlantic

The Lawless Way to Disable 8chan

The decision to disable an infamous message board fell to Matthew Prince, an internet executive who is deeply uncomfortable with his own power.

Aug 6, 2019
Shorenstein Center

Dr. Joan Donovan, Shorenstein Center expert, comments on El Paso, 8chan, and what’s next

BKC affiliate responds to El Paso shooting, use of manifestos as a tactic, and explains how extremists manipulate the media to control public conversation

Aug 6, 2019
NBC News

El Paso shooter wasn't a 'lone wolf' — and his so-called online 'manifesto' proves why

While we often think about those who commit mass violence as acting individually, we must reckon with the fact that these extremists are never alone online.

Aug 5, 2019
The Boston Globe

Can the U.S. regulate 8chan?

Incoming BKC fellow Mutale Nkonde says we need a legal definition for harmful speech that could be regulated

Aug 5, 2019
The Atlantic

Why Conservatives Allege Big Tech Is Muzzling Them

Google and Facebook aren’t infringing on the right’s freedom of expression, but insisting otherwise is politically convenient.

Jul 28, 2019
The Washington Post

It’s not just the Russians anymore as Iranians and others turn up disinformation efforts ahead of 2020 vote

BKC affiliate Simin Kargar says Iran for years has harassed journalists, political dissidents and artists in its internal disinformation campaigns

Jul 25, 2019
Rolling Stone

A Jeffrey Epstein-Clinton Conspiracy Theory Was Trending — And That’s a Problem

A report that the Epstein was injured in jail dredged up a conspiracy theory about the Clintons — and thanks to a hashtag, the baseless rumor likely has a whole lot of new…

Jul 25, 2019
Journalist's Resource

10 tips for covering white supremacy and far-right extremists

Q&A with Journalist’s Resource offers advice for journalists

Jul 22, 2019
The Washington Post

How Trump put himself in charge of Twitter’s decency standards

Twitter has ceded responsibility for governing its own platform to its most prolific and controversial user, says BKC affiliate Joan Donovan.

Jul 19, 2019
Journal of Design and Science

QAnon and the Emergence of the Unreal

Ethan Zuckerman delves into how the conspiracist community surrounding QAnon represents a hazardous new form of participatory civics and digital storytelling

Jul 15, 2019
The New York Times

How White Nationalists See What They Want to See in DNA Tests

What happens when white supremacists on the hate site Stormfront learn that they’re not as white as they thought? Two researchers investigated.

Jul 12, 2019
The Verge

The unpredictable legal implications of Trump’s Twitter-blocking defeat

Telling the president to unblock critics was easy, but interpreting the rule for other government accounts could be hard

Jul 11, 2019
Medium

What does it take to design for a user experience (UX) of credibility?

Investigating the Role of User Interfaces in Fighting Misinformation

Jul 8, 2019
MIT Technology Review

Camille Francois named to MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35

BKC affiliate Camille Francois uses data science to detect disinformation and organized harassment campaigns

Jun 26, 2019

Most Americans believe politicians’ heated rhetoric can lead to violence, report finds

78% of Americans say aggressive language from elected officials makes violence against targeted groups more likely. Susan Benesch shares insight for decreasing dangerous speech

Jun 19, 2019
PC Mag

Russia Used Social Media to Influence EU Citizens' Votes

A report from the European Commission said that Russian accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube aimed to influence voter preference by challenging the Union's democratic…

Jun 17, 2019
The New York Times

We Must Prepare for the Next Pandemic

We’ll have to battle both the disease and the fake news, writes BKC’s Bruce Schneier

Jun 17, 2019
NBC News

Authorities can be swayed by online health misinformation

A Kansas case shows how misinformation can sway authorities

Jun 14, 2019
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

How YouTube was recommending kids’ videos to pedophiles

A Q&A with Jonas Kaiser about his YouTube research, which uncovered harmful content

Jun 13, 2019
The Hill

Researcher calls YouTube extremist content ban 'too little, too late'

Jonas Kaiser talks about his YouTube research and calls for transparency

Jun 13, 2019
Wired

Bridging the Internet’s Digital Divide

There are thousands of different tongues spoken around the world, but most of the content on the web is only available in a select few, primarily English.

Jun 13, 2019
Associated Press

Americans think fake news is big problem, blame politicians

Pew survey finds that half of U.S. adults consider fake news a major problem, and they mostly blame politicians and activists for it

Jun 5, 2019
Techdirt

Blame Fox News Before Facebook

Facebook is just one part of a broader media ecosystem, and not necessarily the most important one

Jun 5, 2019
Slate

Should Researchers Be Allowed to Use YouTube Videos and Tweets?

A new paper used YouTubers’ voices to guess what they looked like. Was it ethical? Casey Fiesler weighs in.

Jun 3, 2019
Harvard Public Health

Fighting Misinfodemics

How online misinformation can fuel epidemics such as Ebola virus disease and measles

May 30, 2019
Columbia News

Using Twitter to Predict Gang Violence

Desmond Patton says law enforcement officials should analyze social media posts about grief and stress to prevent violent crime among young people.

May 30, 2019
Scroll.in

Civil society, industry and government must join hands to protect free speech, curb extreme speech

Our next challenge is to find the mix of tools and approaches that strengthen public discourse that work in the digital age, Rob Faris argues

May 27, 2019
Scientific American

The Real Reason Fans Hate the Last Season of Game of Thrones

It's not just bad storytelling—it’s because the storytelling style changed from sociological to psychological

May 17, 2019
Colombia Journalism Review

French media is polarizing. But not in the way we expected.

Does social media affect democracy the same way across the world, or do social platforms have different effects in different nations?

May 13, 2019
Boston Review

Democracy's Dilemma

Democracies rely on the free exchange of ideas and information, but that freedom can also be weaponized to erode democratic debate. How can democratic societies protect—and…

May 9, 2019
Deutschlandfunk

"Deep-fakes": Counterfeits Using Artificial Intelligence

The ability to mimic the sound of someone else's voice is becoming easier and easier thanks to AI. It sounds like fun, but it can be a problem.

Apr 29, 2019
Vice News

How Fox News dominates Facebook in the Trump era

Research suggests posts published by Fox News’ page draw far more reactions, comments, or shares than any mainstream news outlet

Apr 29, 2019
Washington Post

India may be witnessing the next ‘WhatsApp election’ — and the stakes couldn’t be higher

On the heels of a Brazilian electoral process that was marked by outrageous disinformation campaigns, India may be witnessing the world’s next “WhatsApp election.”

Apr 24, 2019
Wired

How Recommendation Algorithms Run the World

What should you watch? What should you read? What's news? What's trending? Wherever you go online, companies have come up with very particular, imperfect ways of answering these…

Apr 22, 2019
The Guardian

Facebook teams with rightwing Daily Caller in factchecking program

Site co-founded by Fox News host Tucker Carlson has promoted misinformation and is known for pro-Trump content

Apr 17, 2019
Medium

What Do We Owe to the Internet’s “First Responders?”

Experts share perspectives on the ethics and legality of how social platforms moderate content

Until AI catches up, tens of thousands of human content moderators all around the world will continue to ingest thousands of posts of potentially toxic posts on social media,…

Apr 17, 2019
Wired

15 Months of Fresh Hell Inside Facebook

Scandals. Backstabbing. Resignations. Record profits. Time Bombs. In early 2018, Mark Zuckerberg set out to fix Facebook. Here's how that turned out.

Apr 16, 2019
The Christian Science Monitor

Is America’s media divide destroying democracy?

Fox News in the Trump Era has been labeled “state TV.” Conservatives have complained about liberal media bias for decades. Separate media spheres have created separate realities –…