1/27/2021: IAP Workshop on Democracy, Disinformation, AI, and Platform Regulation
2021-01-22 - 3 minutes readJanuary 27th 2021 | 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | Zoom
The Internet has transformed speech in the 21st Century. On one hand, billions of individuals and numerous institutions are able to speak and receive information without traditional barriers, thereby reaching an audience that would have otherwise been out of reach for most. On the other hand, this “reach” has been used, abused, and manipulated by speakers who seek to spread disinformation, deceive the public, or just say things that are objectionable to mainstream audiences.
The CSAIL Computing and Society CoR and the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative invite you to a workshop that will explore the technical, legal, and cultural factors that shape Internet speech and evaluate the various calls to change either the technical, legal, or organizational framework that governs Internet speech today. As a technical matter, calls for platforms to “do more” to either spot fake content or avoid rewarding incendiary and misleading information will be viewed through the lens of what is technically possible, as well as public policy and societal choices about who should control speech and for what purposes. From a legal perspective, we will evaluate proposed changes in the United States to Section 230, the law that governs Internet platforms responsibility for speech of their users. And we will consider legal frameworks in place in other parts of the world. Finally, we will discuss sociological and cultural questions about the impact of the unique nature of Internet speech on democracy and other institutional concerns.
Panel 1: Technology | Panel 2: Policy |
Moderator: Una-May O’Reilly, Principal Research Scientist and leader of the AnyScale Learning For All (ALFA) group at CSAIL |
Moderator: Daniel Weitzner, Founding Director of MIT IPRI and 3Com Founders Principal Research Scientist at MIT CSAIL |
Speakers: * Kathleen Carley, Professor in the School of Computer Science in the department at Carnegie Mellon University * Deb Roy, Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, where he directs the MIT Center for Constructive Communication and is Executive Director of the MIT Media Lab * Ethan Zuckerman, Professor of public policy, communication and information at UMass Amherst |
Speakers: * Colin Crowell, Former Vice President of Global Public Policy at Twitter * Karen Kornbluh, Senior Fellow and Director, Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative |
Register for the Zoom event here: https://mit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_LyqUbqfJRiS34Ba1VHA_Zw