2026 Harvard Entrepreneurship Summit: Jonathan Zittrain Interviews Polymarkets Shayne Coplan Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2026-09-29 | 2026 Harvard Entrepreneurship Summit: Jonathan Zittrain Interviews Polymarkets Shayne Coplan
Enabling Accountable Technical Oversight of Generative AI The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2023-07-14 | Join Julia Angwin, investigative journalist and New York Times contributing Opinion writer, and Brandon Silverman, policy expert on data sharing and transparency and founder of CrowdTangle, for a conversation on enabling effective and accountable technical oversight of generative AI, moderated by Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, Responsible AI Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center. Generative AI is at a tipping point of adoption and impact, much like that of machine learning and AI years ago. But this time the stakes, regulatory environment, potential social, political, and economic effects of these technologies, and the exponential pace of adoption and evolution are different. There is legitimate concern about the social fabric of trustworthiness and democracy as models are incorporated into search engines, customer support, and other critical tools used by the public. Yet, these technologies also offer tremendous potential.Technical interventions, such as data access and external assessments and audits, are a critical part of enabling effective and accountable oversight of generative AI. However, the current conversation often focuses solely on passing laws and regulations. While regulatory efforts are important, other sectors have a critical role to play in holding generative AI systems and the actors that create or use them accountable. How might we consider governance of generative AI across a spectrum? This conversation explores how expertise and capacities across society already are being leveraged and might be amplified in the future to enable a variety of kinds of technical oversight, particularly highlighting how journalism and civil society contribute to oversight through investigative reporting and external assessments.
Cyber security and resilience: Lessons from Ukraine The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2023-06-20 | Over the past few years cyberspace has changed the way we live, work and communicate. It has become critical to our future prosperity, security and accelerating digital transformation. Cyber threats and attacks now target not only government agencies, but industries such as media, IT/communication, energy, transportation, healthcare, education, organizations of all sizes and individuals. Hostile countries employ cyberspace to gain advantage through various campaigns that include improving intelligence collection, deploying destructive attacks against victims’ networks, and leveraging the full spectrum of information operations to shape public perception on various issues. Given the borderless nature of cyber threats, it is important to consider how to effectively address increasing cybersecurity challenges and build robust cyber resilience.In this talk titled “Cyber security and resilience: Lessons from Ukraine”, speakers discuss how a combination of cybersecurity measures and respective procurement reforms can be used to make progress against significant systematic vulnerabilities. More specifically, Dr. Robert Peacock focuses on the cybersecurity measures Ukraine has adopted since the infamous NotPetya attack in 2017, including the overlooked adoption of the independent e-auction tool ProZorro for all public procurement. Though not a single national cybersecurity strategy in North America, Europe or the Global South addresses corruption, Ukraine demonstrates the critical role anti-corruption initiatives can have in mitigating procurement cultures favoring pirated or unsupported network software. Dr. Pavlo Pushkar offers perspectives on the Council of Europe’s standards and measures that shape the cybersecurity landscape, enhance national capacities, and facilitate international cooperation. His presentation emphasizes the importance of an effective criminal justice response that aligns with the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and its protocols, while ensuring the protection of human rights, adherence to the rule of law, and data privacy. Followed by Q&A. The event is moderated by BKC Fellow Marta Basystiuk.
Responsible computing for Computer Science education in Kenya The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2023-06-14 | Skills in responsible and ethical computing are crucial for Kenyan educators to prepare the next generation of computer scientists who will solve the region's most pressing socio-economic issues. This talk explores the growing and thriving landscape of Kenya's higher education and tech ecosystem by highlighting the gaps, opportunities, and social implications of responsible computing within the Kenyan context. With specific examples of how responsible innovation has been used to nurture employability and innovation among Kenyan tech students, this talk showcases the impact of empowering students with holistic thinking and learning. The audience also learns about the inaugural Responsible Computing Challenge in Kenya by Mozilla Foundation and what is envisioned over the next year and beyond.
Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2023-05-18 | ...
Technology and the Public Interest The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2023-05-10 | In this groundbreaking work, Haochen Sun analyzes the ethical crisis unfolding at the intersection of technology and the public interest. He examines technology companies' growing power and their increasing disregard for the public good. To tackle this asymmetry of power and responsibility, he argues that we must re-examine the nature and scope of the right to technology and dynamically protect it as a human right under international law, a collective right under domestic civil rights law, and potentially a fundamental right under domestic constitutional law. He also develops the concept of fundamental corporate responsibility requiring technology companies to compensate users for their contributions, assume an active role responsibility in upholding the public interest, and counter injustices caused by technological developments. Professor Sun is joined by Rebooting Social Media's visiting scholars, Professors Jon Penney and Yong Jin Park to discuss the book's themes and critical issues. The panel is moderated by Professor Terry Fisher.
Digital Public Spaces for a Healthy Democracy: goals, values & aspirations The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2023-05-10 | This video is a moderated discussion among leaders in civic tech, ethics, advocacy, and journalism about how to reimagine the digital public square. We are exploring how online discussion can be more constructively harnessed to improve public policy by helping people to productively exchange ideas and direct their perspectives, insights, and passions about policy issues to channels that influence policymakers. The discussion addresses digital infrastructure for democracy, the evolving role of social media and private platforms, content moderation, and the sensitivity of data generated by public debate.The event is timed to coincide with the public launch of a new tool called MAPLE that helps people to direct their perspectives, insights, and passions about societal issues to channels that influence public policy. Specifically, MAPLE (the Massachusetts Platform for Legislative Engagement) makes it easy for anyone to submit written testimony to the MA legislature, and to see testimony written by others. MAPLE, has been built by a group of volunteer technologists at Code for Boston and has been incubated by Northeastern University's NuLawLab. They are operating as a nonpartisan, open source, and nonprofit (501c3) project operating under Open Collective and supported by Partners in Democracy.
“Weaponizing Misogyny”: Gender-Based Harassment’s Impact on Journalists and Free Expression The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2023-04-04 | Whether they are reporting on gun violence, covering protests in the post-Dobbs era, or sharing information about COVID with the public, journalists are on the frontlines, bringing important issues to light. But the risks of that reporting don’t lie equally with everyone. White women journalists face much more significant harassment than their white male counterparts, and women of color face harassment based on their gender, race/ethnicity, or both at the same time. These dynamics have impacts on both journalists and journalism. Harassment of journalists creates a strong chilling effect on coverage, resulting in self-censorship or censorship. These threats result in fewer voices, especially fewer diverse voices, left to cover important stories. 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, featuring Elisa Lees Muñoz of the International Women’s Media Foundation, Jeje Mohamed from PEN America, Pratika Katiyar of the Student Press Law Center, and Taylor Lorenz of the Washington Post.
How Should Data Governance be Shaped to Facilitate Altruistic Data Sharing? The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2023-02-21 | The COVID crisis has shown that ethical and effective uses of data and increased sharing of data can save lives and can be critical for society as a whole (by contrast to the use of data made by private entities for commercial purposes that generally draw more – media and policy – attention). Tragically, traditional data governance mechanisms generally do not have an established “crisis mode” switch that can be flipped during a pandemic, natural disaster, cyberattack, or other catastrophe in order to facilitate the use of data for public good. As the world continues to navigate through various crises and increasingly relies on the efficient use of available data and as the push for increased data sharing is growing (at least in Europe), it is crucial for citizens and particularly for the younger generations to proactively engage in shaping and implementing new data governance mechanisms that shall foster altruistic data sharing. New data governance models based on data philanthropy / “data altruism”, on the collectivization of the exercise of data rights and on “data intermediaries”, are envisioned in recent regulatory instruments (the recent EU Data Governance Act - Regulation 2022/868 on European data governance). The future success of these models will of course depend on how they will be practically implemented. Their success will however essentially depend on whether and how people will adopt them, specifically the youth who will be the key providers of data. Please join Jacques de Werra, law professor and Director of the Digital Law Center at the University of Geneva, and Leah Plunkett, faculty at Harvard Law School and Berkman Klein associate with the Youth and Media team, for a dynamic dialogue about the big-picture questions and challenges around data governance and altruistic data sharing models, as well as a deep dive into the resonance and realities of these questions on children and teenagers—and what youth themselves could do to help shape effective altruistic data sharing models. The session builds upon a position paper on “Governance Mechanisms for Access and Use of Data in Public Health Crises: Call for Action” that was just published by an interdisciplinary group of Swiss scholars in the framework of a joint project between the University of Geneva and the University of Zurich (co-led by Prof. de Werra).
The Future of Online Lending: A Discussion of Controlled Digital Lending and Hachette The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2022-12-13 | The Internet Archive offers Controlled Digital Lending (CDL), where it lends digital copies of books to patrons — but ensures that the number of books owned is equal to the number loaned. Through the Open Library, the Internet Archive aims to “make all the published works of humankind available to everyone in the world.”In June 2020, four major publishers sued the Archive for copyright infringement, alleging that CDL threatens their business model. Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, spoke about the pending Hachette v. Internet Archive case and the future of digital libraries. Kahle was joined by Rebecca Tushnet, Ruth Okediji, Kyle Courtney, all amici in the case, and Jonathan Zittrain. The panel explored the background of the case and the National Emergency Library, the value of CDL for online libraries and public access, CDL’s fair use implications, and the future of online libraries and large publishers.The Berkman Klein Center presented this event in collaboration with the Journal of Law and Technology (JOLT).
Lawyering after Dobbs The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2022-12-13 | This video a discussion at the Berkman Klein Centerled by Alejandra Caraballo, Clinical Instructor at Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic with Kate Bertash, Director of the Digital Defense Fund; Cynthia Conti-Cook, Tech Fellow at the Ford Foundation; and Yveka Pierre, Senior Litigation Counsel for If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice.In the wake of the Dobbs decision, the national legal landscape has shifted towards immense uncertainty regarding the access and availability of abortion care. Legacy and grassroots organizations continue to operate daily while parsing the legal implications of multi-state bans, and many are under pressure to identify the digital privacy and security needs of vulnerable reproductive health clinic patients. This panel explores the impact of Dobbs on abortion access, and how technology will be used by those seeking to criminalize it. Criminalization of abortion is not a new phenomenon, but is an issue that is increasingly urgent as states restrict abortion access in an era of increased digital surveillance. This loss of rights to healthcare access occurs during a broader struggle for bodily autonomy for women, people of color, immigrants, and LGBTQI+ people. As such, this panel discusses ways that technologists and the legal community can engage with groups leading the work to limit the harms of technology in ways that ensure more equitable access for multiple groups seeking healthcare.
Algorithmic Discrimination & Fairness: Reducing the Gap Between the Legal & Technical? The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2022-12-13 | There is a vast body of legal and technical literature focused on what fairness means in the context of algorithms and how fairness can be measured. This panel explores the issues in dispute and focus on the challenges yet to be solved. It is a unique opportunity to overcome challenges for interdisciplinary researchers and provide attendees with the tools and knowledge necessary to communicate across disciplines effectively, especially (aspiring) lawyers, policymakers, and technologists who seek to better engage with questions of fair algorithms.
Data at the end of the world The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2022-12-13 | Is datafication a means to immortality, or a harbinger of the apocalypse? Brian Michael Murphy's searching, creative new book "We the Dead: Preserving Data at the End of the World" tracks the evolution and growing power of what he terms the "data complex"; the vast quantities of information about us and the infrastructure that supports it. In conversation with Cyberlaw Clinic Assistant Director Jessica Fjeld, Brian shares stories from his research process and challenges our notions of what personal data is and means.
Open House 2022 The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2022-12-08 | As a University-wide research center at Harvard University, our interdisciplinary efforts in the exploration of cyberspace address a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences. If you're interested in the Internet’s impact on society and are looking to engage a community of world-class fellows and faculty through events, conversations, research, and more please join us to hear more about our upcoming academic year! Watch BKC co-founder and faculty director Jonathan Zittrain (Jay-Z) welcome attendees and share a few words about the Center and our work.
Meme Wars / Black Skinhead Book Talk The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2022-12-08 | A unique hybrid book talk with Brandi Collins-Dexter, author of Black Skinhead: Reflections on Blackness and Our Political Future and Joan Donovan and Brian Friedberg, authors of Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America.
Chokepoint Capitalism: how to beat Big Tech and Big Content to get artists paid The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2022-12-07 | Corporate concentration (and profits) have breached the stratosphere. An ever-expanding constellation of industries are now monopolies (where sellers have excessive power over buyers), monopsonies (where buyers hold the whip hand over sellers)—or both. In their new book, Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow argue that the result is ‘chokepoint capitalism’: rigged markets where powerful corporations have managed to position themselves between workers and customers in ways that allow them to extract far more than their fair share of value.Nowhere are chokepoints more endemic than creative labor markets. In this conversation with Rebecca Tushnet, Giblin and Doctorow discuss breathtaking abuses being carried out almost every place creativity meets money: book publishing; Hollywood screenwriting; game development; news; music streaming, publishing, and ticketing, and more. Deconstructing the playbook used by Big Tech and Big Content to create their chokepoints, Giblin and Doctorow show the problem to be fundamentally one of power imbalance. But they' have also discussed their detailed, rousing, unabashedly hopeful proposals for change, showing how creators and audiences can work together to widen chokepoints out—and get artists paid.
The Tech That Comes Next The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2022-07-07 | Who is part of technology development, who funds that development, and how we put technology to use all influence the outcomes that are possible. To change those outcomes, we must—all of us—shift our relationship to technology—how we use it, build it, fund it, and more.Join us for a fireside chat featuring Afua Bruce, Sue Hendrickson, and Amritha Jayanti, who will discuss the future role and applications of the technology pushing the social impact sector forward.Their conversation explores the implications of the use, creation, and funding of technology and how social impact organizations, technologists, funders, policymakers, and—most importantly—communities can accelerate change for the better.The Berkman Klein Center is pleased to present this event in collaboration with the Belfer Center to highlight the Technology and Public Purpose (TAPP) Project and Bruce's new book (with Amy Sample Ward) The Tech That Comes Next.This event took place on May 18, 2022.
The Tower and the Park: Structural Misalignments of Social Media The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2022-07-07 | Zuccotti Park, the site of Occupy Wall Street, and One Liberty Plaza, the multi-billion-dollar tower, represent a complex power play between public and private interests. In the digital realm, social media grapples with a similar contention: social networks would not exist without platform businesses and yet their public benefits are at odds with the drive for private profit.This Berkman Klein Center event featuring Joanne Cheung discusses her research and open access article Real Estate Politik: Democracy and the Financialization of Social Networks, which emerged from the Berkman Klein Ethical Tech Working Group and was originally published in a special issue of the Journal of Social Computing, "Technology Ethics in Action: Critical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives" (Part 1, Part 2).Cheung argues that “social networks are privately owned public spaces caught between the misaligned incentives of public good and private profit” and that their business models perpetuate historical inequities.Cheung’s article also explores the structural problems with social media from the perspective of land use. She compares the financialization of attention by platforms with the financialization of land by commercial real estate development—and explores activist land use models for public interest technology.This event took place on May 17, 2022.
RSM Assembly Fellowship Information Session The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2022-04-25 | ...
1 25 FINAL RA Session The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2022-02-09 | Are you a Harvard student interested in applying to be a Research Assistant for the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society? Watch this video for answers to general questions about the Research Assistantships at Berkman Klein.
Security by Spectacle The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2022-02-07 | This talk introduced “Wearing Many Hats,” a Data & Society report authored by Matt Goerzen and Gabriella Coleman. Dr. Coleman described their talk as follows:'Our report examines the transformative period in which many hackers moved from a vilified underground subculture into a domain of respected professionalism, playing a privileged role in establishing contemporary cybersecurity protocols and agendas.'Their talk concentrated on the ways that a select group of hackers secured their legitimacy by engaging with journalists, popularizing the terminology of gray hat hacking, releasing sensational tools to demonstrate security vulnerabilities, and calling out Microsoft for their shoddy security. This work was underwritten by a controversial approach to security known as “full disclosure.” Proponents argued that the publicization of sensitive security issues was essential to motivating corporate accountability.In conversation with the Shorenstein Center’s Brian Friedberg, the authors explored these case studies’ contemporary significance: How are security issues nominated as matters of concern? How might those operating outside the security establishment influence the security agenda? What does it mean that a domain so consistently equated with technical matters relies on social processes, like media spectacle and extra-institutional collaboration? How does spectacle function in relation to a broader range of security challenges implied by technologies like AI and social media today?
IfRFA Presents First Amendment Careers The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2022-01-06 | This event showcased the work of several friends of IfRFA who work on a range of freedom of expression issues. Panelists discussed how they came into their current roles, provided tips to law students interested in First Amendment work, and offered their vision of where they see the field headed in the future.
Accounting for AI — a Comparison of Methods The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-11-09 | A few years ago, Finale Doshi-Velez and Mason Kortz – and a squad of collaborators – unpacked explanation as one way to hold AI systems accountable. Many frameworks for AI regulation and best practices have since emerged.In this conversation, Finale and Mason returned to the question of accountability and regulation for AI: What are the options for regulating AI systems in real-world settings? What are the advantages of ex-ante and ex-post monitoring? What roles should different methods of accountability play? How do we strategically use each one?They reflected on how their views have evolved and considered some ways forward.
Private Social Media Data in the Public Interest: What’s Next? The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-11-01 | To address the variety of problems related to social media like disinformation, harassment, and hate speech, governments and civil society need better information and evidence bases.Recent challenges in platform research (including testimony by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen) have made this clearer and led to renewed attention to the difficulty of accessing data held by social media companies. The complex, persistent barriers to access have led journalists, academics, and members of civil society to devise other ways to study key aspects of online behavior on social media platforms.What might genuine data-driven oversight of social media companies look like? How can policy and industry efforts ensure the public interest while addressing various competing tensions around privacy, security, and competition?Hosted by the Berkman Klein Center’s Institute for Rebooting Social Media, this panel discussion will explore both existing legal and policy dilemmas around these questions and possible paths forward to address them.Featuring:Nathaniel Persily, James B. McClatchy Professor of Law at Stanford Law SchoolNabiha Syed, President of The MarkupNicole Wong, Former Deputy US Chief Technology OfficerEthan Zuckerman, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Communication and Information and the Director of the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure at the University of MassachusettsJonathan Zittrain (moderator), George Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School
Protecting and Promoting AI Innovation | Part 1 The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-10-26 | ...
Protecting and Promoting AI Innovation | Part 2 The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-10-26 | This event is part of a three-part symposium on Security, Privacy, and Innovation: Reshaping Law for the AI Era. The first, Responding to AI Enabled Surveillance and Digital Authoritarianism was on September 17, 2021, the second, Constitutional Values and the Rule of Law in the AI Era: Confronting a Changing Threat Landscape was on September 24, 2021, and the third, Protecting and Promoting AI Innovation: Patent Eligibility Reform as an Imperative for National Security and Innovation was on October 1, 2021.The third session of the symposium consisted of two one-hour panels with a 10 minute intermission in between. The first panel featured a debate between arguments for and against reform to the patent eligibility doctrine.The second panel added further insight to these positions and discussed practical impacts on innovation in AI and other emerging technologies. The discussion covered national security implications, capacity, and comparative issues. This video covers the second panel.Panel 2:Kristen Jakobsen Osenga, Austin E. Owen Research Scholar & Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law (moderator)Ryan Abbott, Professor of Law and Health Sciences, University of Surrey School of Law; Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLADrew Hirshfeld, Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director, U.S. Patent and Trademark OfficeLaura Sheridan, Senior Patent Counsel and Head of Patent Policy at Google Hans Sauer, Deputy General Counsel, VP for IP, Biotechnology Industry OrganizationThe series was jointly sponsored by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, the Reiss Center on Law and Security, and Just Security.
Constitutional Values and the Rule of Law in the AI Era: Confronting a Changing Threat Landscape The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-10-05 | This event was part of a three-part symposium on Security, Privacy, and Innovation: Reshaping Law for the AI Era. The first, Responding to AI Enabled Surveillance and Digital Authoritarianism was on September 17, 2021, the second, Constitutional Values and the Rule of Law in the AI Era: Confronting a Changing Threat Landscape was on September 24, 2021, and the third, Protecting and Promoting AI Innovation: Patent Eligibility Reform as an Imperative for National Security and Innovation was on October 1, 2021.The second session of the symposium focused on how AI-enabled technologies are changing the threat landscape and consider safeguards needed to protect constitutional values and the rule of law more broadly. An expert legal panel considered issues such as the adequacy of the Fourth Amendment in the AI era; the unique equities and issues raised by government use of AI in the intelligence, law enforcement, and border security contexts; and growing concerns around algorithmic bias, biometric technologies, deep fakes, malign information, and other AI-enabled cyber activities, and the need for regulation to address these challenges.Speakers:Julie Owono, Executive Director, Internet Sans Frontières (Internet Without Borders); Member, Facebook Oversight Board; Affiliate, Berkman Klein Center on Internet & Society (moderator)Glenn Gerstell, former NSA General Counsel; Senior Adviser, Center for Strategic and International Studies Aziz Huq, Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law SchoolRiana Pfefferkorn, Research Scholar, Stanford Internet ObservatoryThe series was jointly sponsored by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, the Reiss Center on Law and Security, and Just Security.
Responding to AI Enabled Surveillance and Digital Authoritarianism The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-09-27 | This event was part of a three-part symposium on Security, Privacy, and Innovation: Reshaping Law for the AI Era. The first, Responding to AI Enabled Surveillance and Digital Authoritarianism was on September 17, 2021, the second, Constitutional Values and the Rule of Law in the AI Era: Confronting a Changing Threat Landscape is on September 24, 2021, and the third, Protecting and Promoting AI Innovation: Patent Eligibility Reform as an Imperative for National Security and Innovation is on October 1, 2021. The first session of the symposium examined the potential uses of AI-enabled technologies to supercharge surveillance, suppress dissent, enable human rights violations, collect personal data, and impose social control around the world. The panel convened legal and technological experts to address the role of international law, technical standards bodies, and organizations like the OECD to address this growing challenge and explore how democratic nations can use legal tools to promote responsible technology and counter malign uses of AI-enabled systems.Speakers:Jonathan Zittrain, Faculty Director, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard Law School; Editor, Just Security (moderator)Olufunmilayo Arewa, Murray H. Shusterman Professor of Transactional and Business Law, Beasley School of Law, Temple UniversityChinmayi Arun, Resident Fellow, Yale Law School; former Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center of Internet & SocietyRonald Deibert, Director, The Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of TorontoAmb. Eileen Donahoe, Executive Director, Global Digital Policy Incubator, Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center; Advisory Board member, Just SecurityThe series was jointly sponsored by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, the Reiss Center on Law and Security, and Just Security
Berkman Klein Center Fall 2021 Virtual Open House The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-09-27 | For the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society's first Tuesday lunch of the academic year, Faculty Director Jonathan Zittrain hosted the Virtual Open House.Prof. Zittrain began by sharing an overview of the work and themes explored at the Center. Staff working with each of these projects were eager to share information about the big research questions they are considering, meet potential future collaborators, and exchange ideas. As a University-wide research center at Harvard, our interdisciplinary efforts in the exploration of cyberspace address a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences.
IfRFA Presents: Silencing Pro-Palestine Voices – Online and Off The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-07-14 | If you posted #SaveSheikhJarrah on your Instagram post, tried to send funds with the label “Palestinian Relief” on Venmo, or have committed to the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement and tried to get a government contract, you may have encountered ways in which pro-Palestine voices are limited in both online and offline spaces. Nadim Nashif, from 7amleh, the Arab Center for Social Media Advancement, discusses their report on attacks on Palestinean Digital Rights. Radhika Sainath, from Palestine Legal, focuses on intersections between pro-Palestine advocacy and the First Amendment, such as lawsuits against anti-BDS laws, and Diala Shamas from the Center for Constitutional Rights discusses how the First Amendment might interact with financial sanctions and claims of material support for terrorism.
IfRFA presents: Black to the Future The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-06-23 | Speech regulation is traditionally presented as done at the level of legislatures, not street-level bureaucrats. But as modern-day movements like Black Lives Matter take the streets, police are the front line of First Amendment regulations. The future of policing is thus the future of the First Amendment. Prof. Etienne Toussaint discusses his work on “Blackness as fighting words” and how police violence against protesters renders free speech illusory and Prof. Bennett Capers discusses an afrofuturist vision of policing, and with it, a more racially equitable environment for speech and protest. Learn more about the Initiative for a Representative First Amendment (IfRFA) ifrfa.org
Framing Decisions: A Book Talk About Human Advantage in an Age of Technology and Turmoil The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-06-07 | This book talk features Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, a co-author of the recently published book Framers: Human Advantage in an Age of Technology and Turmoil. The book explores how reframing some of the world's most challenging problems, particularly when it comes to technology, can create new opportunities and better outcomes for humans to not just survive but thrive in a world increasingly dominated by technology. Joining Viktor as discussants are Malavika Jayaram, the Executive Director of Digital Asia Hub, and Sabelo Mhlambi, founder of Bantucracy, who provide their own insights about the book.
At the Crossroads of Digital Imperialism & Digital Development The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-05-28 | The global information economy has provided freedom-enhancing affordances for previously marginalized groups, but has also enabled extractive practices in the form of digital imperialism, or as others term it, data colonialism. For so-called “periphery” countries such as those in sub-Saharan Africa, the information economy represents an opportunity to chase the long-elusive quest for industrialization, now dubbed “digital industrialization”, “digital development” or “data for development.” Despite the optimism represented in the digital development policy discourse, the limits and potentials of any kind of development are heavily constrained by background conditions rooted in past global power imbalances and a colonial legacy of non-contextual laws and institutions. This panel examines questions of unequal power in the global digital economy (through U.S corporations, China, and Brussels (i.e. dominance through legal rules), and the ways in which this manifests itself in developing countries in Africa.
Ethan Zuckerman on Mistrust The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-05-27 | Even before the storming of the US Capitol, mistrust in institutions like the press and the federal government was challenging the civic fabric of America. In Ethan Zuckerman's new book, "Mistrust", he explores the deep roots of this mistrustful moment and examines ways individuals can make social change whether or not they have faith in institutions. In conversation with legal scholar and human rights expert Martha Minow, the discussion considers how movements like Black Lives Matter and Me Too are forcing changes in institutions that may lead to rebuilding trust.Learn more: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/mistrust-how-revitalize-civics-moment-low-public-trust-institutions
Restoring US Leadership for Global Health The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-05-26 | Governments around the world failed to contain COVID-19, with more than 3.2 million deaths and counting. Even before the pandemic, the United States was questioning its commitments to global health, its leadership role, and a system of progressive prices for medicines whereby the rich pay more to subsidize access for the poor. The pandemic is far from over: cases are surging today in India, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Poland, Ukraine. Now, with the unprecedented pace of effective vaccine development and a new Administration in Washington, the US is called upon to lead again. Beth Cameron (US National Security Council) and Loyce Pace (US Department of Health and Human Services) discuss plans to restore US leadership for global health.Learn more: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/restoring-us-leadership-global-health
Assembly Project Fellowship Showcase The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-05-24 | This January, to celebrate the fifth year of the Assembly program, we invited five ongoing alumni project teams to return (virtually) to the Berkman Klein Center to participate in the Assembly Project Fellowship. These projects address the complex technology and policy problem spaces that Assembly has tackled since its inception in 2017: the future of digital security, the ethics and governance of AI, and most recently, disinformation. On Monday, May 17th at the program’s final showcase, the returning Assembly projects—Clean Insights, Cloak & Pixel, the Data Nutrition Project, AI Blindspot, and Disinfodex, all moderated by Professor Jonathan Zittrain—shared provocations, tools, and other outputs they have developed over the course of the past few years and during the 2021 Project Fellowship. Learn more about Assembly: https://cyber.harvard.edu/research/assemblyLearn more about the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society: https://cyber.harvard.edu
Foresight and Decolonial Humanitarian Tech Ethics The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-05-12 | Can humanitarian actors play a more intentional role in designing just and equitable digital futures? Could we, in fact, design worlds that don't imagine some figures, particularly populations that we serve in the global south, to merely be passive beneficiaries and outside of the borders of expertise we seek? Instead of looking at digital governance in terms of control, weaving in feminist and decolonial approaches might help liberate our digital futures so that it is a space of safety and of humanity, and through this design new forms of digital humanism.Anasuya Sengupta, Sabelo Mhlambi, Andrew Zolli, and Aarathi Krishnan discuss how humanitarian actors can play a more intentional role in designing just and equitable digital futures.Learn more: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/foresight-and-decolonial-humanitarian-tech-ethics
Governing the Social Media City The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-04-27 | The past few years have highlighted the range of problems that social media seems to amplify: harassment, hate speech, hoaxes, violent extremism, and more. Through traditional governing and research spaces (i.e., governments, academia, NGOs, and corporations), the default response is a focus on content moderation. However, this talk by Sahar Massachi, with Kathy Pham as a respondent, explores what it might be like to think about social media as a city. In this model, how can we rethink our approaches to these issues besides hiring more police to react to the problem? The conversation explores the use of integrity design to more meaningfully consider the underlying structures and how to more holistically address them.
Decoding Stigma: Designing for Sex Worker Liberatory Futures The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-04-13 | What would the Internet look like if it was designed by sex workers? Taking a sex worker lens to tech ethics envisions a radically different online space. Sex workers hold unique insights into the real world impacts of platform capitalism, carceral politics, digital surveillance, and sexual gentrification. Yet sex workers face significant structural barriers to inclusion in both tech and academic spaces. This panel elevates sex worker expertise and offers new ways for regulators, ethicists, policy-makers, and technologists to think about community standards, technologies of violence, data privacy, online safety, and virtual intimacies, and explores how we might code sex worker ethics into future design.Learn more: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/decoding-stigma-designing-sex-worker-liberatory-futures
COVID-19 from the Margins: Pandemic Invisibilities, Policies, and Resistance in the Datafied Society The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-04-05 | In the first pandemic of the datafied society, the disempowered were denied a voice in the heavily quantified mainstream narrative. Diego Cerna Aragón, Shyam Krishna, Silvia Masiero, Stefania Milan, Irene Poetranto, and Emiliano Treré invited participants to explore the pandemic from the perspective of communities and individuals at the margins in the Global South and beyond. It introduces the editorial project of the same title. Learn more: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/covid-19-margins
Reopening Schools: A Seminar for State and Local Leaders The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-03-24 | Since the federal stimulus bill has been signed, one of our nation’s major goals is to safely and rapidly reopen schools using funds allocated to State Departments of Education. This session focuses on some of the more complicated response measures necessary to make schools COVID-safe environments as they reopen: improving indoor ventilation and air quality and rolling out screening testing for staff and students. Implementation experts discuss how to tackle these complex issues in this session, co-hosted by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, Harvard Medical School’s Program in Global Public Policy and Social Change, and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.Participants (in order of appearance)Margaret Bourdeaux, MD, MPHJoseph G. Allen, DSc, MPHTufts University President Anthony P. Monaco, MD, PhDTufts University Vice Provost Caroline Attardo Genco, PhDKwonjune (KJ) Seung, MDThe Honorable Joseph A. Curtatone, JD, Mayor of the City of Somerville, MALearn more about the Berkman Klein Center’s Digital Pandemic Response Policy Practice: https://cyber.harvard.edu/programs/bkc-policy-practice-digital-pandemic-response
BKC Policy Practice on AI Hosts Expert Review of Colombia’s AI Ethical Framework with Focus on Youth The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-03-22 | ...
Hindsight is 2020: Learning From our Past to Build a Better Future The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-03-22 | We are still in the early days of the Internet, but there is a growing sense that it's creating more problems than it’s solving. This wasn’t always the case. There was a time when we shared an overriding optimism in the Internet's capacity to make the world a better place.Creator platforms and social media platforms saw us migrate our social lives to the Internet. While allowing us to share and interact with people we never could have before, it also fragmented our experiences and relationships. There's an endless list of unintended consequences.Today's platforms were inspired by the many that preceded them — but along the way, we started to go astray. How can we make sense of where we are today? What can we understand about the decisions that were made and the structures we had in place? And, most importantly, how can the builders of new platforms that also intend to "bring the world closer together", "give everyone the power to create" or "organize the world's information" do it better? Caterina Fake, founder of Flickr, David Bohnett, founder of Geocities, and Nancy Baym, Sr. Principal Research Manager, Microsoft Research, reflect on the current state of creator platforms and social media as part of a long lineage and series of decisions that have made the Internet what it is today and discuss what today's builders should consider in the next iteration of the web. This conversation is moderated by BKC fellow Jad Esber.
The Breakdown: Lisa Kaplan on domestic disinformation The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-03-11 | From 2016 to 2020, research, civil society organizing efforts, industry planning, and national security responses to disinformation centered on the issue from the perspective that malign influence was propagated almost exclusively by foreign adversaries. This thinking was upended to a large extent in 2020, when disinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the presidential election, and other sustained-attention information events exposed the severity of the threat posed by domestic disinformation. In this episode of the Breakdown, Oumou Ly is joined by Lisa Kaplan to further unpack what accounts for the shift in focus, whether stakeholders might consider adjusting mitigations already deployed to combat disinformation, and assess how current organizing around the disinformation problem can be reevaluated and repurposed to suit new challenges.
Digital Witnesses: The Power of Looking The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-03-08 | Hannane Ferdjani, Nana Mgbechikwere Nwachukwu, and Dr. Allissa Richardson explore how young Black people around the world are utilizing tech tools to track and circumvent oppressive policies by repressive governments. The conversation includes how Black people of Nigeria, Uganda, and the United States are leveraging social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Clubhouse for artistic expressions on political and social issues in their countries. The panel also considers how young digital activists highlight the importance and place of the digital civic space to rights and freedoms offline. Finally, the discussion will address some of the limitations of digital tools in holding repressive governments and institutional bodies accountable. This event was moderated by Ellery Roberts Biddle.Learn more about the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at cyber.harvard.edu
Organizing, Budgeting, and Implementing Wraparound Services for People in Quarantine and Isolation The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-02-26 | People who have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease, or have become infected with it, need to quarantine or isolate from others so that they don’t spread the disease to others. However, staying away from others for weeks at a time is difficult for many people. This seminar addresses how US state and local public health leaders can better organize wraparound services so people can successfully complete periods of isolation or quarantine. Specifically, it will cover the types of services typically needed, how to organize support programs, how to budget for them, and the costs of inaction.The seminar was co-hosted by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, the National Governors Association, Harvard Medical School’s Program in Global Public Policy and Social Change, and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.The seminar addresses: - How quarantine and isolation practices can help stem the COVID crisis- What services people need in order to successfully complete periods of quarantine and isolation- How providing services to people in quarantine and isolation can address inequities in COVID response- What types of quarantine and isolation support programs already exist and what we have learned from them- Estimating the costs of wraparound quarantine and isolation services programs versus the costs of inaction. Learn more about the BKC Policy Practice: Digital Pandemic Response: https://cyber.harvard.edu/programs/bkc-policy-practice-digital-pandemic-response
Covid State of Play: Vaccines and Variants The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-02-19 | Dr. Margaret Bourdeaux, Professor Jonathan Zittrain, and Dr. Vanessa Kerry discuss vaccine roll-out and the impact of new COVID strains from both a domestic and global perspective.
Covid State of Play: Vaccines and Variants The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-02-18 | Join Dr. Margaret Bourdeaux, Professor Jonathan Zittrain, and Dr. Vanessa Kerry as they discuss vaccine roll-out and the impact of new COVID strains from both a domestic and global perspective.
Marginalized Women, Technology, COVID-19, and Intimate Partner Violence The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-02-12 | Increasingly, marginalized women are opting against calling the police in response to intimate partner violence (IPV). Many report going to faith communities and online platforms to seek help — especially since COVID-19 policies were implemented. This event brings together practitioners and experts in law, psychology, technology, religion, communication, and ethics to discuss the concerns specific to intimate partner violence. Is there potential for a public sphere online that can assist victims in surviving their unique suffering?
White Surveillance and Black Digital Publics The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society 2021-02-03 | Dr. Apryl A. Williams and Dr. Allissa V. Richardson address the long-standing history of White vigilante-style surveillance of Black people in public spaces, exploring the role of White women in extending the power of the state to surveil and regulate the movement of Black people in public – tying in Karen actors with historical examples such as Emmitt Till and others. They discuss how memes and other digital artifacts contribute to collective action that responds to this surveillance. Learn more about this event: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/white-surveillance-and-black-digital-publics
