Welcome to the Tow-Knight Center Initiative in Internet Studies newsletter where we’re elevating information ecosystem research, critical tech perspectives, what we’re reading, upcoming events and opportunities, and more.
Tow-Knight Center’s Initiative in Internet Studies recently published a piece reviewing the history of internet ethics and principles. This broad overview introduced critical questions about ethical design, societal structures, and research frameworks that the Internet Initiative seeks to answer with interdisciplinary perspectives. The issues I intend to dig into will vary, from informed consent and data deanonymization to community engagement and social science partnerships with the platforms, to name a handful.
Police Abolitionists Are Building a Dispatch App To Replace 911 | Vice Motherboard | Ella Fassler
The nonprofit organization Raheem, founded by Brandon Anderson, created the nation’s first independent, online police reporting service in 2017. In October 2021, they switched to a tech alternative that aims to replace 911 emergency calls, “harnessing the power of community and technology to reimagine safety and create a world without police.” The dispatch app, currently in beta, lets anyone request assistance from first responders without summoning the police.
Raheem is organizing a nationwide emergency response effort called the People and Technology for Community Health (PATCH) Network, with about 40 groups and individuals, including “abolitionist organizations, mobile crisis units, social services, and advocates that support communities that are over-policed and under-invested in.”
How Instagram fails to act on 9 in 10 reports of misogyny in DMs| Center for Countering Digital Hate | April 6, 2022
Despite Instagram’s claim that they act on hate speech, including misogyny, homophobia, and racism; nudity or sexual activity; graphic violence; and threats of violence, CCDH researchers found that the platform failed to act on 90% of abuse sent via direct message to the women involved in their study. They also uncovered several barriers to reporting abusive DMs including if it's sent via voice notes or being able to download evidence of abusive content. They conclude that Instagram systematically failed to enforce appropriate sanctions and remove those who break its rules.
Developing an Online Data Ethics Module Informed by an Ecology of Data Perspective | April 2022
Tang, X., Mendieta, E. & Litzinger, T.A. Science and Engineering Ethics, 28, Article number: 21 (2022) |This paper describes the development of a module, which includes concepts, cases, policies, and best practices, to support the teaching of ethical data practice. Based on a user-oriented design approach and a moral literacy framework, the module was designed to be used in different courses and co-curricular activities for students of varying levels of competence to improve their ability to identify and analyze ethical problems associated with the handling of research data.
Data Brokers and privacy
Last year, Justin Sherman, a cyber policy fellow at Duke University’s Technology Policy Lab, published a report that examined 10 major data brokers and the highly sensitive data they hold on U.S. individuals. His work was featured on the April 10th episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Sherman’s paper concludes with policy implications for the United States — including ways this sort of data collection, aggregation, selling, and sharing threatens civil rights, national security, and democracy.
What We’re Reading
The Techlash and Tech Crisis Communication by Dr. Nirit Weiss-Blatt provides an in-depth analysis of the evolution of tech journalism and reveals the “inside story” of the Techlash. It shows how Big Tech companies defend themselves from scrutiny by attempting to reduce their responsibility. From employee activism to political pushback, the ramifications are growing...
Contemporary journalism faces a crisis of trust that threatens the institution and may imperil democracy itself. Critics and experts see a renewed commitment to local journalism as one solution. But a lasting restoration of public trust requires a different kind of local journalism than is often imagined, one that engages with and shares power among all sectors of a community.
Andrea Wenzel models new practices of community-centered journalism that build trust across boundaries of politics, race, and class and prioritize solutions while engaging the full range of local stakeholders. Informed by case studies from rural, suburban, and urban settings, Wenzel’s blueprint reshapes journalism norms and creates vigorous storytelling networks between all parts of a community.
Envisioning a portable, rather than scalable, process, Wenzel proposes community-centered journalism that, once implemented, will strengthen lines of local communication, reinvigorate civic participation, and forge a trusting partnership between media and the people they cover.
Research Opportunity
The Institute for Rebooting Social Media, a three-year research initiative addressing social media’s most urgent problems, is looking to develop and demonstrate what a healthy information ecosystem could look like. They’re assembling an interdisciplinary cohort, RSM Assembly Fellows, from across sectors — including designers, engineers, policy experts, advocates, and creators — who are building projects that help reimagine the digital social space to better support democratic governance.
If you have a powerful idea, project, or plan — or parts of one — for an intervention in this space, or if you’re looking to make a more direct impact in the public interest, the RSM Assembly Fellowship might be for you. Deadline to apply: Friday, May 6, 11:59p ET.
Upcoming Tech and Media Events
Monday — Friday, April 25–29, 7–9p ET [Virtual]|Black Tech Policy Week is a free and live virtual gathering that places Black Lives at the epicenter of tech policy. From Public Interest Technology, Broadband Infrastructure Dollars, Black Digital Entrepreneurship, and Municipal Black Tech Ecosystems, this week cultivates Black joy for Black futures.| Hosted by the #BlackTechFutures Research Institute| Register here
Wednesday, April 27, 6 — 8p PT [In-person]| Join the Tony Blair Institute and All Tech Is Human for an evening of networking in San Francisco as we convene global organizations and professionals who are passionate about an international tech policy community. This event is free but space is limited | Register here
Thursday, April 28, 12:30— 2p ET [Virtual] |Hosted by the Robert Zicklin Center for Corporate Integrity, Professor Abbey Stemler and Professor Ira Rubinstein will discuss the challenges presented by big technology companies leveraging microtargeting to mobilize their users to take tech-friendly political action, focussing on the effects this relatively new form of political power has on individual autonomy and deliberative democracy. | Register here
Tow-Knight Research Survey
We’re expanding our interdisciplinary understanding of the web by surveying researchers across industry and academia. The information gathered here will help the Tow-Knight Center shape its newsletter and any future program development.
