“Join us online for a talk with André Brock, author of Distributed Blackness: African American Cybercultures, in conversation with Data & Society’s Director of Research Sareeta Amrute as part of Data & Society’s classic Databite series. Brock’s book asks where Blackness manifests in the ideology of Western technoculture. Using critical technocultural discourse analysis (Brock, 2018), Afro-optimism, […]
“On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order threatening to revoke CDA 230 protections, which would expose social media companies to increased liability for content that is posted on their sites. This comes on the heels of Twitter, last week, fact-checking two misleading tweets from the president about mail-in voting. Critics of the executive order […]
“On Twitter and Facebook, hundreds of posts are circulating saying that George Floyd is not actually dead. Conspiracy theorists are baselessly arguing that George Soros, the billionaire investor and Democratic donor, is funding the spreading protests against police brutality. And conservative commentators are asserting with little evidence that antifa, the far-left antifascism activist movement, coordinated the riots and […]
“Naomi Klein and LLana James lay out the epic stakes of the growing struggles around data, technology, AI and COVID-19. Power, race(ism), and money shape every development related to big tech: who owns it, how and why it gets used. What do we need to consider during the pandemic if privacy, human rights and universal […]
“The International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM) is a forum for researchers from multiple disciplines to come together to share knowledge, discuss ideas, exchange information, and learn about cutting-edge research in diverse fields with the common theme of online social media. This overall theme includes research in new perspectives in social theories, […]
“While disinformation is not new to politics, today’s technologies enable political actors to manipulate the information ecosystem at scale and with great speed. Through massive networks of fake accounts, junk news sites, and the strategic use of conspiracy theories, half-truths, and falsehoods, authoritarian regimes and others are suffocating and dividing the public square. In the […]
“The proliferation of COVID-19 disinformation and misinformation on the internet has increased denial and uncertainty about the outbreak across the internet, while hateful content and speech has further stoked xenophobia and racism. Moreover, social media platforms from Facebook (including Instagram and Whatsapp) and Twitter to Google and YouTube, platforms are facing increased pressure to quickly […]
“The economic crisis caused by COVID-19 will further strengthen big tech’s hold over the economy and society, without intervention. Already, small businesses and retail outlets across the country are in a free fall as the result of social distancing measures, leaving Amazon to gain an even larger share of the marketplace. Meanwhile, local restaurants struggling […]
What do today’s college students think about free expression on campus, and how do they understand the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment? How has COVID-19 changed the way college students speak out? We’re talking with Dr. Wayne Frederick, president of Howard University, and Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America. They’ll share insights on how […]
COVID-19 has had a profound effect on how communities connect. Shelter-in-place policies have shifted the majority of our social interactions online, driving the transition to the digital public square. What are the trends and opportunities for cities, planners and technologists as they seek to engage residents and support civic participation? A discussion of what civic […]