Link: Platform://Democracy – Enforcement as a Necessity in Platform Councils

As part of my work with the Hans Bredow Institute, I participated in early 2023 in a Research Clinic focused on Platform Councils. The output of the project, which included four Clinics around the world, is a significant report with numerous fantastic authors that have expertise in platform governance. My own work was published under…

Link: TechPolicy.Press – Tech Firms Take First Step Toward Self-Regulation on Trust & Safety

For Tech Policy Press, I wrote about how the platform industry is thinking about and acting on self-governance, primarily through the lens of the Digital Trust and Safety Partnership (DTSP). The piece looks at DTSP’s first output, a self-assessment report, its next steps and what needs to happen across other stakeholders too for a health…

Link: Brookings – The Digital Services Act’s lesson for U.S. policymakers: Co-regulatory mechanisms

For Brookings Institution’s TechTank, I wrote about the innovation in the DSA, and how one particular piece, co-regulatory mechanisms, can be a great way to start thinking through platform governance issues in the United States.

Report: Applying Multi-Stakeholder Internet Governance to Online Content Management

Between 2019 and 2021 one of my main projects has been a Knight Foundation funded project working with the R Street Institute on translating the ethos and structure of multistakeholder governance from the Internet Governance space to the Speech Governance (of Content Policy) space. In September 2021 our report, written with Chris Riley, finally came…

Link: Brookings – Trump deplatforming decision highlights the impotence of Facebook’s Oversight Board

For Brookings Institution’s TechTank, I wrote a post about the (in)decision of the Facebook Oversight Board on deplatforming former President Trump. Beyond the specifics on the decision, this builds on my previous work on this, the overview of and general  takeaways from the Facebook Oversight Board. I make some very pointed critiques of the Board, Facebook and…

Link: Brookings – Facebook’s Oversight Board makes an imperfect case for private governance

For Brookings Institution’s TechTank, I wrote an overview of and takeaways from the Facebook Oversight Board. I was fortunate to be part of one of its expert meetings in August 2019, and I focused most of my comments while there on the private governance aspect of the process. In this piece I recreate the journey…

Press: BusinessInsider – As Facebook prepares to outsource tough content decisions to its new ‘Supreme Court,’ experts warn it still operates within a dictatorship and can’t legislate a better government

I was quoted in this BusinessInsider article about the Oversight Board, as it ramps up its capacity to hear cases, even though its power is limited.

Webinar: Internet in the Time of Crisis

On August 14th, I was invited to talk about how the Internet worked during prolonged crisis, in a webinar put together by the Internet Law and Policy Foundry and ISOC-DC. Joining an all-star cast of lawyers, technical experts and academics, we talked about everything from infrastructure to social media platforms. A recording of the webinar…

Facebook’s Oversight Board Can’t Intervene, So Stop Asking

This post originally appeared on Techdirt with the title Facebook’s Oversight Board Can’t Intervene, So Stop Asking: As Facebook employees stage a digital walk-out and make their thoughts known about the social media giant’s choice to not intervene in any way on “political posts”, especially those of President Donald Trump, some have called for the newly-created Oversight Board to step up…