Integrity Institute

New article: "We Worked on Election Integrity at Meta. The EU -- and All Democracies -- Need to Fix the Feed Before It's Too Late" Resident Fellow Matt Motyl, Ph.D. and Chief Research Officer Jeff Allen published a new article in Tech Policy Press on their experiences working in tech on safeguarding elections and combating threats to democracies around the world. This piece highlights platform vulnerabilities and the actions that platforms can take that platforms know work because they have in past elections. With 4.1 billion people voting in 64+ countries this year, it is critical for platforms to take protective actions. In this article, we discuss: - The role of algorithms in spreading harmful civic content - The risks posed by fake accounts and engagement-based ranking systems - Insights from our work on mitigating algorithmic risks - The need for robust regulatory actions, like those under the EU's Digital Services Act, to ensure platforms are accountable and transparent Social media companies have the tools to make elections safer. With dozens of elections on the horizon, now is the time to demand change and protect our democracies. The link to the full-text may be found in the comments section.

In case you missed our chief research officer Jeff Allen at this week's European Digital Media Observatory conference, fear not! He's staying in #Brussels for next week's #CPDP conference ⤵️ https://lnkd.in/dEAYuFs

Our research team has made it to Brussels! 🇧🇪 If you see our research team at the European Digital Media Observatory conference, please do say hello!

What are the steps to writing a great Content Policy for your platform? We've recently shared our Content Policy template. But how should you organize the writing and launch of a policy for your platform? The Integrity Institute just published a very interesting white paper on "Best Practices for Developing & Launching Content Policies on your Platform". Congratulations to the experienced writers: Alice Goguen Hunsberger, Sabrina Pascoe, Cathryn W., Nathalia Watkins, Abhi Chaudhuri, Natsuki Y., and Júlia Henriques Souza for sharing their experience from Google, Meta, TikTok, Grindr, and Discord. In the White Paper, you'll find the 6 key elements for launching platform policies: 1. Research and Development, 2. Getting cross-functional buy-in, 3. Training content moderators, 4. Training machine-learning (ML) models, 5. Launching your policy, 6. Quality assurance and post-launch reporting. Find the links to the white paper and our free template in the comments to get started on your policy journey 👇

Which platform design solutions best minimize risk to election integrity and social cohesion going into Election 2024? Check out the insights from Prosocial Design Network's last event on election integrity, featuring the brilliant minds Glenn E. from Integrity Institute, Kaili L. from Accountable Tech, Nicole Schneidman from Protect Democracy, and Ravi Iyer from the Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making. Very much co-authored by the fantastic Julia Kamin! Thanks, Julia 🚀 I tell everyone, but if you're not subscribed to PDN, do it -- their events and community are incredibly valuable to those working in the deliberative democracy and public interest technology spaces.

A few collected reads from the last week: - Reddit published a 'public content policy' on what happens with users' content -- what they will or won't sell, re-uses they will allow or try to disallow. It's more clearly detailed than I've seen stated by other companies, worth a look. https://lnkd.in/di55Ce-W - Researchers blog at the Council on Foreign Relations about 'tiered defense' against AI-generated misinformation. In short, watermarks are not enough. https://lnkd.in/dKdyZgqs - A nice new best practices paper from the Integrity Institute on developing and launching platform policies. Great for people new to the task, experienced pros looking for help articulate hard problems or justifying time/people/resources. Also well-written enough for anyone looking to better understand this field. https://lnkd.in/dA-yw6zd

I'm excited to be en route to Brussels where I will be presenting some of my work to the European Digital Media Observatory along with some of my colleagues from the Integrity Institute. More information found in the comments below.

I’m thrilled to share my first piece in the Harvard Law Review which focuses on Congress’s (re)introduction of the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act (PATA) — a law granting academics and researchers access to the internal datasets of social media platforms on behalf of the public interest. In it, I argue that while some level of transparency around social media companies’ operations may be desirable, several provisions in PATA might not stand up to constitutional scrutiny given the First Amendment concerns they raise and the Court’s full tilt towards free speech absolutism in cases like 303 Creative. And that public-private partnerships that promote standards for user safety — the likes of which some government bodies like the SEC, FTC, and even the EU Commission have adopted — present a more collaborative, less litigious path forward. This piece shouldn’t be read as an indictment of transparency laws. Indeed, as many of the platforms recognize, transparency is important. Instead, it should be understood as a call for collaboration amongst the platforms, government, and independent professional groups like the Integrity Institute to begin drafting standards for what safer internet platforms should look like. Such an approach might be better than broad reporting and disclosure mandates, given those standards would draw on the specialized expertise of platforms and professional groups, and can aid lawmakers in crafting targeted regulations which promote users’ interests. I want to thank my faculty reviewers including, Professors Minow, Feldman, Keller, and Chander; as well as my fellow editors, particularly Ed Jung, Ned Bless, Elias Neibart, and Bianca C., for helping me take this piece from 0 to 1. If you’re interested in chatting through the piece more, feel free to reach out!

Today the Integrity Institute published the Best Practices for Developing & Launching Content Policies for your Platform white paper, in which I provided a small and humble contribution :) As someone relatively new to the content policy world, it was amazing to be with a group of experienced, knowledgeable, and kind people who answered all my why's, how's, and what-if's. Hope you all enjoy reading this as much as the group enjoyed writing it. Shoutout to my II colleagues Sabrina Pascoe (the one who got all of this off the ground), Cathryn W., Nathalia Watkins, Alice Goguen Hunsberger, Abhi Chaudhuri, Natsuki Kimura, and the II team who gave us the space to share this work with the world. https://lnkd.in/dHnu-xX9