Broadband Breakfast Live Online on Wednesday, July 15, 2020 — Public Input on Platform Algorithms: The Role of Transparency and Feedback in Information Technology

This panel will consider what role governments have, or should have, in reacting to the power of tech platforms vis-à-vis their role in public discourse. It truly aims to consider the pros and cons of government and public involvement and engagement in pushing platforms to adopt greater transparency about the use of their algorithms.

WATCH HERE, or on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. 

Panelists include:

• Nicol Turner-Lee, Director, Brookings Center for Technology Innovation
• Nathalie Maréchal, Senior Policy Analyst, Ranking Digital Rights
• Harold Feld, Senior Vice President, Public Knowledge
• Drew Clark (Moderator), Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Panelist resources

• “Brookings Panelists Emphasize Importance of Addressing Biases in Artificial Intelligence Technology,” Broadband Breakfast, June 19, 2020
• Articles about Brookings Institution and Nicol Turner-Lee in Broadband Breakfast
• “Ranking Digital Rights Project Seeks to Compare Privacy and Free Expression by Big Tech and Internet Companies,” Broadband Breakfast, September 5, 2019
• “Social Media is Lowering the Quality of Our Information, Say Ranking Digital Rights Panelists,” Broadband Breakfast, May 27, 2020
• “Social Media Self-Regulation Has Failed, Say New America Panelists,” Broadband Breakfast, July 7, 2020
• Articles about Ranking Digital Rights and Nathalie Maréchal in Broadband Breakfast
• “Public Knowledge’s Internet Superfund is a Vaccine Against Toxic Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories Run Rampant,” Broadband Breakfast, June 4, 2020
• “Harold Feld Argues That Increased Regulation Will Be More Successful than Breaking Up Big Tech,” Broadband Breakfast, July 15, 2019
• Articles about Public Knowledge and Harold Feld in Broadband Breakfast
• Broadband Breakfast coverage of Section 230

Nicol Turner Lee is a senior fellow in Governance Studies, the director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution and serves as Co-Editor-In-Chief of TechTank. She researches public policy designed to enable equitable access to technology across the U.S. and to harness its power to create change in communities across the world. Her work also explores global and domestic broadband deployment and internet governance issues. She is an expert on the intersection of race, wealth and technology within the context of civic engagement, criminal justice and economic development.

Nathalie Maréchal is the senior policy analyst at Ranking Digital Rights, a non-profit research project that sets global standards to evaluate the human rights compliance of some of the biggest tech and telecommunications companies in the world. She’s an internationally recognized expert on privacy, freedom of expression, human rights and internet policy. Her most recent publications include the “It’s the Business Model” RDR report series, which argues that regulators and advocates should focus on how content is amplified and targeted instead of seeking to hold platforms liable for content posted by their users.

Harold Feld is Public Knowledge’s senior vice president and author of “The Case for the Digital Platform Act,” a guide on what government can do to preserve competition and empower individual users in the huge swath of our economy now referred to as “Big Tech.” For more than 20 years, Feld has practiced law at the intersection of technology, broadband and media policy in both the private sector and in the public interest community. Feld has an undergraduate degree from Princeton University, a law degree from Boston University and clerked for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

This event is part of a three-part event series,“Section 230: Separating Fact From Fiction,” on Broadband Breakfast Live Online that is sponsored by the Computer & Communications Industry Association. 

The three events in the series include:

• Event 1: Wednesday, July 1, 2020, 12 Noon ET — “Content Moderation: How it Works, Why it Works, and Best Practices”
  • This panel will consider how different platforms approach content moderation, comparing reasons for a more active or more laissez-faire approach. It will consider what “best practices” have emerged for ensuring online diversity without permitting online harassment. It will also feature a discussion of how platforms moderate content in the U.S. versus internationally.
• Event 2: Wednesday, July 8, 2020, 12 Noon ET — “Section 230 in an Election Year: How Republicans and Democrats are Approaching Proposed Changes”
  • Is Section 230 the new bugaboo of election years? Will life return to normal in 2021? This panel will explore the combination of forces that have made Section 230 susceptible to political pressure from both sides of the aisle.
• Event 3: Wednesday, July 15, 2020, 12 Noon ET — “Public Input on Platform Algorithms: The Role of Transparency and Feedback in Information Technology”
  • This panel will consider what role governments have, or should have, in reacting to the power of tech platforms vis-à-vis their role in public discourse. It truly aims to consider the pros and cons of government and public involvement and engagement in pushing platforms to adopt greater transparency about the use of their algorithms.

Follow upcoming Broadband Breakfast Live Online events. See also other events in the series on “Section 230: Separating Fact From Fiction,” in Partnership with CCIA.