Press

"Daphne Keller, director of the Stanford Cyber Policy Center Program on Platform Regulation, agreed with the value of allowing companies to form their own unique policies for content moderation.

“On the internet writ large, different platforms [are] converging on the same policies…and I think it's a bad idea,” she said. “There are reasons that Reddit has one set of policies and Facebook has a different set of policies and that's a good thing. It gives us a diversity and plurality of discursive communities to join.”" Read more about Without Section 230, Tech Platforms Would be Afraid to Either Leave Content Up or Take it Down, Say Panelists

"“The devil will be in the details of implementation,” Jen King, the director of consumer privacy at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, told Recode. “For example, will users understand what’s being asked of them with respect to opting-in to data tracking? Will Apple educate their users about the different practices they are highlighting in the App Store feature summaries? A concern I have is that they give their users a set of new tools without sufficiently explaining what they are for and how they work.”" Read more about Apple is finally making it easy to hide from trackers

"“Every platform can have a right to its own editorial policy up until the point where they're the only platform, or close enough to being the only platform, and then the rules should be different,” said Keller in a phone interview. “We do have a history of saying that if you’re the private owner of the speech infrastructure that everybody depends on, and you're a monopoly or close to one, then the government can regulate you in these special ways. Read more about Americans Want Transparency In Content Moderation Decisions On Social Media

"My primary worry about corporate information-gathering on individuals has always been about governments' ability to access the information the companies collect. This is especially a concern with facial recognition data, given the severe privacy ramifications of putting a pervasive surveillance system in law enforcement's hands. When tech companies say they won't sell their FR tech to law enforcement, that sounds nice, but it means nothing unless there are strict controls on "downstream" access by law enforcement. Read more about What actions could companies or lawmakers take to quell fears about the use of facial recognition technology?

"“Looking ahead to the November election, we are aware that the Covid-19 pandemic, widespread protests and other significant events can provide fodder for nation state sponsored disinformation campaigns,” Richard Salgado, the director of law enforcement and information security at Google, said during a House Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday." Read more about Facebook, Google, Twitter Pledge Vigilance on Disinformation

""It's tricky," said Jen King, director of consumer privacy at Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society, noting how ubiquitous Big Tech's tools have become. "When you're sharing information, you have to expect that anyone else is going to be able to access it. Whether that's the police or counterprotesters, you can't just assume it will only be the people who are interested in your cause."" Read more about Relying on Silicon Valley to organize makes some protesters uneasy

This week on Galley, we're hosting a series of roundtable discussions about digital privacy, competition, algorithmic accountability and proposals for a new social contract for online platforms. These discussions were sparked in part by the publication of a new book from Dipayan Ghosh, who leads the Digital Platforms & Democracy Project at Harvard and has worked at both Facebook and the White House as a technology and public policy advisor. Read more about Terms of Disservice: A roundtable on digital privacy

"For all the hurdles and drawbacks, contact tracing apps are well worth using, says Albert Gidari, consulting director of privacy at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. They may not solve every problem, but they can vastly speed up the process of tracking and tracing. If not enough people have smartphones or don’t want to download apps, that’s an argument for more resources and education, he suggests.

“Whatever the theoretical problem, the benefit is obvious: Bluetooth contact tracing saves lives,” Gidari says." Read more about Contact Tracing Apps Aren't Going to Solve the Pandemic