Institutions to Tackle Internet Governance and Policy Issues

• By Rhea Kelly
• 11/20/19

Twenty-two universities, think tanks and advocacy organizations are delving into policy issues around technology and the internet, funded by more than $3.5 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The research will cover topics such as content moderation by social media companies, antitrust enforcement in big tech and the proliferation of disinformation online, according to a news announcement. The goal: to "help meet the urgent needs of federal lawmakers and other decision-makers as they shape the future of the internet, as the impact of technology on our society and democracy becomes ever more significant."

"These issues are moving faster than we can evaluate and analyze them. We need to close the knowledge gap, if our society is going to make smart decisions about how to ensure technology strengthens democracy rather than weakening it," said Sam Gill, vice president at Knight Foundation, in a statement. "Knight is investing in and supporting this research to ensure that a diverse range of views and a body of real evidence informs urgent policy debates. How we answer the questions of today will shape the American democracy of tomorrow."

"The nation is facing a crisis in internet governance along multiple dimensions," commented Ramsi Woodcock, an assistant professor in the University of Kentucky College of Law with a secondary appointment in the Department of Management in the Gatton College of Business and Economics, who is leading one of the Knight-funded research projects. "We have privacy problems, ranging from data breaches to exploitation of data on users by Google and Facebook to inform targeted advertising, personalized pricing and more. We have the problem of how to balance free speech on the internet with regulation of hate speech, attempts to influence our elections by foreign governments, and the like. We have the problem of how to fund journalism in an age in which the advertising revenues newspapers once relied upon are now being captured by Google, Facebook, and Amazon. And then we have problems of market concentration and monopoly …. The internet has created vast economic benefits in a number of industries but has also disrupted old ways in which benefits were distributed within those industries. The solution to many problems of internet governance today lies in finding ways to structure the internet to distribute those benefits more equitably. I am delighted the Knight Foundation has chosen to support this emerging approach to internet governance."

The full list of grant recipients is:

• American Antitrust Institute ($100,000), to research the "reach, capability and effectiveness of antitrust enforcement … and develop approaches to encourage more vigorous application of antitrust laws";
• American Enterprise Institute ($400,000), for a new digital governance project aimed at "helping policymakers understand the key questions and issues at the intersection of technology and public policy";
• Berkeley Center for Law and Technology ($40,000), to support a symposium on "the roles of technology in internet law and policy" as well as an accompanying seminar and workshop;
• Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University ($250,000), to "support the launch of a refined and expanded version of the Assembly initiative focused on online disinformation";
• Duke University Center on Law & Tech ($75,000), for research that "explores the applicability of the principles and priorities of traditional media and public utility regulation to the regulatory framework applied to social media platforms and associated data";
• Economic Security Project ($250,000), for research on "the impacts of economic concentration among technology companies";
• German Marshall Fund ($175,000), for legal and policy research "to develop practical policy responses to major challenges that have emerged in the digital economy";
• Kate Klonick, St. John’s University Law School ($40,000), "to support research on emergent legal implications of digital platforms";
• Lincoln Network ($250,000), for its annual "Reboot American Innovation" conference on innovation policy and governance, as well as the launch of an innovators fellowship;
• New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights ($100,000), to develop "an empirical study of content moderation on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and its role in their business models, along with a set of practical recommendations for its improvement, particularly focusing on the current system of outsourcing content moderators";
• Public Knowledge ($250,000), "to develop a proposal for a market-based mechanism to improve online information that would be funded by dominant digital platforms";
• The Rutgers Institute for Information Policy & Law at Rutgers Law School ($150,000), for research around speech on digital platforms, "with a focus on transparency and the First Amendment and global speech implications of platform governance around content moderation, amplification and monetization";
• Santa Clara University School of Law ($150,000), for research and policy proposals on "intermediary liability for content on digital platforms";
• Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School ($100,000), for research and policy proposals around "privacy, competition among technology companies and government oversight of the internet";
• Stanford University ($150,000), to support research on "questions of technology, democracy and governance, specifically engaging with the critical questions surrounding content moderation, antitrust and competition policy";
• UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry ($125,000), for research on "content moderation, discrimination and governance of the commercial internet from the perspective of marginalized and underrepresented populations";
• University of California, Irvine Law School ($170,000), for research on "the destabilizing effects of digital speech on American democracy and models of self-regulation and multi-stakeholder governance of content moderation on digital platforms";
• University of Iowa Law School ($100,000), for legal research that "applies principles from constitutional law and institutional political science to the challenges of platform governance";
• University of Kentucky College of Law/Gatton College of Business and Economics ($100,000), to support research that "applies distributive justice theory to questions of internet governance";
• University of Pennsylvania Law School Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition ($350,000), for "research and policy development on digital vertical integration and the competitive advantages of scale in the digital economy";
• Utah State University Center for Growth and Opportunity ($250,000), for a project applying "experimental economics as a tool for policy analysis to understand how content moderation policies are affecting user behavior and what responsibilities platforms have moderating misinformation"; and
• Yale University ($50,000), to support research on "economically coherent regulatory solutions for digital platforms that protect consumers and local content markets."

The institutions were selected through an ongoing open funding opportunity focused on expanding "fundamental research on the norms, rights and responsibilities that govern digital services, in particular, social media." For more information, visit the Knight Foundation site.