Tech policy is broadly the regulation and governance of current and emerging technologies. This can happen through company and industry policies as well as through government regulations and legislation. As technology continues to touch so many aspects of society, we continue to see tech policy intertwined with technology’s impact on individuals, society and public interest. As a result, tech policy is very multidisciplinary and can cover a wide range of issues from advocacy, freedom of expression, education, health, and online safety just to name a few.
Topics ATIH addresses through its tech policy vertical include current and proposed internet governance efforts, data privacy, disinformation, current and proposed laws and regulations (i.e. General Data Protection Regulation, Digital Services Act, and Online Safety Act, Section 230 in the U.S.) as well as legal interpretations, data governance, and public policy debates on tech-related issues.
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Tech Policy
EDUCATION | LIVESTREAM
All Tech Is Human, Tech Global Institute, and Thuley are pleased to present a series of group discussions with civil society members in a number of Global Majority countries to highlight relevant tech and democracy challenges. Register now!
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Below is a sample of organizations that cover cyber and democracy issue with some of their resources listed. See our Responsible Tech Organizations List under the Tech Policy tabs for a full list of organizations in the area.
Accountable Tech
“Accountable Tech is a nonprofit that advocates for structural reforms to repair our broken information ecosystem and foster a healthier and more equitable democracy. We aim to remove or recalibrate the financial incentive for platforms to spread disinformation, discrimination, hate, extremism, etc. and incentive structural reform that centers and elevates the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. "We are facing a crisis of truth. Accountable Tech advocates for the social media companies at the center of today’s information ecosystem to strengthen the integrity of their platforms and our democracy.”
Resources: Politics of an Antitrust Vote This Fall, Global Implications of EU Digital Reforms, How Big Tech Boosts Autocrats
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
“The ACLU is an non-profit, nonpartisan organization of people who believe in the power of action. We are united by the quest – “We the people dare to create a more perfect union.” Whether in the courts, statehouses, Congress or communities, we fight to defend the rights that the Constitution guarantees to all of us —regardless of who we are, where we come from, whom we love, or what we believe. Together, we take up the toughest civil rights and liberties challenges of our time. We seek to inspire those who want change to become the ones who make change.”
Resource: Privacy and Technology
Africa Digital Rights Hub
“The Africa Digital Rights’ Hub is a not-forprofit think tank registered in Ghana that advances and promotes research and advocacy on digital rights across the African continent. Interested in the impact of digital technology on people living in the Continent, the Hub brings together academic researchers, stakeholders, policy makers, regional and international bodies to address digital rights issues in Africa.”
Resource: ADRH Blog
Asian American Disinformation Table
“The Asian American Disinformation Table is a national table that coordinates research, strategies, policy recommendations, pop culture, messaging interventions, & corporate accountability around issues of domestic & transnational misinformation and disinformation impacting Asian Americans. We are an interfaith, inter-caste, multi-ethnic, multi-language coalition that builds shared intergenerational resilience across Asian American communities. We support individual member organizations working on issues against polarization & harmful narratives, sharing learnings, and coordinating with allies outside the U.S.”
Resource: Power, Platforms and Politics: A Landscape Report on Asian Americans & Disinformation
Center for Humane Technology
“We are a team of deeply concerned technologists, policy experts, and social impact leaders who intimately understand how the tech industry’s culture, techniques, and business models control 21st century digital infrastructure. Together with our partners, we are dedicated to radically reimagining technology for the common good of humanity.”
Resource: Foundations of Humane Technology
Citizen Lab, University of Toronto
“The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, focusing on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security.”
Resource: Citizen Lab Tools and Research
Data for Black Lives
“Data for Black Lives is a movement of activists, organizers, and mathematicians committed to the mission of using data science to create concrete and measurable change in the lives of Black people.”
Resource: D4BL Conference
The Digital Democracy Project
“Our mission is to embed democratic values into the digital governance policies and statutes of nation states and the private corporations that operate the public squares of the 21st century. In service of that goal, we bring good ideas in digital democracy to light, document who’s making a difference, and help codify what’s working to achieve maximum positive public impact. We believe democracy works best when we are best informed, so we seek to educate the public, press, and lawmakers about how and where disruptive technologies strengthen societies instead of dividing them.”
Digital Freedom Fund
“The Digital Freedom Fund supports strategic litigation to advance digital rights in Europe. DFF provides financial support and seeks to catalyse collaboration between digital rights activists to enable people to exercise their human rights in digital and networked spaces.”
Resource: Digital Rights for All
Fight for the Future
“The last decade presented many new challenges and has made uncompromising, strategic organizing, like that of Fight for the Future, ever more essential…We’ve continued to run hard-hitting campaigns that keep runaway Big Tech in check.”
Resource: Projects
Global Disinformation Index
“GDI provides independent neutral and transparent data and intelligence to advise policymakers and business leaders about how to combat misinformation and its creators .”
Resource: Ad-funded Elections Integrity Disinformation
International Institute for Strategic Studies
“For 60 years, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has helped to shape the strategic agenda for governments, businesses, the media and experts across the world. We earn our revenue from the sale of our databases and publications, host-nation support for conferences, corporate sponsorship, research work, consultancy, and donations from private individuals and foundations.”
Resource: Blogs and Podcasts
Internet Freedom Foundation
“The IFF is an Indian digital liberties organisation that seeks to ensure that technology respects fundamental rights. Our goal is to ensure that Indian citizens can use the Internet with liberties guaranteed by the Constitution.”
Resource: Campaigns and Projects
Integrity Institute
“We advance the theory and practice of protecting the social internet, powered by our community of integrity professionals.”
Resources: Resources, Fellows
Knight Foundation
“We are social investors who support a more effective democracy by funding free expression and journalism, arts and culture in community, research in areas of media and democracy, and in the success of American cities and towns where the Knight brothers once published newspapers.”
Resource: Technology and Democracy
McGill University, Center for Media, Technology and Democracy
"The Center produces critical research, policy activism, and inclusive events that inform public debates about the changing relationship between media and democracy, and that ground policy aimed at maximizing the benefits and minimizing the systemic harms embedded in the design and use of emerging technologies.”
Resource: Public Policy and Advocacy Initiatives
New York University, Center for Social Media and Politics
“Through cutting-edge research, NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics works to understand politics, inform public policy, and strengthen democracy in the digital age. Over the past two decades, social media and other digital technologies have transformed our society. It’s made it easier than ever to find information, engage with politics, and connect with people across the globe. But it’s also helped fuel misinformation, enable harassment, and foment polarization, presenting urgent challenges to democratic governance. NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics (CSMaP) is a leading academic research institute studying how this ever-shifting online environment impacts politics, policy, and democracy.”
Resource: Data Collections and Tools
University of Oxford, Oxford Internet Institute
"The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) is a multidisciplinary research and teaching dept at University of Oxford, dedicated to the social science of the Internet."
Resource: Industrialized Disinformation 2020 Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation
Partnership for Public Service
"We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that is building a better government and a stronger democracy.”
Protect Democracy
Protect Democracy is a cross-ideological non-profit group dedicated to defeating the authoritarian threat, building more resilient democratic institutions, and protecting our freedom and liberal democracy. Our experts and advocates use litigation, legislative and communications strategies, technology, research, and analysis to stand up for free and fair elections, the rule of law, fact-based debate, and a better democracy for future generations.”
Resource: Shaping the Democracy of Tomorrow
Ranking Digital Rights
“Evaluating the world's most powerful digital platforms and telecommunications companies on their commitments to #digitalrights."
Resources: Recommendations for governments and policymakers, 2020 RDR Corporate Accountability Index
Tech Policy Press
“The goal for Tech Policy press is to provoke new ideas, debate and discussion at the intersection of technology, democracy and policy. We invite you to submit essays, opinion, reporting and other forms of content for consideration.”
Resources: Podcast, Policy Tracker
Tony Blair Institute for Global Change
“We’re working to reinvigorate the centre ground of politics, reframing debates and providing solutions to issues from extremism to the challenges presented by the technological revolution.”
Resources: Technology and Digitalisation
University of California - Berkeley, Center for Effective Global Action
CEGA’s mission is to improve lives through innovative research that inspires positive social change...CEGA supports activities at all stages of the innovation research-policy impact cycle...With close ties to Silicon Valley, we embrace the transformative power of technology while recognizing that it is not a silver bullet.”
Resources: CEGA-funded research projects
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Podcasts
Accidental Tech
Data & Society
Offline with Jon Favreau
Pivot
The Sunday Show
Tech’d Up
Technically Human
Tech Policy Grind
Trust in Tech
WSJ Tech News Briefing
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