In the News
Participation, Civics and Your Next Coffee Maker
This eventually appeared as a response to the article by Ethan Zuckerman “New Media, New Civics?” published in Policy & Internet (2014: vol. 6, issue 2). Dissatisfaction with existing governments, a broad shift to “post-representative democracy” and the rise of...
The Myth of Violent Online Extremism
This originally appeared on the Yale Books blog. The responsibility of social and digital networks in combating terrorism has come under particular scrutiny since the Charlie Hebdo attacks of January 2015. Philip N. Howard, Pax Technica author and commentator on the...
Why the Internet Should Be a Public Resource
Phil Howard commented on CES for the Yale Books blog and argued for the advantages of treating the internet as a public resource. The excitement of this year’s CES—the enormous technology show and tell event that just ended in Las Vegas—was about the “internet of...
Millennials and the Age of Tumblr Activism
Phil Howard contributed to a story in New York Times by Valeriya Safronova about how Tumblr can draw young people into contemporary activism. “Tumblr is kind of like a gateway drug for activism,” said Philip Howard, 44, the principal investigator at the Digital...
Bad News Bots: How Civil Society Can Combat Automated Online Propaganda
This originally appeared in Tech President and was written with Sam Woolley It’s no secret that governments and political actors now make use of social robots or bots—automated scripts that produce content and mimic real users. Faux social media accounts now...