Analysis and Theory

As part of our RE:COMMITTED newsletter, we checked in with individuals and organizations who filed amicus briefs in Gonzalez v. Google. Legal experts from the Knight First Amendment Institute, Public Knowledge, EPIC, the Cato Institute, and elsewhere weighed in.

RSM Assembly Fellow Joe Bak-Coleman and colleagues share new findings that demonstrate how spatio-temporal cues affect collective decision-making.

Building on focus group data from six sub-Saharan African countries, Visiting Scholar Greg Gondwe examines the ways in which individuals consume, believe, and spread misinformation.

RSM Faculty Director Jonathan Zittrain and Jill Lepore test a fascinating idea that just might work: using high school ‘student juries’ to fact-check political ads.

Join Molly White of “Web3 is Going Just Great” fame and RSM Faculty Director Jonathan Zittrain for a wide-ranging fireside chat to ring in the new year. Jan 12, 2023, 12:30 PM ET. Registration required.

RSM Affiliate Aviv Ovadya appears on Casey Newton and Kevin Roose’s “Hard Fork” podcast to discuss platform democracy proposals, which would give users real voice in the platform governance process.

Visiting Scholar Kate Klonick breaks down the Meta Oversight Board’s policy advisory opinion on the cross-check program, which “gave preferential treatment to certain users of the site, even when they openly flouted the site’s community standards.”

Detailing the strategies used to spread online hate and abuse, RSM Assembly Fellow Kesa White argues that platforms must be attentive to the instrumental role of masked rhetoric and memes.

The Institute for Rebooting Social Media (RSM) is accepting applications from outstanding faculty members committed to improving the current state of social media for its 2023-2024 cohort of Visiting Scholars. This interdisciplinary cohort of roughly eight members will produce original research while engaging with RSM faculty, staff, scholars, fellows, students, and the broader Berkman Klein Center (BKC) and Harvard University communities.

Visiting Scholar Yong Jin Park and co-author S. Mo Jones-Jang test psychological mechanisms that explain human responses to AI-driven failures.