Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society: Audio Fishbowl

Berkman Klein Faculty Associate, Zeynep Tufekci joins us to talk about her new book, Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. To understand a thwarted Turkish coup, an anti–Wall Street encampment, and a packed Tahrir Square, we must first comprehend the power and the weaknesses of using new technologies to mobilize large numbers of people. An incisive observer, writer, and participant in today’s social movements, Zeynep Tufekci explains in this accessible and compelling book the nuanced trajectories of modern protests—how they form, how they operate differently from past protests, and why they have difficulty persisting in their long-term quests for change. Tufekci speaks from direct experience, combining on-the-ground interviews with insightful analysis. She describes how the internet helped the Zapatista uprisings in Mexico, the necessity of remote Twitter users to organize medical supplies during Arab Spring, the refusal to use bullhorns in the Occupy Movement that started in New York, and the empowering effect of tear gas in Istanbul’s Gezi Park. These details from life inside social movements complete a moving investigation of authority, technology, and culture—and offer essential insights into the future of governance. About Zeynep Zeynep Tufekci is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill at the School of Information and Library Science with an affiliate appointment in the Department of Sociology. She is also currently also a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She was previously an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her research revolves around the interaction between technology and social, cultural and political dynamics. She is particularly interested in collective action and social movements, complex systems, surveillance, privacy, and sociality. For more info on this event visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/luncheon/05/Tufekci

What are the rights of the worker in a society that seems to privilege technological innovation over equality and privacy? How does the law protect worker privacy and dignity given technological advancements that allow for greater surveillance of workers? What can we expect for the future of work; should privacy be treated as merely an economic good that could be exchanged for the benefit of employment? In this talk Berkman Klein fellow Ifeoma Ajunwa looks at how the law and private firms respond to job applicants or employees perceived as “risky,” and the organizational behavior in pursuit of risk reduction by private firms, as well as ethical issues arising from how firms off-set risk to employees. For more info on this event, visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/luncheon/05/Ajunwa

Nighat Dad discusses the state of freedom of expression, privacy, and online harassment in the global south, with a particular focus on Pakistan, where she is based. Dad is the Executive Director of the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF), a nonprofit that seeks to protect the freedom and security of all people online, with a particular focus on women and human rights defenders. In late 2016, DRF launched a cyber harassment hotline, and Dad will present key findings from a recently released report [LINK: http://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/cyber-harassment-helpline-completes-its-four-months-of-operations/] on the first four months of its operation. The report affords up-to-the-moment insights on significant challenges facing internet users in Pakistan and throughout the region. About Nighat Nighat Dad is the Executive Director of Digital Rights Foundation, Pakistan. She is an accomplished lawyer and a human rights activist. Nighat is one of the pioneers who have been campaigning around access to open internet in Pakistan and globally. She has been actively campaigning and engaging at a policy level on issues focusing on Internet Freedom, Women and Technology, Digital Security, and Women’s empowerment. Nighat has been named in TIME's Next Generation Leaders List, and has won Atlantic Council Freedom of Expression Award, and also Human Rights Tulip Award for her work in digital rights and freedom. She is also an Affiliate at Berkman Klien Centre for the year 2016-2017 For more info on this event visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/luncheon/05/Dad

Deemed the modern equivalent of building roads or railways, connecting every person and business to high-speed internet is on the minds of policymakers, advocates, and industry players. Under the leadership of Mr. Jean-Pierre Blais, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (“CRTC”) ruled in December 2016 that broadband internet access is a basic and vital service, thus ensuring that broadband internet joins the ranks of local phone service. The CRTC’s announced reforms will impact over 2 million Canadian households, especially those in remote and isolated areas. The policy aims to ensure that internet download speeds of 50mbps and upload speeds of 10mbps are available to 90% of Canadian homes and business by 2021. Join the Berkman Klein Center and the HLS Canadian Law Student Association as Mr. Blais speaks about broadband, internet, and the future of connectivity in Canada and around the world. About Jean-Pierre Blais Before joining the CRTC, Mr. Blais was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Board Secretariat’s Government Operations Sector. In this capacity, he provided advice on the management oversight and corporate governance of various federal departments, agencies and crown corporations. From 2004 to 2011, he was Assistant Deputy Minister of Cultural Affairs at the Department of Canadian Heritage. While there, he created the Task Force on New Technologies to study the impact of the Internet and digital technologies on Canada’s cultural policies. In addition, he served as Director of the Canadian Television Fund. His responsibilities also included cultural trade policy and international policies and treaties, such as the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expression. As the Director of Investment from 2004 to 2011, he reviewed transactions in the cultural sector under the Investment Canada Act and provided advice to the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Mr. Blais also served as Assistant Deputy Minister of International and Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Canadian Heritage. He played a pivotal role in the rapid adoption of the UNESCO Anti-Doping Convention and in garnering international support for the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Anti-Doping Code. Moreover, he represented the Government of Canada on the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games Bid Corporation. As the CRTC’s Executive Director of Broadcasting from 1999 to 2002, he notably oversaw the development of a licensing framework for new digital pay and specialty services and led reviews of major ownership transactions. He previously was a member of the Legal Directorate, serving as General Counsel, Broadcasting and Senior Counsel. From 1985 to 1991, Mr. Blais was an attorney with the Montreal-based firm Martineau Walker. Mr. Blais holds a Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne in Australia, as well as a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Bachelor of Common Law from McGill University. He is a member of the Barreau du Québec and the Law Society of Upper Canada. His term ends on June 17, 2017. For more info on this event visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2017/04/Blais

The concept of criminal rehabilitation in the digital age is intriguing. How can we ensure proper reintegration into society of individuals with a criminal history that was expunged by the state when their wrongdoings remain widely available through commercial vendors (data brokers) and online sources like mugshot websites, legal research websites, social media platforms, and media archives? What are constitutional and pragmatic challenges to ensure digital rehabilitation? Is there a viable solution to solve this conundrum? About Eldar Eldar Haber is an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) at the Faculty of Law, Haifa University and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He earned his Ph.D. from Tel-Aviv University and completed his postdoctoral studies as a fellow at the Berkman-Klein Center. His main research interests consist of various facets of law and technology including cyber law, intellectual property law (focusing mainly on copyright), privacy, civil rights and liberties, and criminal law. His works were published in various flagship law reviews worldwide, including top-specialized law and technology journals of U.S. universities such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford. His works were presented in various workshops and conferences around the globe, and were cited in academic papers, governmental reports, the media, and U.S. Federal courts. For more info on this event visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2017/04/Haber

UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, David Kaye, is joined in conversation by Nani Jansen Reventlow, a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center and Adviser to the Cyberlaw Clinic, about his upcoming thematic report on digital access and human rights, as well as the most burning issues regarding free speech online and digital rights including encryption, fake news, online gender-based abuse and the global epidemic of internet censorship. More on this event here: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/04/DavidKaye

The law is arguably the least innovative profession in the country. Huge sectors of the economy -- health care, banking, the arts -- face constant churn and upheaval. Law schools steadily march along with a 150-year old approach to legal education, a 50-year old approach to law firm structure, and a stubborn fealty to the billable hour. Huge portions of American society are served badly by the legal profession while the legal establishment does precious little to address the problem. Technology has systematically brought great change to almost every profession - even taxi driving - so the question is when, not if, the law will be roiled by true disruption. Join two HLS graduates who are on the forefront of answering these questions for a provocative and challenging discussion. For more about this event, visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/11/Goyle_Shahdadi

It is important to examine the digital manifestations of misogynoir – or what it means to be a Woman of Color existing in the hegemonic spaces of digital technology. But our conceptual frameworks fail to capture the everyday practices that Women of Color exhibit online. In this talk Kishonna L. Gray discusses the frameworks of Black Digital Feminism, useful to not only examine how structures influence practices, but also tools that have been implemented to resist such hegemony. For more about this event, visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2017/01/Gray

The Data for Justice project is an initiative that aims to make (open) data actionable empowering lawyers, advocates, community organizers, journalists, activists and the general public by developing the tools and frameworks that digest complex databases without losing sight of the ultimate goal: to tell a story that can effect social change and justice. This project is the product of the work of Paola Villarreal, a Berkman Klein Center Fellow as a Data Scientist at the ACLU of Massachusetts and as a 2015 Ford and Mozilla Foundations Open Web Fellow. For more about this event, visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/11/Villarreal

In this talk Aaronson discusses how the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) governs information flows, how its rules could affect internet governance, digital rights, and the open internet, and how to better link policies to promote digital trade with policies to advance digital rights. Aaronson also discusses the rise in digital protectionism and its troubling potential costs to innovation, human rights, and governance. For more about this event, visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2016/10/Aaronson

In 2016, more than a dozen hospitals and healthcare organizations were targeted by ransomware attacks that temporarily blocked crucial access to patient records and hospital systems until administrators agreed to make ransom payments to the perpetrators. Emerging online threats such as ransomware are forcing hospitals and healthcare providers to revisit and re-evaluate the existing patient data protection standards, codified in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that have dictated most healthcare security measures for more than two decades. This talk looks at how hospitals are grappling with these new security threats, as well as the ways that the focus on HIPAA compliance has, at times, made it challenging for these institutions to adapt to an emerging threat landscape. About Dr. Wolff Josephine Wolff is an assistant professor in the Public Policy department at RIT and a member of the extended faculty of the Computing Security department. She is a faculty associate at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society and a fellow at the New America Cybersecurity Initiative. Wolff recieved her PhD. in Engineering Systems Division and M.S. in Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as her A.B. in Mathematics from Princeton University. Her research interests include cybersecurity law and policy, defense-in-depth, security incident reporting models, economics of information security, and insurance and liability protection for computer security incidents. She researches cybersecurity policy with an emphasis on the social and political dimensions of defending against security incidents, looking at the intersection of technology, policy, and law for defending computer systems and the ways that technical and non-technical computer security mechanisms can be effectively combined, as well as the ways in which they may backfire. Currently, she is working on a project about a series of cybersecurity incidents over the course of the past decade, tracing their economic and legal aftermath and their impact on the current state of technical, social, and political lines of defense. She writes regularly about cybersecurity for Slate, and her writing has also appeared in The Atlantic, Scientific American, The New Republic, Newsweek, and The New York Times Opinionator blog. For more information on this event visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/digitalhealth/2017/04/Wolff

Please join us for a discussion with Nani Jansen Reventlow, Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and Associate Tenant at Doughty Street Chambers, on the topic of regional courts in Africa and freedom of expression cases in particular. As the head of the Media Legal Defence Initiative’s global litigation practice, Reventlow led litigation that resulted in the first freedom of expression judgments at the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the East African Court of Justice. She has also led cases before the European Court of Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Committee, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and several African regional courts. For more about this event, visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2016/11/Jansen%20Reventlow

Recent shifts in technology, intellectual property and contract law, and marketplace behavior threaten to undermine the system of personal property that has structured our relationships with the objects we own for centuries. Ownership entails the rights to use, modify, lend, resell, and repair. But across a range of industries and products, manufacturers and retailers have deployed strategies that erode these basic expectations of ownership. Understanding these various tactics, how they depart from the traditional property paradigm, and why some have been embraced by consumers are all crucial in developing strategies to restore ownership in the digital economy. For more about this event, visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/11/Perzanowski

This event is co-sponsored by the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. This talk addresses a range of issues relating to digital incivility with en emphasis on cyber-violence. What are the most common negative behaviors online? How are these perceived and experienced by users? What is cyber-violence? Who does it target? What steps can be taken to prevent such behaviors? How should they be addressed once they've occurred? What challenges does the legal system face when dealing with cyber-violence related offenses? Professor Carrillo draws from the Cyber-Violence Project he co-directs at GW Law School to offer responses to these and related questions. About Arturo Arturo J. Carrillo is Professor of Law, Director of the International Human Rights Clinic, and Co-Director of the Global Internet Freedom & Human Rights Project at The George Washington University Law School. Before joining the faculty, Professor Carrillo served as the acting director of the Human Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, where he was also Lecturer in Law and the Henkin Senior Fellow with Columbia’s Human Rights Institute. Prior to entering the academy in 2000, he worked as a legal advisor in the Human Rights Division of the United Nations Observer Mission to El Salvador (ONUSAL), as well as for non-governmental organizations in his native Colombia, where he also taught international law and human rights. From 2005 to 2010, Professor Carrillo was a senior advisor on human rights to the U.S. Agency on International Development (USAID) in Colombia. Professor Carrillo’s expertise is in public international law; Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and human rights, especially Internet freedom; transitional justice; human rights and humanitarian law; and comparative clinical legal education. He is the author of a number of publications in English and Spanish on these topics. His recent article, "Having Your Cake and Eating It Too? Zero-rating, Net Neutrality and International Law," was published by the Stanford Technology Law Review (Fall 2016). As part of his clinical practice, Professor Carrillo has litigated extensively in U.S. courts and before regional human rights tribunals. Professor Carrillo received a BA from Princeton University, a JD from The George Washington University, and an LLM from Columbia University. For more info on this event visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/node/99846

Outgoing Chair of the Federal Communications Commission Tom Wheeler speaks with Harvard Law School Professor Susan Crawford about his work at the FCC, and where telecommunications might go under the next administration. For more about this event, visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2017/01/Wheeler