WIRED: Weekly Informal REsearch Discussions Spring 2018
Wednesday, February 28th
KMC 8-170
Lunch will be available at 12:15 pm. The seminar begins at 12:30 pm.
"The Role of Internet Platforms in Mitigating Harmful Content"
Michael Posner
Abstract: While the Internet has provided economic and social benefits for the estimated 3.5 billion people who use it, it is increasingly polluted with harmful content that threatens democratic institutions and human rights around the globe. Two types of harmful content - terrorist incitement and politically motivated disinformation - are particularly relevant and potentially dangerous. ISIS and other terrorist groups have exploited social media in an unprecedented manner to recruit new members and incite violence. Politically motivated disinformation has become the new weapon in international conflict where state-sponsored false news spreads through online platforms and undermines political processes across borders.
International law has yet to develop regulatory mechanisms to stem the flow of harmful content and protect users’ rights online. When proposed, Internet platform companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft have generally resisted government content regulation because many states would seek to censor dissenting views or use such regulation as a means of state control, ultimately undermining free speech and privacy rights online. In the absence of state or international regulation, it is incumbent on Internet platform companies to assume an active self-governance role. However, Internet platforms have traditionally asserted that they are not ‘arbiters of the truth’ or editors/publishers but rather facilitators that merely provide the infrastructure that enables users to communicate, access to information, and do business online. In reality, the platforms play a role that exists somewhere between these two poles.
We recently conducted a study examining companies’ own activities which suggests that they may be able to enhance current strategies and develop new, effective self-governance mechanisms to counter the flood of false information and terrorist content. Given their centrality to the flows of information and communication worldwide, they are in a unique position, and bear a unique responsibility – to advance democratic principles and the cause of human rights. The challenge is to develop substantive standards and metrics that are consistent with international human rights protections and provide companies with clear guidance about the role they can and should play in this arena.
Bio: Michael H. Posner is the Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance at NYU’s Stern School of Business. He is the Director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at the School, the first-ever human rights center at a business school. Prior to joining NYU Stern, Posner served in the Obama Administration from 2009-2013 as Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. In 2010 he chaired the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. From 1978 to 2009, he led Human Rights First, a New York-based human rights advocacy organization.
Posner is recognized as a leader and expert in advancing a rights-based approach to national security, challenging the practice of torture, combating discrimination, and refugee protection. He is a frequent public commentator on these issues, and has testified dozens of times before the U.S. Congress. As Assistant Secretary, Posner traveled extensively, representing the U.S. Government to foreign officials and representatives of civil society in countries of strategic importance to the United States, including China, Russia, Egypt, Burma, Bahrain, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, among many others.
Throughout his career, Posner has been a prominent voice in support of human rights protections in global business operations in the manufacturing supply chain, the extractives industry, and the information and communications technology sector. He received his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley Law School (Boalt Hall) in 1975, and a B.A. with distinction and honors in History from the University of Michigan in 1972.