Wonks and War Rooms

In this final episode, our host Elizabeth reflects on the six episodes of Season 5, which dug into tech, politics, and policy with guests from the Berkman Klein Centre at Harvard and Center for Information Technology and Public Life (CITAP) at UNC-Chapel Hill. She recaps highlights of each episode, looks at what they had in common, and where we need to dig a little deeper.

Additional resources:

Here are direct links to this season’s episodes, including show notes and annotated transcripts:

• Episode 1: Knowledge Mobilization for Policy Impact with Petra Molnar
• Episode 2: Image Manipulation with Juliana Castro-Varón
• Episode 3: Meta Oversight Board with Julie Owono
• Episode 4: Big Tech and Political Campaigns with Becca Rinkevich
• Episode 5: The Uses of AI in Canadian Politics (Live Event)
• Episode 6: Antitrust and Big Tech with Matt Perault

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Matt Perault is the director of the Center on Technology Policy at UNC Chapel Hill, and previously worked at Facebook, as the head of the global policy development team. This episode he and Elizabeth get into the weeds on antitrust competition laws, monopolies and big tech. They talk about how monopolies can be both good and bad, the goals of antitrust laws, and the complication of these laws applying across different regions of the world. They also discuss some of the antitrust lawsuits in big tech right now, and the various stakeholders involved.

Additional resources: 

• Off the top, Elizabeth mentions this crash course video about monopolies and anti-competitive markets.
• Matt uses a few terms related to the antitrust context: 
  • interoperability - the ability for users to use different devices or systems interchangeability, for example using the same cable to charge different types of cell phones
  • nondiscrimination principle - an antitrust principle that obliges companies to be neutral vis-à-vis other competitors and service providers in their industry
  • consumer welfare standard - a guideline that prohibits actions by companies that negatively impact consumers
• Matt brings up a number of antitrust cases throughout the episode: 
  • FTC suit to block a proposed merger between Meta and Within Unlimited
  • UK looking into Microsoft bid to buy video game company Activision
  • 16 U.S. states and territories filed a suit against Google over ad technology practices
  • U.S. Justice Department filed a suit on the same issue at the federal level
  • FTC looking at Amazon for monopolistic business practices
  • Dispute between Apple and Epic Games 
  • House Judiciary Committee did a big a investigation of big tech companies
• There are also a few big pieces of antitrust legislation that come up. 
  • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — Europe
  • Competition Act — Canada
  •  Please visit our website for complete show notes with additional links.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

In this special episode Elizabeth is joined by our panel of experts — Samantha Bradshaw, Wendy Chun, Suzie Dunn, Fenwick McKelvey and Wendy H. Wong —  for a roundtable discussion on how artificial intelligence is being deployed in Canadian political contexts. The topics range from mis- and disinformation, facial recognition, synthetic media, deep fakes and voice cloning to technical terms like GANs and large language models. We discuss the ways identities can be manipulated through AI, how generative AI creates content that dilutes our trust in images and media, and how AI relies on past data to make decisions about our future. We also look at potential solutions to all these challenges, including how to develop tools and techniques to detect disinformation, and questions around regulating AI while also enabling its use in creative expression.

This episode is packed with more resources than we can list below, so take a look through the annotated transcript for more links!

Additional resources: 

• The discussion focuses a lot on synthetic media — deep fakes, voice cloning, generative AI — and how AI is used to create fake images, videos or sound bites of politicians, as well as fake historical or political events. Some increasingly popular tools include Midjourney, Dall-E, Stable Diffusion and ChatGPT.
• Suzie brings up the challenge of regulating these uses of AI. Take a look at her paper Identity Manipulation: Responding to Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.
• Samantha talks about tools and techniques to detect AI-enabled dis-information, propaganda and manipulation. Take a look at this guide that she co-authored: Combating Information Manipulation: A Playbook for Elections and Beyond. 
• Wendy C. outlines some of the challenges related to the underlying data on which AI relies and the flawed ways that AI systems make sense of that data. For a deep dive, take a look at her book Discriminating Data: Correlation, Neighborhoods, and the New Politics of Recognition.
• Wendy W. asked the question: what does the public need to know to decide what kinds of automation or machine learning or AI we're comfortable with as a society? Here’s an op-ed she co-wrote for the Globe and Mail on this. And keep your eye out for her upcoming book: We, the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age.
• Fenwick points out that people have promised computers would disrupt politics since the 1960, and part of the work is understanding which challenges are actually new. Check out his book about the history of programs that run in the background of our computers: Internet Daemons - Digital Communications Possessed. 

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Get ready for a special live edition of Wonks and War Rooms! From deep fakes to detecting disinformation or harassment to voting predictions and sentiment analysis, AI-enabled technologies are playing an increasing role in democratic election processes. Join us on April 3 at 12 p.m. ET for a roundtable discussion on the use of artificial intelligence in politics. Our host Elizabeth Dubois, and a panel of experts in the fields of politics, public policy, and new technologies will help break down how artificial intelligence is being deployed in Canadian political contexts. 

Find out more and register for this free event.

Guest panelists:

• Samantha Bradshaw (American University)
• Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (Simon Fraser University)
• Suzie Dunn (Dalhousie University)
• Fenwick McKelvey (Concordia University)
• Wendy H. Wong (UBC Okanagan)

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Becca Rinkevic is the Director of the Institute for Rebooting Social Media and formerly the Deputy Director of Digital Strategy at the White House under President Joe Biden. This week she and Elizabeth are tackling the role of big tech in election campaigns and political advertising. They talk about the involvement of representatives from social media companies in election advertising campaigns, the changes in these relationships before after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and what these relationships might look like in the future. They also talk about ways to report disinformation and harassment, guidelines around political advertising on social media, digital identities in the online environment, and the role of digital literacy.

Additional resources:

• Both Elizabeth and Becca mention Cambridge Analytica, a company that was hired by the Trump campaign in the run up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and subsequently found to have misused user data. A 2019 documentary, The Great Hack, was made about the events.
  
  
• Becca talks about the technique of social listening, a way of monitoring online information related to your brand to better understand what’s going on in that ecosystem.
  
  
• Becca mentions a Rebooting Social Media fellow—Elodie Vialle—who is developing an escalation channel for journalists to report harassment and attacks received on social media platforms. The project is still in the works, but keep your eye on the RSM website for further info.
  
  
• Elizabeth throws back to our last episode on the Meta Oversight Board with Julie Owono. Find it here.
  
  
• Becca mentions this political ad tracker created by Bully Pulpit Interactive, where she used to work as Director of Political Programs.
  
  
• Becca notes that both Facebook and Google have parameters around political advertising on their platforms. Find out more about Facebook policies here and Google policies here.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Julie Owono is the executive director of Internet Sans Frontières (Internet Without Borders) and a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. She is also an inaugural member of the Meta Oversight Board, an independent group of experts who review appeals of content moderation decisions on Facebook and Instagram, which is the topic of today’s episode. 

Elizabeth and Julie talk about the background of the board and the appeals process, how cases are chosen, the possibilities and limits of what can be accomplished with content moderation, and the lesson Julie has learned in her time serving on the board. They also discuss what counts as content moderation and who gets to be involved in that process, the paradox of tolerance and where the line is drawn when it comes to limiting people’s freedoms of expression.

Additional resources:

• Off the top Elizabeth references two previous episodes that set the scene for this episode: Content Moderation with Andrew Straight and Regulating Big Tech with Taylor Owen.
• You can find the Meta Oversight Board website here, including a description of the appeals process, the decisions made to date, and board member bios.
• This 2022 article by David Wong and Luciano Floridi takes an academic look at the OB, assessing its strengths and weaknesses, and suggesting improvements.
• Julie explains some of the principles around how the board chooses which cases to review, and the Case Selection Committee that makes those decisions, which are documented in the Rulebook for Case Review and Policy Guidance.
• Julie mentions two specific cases: the Kurdistan Workers Party and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
• Elizabeth introduces Karl Popper’s Paradox of Intolerance, introduced in his 1945 book The Open Society and its Enemies. We relied on this 2015 paper by Brett G. Johnson, which applies tolerance theory to extreme speech and social media platforms.
• Julie mentions the implementation committee, and the tracking being done to capture how the OB’s recommendations are being operationalized. You can find out more in the Oversight Board’s Annual Report, Meta's Quarterly Reports and on the Meta's Transparency Centre page.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Juliana Castro-Varón is the founder of the digital open access publisher Cita Press, and a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. This episode she and Elizabeth discuss the historical examples of image manipulation, how photographic manipulations can mislead the public and the impact of images on our memories. They also talk about ways to spot fakes.

Additional resources

• Early in the episode Juliana mentions this article about Photoshop in The Verge about the history of this photo editing software.
• Juli talks about one of the very first known examples of image manipulation - a composite photograph of Abraham Lincoln’s head superimposed on someone else’s body. Here it is.
  • Factcheck: In the episode Juliana incorrectly notes Abraham Lincoln’s year of death — the U.S. president was assassinated in April 1865. This date also precedes Thomas Hick’s photo composition of Lincoln, which is generally agreed to have been done after his death, rather than as part of an election campaign.
• Juliana tells us about the photographer, William Mumler, who made ghost images using the technique of double exposure. They also talk about his trial - he was arrested for fraud - and acquittal. This other article also takes a broader look at the history of ‘ghost photography.’
• Both Elizabeth and Juliana mention deep fakes and AI manipulation several times - this is a topic that will take a full episode sometime, but for now here’s a good introduction.
• Juliana references this article — Changing history: doctored photographs affect memory for past public events (Sacchi, Agnoli & Loftus, 2007) — about the impact of images on our memories, and Elizabeth noted there have been a number of studies in this area. 
• Juliana notes that one of the concerns about AI-generated images is that they draw on currently existing archives of information, which tend to be dominated by western cultures. Here’s an interesting look at what happens because of this.
• Finally, Elizabeth asks what we can do about image manipulation, and Juli suggests that understanding the technologies and the techniques at play is the most useful strategy. Here’s a few tips and tools that help uncover manipulated images:
  • Image Edited
  • Tin Eye Reverse Image Search
  • The hidden signs that can reveal a fake photo (BBC, 2017)

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Petra Molnar is a lawyer and anthropologist, and co-director of York University’s Refugee Law Lab. This episode she and Elizabeth talk about how researchers get their expertise into the hands of people who shape the world we live in, like policymakers, politicians and journalists. They talk about what it means to know something, as well as different approaches to sharing knowledge, like co-production and co-learning. They also consider the power imbalances of knowledge and how to make sure that knowledge is being shared equitably, and inclusively.

Additional resources:

• One of the academic papers we used to prepare for this episode is Paul Cairney and Kathryn Oliver’s (2020). How Should Academics Engage in Policymaking to Achieve Impact? Check it out here.
  
  
• Off the top, Elizabeth mentions SSHRC, which provides a bunch of information on knowledge mobilization (or KM) for researchers. Here’s what they say about effective KM.
  
  
• Elizabeth also talks about the idea of co-production and Petra further mentions co-learning. This cool graphic from Michelle Lokot’s paper on research in humanitarian settings, shows a number of components that could be part of co-production (FYI there isn’t just one way!)
  
  
• Petra mentions participatory action research. Find out more here.
  
  
• Elizabeth suggests that part of the work of knowledge mobilization is teaching people about knowledge itself, about how you know if knowledge is valid or if the evidence is reliable. If you want to know more, try this crash course on The Meaning of Knowledge.
  
  
• Petra mentions that she takes a “transgressive approach” in her work. Take a look at this short video to find out. 
  
  
• Petra mentions that part of the work she does is related to the “de-centralization of knowledge.” What does that mean and why does it matter?
  
  
• Petra mentions the EU’s current drafting of legislation to regulate AI, and her related work technology and border issues. Here’s more on that.
  
  
• Petra mentions that she takes a trauma-informed perspective in her work. Take a look at this guide from Western University on Trauma- And Violence-Informed Research. 

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Get ready for Season 5 of Wonks & War Rooms! This season we’ll be diving into tech, politics, and policy. Host Elizabeth Dubois will talk to public policy managers, technologists &  campaigners to discuss how technology policy is shaped, how technology is used in political campaigns, and what that means for political communication research and practice.

As always, episodes will drop on Wednesday mornings each week starting Wednesday, February 8. Mark your calendars!

Get caught up on past episodes and find fully annotated transcripts in English and French at https://www.polcommtech.com/. 

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Vinita Srivastava is the senior editor of culture and society for The Conversation Canada, and host of the podcast Don’t Call Me Resilient, as well as a research associate with the Global Journalism Innovation Lab. This episode, Vinita and Elizabeth chat about post-truth politics and the idea that how people feel about information is sometimes more influential than the actual facts. They discuss differences between the facts contained in a story versus the perspective of who is telling a story, as well as the question of which stories get told, who gets to decide that, and the idea of truth as a product of power. 

Additional Resources

• Elizabeth notes that “post-truth” was Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2016. This Washington Post story explains why (and also gives a good overview of the term). 
• Elizabeth mentions that a key feature of a post-truth world is that there are no longer “universally recognized arbiters or referees of fact.” This idea comes from David Roberts’ 2013 post on Grist. There is also general consensus that Roberts coined the term “post-truth politics” in this earlier post.
• For a more academic take, philosopher Lee McIntyre wrote a book called Post-Truth. Here’s a 2020 interview with him.
• Also, this article by Matt Carlson looks at how the concept of post-truth politics affects journalism specifically.
• Elizabeth brings up the concept of the “relativization of facts.” Learn more about that in this article by Sebastien Schindler.
• Vinita gives an example of how India’s press is being muzzled by its government. Reporters Without Borders generates an annual World Press Freedom Index to track where press freedoms are being violated and how. (India ranked 142 of 180 in 2020; Canada was 14th and the U.S. was 44th).
• Vinita brings up the old adage that journalism is “the first draft of history.” Here’s the backstory of that saying.
• Elizabeth talks about how emotion is a big part of mis and dis information. Check out this study that showed how anger contributes to the spread of misinformation. This was also something Claire Wardle talked about in her episode earlier this season on information disorder. Listen here.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.