Session
Organizer 1: Jeffrey Howard, University College of London
Organizer 2: Shiffman Naomi, Oversight Board
Organizer 3: Sanchez Conor, Meta Platforms
Organizer 4: Ghandi Emilar, Meta Platforms
Speaker 1: Shiffman Naomi, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Sanchez Conor, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Jeffrey Howard, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4: Tomiwa Ilori, Civil Society, Sub-Saharan Africa
Ghandi Emilar, Meta Platforms
Sanchez Conor, Meta Platforms
Jeffrey Howard, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Roundtable
Duration (minutes): 60
Format description: This format allows for an open and inclusive discussion where all participants can share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences related to the topic. It fosters a sense of collaboration and understanding among attendees from diverse backgrounds. 60-minutes will provide sufficient time to accomplish the goals of our workshop. During the first 30 minutes, attendees will listen to a moderated discussion with a few speakers who will share their perspectives and experiences on the topic. For the first half, attendees will be invited to ask questions and share their own experiences and ideas.
How should evidence from social science bear on platforms’ determinations of whether their platforms will be effective in achieving their goals–and what should platforms do when experts disagree? How should ethical insights from philosophy bear on platforms’ determinations of how platforms should trade off different values or interests against one another–and what should platforms do when experts disagree? How can a diversity of expert input, including input from the global south, enable more inclusive deliberations within platforms–e.g., about whether policies have unintended or disproportionate effects on certain populations?
What will participants gain from attending this session? By the end of this workshop, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with integrating expert researchers into the development of content policy. Specifically, they will develop a clearer sense of the discrete questions (both empirical and normative) on which external researchers can offer expert input, and how these different kinds of expertise fit together. They will also walk away with practical strategies and actionable ideas for how to identify the particular kinds of experts relevant for answering certain questions; for how to deal with disagreements among relevant experts; and for how to overcome reluctance among academic researchers to participate. Finally, they will leave the workshop having established a broader network of like minded practitioners, leading to potential collaborations aimed at strengthening academic representation in policy development.
Description:
Although platforms regularly conduct their own internal research, many of the problems facing platforms are actively studied by external researchers. From international human rights law to political philosophy to media and communication studies, there is a rich body of scholarship on which platforms can and do draw when trying to tackle nuanced, culturally-specific, and ethically sensitive work related to content, behavior, and actors in the digital space. But how, exactly, should this engagement with external experts be pursued? What does engagement with experts look like at its best? This session will discuss the benefits and challenges of online platforms seeking and incorporating external expertise into their policy development process. The session will begin with an overview of the opportunities and challenges of engaging experts (5 minutes). Speakers will then share their experiences (10 minutes each). 1. Jeffrey Howard will offer a framework for how philosophers and social scientists should contribute to the development of content policy. He will discuss the particular challenges that arise when policy depends upon contested empirical claims and value-judgments on which experts themselves disagree. 2. Conor Sanchez will describe case studies that demonstrate how Meta's engagements with academics and independent researchers have tangibly impacted policy decisions. 3. Naomi Shiffman will share how the Oversight Board contributes to policy development and highlight how she built the academic and research partnerships program at CrowdTangle. During the next 20 minutes, the moderator will lead attendees in a discussion. Questions include: 1. What are the obstacles to expert engagement, and how can they be overcome? 2. What models of collaboration have proven successful? How can these be replicated? 3. How can NGOs, policymakers, and platforms sustain engagement throughout the policy cycle? The final 5 minutes summarize key insights and actionable recommendations to incorporate external expertise in policy development.
The event will lead to the following concrete outputs: 1. A summary volume, condensing the core contributions from the event into a publicly accessible record, be made available online. 2. A jointly authored “best practices” policy report, listing crucial “do’s and don’ts” of integrating researchers into content policy development, to be published in the commentary section of the Journal of Online Trust & Safety. 3. Plans for a future event focused on developing improved communication channels between platforms and researchers at the earliest stages of the policy development process, so that researchers can study the most relevant questions directly rather than shoehorning older research into new areas.
Hybrid Format: Participants and attendees will include a mix of in-person and online speakers. We will use Slido so that those watching from any location can feed their insights and questions into the discussions, which the moderator will integrate into the proceedings in real time.