Our weekly SRI Seminar Series welcomes Taylor Owen, the Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications, founding director of The Center for Media, Technology and Democracy, and an associate professor in the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. Owen is the host of the Big Tech podcast, a senior fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation, a fellow at the Public Policy Forum, and sits on the Governing Council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). He is the author of Disruptive Power: The Crisis of the State in the Digital Age (2015), and co-editor of The World Won’t Wait: Why Canada Needs to Rethink its Foreign Policies (2015), and Journalism After Snowden: The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State (2016).
In this talk, Owen will address the emergence of a new “Platform Governance” agenda: a broad set of regulatory frameworks governments are currently implementing to address potential negative impacts of our digital information and communications ecosystems. Owen will provide both an overview and rationale of the “Platform Governance” model, and also highlight potential challenges on the horizon as these measures take effect.
Talk title:
“Evaluating the state of the Platform Governance agenda”
Abstract:
Acting in response to a growing number of perceived negative externalities stemming from the design and use of our current digital ecosystem, governments around the world are moving forward with broad new digital governance agendas. These initiatives include a vast array of policies, including data privacy modernization, election integrity initiatives, content regulations, journalism support packages, algorithmic auditing and transparency efforts, new rules for AI, and even antitrust. This can make the policy agenda appear disjointed, opaque, and unachievable. In response, a growing community of scholars, civil society organizations, and governments are thinking about these policies as interrelated components of a comprehensive Platform Governance agenda. In this presentation I will outline the rationale for and current state of Platform Governance, provide an overview of notable policy developments around the world, and flag likely challenges and fissures emerging as governments develop their sweeping digital governance agendas.
About Taylor Owen
Taylor Owen is the Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications, the founding director of The Center for Media, Technology and Democracy, and an associate professor in the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. He is the host of the Big Tech podcast, a senior fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation, a fellow at the Public Policy Forum, and sits on the Governing Council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). He was previously an assistant professor of Digital Media and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia and the research director of Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia School of Journalism. His doctorate is from the University of Oxford, and he has been a Trudeau and Banting scholar, an Action Canada Fellow, and received the 2016 Public Policy Forum Emerging Leader Award. He is the author of Disruptive Power: The Crisis of the State in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press, 2015) and the co-editor of The World Won’t Wait: Why Canada Needs to Rethink its Foreign Policies (University of Toronto Press, 2015), and Journalism After Snowden: The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State (Columbia University Press, 2016). His forthcoming book with Emily Bell will be published by Yale University Press in 2021.
About the SRI Seminar Series
The SRI Seminar Series brings together the Schwartz Reisman community and beyond for a robust exchange of ideas that advance scholarship at the intersection of technology and society. Seminars are led by a leading or emerging scholar and feature extensive discussion.
Each week, a featured speaker will present for 45 minutes, followed by 45 minutes of discussion. Registered attendees will be emailed a Zoom link approximately one hour before the event begins. The event will be recorded and posted online.
Taylor Owen