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Tech Policy Press
Description

Tech Policy Press is a nonprofit media and community venture intended to provoke new ideas, debate and discussion at the intersection of technology and democracy. You can find us at https://techpolicy.press/, where you can join the newsletter.

Episodes
  • 2025 / 9 / 14
    Assessing Tech Platform Responses Following the Assassination of Charlie Kirk

    Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA, died Wednesday after he was shot at an event at Utah Valley University. Kirk’s assassination was instantly broadcast...

  • 2025 / 9 / 14
    Across the US, Activists Are Organizing to Oppose Data Centers

    Demand for computing power is fueling a massive surge in investment in data centers worldwide. McKinsey estimates spending will hit $6.7 trillion by 2030, with more than $1 trillion expected in the U.S. alone...

  • 2025 / 9 / 7
    Through to Thriving: Centering Young People with Vaishnavi J

    For the latest episode in her series of podcast discussions, Through to Thriving, Tech Policy Press fellow Anika Collier Navaroli spoke to Vaishnavi J, founder and principal of Vyanams Strategies (VYS), a...

  • 2025 / 8 / 31
    Seeing Like a Platform

    Today’s guest is Petter Törnberg, who with Justus Uitermark is one of the authors of a new book, titled Seeing Like a Platform: An Inquiry into the Condition of Digital Modernity, that sets out to address the...

  • 2025 / 8 / 29
    Inside the Lobbying Blitz Over Colorado's AI Law

    Last year, Colorado signed a first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence measure into law. The Colorado AI Act would require developers of high-risk AI systems to take reasonable steps to prevent harms to...

  • 2025 / 8 / 24
    New Insights on Tech and the Crisis of Democracy

    On this podcast, we’ve come back again and again to questions around mis- and disinformation, propaganda, rumors, and the role that digital platforms play in anti-democratic phenomena. In a new book published...

  • 2025 / 8 / 17
    Through to Thriving: Pursuing The Truth with Dr. Jasmine McNealy and Naomi Nix

    In the latest installment in her series of podcasts called Through to Thriving, Tech Policy Press fellow Anika Collier Navoroli speaks with Dr. Jasmine McNealy, an attorney, critical public interest...

  • 2025 / 8 / 17
    Technology and Democracy in the New India

    Today’s guest, journalist Rahul Bhatia, has written a book that is part journalistic account, part history, and part memoir titled The New India: The Unmaking of the World's Largest Democracy.Reviewing the...

  • 2025 / 8 / 14
    A Conversation with Jeff Horwitz on Meta's Flawed Rules for AI Chatbots

    On Thursday, Reuters tech reporter Jeff Horwitz, who broke the story of the Facebook Papers back in 2021 when he was at the Wall Street Journal, published two pieces, both detailing new revelations about...

  • 2025 / 8 / 10
    Daniel Solove on Privacy, Technology, and the Rule of Law

    Daniel J. Solove is the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor of Intellectual Property and Technology Law at the George Washington University Law School. The project of his latest book, On Privacy...

  • 2025 / 8 / 3
    Through to Thriving: Advocating for Change with Nora Benavidez

    Through To Thriving is a a special series of podcast episodes hosted by Tech Policy Press fellow Anika Collier Navaroli. With her guests, Anika is imagining futures beyond our current moment. For this...

  • 2025 / 8 / 2
    Unpacking China's Global AI Governance Plan

    On Saturday, July 26, three days after the Trump administration published its AI action plan, China’s foreign ministry released that country’s action plan for global AI governance. As the US...

  • 2025 / 7 / 24
    Considering Trump’s AI Plan and the Future It Portends

    Yesterday, United States President Donald Trump took to the stage at the "Winning the AI Race Summit" to promote the administration's AI Action Plan. Shortly after it was published, Tech Policy Press editor...

  • 2025 / 7 / 24
    Centering Disability Rights in US Tech Policy 35 Years After ADA

    This weekend, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) turns 35. Signed into law on July 26, 1990, the law provides broad anti-discrimination protections for people with disabilities in the US, and has...

  • 2025 / 7 / 20
    Through to Thriving: Finding Balance and Resilience in the Trust & Safety Field

    Tech Policy Press fellow Anika Collier Navaroli is the host of Through to Thriving, a special podcast series where she talks with technology policy practitioners to explore futures beyond our current...

  • 2025 / 7 / 13
    How the EU's Voluntary AI Code is Testing Industry and Regulators Alike

    Last week, following months of negotiation and just weeks before the first legal deadlines under the EU AI Act take effect, the European Commission published the final Code of Practice on General-Purpose AI....

  • 2025 / 7 / 13
    How US States Are Shaping AI Policy Amid Federal Debate and Industry Pushback

    In the United States, state legislatures are key players in shaping artificial intelligence policy, as lawmakers attempt to navigate a thicket of politics surrounding complex issues ranging from AI safety,...

  • 2025 / 7 / 6
    Protecting Privacy and Dissent in an Age of Authoritarianism and AI

    Helen Nissenbaum, a philosopher, is a professor at Cornell Tech and in the Information Science Department at Cornell University. She is director of the Digital Life Initiative at Cornell Tech, which was...

  • 2025 / 7 / 6
    Considering the Human Rights Impacts of LLM Content Moderation

    At Tech Policy Press we’ve been tracking the emerging application of generative AI systems in content moderation. Recently, the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL) released a comprehensive report...

  • 2025 / 6 / 29
    Interrogating Tech Power and Democratic Crisis

    If you’ve been reading Tech Policy Press closely over the last three weeks, you may have come across one or more posts from collaboration with Data & Society called “Ideologies of Control: A Series...

  • 2025 / 6 / 22
    Through to Thriving: Honoring Our Elders with Dr. Timnit Gebru

    For a special series of episodes dubbed Through to Thriving that will air throughout the year, Tech Policy Press fellow Anika Collier Navaroli is hosting discussions intended to help us imagine possible...

  • 2025 / 6 / 15
    AI Companions and the Law

    Concerns about AI chatbots delivering harmful, even profoundly dangerous advice or instructions to users is growing. There is deep concern over the effects of these interactions on children, and a growing...

  • 2025 / 6 / 15
    Addressing Questions Over Europe's AI Act, Digital Sovereignty, and More

    In Europe, the digital regulatory landscape is in flux. Over the past few years, the EU has positioned itself as a global leader in tech regulation, rolling out landmark laws like the AI Act. But now, as the...

  • 2025 / 6 / 8
    Through to Thriving: Journeying to Joy with Dr. Desmond Upton Patton

    For a special series of episodes dubbed Through to Thriving that will air throughout the year, Tech Policy Press fellow Anika Collier Navaroli is hosting discussions intended to help us imagine possible...

  • 2025 / 6 / 8
    Technology, Labor Rights, and Political Power in Kenya and Across Africa

    In this episode, Justin Hendrix speaks with Nerima Wako-Ojiwa, director of Siasa Place, and Odanga Madung, a tech and society researcher and journalist, about the intersection of technology, labor rights, and...

  • 2025 / 6 / 6
    Canada's Post-Election Outlook on Tech Policy

    Canadian political leaders are in a precarious moment. Fresh off the resignation of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and ascendancy of his successor, new Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader Mark...

  • 2025 / 6 / 1
    Taking on the AI Con

    Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna are the authors of a new book that The Guardian calls “refreshingly sarcastic” and Business Insider calls a “funny and irreverent deconstruction of AI.” They are also occasional...

  • 2025 / 6 / 1
    Assessing the Relationship Between Information Ecosystems and Democracy's Woes

    Earlier this year, an entity called the Observatory on Information and Democracy released a major report called INFORMATION ECOSYSTEMS AND TROUBLED DEMOCRACY: A Global Synthesis of the State of Knowledge on...

  • 2025 / 5 / 29
    An Interview with California's New State Chief Technology Innovation Officer

    In February, California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Vera Zakem as California’s State Chief Technology Innovation Officer at the California Department of Technology. Zakem brings deep experience...

  • 2025 / 5 / 29
    Considering a New 'Civil Rights Approach to AI'

    On May 29, the Center for Civil Rights and Technology at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights released its Innovation Framework, which it calls a “new guiding document for companies...

  • 2025 / 5 / 25
    A 10-Year Moratorium on Enforcing State AI Laws?

    On Thursday, May 22, the United States House of Representatives narrowly advanced a budget bill that included the "Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology Modernization Initiative," which includes...

  • 2025 / 5 / 23
    Decolonizing the Future: Karen Hao on Resisting the Empire of AI

    In his New York Times review of the book, Columbia Law School professor and former White House official Tim Wu calls journalist Karen Hao’s new book, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s...

  • 2025 / 5 / 18
    What the History of Internet Governance Tells Us About the Future of Tech Policy

    Today’s guest is Milton L. Mueller, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the School of Public Policy and the head of an advocacy policy analysis group called the Internet Governance Project....

  • 2025 / 5 / 13
    Between Borders and Lies: Fact-Checkers on Navigating the India-Pakistan Conflict

    In the wake of the most intense India-Pakistan escalation in two decades, experts are still trying to make sense of the role that the information war played in the physical one. In this episode, Tech Policy...

  • 2025 / 5 / 11
    Taking Stock of the Google Search Remedies Trial

    Last year, a United States federal judge ruled that Google is a monopolist in the market for online search. For the past three weeks, the company and the Justice Department have been in court to hash out what...

  • 2025 / 5 / 6
    xAI's Memphis Neighbors Push for Facts and Fairness

    Last year, Elon Musk's xAI set up its "Colossus" supercomputer in an old Electrolux manufacturing facility in Memphis, Tennessee. Now, the residents of nearby neighborhoods are pushing for facts and fair...

  • 2025 / 5 / 4
    How Venture Capital Warps the World

    Catherine Bracy is a civic technologist and community organizer whose work focuses on the intersection of technology and political and economic inequality. Justin Hendrix spoke with her about her new...

  • 2025 / 4 / 27
    Adam Becker Takes Aim at Silicon Valley Nonsense

    From visions of AI paradise to the project to defeat death, many dangerous and unscientific ideas are driving Silicon Valley leaders. Justin Hendrix spoke to Adam Becker, a science journalist and author of...

  • 2025 / 4 / 20
    Through to Thriving: Building Community with Ellen Pao

    For a special series of episodes that will air throughout the year, Tech Policy Press fellow Anika Collier Navaroli is hosting a series of discussions intended to help us imagine possible futures—for tech and...

  • 2025 / 4 / 16
    Researchers Defend the Scientific Consensus on Bias and Discrimination in AI

    Last month, a group of researchers published a letter “Affirming the Scientific Consensus on Bias and Discrimination in AI.” The letter, published at a time when the Trump administration is rolling back...

  • 2025 / 4 / 13
    A Guide to the FTC's Case Against Meta

    On Monday, April 14, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will kick off its trial against Meta. In process for years, the case is over whether Mark Zuckerberg’s company has an illegal monopoly over social...

  • 2025 / 4 / 8
    What We Don't Know About DSA Enforcement

    On April 4, The New York Times reported that the European Commission is considering finding X, formerly Twitter, as part of its ongoing DSA investigation, which began in 2023. Tech Policy Press has discussed...

  • 2025 / 4 / 6
    DOGE and the United States of AI

    Across the United States and in some cities abroad yesterday, protestors took to the streets to resist the policies of US President Donald Trump. Dubbed the "Hands Off" protests, over 1,400 events took place,...

  • 2025 / 3 / 30
    Part 2: Technology, Democracy, and Power—Journalism’s Role in a Time of Crisis

    On Tuesday, March 25th, Tech Policy Press hosted a webinar discussion to talk shop with others on the tech and democracy beat. We gathered seven colleagues from around the world to explore how tech...

  • 2025 / 3 / 30
    Part 1: Technology, Democracy, and Power—Journalism’s Role in a Time of Crisis

    On Tuesday, March 25th, Tech Policy Press hosted a webinar discussion to talk shop with others on the tech and democracy beat. We gathered seven colleagues from around the world to explore how tech...

  • 2025 / 3 / 27
    About that Signal Chat

    Every now and again, a story that has a significant technology element really breaks through and drives the news cycle. This week, the Trump administration is reeling after The Atlantic magazine's Jeffrey...

  • 2025 / 3 / 25
    A Conversation with Alvaro Bedoya on Trump's FTC Firings

    Last week, President Donald Trump ordered the firing of two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission, an independent agency that enforces federal consumer protection and competition laws and that,...

  • 2025 / 3 / 23
    Is an Anti-Fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence Possible?

    What is necessary to develop a future that is less hospitable to authoritarianism and, indeed, to fascism? How do we build collective power against authoritarian forms of corporate and state power? Is an...

  • 2025 / 3 / 16
    A Conversation with Dr. Alondra Nelson on AI and Democracy

    Dr. Alondra Nelson holds the Harold F. Linder Chair and leads the Science, Technology, and Social Values Lab at the Institute for Advanced Study, where she has served on the faculty since 2019. From...

  • 2025 / 3 / 9
    Should AGI Really Be the Goal of Artificial Intelligence Research?

    The goal of achieving "artificial general intelligence," or AGI, is shared by many in the AI field. OpenAI’s charter defines AGI as "highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically...