Integrity Institute

📢 Big news from the Integrity Institute! We’re thrilled to share our latest submission to the European Commission's Consultation on the Delegated Act for Researcher Data Access under the Digital Services Act (DSA). We believe that transparency and access to platform data are vital for fostering accountability and protecting the public interest. Our submission highlights: ➡️ The importance of a high-level data inventory to enhance transparency for researchers ➡️ Challenges researchers might face such as evolving data structures, inconsistencies, and accuracy concerns ➡️ How to facilitate real-time monitoring and address legal barriers to data sharing Special thanks to our members who contributed to this effort, including Yee Carter, Henriette Cramer, Peter C., Kevin Koehler, Leah Ferentinos, and Chris Miles. 🔗 Read the submission in full: https://bit.ly/49vHEPH #DigitalServicesAct #DataAccess #PlatformTransparency #Integrity

✴️ Last month, II Fellow Matt Motyl, Ph.D. published an article for the Psychology of Technology Institute exploring shifts in social media usage and user experiences between 2023 and 2024, highlighting layoffs in trust and safety teams, rising harmful content, and regulatory scrutiny. Motyl also found that platforms like X (Twitter) saw significant user declines, while newer services like Threads struggled with retention. Pinterest and FaceTime had the fewest negative user experiences, while Reddit showed growth in meaningful and useful interactions. 👉 Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/41saej3 *For this article, Motyl analyzed and summarized data from the USC Marshall School of Business's Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making Technology Indices project. The project builds on industry precedent to create independent verifiable, cross-platform metrics of user experiences, which we leverage in discussions with companies, the press, and policy makers. You can read more about the methodology of the project here: https://bit.ly/3Vx3vRe ...and find a full list of analyses here: https://bit.ly/3ZLzYpe

As parents, leaders, and stewards of the digital world, we have a responsibility to protect kids online. The recent Senate hearings revealed critical gaps we must address to create a safer digital future. 🔑 Priorities: 1️⃣ Data transparency: How much harm is happening, and why? 2️⃣ Platform design: Eliminate unsafe, exploitative patterns. 3️⃣ Leadership accountability: Make safety central, not secondary. This Integrity Institute report https://lnkd.in/gRs28S9N dives into what’s at stake. Change isn’t easy, but it’s possible—together. #TechWithHeart #ChildSafety #LeadershipMatters

➡ The Integrity Institute Is Hiring A Community Lead! 👫 You can read the full job description on our Careers page: https://lnkd.in/gUdnTWjH The community lead plays a key role in building the member relationships that power the Integrity Institute’s work. Reporting to the Community Director, this role will work closely with the professionals in our membership: helping them support one another, identifying and planning powerful conversations that they can have, and supporting them in creating member-led initiatives that positively impact the social internet. This role will require both operational and relational excellence, and successful applications will be able to demonstrate their ability both to execute logistically complex projects and to quickly and effectively build trust within a passionate and values-driven community. To learn more and apply visit: https://lnkd.in/gUdnTWjH

🚨 Co-Founder Jeff Allen was featured in Craig Silverman's latest ProPublica report, with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, on Meta’s stated commitment to curb harmful content—and how it's still falling short. Despite Meta’s promises, tens of thousands of ads featuring deepfakes of political figures have slipped through the cracks, misleading and manipulating users into revealing their personal data. Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/eP4s5iBu #IntegrityMatters #ElectionTransparency #DigitalAccountability

🔴 Election Integrity Livestream TODAY at 12pm PT / 3pm ET! Integrity Institute fellow Matt Motyl, Ph.D. and a team of top election integrity experts—including data scientists, political psychologists, and former social media trust & safety professionals—are hosting a livestream to monitor and analyze real-time election-related risks like disinformation, foreign interference, hate speech, and incitement. As former members of specialized teams within the largest social media companies, they offer a unique look into the work that goes on behind the scenes to keep platforms secure during today's election. The live dashboards provide visualizations of real-time data from social media, allowing participants to track any developments that pose potential risks to voters and society. 📺 Tune in here: https://lnkd.in/epTG8gky #ElectionIntegrity #SocialImpact #DataScience #TrustAndSafety #2024Election

Preparing for November 5: II’s Election Integrity Program 🗳 With Election Day tomorrow, we’re recirculating 🔁 our collection of resources to support election integrity and address online misinformation during the election cycle. This collection includes: 🇺🇲 Our two-part Election Integrity Best Practices Guide which outlines key practices to ensure secure, transparent elections. 📈 Our Misinformation Amplification Hub that houses analyses from recent elections in the US and Nigeria, a dashboard that tracks misinfo across platforms, a detailed methodology guide, and a write up of our misinformation work in the New York Times. 📋 Survey results from a joint effort with the Bipartisan Policy Center that explores how Americans consume, assess, and engage with election information in 2024. 🎙 Election-focused episodes of our “Trust in Tech” podcast - Episode 1 (https://bit.ly/3YBaDNa) and Episode 2 (https://bit.ly/3YBaCsA). ✍ An Election Cycle Tracker built by Katie Harbath and Ana Khizanishvili. Explore these resources + more on our website — and help safeguard democratic processes this season. https://lnkd.in/eqeFd9P3

Preparing for November 5: II’s Election Integrity Program 🗳 With Election Day tomorrow, we’re recirculating 🔁 our collection of resources to support election integrity and address online misinformation during the election cycle. This collection includes: 🇺🇲 Our two-part Election Integrity Best Practices Guide which outlines key practices to ensure secure, transparent elections. 📈 Our Misinformation Amplification Hub that houses analyses from recent elections in the US and Nigeria, a dashboard that tracks misinfo across platforms, a detailed methodology guide, and a write up of our misinformation work in the New York Times. 📋 Survey results from a joint effort with the Bipartisan Policy Center that explores how Americans consume, assess, and engage with election information in 2024. 🎙 Election-focused episodes of our “Trust in Tech” podcast - Episode 1 (https://bit.ly/3YBaDNa) and Episode 2 (https://bit.ly/3YBaCsA). ✍ An Election Cycle Tracker built by Katie Harbath and Ana Khizanishvili. Explore these resources + more on our website — and help safeguard democratic processes this season. https://lnkd.in/eqeFd9P3

Since the summer of 2023, I have partnered with folks from Integrity Institute, Cambridge Local First, Tech Policy Press, and Digital Policy Alert on a data-building initiative around major policy (legislation, investigations, and litigation including antitrust, consumer protection, and tech/data regulation) happening at the US federal and state level. We’ve recently revamped the layout of the tracker and updated the database with recent legislation. We recognize that different civil society organizations are building disparate trackers, and we see a great opportunity to explore ideas and models to collaborate on infrastructure and data gathering in an effort to enhance the field’s efforts. As a result of our data aggregation efforts, the Technology Policy Tracker aims to provide a comprehensive view of major technology policy and legislation across the “US Federal”, “US State”, and “International” contexts, in addition to broader “Public Conversation.” It achieves this by collating proposals and legislation from other existing databases and other sources. This dataset is a work-in-progress, and we welcome your inputs. Our user manual is a guide intended for those who seek to navigate and update the Technology Policy Tracker. Our presentation highlights the research findings on 2023 policy trends in the US, including visualizing legislative activity at the US federal and state levels. We find that child safety and AI received the most federal legislative attention in 2023, and that privacy and online safety received the most state legislative attention in 2023. Discussions on surveillance, competition, and disinformation all took a back seat to the increased focus on child safety, AI, privacy, and cybersecurity. You can view a presentation of our findings at the link below, starting at minute 8:27. If you have questions or would like to get involved, please message me! All links are in the comments below. A huge thanks to everyone who has contributed to this effort, including Pooja Paode, Rehan Mirza, Maya Vishwanath, Zhixiao Yip, Christy Zheng, Hawraz J., Mohammed Al-Tal, Jeff Allen, Abagail Lawson, Spencer Gurley, Arushi S., David Evan Harris, Justin Hendrix, Benjamin Lennett, Tommaso Giardini, Johannes Fritz, and Anna Lenhart. #ResponsibleAI #TechnologyPolicy #TrustAndSafety

🗳️ Why can't you just crawl into a hole after voting and come out when we know the winner? After you cast your ballot, the process is just the beginning. In this clip from Impossible Trade-offs, Nicole Schneidman from Protect Democracy breaks down: ✅ Why voting is just phase one ✅ What happens to your ballot after Election Day ✅ The critical steps in transferring power Listen to the complete episode here: https://lnkd.in/ejhJcKXb