Recently, the Head of Policy at nonprofit Data for Democracy talked about the need for public pressure for pro-democracy reforms in a conference put together by the Personal Democracy Forum, an organization dedicated to building new policy around “technology’s impact on government, politics, media, and democratic societies”. From the bio at her personal website:

Renee DiResta is the Director of Research at New Knowledge, and Head of Policy at nonprofit Data for Democracy. Renee investigates the spread of disinformation and manipulated narratives across social networks, and assists policymakers in understanding and responding to the problem. She has advised Congress, the State Department, and other academic, civic, and business leaders about understanding and responding to computational propaganda and information operations.

In 2017, Renee was named a Presidential Leadership Scholar, and had the opportunity to continue her work with the support of the Presidents Bush, President Clinton, and the LBJ Foundation. In 2018, she received a Mozilla Foundation fellowship and affiliation with the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University to work on their Media, Misinformation, and Trust project. She is a Founding Advisor to the Center for Humane Technology, and a Staff Associate at Columbia University Data Science Institute.

Description of the event:

The problem of disinformation is bigger than anyone understands, and no one group is in a position to solve it. Not the tech platforms, not government regulators, not the watchdog groups. To turn things around—to even understand how to try—we need to think bigger and collaborate better. In this workshop with speaker Renee DiResta, participants will join guest experts to plot shared approaches and advocacy that can increase accountability and help reverse the disinformation crisis, building on the research and activism that has already begun.

The video of Renee Diresta’s speech titled, “Democracy: Fixing It is Up to Us“, is about 20 minutes. Take a look: