OTT #18: OTI's New Director • June 2019
LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
Dear Friends,
It’s been quite awhile since OTI’s last newsletter and the shift in seasons isn’t the only transition underway. I look forward to filling you in on the changes and successful moments from the last several months, starting with my new role as director of OTI.
I’m excited to lead OTI as it enters its second decade. When I was announced as the future director of OTI in April, I was thrilled by the opportunity it presented to guide an organization with a strong commitment to ensuring that technology’s benefits are accessible to all. I’m grateful to Kevin Bankston for his guidance and support during this transition—the OTI that he leaves in my hands is a dynamic organization made up of deeply committed staff members.
What does this transition mean for OTI and our work? I look forward to sharing with you my vision for OTI’s next chapter over the coming weeks and months. My immediate goal is to add coherence and intention around the myriad policy issues we cover by breaking down organizational silos between those areas of work and increasing collaboration within OTI and New America.
We celebrate OTI’s 10-year anniversary this summer, so I’m also spending time reflecting back on the organization’s history. Over the eight years I’ve spent here, I’ve had the privilege of seeing the incredible impact that OTI can have at the intersection of technology development, community engagement, and policy advocacy. As I think about the next phase of OTI, I’m eager to draw on the lessons from each of those areas of work as we chart our path forward.
More to come from me shortly as we get this newsletter back on a regular monthly schedule. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy some updates about what we’ve been up to so far this year.
Warmly,
Sarah Morris
Director, New America’s Open Technology Institute
sarmorris@opentechinstitute.org
LIVE AT OTI
The FCC Lifeline program is the only federal program designed to address the digital divide by tackling the high cost of phone and internet service. The program provides qualifying low-income households a monthly subsidy to purchase phone and internet service, which helps millions of low-income military veterans, students, and health care recipients afford connectivity. In January, OTI hosted a panel discussion about the FCC proposal and why the Lifeline program needs to be protected.
Centering Civil Rights in the Privacy Debate
The conversations around transparency and privacy protection have neglected the many ways in which data is often used to discriminate against people of color. In May, OTI and Color of Change hosted a panel discussion on the importance of centering civil rights in federal privacy debates. Speakers advocated for federal legislation that accounts for civil rights in privacy protection, as well as the need to include more members from marginalized communities in the conversation.
What Sci-Fi Futures Can (and Can’t) Teach Us About AI Policy
Companies are struggling to define what AI ethics means to them and citizens are progressively seeing algorithmic decision-making becoming a part of their daily lives. In May, Future Tense and OTI hosted a half-day conference to discuss science fiction and AI with policy and tech experts, futurists, and science fiction authors. Speakers touched on the nature of predictive analytics and its power to dictate lives, data biases, and hopes and fears embedded in stories about AI.
You can see all of OTI's recent events here.
NEW AND NOTEWORTHY
Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) kicked off the U.S. launch of the 2019 RDR Index with an event at New America in May. RDR director Rebecca MacKinnon presented an overview of the key findings and recommendations from the report, and joined a panel discussion with Ivan Sigal of Global Voices, Dhanaraj Thakur of World Wide Web Foundation, Amie Stepanovich of Access Now, and Jason Pielemeier of Global Network Initiative. This event was webcast to a global audience.
Assessing YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter’s Content Takedown Policies
This May, a year after the release of the Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability Around Online Content Moderation, and around the time of RDR’s broader 2019 launch, OTI’s Spandana Singh analyzed how YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have implemented the recommendations outlined in the Principles. OTI’s assessment indicates that while the platforms have made progress related to notifying users around content takedown decisions and the associated appeals process, they still have a long way to go in providing greater transparency and accountability around quantifying their content takedowns.
ISSUES
Net Neutrality
OTI continues fighting in Congress and the courts to restore net neutrality. In March, OTI stood with Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she introduced the Save the Internet Act, a bill to restore the FCC's 2015 net neutrality rules. The bill passed the House in April with bipartisan support but was blocked in the Senate in June. OTI is also suing the FCC to vacate their decision to repeal the 2015 rules. In February, we argued our case in federal court alongside dozens of advocacy groups, companies, and state and local governments. We now anxiously await a decision from the DC Circuit Court’s three-judge panel.
Lifeline Program
After the January event, OTI continued to speak out against the FCC's proposed draconian reforms to the Lifeline program. In December 2018, Sarah wrote a piece for Slate's Future Tense outlining the dramatic effects these reforms would have. OTI followed up with a series of pieces about why the Lifeline program matters, details on the impact of the proposed reforms, and a piece from OTI’s Amir Nasr in Pacific Standard about how the FCC's actions have harmed the program and hurt low-income users. In March, OTI also condemned an FCC proposal that would cap funding for all Universal Service Fund programs and ultimately restrict access to Lifeline services even more.
Open Letter Against GCHQ’s “Ghost” Proposal
In May, OTI organized an international coalition of 47 civil society organizations, tech companies, and experts in digital security and policy to release an open letter to GCHQ (the UK’s NSA) explaining how its “ghost” proposal undermines encryption and poses serious threats to cybersecurity and fundamental human rights, including privacy and free expression. The open letter received significant coverage in the UK and pick up in many major international outlets, including The Guardian, TechCrunch, the Financial Times, and the Washington Post.
Sprint/T-Mobile
OTI actively opposes the proposed Sprint/T-Mobile merger. We've been working for nearly a year to convince regulators to block the deal, which would raise consumer prices and exacerbate the digital divide. We've been filing comments at the FCC, educating the Justice Department on the problems with the deal, and helping Congress prepare for oversight hearings on the transaction.
FCC Privacy Complaint Against Four Major Wireless Carriers
OTI and several allies filed a complaint at the FCC in June against the U.S.’s four major wireless carriers. Over the past year, many news reports exposed the carriers’ routine practice of violating their customers’ privacy by selling real-time, precise location data to third party location aggregators, which eventually landed in the hands of bounty hunters and stalkers. We urged the FCC to investigate and take action against these providers for violating the Communications Act. The complaint was covered by several outlets including Vice, Politico, and The Hill.
Encryption
Australia: OTI filed a fourth round of comments regarding Australia’s encryption law in February on behalf of an international coalition of 36 civil society organizations, tech companies, and trade associations. The New York Times, Australian Radio, Computer World, and others covered our work in the space.
India: OTI filed comments in March on behalf of a coalition of 31 civil society organizations and security researchers regarding India’s proposed new rules.
Promoting Free Speech Online
In April, OTI along with four other public interest organizations (ACLU, Brennan Center, CDT, and EFF) released Online Speech and the First Amendment: Ten Principles from the Supreme Court. In May, TechFreedom joined the Principles, and OTI, in collaboration with a bipartisan set of organizations including TechFreedom and the Cato Institute, led a Hill briefing focused on educating Hill staffers about the role the First Amendment plays when it comes to regulating and discussing online speech.
Police Tech
In December, OTI hosted a community organizing meeting to plan for a Community Oversight of Surveillance in DC (COS-DC) initiative, and OTI staff have been participating in the local community organizing efforts since then. A coalition of local DC based groups is working to tailor the model nationwide bill to meet DC’s needs, to educate the public and the DC Council on the need for legislation to provide accountability for DC government use of surveillance technologies, and to press for enactment of a law by the DC City Council.
QUICK TAKE
LAST BYTES
We’ve had several staff announcements in the past several months.
Since the last newsletter, Georgia Bullen left OTI to join Simply Secure as its executive director. In February, we announced that Measurement Lab joined the Code for Science & Society Sponsored Projects Program after a decade of growth at New America. With its departure, we said farewell to Nathan Kinkade and Chris Ritzo. Additionally, TechCongress welcomed its 2019 cohort of eight Congressional Innovation Fellows and two Congressional Innovation Scholars. We’ll have more updates on our projects soon, so stay tuned!
We recently welcomed Lisa Johnson as OTI’s new communications manager and bid farewell to our communications associate Hoa Nguyen as she heads off to journalism school. We’re also in the process of hiring several new team members for OTI and RDR—please share our open positions with your networks! And it’s summer again, which means OTI and RDR recently welcomed a new cohort of seven interns and fellows!
