Engineering x Free Speech

By Grant Currin

“There’s really no way to answer the hardest free-speech questions of the digital age without the involvement of engineers and computer scientists,” says Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. “Most of the speech that’s important to our democracy today is mediated by digital platforms and tools whose operation is a mystery to their users and sometimes even their creators.”

Collaboration among engineers, social scientists, and lawyers is essential for contending with the profound implications of rapidly changing technologies — such as social media platforms and artificial intelligence systems — for free speech and our democracy.

“We need engineers and computer scientists to help us understand how these platforms and tools work and whether they could be designed differently,” Jaffer says. “We also need them to help us understand what regulatory frameworks might be sensible and effective.”

To advance these interdisciplinary partnerships, the Knight First Amendment Institute and Columbia Engineering have jointly funded projects at the intersection of law, policy, and technology, with the aim of expanding the partnership to encompass larger research collaborations, public programs, and curricular offerings.

“The leadership of engineers and computer scientists is essential to understanding the societal implications of new technology — including its free-speech implications,” Jaffer says.