THE INTERNET DEMOCRACY INITIATIVE

A platform for positive change in an interconnected world

The Internet Democracy Initiative studies problems that have widespread information and social media implications. This initiative provides leadership in understanding the role of the internet in structuring democracy, society, and markets.

Our focus areas

The Imperative

How can the internet be a constructive force in society? The early days of the internet offered the promise of decentralized democratic transformation, social connection, easy access to high quality information, and a platform to diverse voices. While there are glimpses of these possibilities still, the internet today is strikingly centralized and dominated by relatively few gatekeepers, with society riven by polarization.

The bottom-up utopian vision of the 1990s has seemingly turned into a 2020s dystopia of misinformation and harassment, producing calls for aggressive top-down control by corporations and government. The objective of this initiative is to support rigorous research on the problems of the contemporary information ecosystem, and to evaluate the potential of interventions into and uses of the affordances of the internet to support connection and to empower democracy.

Half of US adults now use AI — but views on how to regulate the technology vary widely by state, new research shows

The 50-state report, published as part of the multiuniversity Civic Health and Institutions Project (CHIP50), found that views about how and whether to rein in AI tools don’t follow typical red-blue state divides. Missouri and Washington, for example, expressed the strongest views about a lack of regulatory oversight, while New York and Tennessee were most worried about government overreach.

Featuring David Lazer, John Wihbey and Hong Qu

How AI-Driven Search May Reshape Democracy, Economics, and Human Agency

In an article for Tech Policy Press, AIMES Lab Director John Wihbey, together with Cameron Pattison and Vance Ricks, analyzes Google’s AI Overview and its implications for the future of information systems. The piece examines how the transition from traditional link-based search to AI-generated summaries may affect algorithmic transparency, the economic sustainability of content creation, and the integrity of democratic processes.

Big Brother gets new powers in China with digital ID system

“It’s hard to look at steps like these and not see an intention to make people not feel anonymous,” said Laura Edelson, a computer scientist at Boston’s Northeastern University who co-wrote a recent report on China’s online censorship system.

“They want the policeman to be in your head, and a really important way of making people feel that policeman in their head is removing any illusion that someone might have that they’re anonymous,” she added.

The Politics of Fragmentation and Capture in AI Regulation

In new research, Filippo Lancieri, Laura Edelson, and Stefan Bechtold explore how the political economy of artificial intelligence regulation is shaped by the strategic behavior of governments, technology companies, and other agents.

Debate over regulating AI remains despite being stripped from tax bill

“You could have reasonable security and trusted safety regulation without necessarily inhibiting the ability to innovate,” said John Wihbey, an associate professor of media innovation at Northeastern University. “I’m sure there’s some expense incurred, but it seems to me it’s like a useful exercise to continually force the labs to grapple with the potential harms that could be done with the models.” | CBS Austin

Collaborating across Northeastern’s interdisciplinary networks

The IDI is developing a clearinghouse of best practices and algorithms, and building a resource set for organizations around the world interested in defending democracy and its institutions.

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Creating next-gen resources for industry and community

The Internet Democracy Initiative, building our NSF internet observatory, will study problems that have widespread information and social media implications.

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Friends sharing mobile phone content on stairs

Building a more equitable, fair, and representative future.

The IDI will catalyze a multi-disciplinary community at Northeastern, including through nascent teams in Oakland and London

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