Technology
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Election Interference: A Conversation on the Steps to a More Secure Democracy
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Maurice Turner serves as the Deputy Director of the Internet Architecture Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring an open, innovative, and free internet. Prior to his current role, Turner served on the Republican staff of the Senate Committee on…
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Does Internet Censorship Stifle or Spark Protest?
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The invention and expansion of the internet has revolutionized how citizens engage in political expression and protest. Citizens subject to authoritarian regimes have taken advantage of the instantaneous nature of internet communication to mobilize political demonstrations, as seen in the Arab Spring, the Taiwan Sunflower Movement, and the ongoing Hong…
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How Can Policymakers Increase the Adoption of Smart Home Technologies?
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Smart homes are a critical component of the developing smart energy grid. Smart home technologies make it easier for homeowners to reduce their energy consumption, and these features alleviate stress on the grid during periods of high electricity demand. As such, the adoption of smart home technologies has become a…
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Using Machine Learning to Predict Mortality: Demystifying U.S. Healthcare Spending
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Approximately one in every five dollars spent by Medicare is spent during a patient’s last twelve months of life, with most of this spending used to pay for inpatient medical care and physician costs. Despite taking up 20 percent of its budget, end-of-life cases account for just five percent of…
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WiFi is getting crowded: Should the FCC reserve more spectrum for it?
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All WiFi signals travel over frequency ranges in the wireless spectrum, and those ranges are getting increasingly crowded as people use more internet-enabled devices and require more data usage. These frequency ranges, called “bands,” can only handle so much traffic at one time, and it is the responsibility of the…
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How Fake News Spreads on Twitter
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The 2016 presidential election was a watershed moment in American politics. Political polarization reached its highest ebb in decades, fueled in part by individuals’ self-guided consumption of media matched to their own political ideologies. During and after the election, there was public scrutiny of “fake news”—inaccurate information published and shared…
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Solar Inverters: Recommendations for achieving 100 percent renewable energy and maintaining grid reliability
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In recent years, over 100 cities have committed to transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy by 2035. Two states, Hawaii and California, have also adopted 100 percent renewable energy goals, which they aim to achieve by 2045. As cities and states move towards meeting these commitments, electric utility companies are…
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Can Online Ads Help Prevent Violent Extremism?
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Extremist groups have a new recruiting tool: online media. Organizations including hate groups, violent jihadist groups and far-right political groups have increasingly turned to the web—and to social media, in particular—for the purposes of identifying sympathizers, distributing propaganda and recruiting new members. In response, counter-extremist campaigns have fought back using…
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Could Phone Data Reveal a Person’s Wealth?
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The effective design, implementation and evaluation of public policies rely on accurate socioeconomic data. It would be impossible, for instance, to implement a poverty alleviation program without knowing who the relevant target populations are, where they live, and their economic status. As the United Nations Population Fund puts it, “without…
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Can Blockchain-Enabled Voting Meet Security and Secrecy Standards?
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In 2018, West Virginia became the first state in the U.S. to test blockchain-enabled internet voting on mobile devices for a federal-level general election. Overseas voters from 24 West Virginia counties were able to cast their votes via an app instead of requesting absentee ballots. Despite the easier access to…
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Fake News and Filter Bubbles: Rethinking Counterspeech in the Age of Social Media
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Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, many pundits and politicians have denounced “fake news” as a new, corrosive force in public discourse. While it is commonly agreed that a well-informed public is vital for democracy, attempts at regulating news can be both legally and morally complicated. Based on precedent set…