Digital technologies are having a profound impact on democracy in the United States and around the world. New communication platforms that give voice to the previously voiceless also empower nefarious actors who seek to undermine democracy, silence minority groups and critics, manipulate search engines, and sow distrust. Through changes in policy, technology, and social and ethical technological norms, can digital technologies be better leveraged to support rather than subvert democracy? And if so, what is needed to bring about such changes?
In this conversation, two of the principal investigators of the Program on Democracy and the Internet (PDI) at Stanford University will discuss these issues in depth and what these mean for social-sector organizations. Nate Persilly, the James B. McClatchy Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, and Francis Fukuyama, director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Freeman Spogli Institute, Stanford University will share their thoughts on the challenges and opportunities the Internet poses for democracies.