Catherine Powell Chairs Roundtable on Gendered Disinformation, Free Speech and Power

Catherine Powell (’94), Fordham University Law Professor and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in the Women and Foreign Policy and Digital and Cyberspace Policy programs, coauthored a blog for the Council on Foreign Relations examining making online spaces safer for women, greater regulation of the tech sector, and free speech in the context of Section 230 reform (“Gender and Power in an Age of Disinformation: A Conversation with Mary Anne Franks,” July 6). “[T]echnology is able to aggregate, amplify, and anonymize abuse, turning online abuse into a sort of spectacle. Due to the tech sector business model which uses algorithms to drive engagement, posts that receive more views and comments are elevated—and posts that incite anger certainly drive engagement. . . . In addition to the White House, . . . Congress also has a responsibility to do more to protect women and minority communities from online harassment and abuse.”

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