Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society

It’s been two decades since Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig published ‘The Laws of Cyberspace;’ recently, an event at the Berkman Klein Center celebrated how that groundbreaking paper provided structure to the Center's field of study.

Students of Professor Urs Gasser’s Spring 2018 Comparative Digital Privacy seminar hosted a symposium on 'Privacy by Design,' convening experts from government, private practice, industry, and academia to weigh in on all things privacy-related, from the difficulty of defining privacy to a comparison of the regulatory regimes in the United States and the European Union.

Vivek Krishnamurthy studies international issues in internet governance as a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyber Law Clinic. He spoke with the Gazette about the legal implications of the breach for Facebook, the laxity in U.S. privacy protections, and how Facebook’s difficulties may mark the end of the tech industry’s long deregulation honeymoon in this country.

Last week, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University launched AIandInclusion.org, a new website related to preventing bias in algorithms and ensuring that voices and perspectives from diverse populations help shape the future of artificial intelligence.

A panel of leading experts convened at Harvard Law School on Jan. 25 to explore the consequences of the Federal Communications Commission's recent Restoring Internet Freedom Order.

On Jan. 22, the Cyberlaw Clinic at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society released a multi-part Guide to Protest Art, a series aimed at educating people across the political spectrum who are using art to engage in civic dialogue.

The Berkman Klein Center's Cyberlaw Clinic, which provides pro-bono legal services to clients on issues relating to the internet, technology and intellectual property, has written in support of a number of technology cases in recent weeks.

With Evisort, a powerful new search engine that harnesses cloud storage and artificial intelligence, four HLS students hope to revolutionize the costly and labor-intensive way that lawyers currently handle contracts and other transactional work, liberating them for more creative and interesting tasks.

The trajectory of state intelligence gathering and invasions of privacy made possible by a digital environment were the focus of a session titled “National Security: National Security, Privacy, and the Rule of Law,” part of the HLS in the World bicentennial summit which took place at Harvard Law School on Friday, October 27, 2017.

Managing Director of the Cyberlaw Clinic Professor Chris Bavitz discusses some of the concerns and opportunities of risk assessment tools for criminal justice reform efforts, and the Berkman Klein Center's work on Ethics and Governance of AI initiative in partnership with the MIT Media Lab.

On Sept. 19, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society hosted a public lunch talk with Monika Bickert, the Head of Global Policy Management at Facebook.

Experts gathered at Harvard Law School on Oct. 10 to examine the potential for bias as our decision-making intelligence becomes ever more artificial at an event titled “Programing the Future of AI: Ethics, Governance, and Justice,” held at Wasserstein Hall as part of HUBweek, an annual citywide celebration of art, science, and technology.

Many arguments have been made about the media’s influence in the last Presidential election, but Harvard Law Professor Yochai Benkler ’94 has undertaken what may be the most scientific study on the topic to date, “Partisanship, Propaganda and Disinformation: Online Media and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election."

In an interview with the Harvard Gazette, cybersecurity expert Bruce Schneier, a fellow with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, talked about government and corporate surveillance, and about what concerned users can do to protect their privacy.

The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society has released "Partisanship, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Online Media and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election," a comprehensive analysis of online and social media coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign that documents how highly partisan right-wing sources helped shape mainstream pre-election press coverage.

Legal scholars from across the globe gathered at HLS in July for a two-day conference on law and development, the latest iteration of a series of conferences held periodically by a loose consortium of schools including Harvard Law School, the University of Geneva, Renmin University of China, and the University of Sydney, Australia.

The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University today announced the incoming and returning fellows, faculty associates, affiliates, and directors who together will form the core of the Center’s networked community in the 2017-2018 academic year.

A sharp increase in web encryption and a worldwide shift away from standalone websites in favor of social media and online publishing platforms has altered the practice of state-level internet censorship and in some cases led to broader crackdowns, a new study by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University finds.

The Class of 2017 selected Professor Mark Wu for the prestigious Albert M. Sacks-Paul A. Freund Award for Teaching Excellence for his work as a dedicated professor and mentor who cares not only about the intellectual development of his students, but also their emotional well-being.

A number of Harvard Law students from the Class of 2017 received special awards during Class Day. They were recognized for their outstanding leadership, citizenship, compassion and dedication to their studies and the profession.

HLS student Bradley Pough ’18 and Qian Wan, a mechanical engineering Ph.D. candidate at Harvard's Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, have co-written “Digital Analytics and the Fight Against Blight: A Guide for Local Leaders,” a paper that provides data-driven recommendations city officials can use to battle urban housing blight.