The Conference
Democracies are facing increasing threats by autocratic regimes around the world and by autocratic notions and leanings within their own borders. Many experts believe the rise is intertwined with advances in technology. This conference will focus on how new technologies are strengthening autocracies around the world and what the United States and other democracies can do to thwart their infiltration and effectiveness, primarily through civic engagement and education, media response, and private sector technology collaboration.
Day One – How Technology is Contributing to the Rise of Autocracy and the Decline of Democracy
The first day of the conference will focus on the assault and its use of technology—and the scenario’s gravity is striking. According to “The Autocrat’s New Tool Kit,” a March 15, 2019, Wall Street Journal article by Richard Fontaine and Kara Frederick, “[the technologies] will allow strongmen and police states to bolster their internal grip, undermine basic rights and spread illiberal practices beyond their own borders.” The conference will also examine the likelihood of and extent to which these tools may be used by U.S. actors to legitimize and advance autocratic doctrine within the domestic population.
Day Two – How To Save Democracy and the Rule of Law: Responses in the United States and Abroad
The second day of the conference will explore responses by democracies: taking prophylactic action domestically to block or minimize disruption efforts, including in the United States civic education and media literacy, the media’s response, and technology company collaboration; using the same technologies to advance democracy; and taking positions on behalf of the repressed, either as a single nation or as a party to a formal resolution or other global initiative.
The questions participants aim to answer during the conference are sharply defined, but the answers are not clear-cut. For instance, what are the priorities for government leaders, policymakers, the press, the private sector, schools, and individuals when addressing autocrats’ assaults? How do these parties corral and reconcile different, even competing, interests to form a united and effective front? How can we use the same technology to advance democracy? What is being done now, and what is next?
This event is co-sponsored by Perry World House and The Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy, both at the University of Pennsylvania.
Conference Report
Schedule
Rare Book Room, Tanenbaum 253
Day One – Thursday, November 21, 2019
How Technology is Contributing to the Rise of Autocracy and the Decline of Democracy
All conference panel sessions are being held at Perry World House, 3803 Locust Walk
| 8:30am-9:30am | Sign-In and Continental Breakfast |
| 9:30am-9:45am | Welcome Remarks |
| 9:45am-11:00am | Session One – Why Technology Favors the AutocratModerator: Professor Claire Finkelstein In his 2018 article published in The Atlantic, “Why Technology Favors Tyranny,” Yuval Noah Harari identifies four reasons why technology will contribute to the rise of autocracy: 1) the common person’s fear of irrelevance; 2) rise of job volatility and obsolescence resulting from automation and artificial intelligence; 3) loss of political power due to citizens’ loss of economic worth; and 4) transfer of authority to machines resulting in less personal decision-making. This session will delve into these ideas along with other tech-related factors contributing to autocracy recharge: more visible technology; today’s political tribalism; technology’s ability to centralize all information (and thus power); and democratic leaders’ failure to get disruptive technology on the global agenda. |
| 11:00am-11:30am | Break |
| 11:30am-12:45pm | Session Two – The Tech Tools: The Means to an Authoritarian End Moderator: Clay FullerThere are many technologies that are maturing or in development that will result in almost endless watershed moments in data collection, delivery, and analysis and processing. This session will review the technologies and how authoritarian regimes are using/will use them to mislead and monitor, including:Micro targeting to influence speech and thought and “social media 0.10”Surveillance cameras (online and real world) and sensorsArtificial intelligence and its applications: “deep fakes” or digital audio, video, and image forgeries; lifelike bots; speech synthesis; facial recognitionNeural networks that analyze massive data sets resulting in centralized, exploitable informationDigital currency (“crypto-anarchy”) and blockchainParticipants will also assess the likelihood of and extent to which these tools may be used by U.S. actors (and actors in other democracies) to legitimize and advance autocratic doctrine domestically (e.g., via extreme nationalist messaging). |
| 12:45pm-2:00pm | Lunch in the Perry World House Solarium |
| 2:00pm-3:15pm | Session Three – The Case of China and its Progeny Moderator: Professor Jacques deLisle In May of 2018, Chinese president Xi Jinping said at an academician meeting that for the State to “achieve the great goal of building a socialist modernized nation and realize the Chinese dream of a great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, [China] must have strong scientific and technological strength and innovation capabilities.” China chose to innovate for itself, not source technology from the rest of the world, and it has made staggering progress. This session will examine China’s developing technologies and their current and anticipated use for population and government control, as well as the country’s exports of technology and management know-how to regime customers like Zimbabwe. The panel will address China’s “social credit system,” “smart” city plans, tech-driven policing in the region Xinjiang, and Huawei’s security-threatening 5G communications network. |
| 3:15pm-4:00pm | Break |
| 4:00pm-6:00pm | Public Keynote Presentation: How Technology Advances Autocracy and What Democracies Can Do About It – Michael Fitts Auditorium – Penn Law Moderator: Professor Claire Finkelstein Panelists: David Cole, ACLU Legal Director, Hon. George J. Mitchell Professor in Law and Public Policy, Georgetown Law Kara Frederick, Technology and National Security Fellow, Center for a New American SecurityRichard Fontaine, Executive Director, Center for a New American Security Marwan M. Kraidy, Professor of Communication, the Anthony Shadid Chair in Global Media, Politics and Culture, and the Founding Director of the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication (CARGC) at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania |
| 6:00pm-7:00pm | Public Reception – The Haaga Lounge (The Goat) – Penn Law |
| 7:00pm-8:30pm | Participant Dinner – THE STUDY HOTEL – 20 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA |
Day Two – Friday, November 22, 2019
How To Save Democracy and the Rule of Law: Responses in the United States and Abroad
| 8:30am-9:30am | Sign-In and Continental Breakfast |
| 9:30am-10:45am | Session Four – The Role of Policymaking and Legislation, and the Global Stage Moderator: Ms. Alexandra MeiseThere is debate in the United States that legislating some form of government oversight of social media practices is anti-First Amendment, and regulation directed at other tech platforms raises privacy concerns. Some advocate eliminating the advertising revenue model of big technology companies. Others maintain that misinformation campaigns and data protection deficiencies are national security threats, and social media and other technology companies’ self-regulation is (and will be) inadequate, resulting in the need for government intervention or oversight. Is it possible to balance commercial enterprise values, free speech, and privacy issues against national security concerns to establish a workable regulated environment? What are the options? How have other democratic states addressed these issues? And is there a body to lead the placement of the autocrat-technology threat on the international political agenda? |
| 10:45am-11:15am | Break |
| 11:15am-12:30pm | Session 5 – Media Response: Transparency, Outreach and Collaboration with Tech’s Private Sector Moderator: Mr. Shawn TurnerIn its report “Crisis in Democracy: Renewing Trust in America,” the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy stated that “navigating the new media environment and separating truth from nontruth will be more challenging as emerging technologies, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, bots and deepfakes, become more sophisticated.” This session will examine what publishers, journalists, and online news distributors can do to help defend against tech assaults, including using transparency to restore public trust, incorporating more diversity of views to fight polarization, educating the public on new aspects of digital literacy, and investing in and using new technologies to defeat disinformation via their solo efforts or through collaborations with technology companies or both |
| 12:30pm-1:45pm | Lunch in the Perry World House Solarium |
| 1:45pm-3:00pm | Session 6 – The Role of Education: Civics and Media LiteracyModerator: Dean Elizabeth Rindskopf ParkerThis session will examine what is meant by civic engagement and participatory governance as well as the relevance of existing models to render autocratic tech-assaults ineffective. What role do we expect individuals to play (social contract, morality, and ethics)? In this country, many believe that there is a crisis in civic education. What steps can be taken to elevate the knowledge and critical thinking of both young students and adults to help guard against anti-democratic circumvention of the U.S. Constitution? Civic education arguably must go beyond constitutional checks and balances and the political process. Must it now incorporate lessons on misinformation and other tactics used by autocracies so persons become more media and digitally literate as well as civic literate? And what is the role of government, NGOs, and the legal profession in instilling this knowledge? |
| 3:00pm-3:30pm | Concluding Remarks – A Blueprint for Protecting Democracy and the Rule of Law What are the priorities for government leadership, policymakers, the press, the private sector, and individuals to address autocrats’ high-tech assaults? How do we corral and reconcile competing interests to form a united and effective front? How can we use the same technology to advance democracy? What is being done now? What is next? |
Keynotes
Thursday, November 21
4:00pm-6:00pm,
Fitts Auditorium, Penn Law. 3501 Sansom Street
How Technology Advances Autocracy and What Democracies Can Do About It
Panelists:
David Cole, ACLU Legal Director, Hon. George J. Mitchell Professor in Law and Public Policy, Georgetown Law
Kara Frederick, Technology and National Security Fellow, Center for a New American Security
Richard Fontaine, Executive Director, Center for a New American Security
Marwan M. Kraidy, Professor of Communication, the Anthony Shadid Chair in Global Media, Politics and Culture, and the Founding Director of the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication (CARGC) at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania
This event is co-sponsored by Perry World House and The Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy, both at the University of Pennsylvania.
This program has been approved for 2 ethics CLE credits for Pennsylvania lawyers. CLE credit may be available in other jurisdictions as well. Attendees seeking CLE credit should bring separate payment in the amount of $80.00 ($40.00 public interest/non-profit attorneys) cash or check made payable to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania.
Participants
Of Counsel & Managing Shareholder Emeritus, Berger Montague
Resident Fellow at the the Atlantic Council
Lightning Scholar at Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania
National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union
Senior Fellow in the Program on National Security at FPRI
Stephen A. Cozen Professor of Law & Professor of Political Science; Director, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Congressman for PA’s 15th District from 2005-2018, Senior Policy Advisor, DLA Piper
Associate Professor of Politics, NYU
CERL Board Member; Partner, Schnader Harrison
CERL Founder & Faculty Director; Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania
CEO of the Center for a New American Security
Of Counsel & Managing Shareholder Emeritus, Berger Montague
Resident Fellow at the the Atlantic Council
Lightning Scholar at Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania
National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union
Senior Fellow in the Program on National Security at FPRI
Stephen A. Cozen Professor of Law & Professor of Political Science; Director, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Congressman for PA’s 15th District from 2005-2018, Senior Policy Advisor, DLA Piper
Associate Professor of Politics, NYU
CERL Board Member; Partner, Schnader Harrison
CERL Founder & Faculty Director; Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania
CEO of the Center for a New American Security
Fellow for the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security
Jeane Kirkpatrick fellow at the American Enterprise Institute
Board of Directors, National Public Radio; CERL Executive Board Chair
Senior Fellow, Eurasia Group Foundation
Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
Researcher, Signal Program on Human Security and Technology, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
Fellow, CERL, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Professor of Communication and the Anthony Shadid Chair in Global Media, Politics & Culture, University of Pennsylvania
Professor of Philosophy and Law, USC
Professor; Department of Philosophy Chair, Dalhouise University
Fellow, CERL, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Senior Corespondent, Vox
Member of the House of Lords, Lords Select Committee on Democracy and Digital Technology
Jeane Kirkpatrick fellow at the American Enterprise Institute
Board of Directors, National Public Radio; CERL Executive Board Chair
Senior Fellow, Eurasia Group Foundation
Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
Researcher, Signal Program on Human Security and Technology, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
Fellow, CERL, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Professor of Communication and the Anthony Shadid Chair in Global Media, Politics & Culture, University of Pennsylvania
Professor of Philosophy and Law, USC
Professor; Department of Philosophy Chair, Dalhouise University
Fellow, CERL, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Senior Corespondent, Vox
Member of the House of Lords, Lords Select Committee on Democracy and Digital Technology
Professor of Philosophy, University of Maryland
Guardsmark Professor; Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics and Management; Director, Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership, The Wharton School
Dean Emerita, University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law
Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Professor of Philosophy, The University of Arizona
Director of the Reporters Committee’s Technology and Press Freedom Project
Foreign Affairs Columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Member of The Inquirer’s Editorial Board
Director of Strategic Communications, The Stimson Center
Senior Fellow, Eurasia Group Foundation
Professor of National Security Communication, Michigan State University; CERL Executive Board Member
Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center on Strategy and Security in Washington, D.C
CERL Executive Board Member
CERL Executive Director
Vice President of the Commercial Space Operations Center (ComSpOC) at Analytical Graphics, Inc.
Guardsmark Professor; Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics and Management; Director, Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership, The Wharton School
Dean Emerita, University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law
Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Professor of Philosophy, The University of Arizona
Director of the Reporters Committee’s Technology and Press Freedom Project
Foreign Affairs Columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Member of The Inquirer’s Editorial Board
Director of Strategic Communications, The Stimson Center
Senior Fellow, Eurasia Group Foundation
Professor of National Security Communication, Michigan State University; CERL Executive Board Member
Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center on Strategy and Security in Washington, D.C
CERL Executive Board Member
CERL Executive Director
Vice President of the Commercial Space Operations Center (ComSpOC) at Analytical Graphics, Inc.
Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Background Readings
Session 1: Why Technology Favors the Autocrat
NEWS ARTICLES AND BLOGS
SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS
- Yuval Noah Harari, “Why Technology Favors Tyranny,” The Atlantic, October 2018.
- Nicholas Wright, “How Artificial Intelligence Will Reshape the Global Order,” Foreign Affairs, July 2018.
- Emily Sherwin, Kremlin Aims to Unplug Russian Internet from World Wide Web, DW Feb.12, 2019
- Ian Bremmer, “Technology and the threat to democracy,” NZ Herald, March 8, 2019
- David Frum, “How to Build an Autocracy,” The Atlantic, March 2017.
- Ezra Klein, “How to stop an autocracy,” Vox, Feb. 7, 2017.
- Wojtek Grojec and Carlos Coelho, How Autocracy is Trending Again, RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty, August 23, 2018.
- Yascha Mounk, “The Dictators’ Last Stand,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2019.
- E.G. Rød, & N. B. Weidmann, (2015). “Empowering activists or autocrats? The Internet in authoritarian regimes,” Journal of Peace Research, 52(3), 338–351.
- Steven Feldstein, (2019). “The Road to Digital Unfreedom: How Artificial Intelligence is Reshaping Repression,” Journal of Democracy, 30(1), 40-52.
- Seva Gunitsky, (2015). “Corrupting the Cyber-Commons: Social Media as a Tool of Autocratic Stability,” Perspectives on Politics, 13(1), 42-54.
LEGAL SOURCES
BOOK
- People vs Tech: How the internet is killing democracy (and how we can save it), Jamie Bartlett
(Dutton 2018)
Session 2: The Tech Tools: The Means to an Authoritarian End
NEWS ARTICLES AND BLOGS
- Richard Fontaine & Kara Frederick, “The Autocrat’s New Tool Kit ,” Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2018.
- Andy Greenberg, “How an Entire Nation Became Russia’s Test Lab for Cyberwar,” Wired, June 20, 2017.
- Andy Greenberg, “Hackers Gain Direct Access to US Power Grid Controls,” Wired, Sept. 6, 2017.
- John Naughton, “Rule by Robots is Easy to Imagine-We’re Already Victims of Superintelligent Firms,” The Guardian, November 25, 2018.
- Declan Walsh & Nada Rashwan, “We’re at War’: A Covert Social Media Campaign Boosts Military Rulers,” The New York Times, Sept. 6, 2019.
- Nicholas Thompson and Ian Bremmer, “The AI Cold War That Threatens Us All,” Wired, October 23, 2019.
- Steve Levine, “Artificial intelligence is giving tyrants a brand new advantage,” Axios, October 14, 2018.
- Margaret Kosal & Heather Regnault, “Emerging Technologies and the Future of Warfare,” The Cipher Brief, November 7, 2019.
SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS
- Nitil Govil & Anirban Kapil Baishya, “The Bully in the Pulpit: Autocracy, Digital Social Media, and Right-wing Populist Technoculture,” 11 Communication, Culture and Critique 67 (March 2018).
LEGAL SOURCES
Session 3: The Case of China and its Progeny
NEWS ARTICLES AND BLOGS
- Chris Buckley & Paul Mozur, “How China Uses High-Tech Surveillance to Subdue Minorities,” The New York Times, May 22,2019.
- Adam Segal, Why China Hacks the World, Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 31, 2016.
- Mara Hvistendahl, China’s Hacker Army, Foreign Policy, Mar. 3, 2010.
- Anna Mitchell & Larry Diamond, China’s Surveillance State Should Scare Everyone, The Atlantic, Feb. 2, 2018.
- Edward Wong, “How China Uses LinkedIn to Recruit Spies Abroad,” The New York Times, August 27, 2019.
- Paul Mozur, Jonah M. Kessel and Melissa Chan, “Made in China, Exported to the World: The Surveillance State,” The New York Times, April 24, 2019.
- Charlie Campbell, “How China Is Using ‘Social Credit Scores’ to Reward and Punish Its Citizens,” Time Magazine, 2019.
- “China: Big Data Fuels Crackdown in Minority Region,” Human Rights Watch, February 26, 2018.
- Richard McGregor, “Party Man,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2019.
- Joshua Eisenman & Devin T. Stewart, “China’s Global Critics Are Helping It Win,” Foreign Policy, Oct. 30, 2019.
- Christina Larson, “Who needs democracy when you have data?,” Technology Review, August 20, 2018.
SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS
- Hao Yeli, A Three-Perspective Theory of Cyber Sovereignty, 7 Prism 109.
- Elsia B. Kania and John K. Costello, Quantum Hegemony? China’s Ambitions and the Challenge to U.S. Innovation Leadership, Center for a New American Security report, Sept. 2018.
- Daniel Kliman and Abigail Grace, “Power Play Addressing China’s Belt and Road Strategy,” CNAS Report, Sept. 2018
LEGAL SOURCES
- China’s Tech-Enhanced Authoritarianism – Dr. Samantha Hoffman’s written testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Hearing on “China’s Digital Authoritarianism: Surveillance, Influence, and Political Control” May 16, 2019
Session 4: The Role of Policy Making and Legislation, and the Global Stage
NEWS ARTICLES AND BLOGS
- Tom Kulik, Why the Active Cyber Defense Certainty Act is a Bad Idea, Above the Law, Jan. 29, 2018.
- Andrew Nelson, Cryptocurrency Regulation in 2018: Where the World Stands Right Now, Bitcoin Magazine, Feb. 1, 2018.
- Timothy Egan, “Why Doesn’t Mark Zuckerberg Get It?,” The New York Times, October 25, 2019.
- “Do social media threaten democracy?,” The Economist, November 14, 2017
- Craig Timberg and Tony Romm, “It’s Not Just the Russians Anymore as Iranians and Others Turn Up Disinformation Efforts Ahead of 2020 Vote,” The Washington Post, July 25, 2019.
- Richard A. Clarke and Rob Knake, “The Internet Freedom League,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2019.
LEGAL SOURCES
Session 5: Media Response: Transparency, Outreach and Collaboration with Tech’s Private Sector
NEWS ARTICLES AND BLOGS
- Germany Starts Enforcing Hate Speech Law, BBC, Jan. 1, 2018.
- Lucinda Southern, Germany’s Law Against Hate Speech Faces Hurdles, Digiday, Jan. 3, 2018.
- Matt Burgess, Theresa May’s Fake News Unit is Just Another Naïve Plan for the Web, Wired, Jan. 24, 2018.
- Government Announces Anti-Fake News Unit, BBC, Jan. 23, 2018.
- Michael-Ross Fiorentino, France Passes Controversial ‘Fake News’ Law, EuroNews, Nov. 22, 2018.
- Lithuanians are using software to fight back against fake news, The Economist, Oct. 24, 2019.
- Jacob Weisberg, “Bad News,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2019.
SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS
- Dagmar Rychnovska & Martin Kohut, The Battle for Truth: Mapping the Network of Information: War Experts in the Czech Republic, 26 New Perspectives 57 (2018).
- Crisis in Democracy:Renewing Trust in America, The Report of the Knight Commission on Trust, Media, and Democracy
LEGAL SOURCES
- Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, “Tackling Online Disinformation: A European Approach,” COM (2018) 236 final (Apr. 26, 2018).
- French Government, Combating the Manipulation of Information
- Libra White Paper
Session 6: The Role of Education: Civics and Media Literacy
NEWS ARTICLES AND BLOGS
- A Europe that Protects: Good Progress on Tackling Hybrid Threats, European Law Monitor, May 31, 2019.
- Brooke Donald, Stanford Researchers Find Students Have Trouble Judging the Credibility of Information Online, Stanford University, November 22, 2016.
- Yoni Appelbaum, “Americans Aren’t Practicing Democracy Anymore,” The Atlantic, October 2018.
- “Americans’ Civics Knowledge Increases but Still Has a Long Way to Go,” Annenberg Public Policy Center, September 12, 2019.
SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS
- Joelle Nagle, Twitter, Cyber-Violence, and the Need for a Critical Social Media Literacy in Teacher Education: A Review of the Literature, 76 Teaching and Teacher Education 86 (2018).
- Suzanne E. Spaulding and Eric Goldstein, “Countering Adversary Threats to Democratic Institutions,” CSIS, Feb. 2018.
- Bobby Chesney and Danielle Citron, “Deep Fakes: A Looming Challenge for Privacy, Democracy, and National Security”
- Jamie Fly, Laura Rosenberger, and David Salvo, “Policy Blueprint for Countering Authoritarian Interference in Democracies,” 2018
- Statement of Laura Rosenberger, “Foreign Influence Operations and their use of Social Media Platforms, ”
- Rachel Kleinfeld and David Solimini, “What Comes Next? Lessons for the Recovery of Liberal Democracy, ” October 2018
LEGAL SOURCES
- United States, Executive Office of the President [Barack Obama]. Executive Order: Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities. April 1, 2015.
- United States, Executive Office of the President [Barack Obama]. Executive Order: Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity. Feb. 12, 2013.
- United States, Executive Office of the President [Donald Trump]. Executive Order: Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure. May 11, 2017.
Contact us
For any questions regarding the conference or registration, please contact: Jennifer Cohen at [email protected]