Justice, Equity, & Inclusion

What if tech was designed and managed to empower and protect the people who use it?

In Afghanistan, technology is the last refuge for girls who want — and deserve — an education past the age of 12 in a country where doing so is a crime.

Paola Ricaurte Quijano and other guests discuss how AI extends the legacies of colonialism.

OONI data reveals that seven countries block Women on Web domains.

Fellow Mara Bolis is featured in a BBC The World Tonight segment.

Faculty Associate Magda Romanska reflects on the return to in-person arts programming after COVID-spurred digitization.

Faculty Associate Samer Hassan and coauthor Silvia Semenzin do a mixed-methods analysis of a digital sex work platform using crypto.

Fellow Mara Bolis argues that women's skepticism about AI will ultimately make the technology safer.

Petra Molnar notes the ways that migration is reshaped by surveillance technologies, artificial intelligence, and data-driven governance.

How can we make digital performing arts truly accessible?

Dasha Pruss warns that facial recognition systems are only the tip of the carceral AI iceberg.

Trebor Scholz and Mark Esposito provide guidance for building community-owned alternatives to extractive AI systems.

Fellow Sean McGregor's work on the AI Incident Database (AIID) is highlighted.

Faculty Associate Petra Molnar and other tech experts identify trends that they're watching in the new year.

Dr. AJ Escoffery organized the Social Media & Tech Solidarity Workshop for leaders in academia, organizing, and storytelling to interrogate whether social media can empower…

Affiliate Rudy Fraser explains how the Blacksky toolkit allows community builders to control algorithms, moderation, governances, and fund-pooling.

Almeida has received the inaugural edition of the UNESCO–Uzbekistan Beruniy Prize for Scientific Research on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Dr. AJ Escoffery created a comic workbook and guide based on his forthcoming Reparative Media (MIT Press, 2025). 

"Epistemicide—the killing, silencing, annihilation, or devaluing of a knowledge system—occurs when epistemic injustices become persistent and systematic, operating collectively as…

Rudy Fraser's Blacksky is mentioned as a new wave social media app that focuses on depth, rather than breadth. "[Blacksky] targets minorities and marginalized individuals and has…

Faculty Associate David Nemer and coauthor André Sobal draw attention to the human labor powering purportedly autonomous AI systems. AI systems are, they argue, "heteromated": …

Faculty Associate Trebor Scholz and Stefano Tortorici ask whether AI can be wielded as tools of solidarity and collective power, despite the technology's extant environmental…

Petra Molnar and coauthors consider la cuerda invisible - the invisible leash - created by technologies used to surveil migrants.

Mark Esposito and coauthor Ava Fitoussy caution that, despite the potential for increased efficiency amid record numbers of job applicants, AI-powered recruitment makes the need…

Affiliate Backtosch Mustafa asks whether agentic AI - AI systems that are nearly or fully autonomous - could solve some patients' difficulties with accessing maternal health care…

Rudy Fraser joins Computer Says Maybe's Nodestar series to talk about Blacksky, the decentralized community for Black folks that Fraser built using the AT protocol. Listen to the…

Two BKC community members - Paola Ricaurte and Latanya Sweeney - were named to Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in AI.

Vasilis Kostakis and coauthor Dimitris Dalakoglou explore the ways that open-sourcing can help to reconcile the demands of technological advancement and social justice. "While…

BKC Director Martha Minow reflects on how community news outlets have been impacted by the Trump administration's cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Jasmine McNealy and coauthor Yewande Addie explore the ways that AI is shaping public health communications in Africa, focusing on vaccine hesitancy and maternal health.

Sahana Udupa sits down with Germany's DW News to discuss Elon Musk's Grok, including the chatbot's tendency to generate hateful extremist content under the guise of 'fun'…

Northeastern's Khoury College shares the news of Upol Ehsan's BKC Fellowship.

"The fear that women already experience on the street, at the beach, inside a store or on social media is being transformed to constant paranoia under the ever-watchful eyes of AI…

"Platform regulation is not just a technical issue. The future of a generation cannot be built on algorithms that reward hate and radicalization." Faculty Associate David Nemer…

Jessica Fjeld calls for coalition between movement technologists and movement lawyers to push for structural changes in the face of advancing authoritarianism.

Faculty Associate David Nemer highlights how platform-driven disinformation disproportionately harms marginalized communities and calls for urgent, systemic regulatory action.

Read Affiliate Joe Bak-Coleman's contribution to the UN Human Development Report 2025, with advisory input from Faculty Associate Arvind Narayanan and alums J. Nathan Matias and…

"Open source, decentralized tooling ensures that, if any single company becomes a nation-state target, the communities that rely on its infrastructure can keep operating." ASML…

A recent article on Bluesky's decentralized ecosystem mentions Blacksky.

Faculty Associate Petra Molnar warns that AI-driven visa revocation programs chill discourse and weaken civil society at large.

ASML Fellow and Blacksky founder Rudy Fraser presents a vision for community-led digital spaces centered on mutual aid, self-governance, and decentralization.

Brenda Dvoskin and Thomas Kadri interrogate Big Tech Feminism, the push towards protecting women from online sexuality.

Rudy Fraser and Aymar Jean Christian discuss Blacksky, the Fraser-founded social media framework that empowers marginalized users by creating community-centered spaces and tech…

Affiliate Kasia Chmielinski examines the impact of dataset biases on AI in healthcare and the need for greater transparency and accountability in medical AI training data.

Affiliate Chinmayi Arun reviews Ulises Mejias and Faculty Associate Nick Couldry's Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back, digging into the extractive…

BKC Affiliate Jenn Louie weighs in on how AI might inform our understandings of humanity, morality, and meaning-making.

Faculty Associate Dasha Pruss and Nedah Nemati argue that technological “alternatives” to incarceration extend psychological torture beyond prisons.

"Border technologies heighten the historical violence of colonialism and imperialism while failing to address the root causes of forced migration."

Knight Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury warns that “AI for Good” initiatives can exploit under-resourced communities as test grounds for unproven tech.

Fellow Upol Ehsan discusses his own academic background and surveys the challenges of defining AI and setting the parameters for its application in the Global South.

Faculty Associate Apryl Williams breaks down a user survey from Feeld, a dating app focused on creating safe spaces.

In a journal article about storytelling, Faculty Associate Vasilis Kostakis and his coauthors ask what kinds of writing can contribute to meaningful change.

Susan Benesch weighs in on the political implications of Meta's recent change in speech policies.

Through interviews, news analysis, and personal observation, Meredith D. Clark presents the first book about how Black Twitter users carved out a vital space for fast-paced,…

Petra Molnar joins Just Security to discuss the impacts of emerging technologies on the US borders.

Petra Molnar warns that emerging surveillance technologies will make violence against migrants even more prominent.

The military tactics used within Palestine and Lebanon demand a reckoning with the "normalization of techno-terror."

Dasha Pruss and Petra Molnar critique carceral uses of AI and offer suggestions for mitigating this technology's use.

Fellow Francisco Marmolejo-Cossío participated in a recent SEAS Symposium on Indigenous approaches to engineering.

Marissa Gerchick and Olga Askelrod detail the ACLU's complaints against Aon, a hiring technology company.

Greg Gondwe explores Zambian youth's sophisticated digital activism in the wake of the 2020 youth protests.

Nien-hê Hsieh considers the conditions under which mega-wealth might be permissible.

Apryl Williams' research on Black women's experiences on - and by - dating apps reveals algorithmic biases.

Ifeoma Ajunwa argues that we can apply Afrofuturist principles to ensure that AI is being harnessed for the collective good.

Eric Gilbert and coauthors use AI-generated nude images to test whether X's takedown algorithms take non-consensual intimate media seriously.

In a newly-published reporta, Alexa Hasse illustrates the roles that generative AI software plays in teens' and parents' lives, and advocates for maintaining open communication…

Sociodemographic data bears on algorithmic literacy.

HKS's Behind the Book series covers Bruce Schneier's latest work.

The Cyberlaw Clinic's Alejandra Caraballo was nominated as a British Vogue Force for Change.

"Analog is back," writes Maroussia Lévesque, arguing that the ability to bypass digital technology reflects an inherent privilege akin to a sort of exceptionalism.

Ibtissam Bouachrine highlights the dangers of the targeted misogynistic and transphobic campaign against Algerian boxer Imane Khelif.

Presenting at CSU, San Bernardino, Elodie Vialle highlights the risks of allowing harassment and violence against journalists to go unchecked.

Dasha Pruss and co-author Marta Ziosi discuss their paper, "“Evidence of What, for Whom? The Socially Contested Role of Algorithmic Bias in a Predictive Policing Tool."

Zahra Stardust's new book is now available for pre-order from Duke University Press.

Lindsey Cameron writes about gig workers' agency.

"The rise of deep fakes and other AI-generated misinformation presents a direct threat to women’s freedom."

Ethan Zuckerman discusses his decision to sue Meta.

Nadah Feteih discusses how tech workers can speak out about ethical issues in their workplaces.

BKC Faculty Associate Petra Molnar advocates for prioritizing the meaningful participation by individuals with lived experiences at border crossings in conversations around border…

Apryl Williams joined BKC for an event on her new book about algorithmic bias in online dating apps.

Maitreya Shah spoke about his work centering experiences of people with disabilities. 

Clinical Instructor and Director for the Initiative for a Representative First Amendment Kendra Albert rebukes Atlanta Police Foundation's invasive individual electronic…

Petra Molnar writes about the AI technology incorporated at the southern border and the human rights implications.

Alejandra Caraballo criticizes Meta's lack of enforcement of the company's own bullying, harassment, and hate speech policies.

Read about Nadah Feteih and Anika Collier Novaroli's conversation at the Berkman Klein Center on marginalized voices in the tech industry.

BKC Affiliate Jenny Korn discusses the focus on the intersectional identities of Asians in media from last year.

BKC Faculty Associate Greg Gondwe's new study investigates the integration of Ubuntu philosophy into AI-driven journalism practices in Subs-Saharan Africa.

David Weinberger views machine learning through a feminist ethical framework.

Apryl Williams describes dating app algorithms as a reinforcer of longstanding racial biases that privilege whiteness and deprioritize matching women of color.

BKC Affiliate Marissa Gerchick and Matt Cagle argue that facial recognition test scores mislead communities about the technology's harms.

BKC Faculty Associate Jabari Evans welcomes RSM Visiting Scholar David Craig to his podcast to discuss the implications of race, class, and gender in the burgeoning field of…

Clinical Instructor Alejandra Caraballo comments on the decreasing availability of gender-affirming care for minors. 

Clinical Instructor Alejandra Caraballo discusses the Meta Oversight Board's finding that Meta has failed to protect LGBTQ people online.

Ruth Okediji discusses the Biden administration's recent proposal to use federal "march-in" rights to lower drug costs.

Zahra Stardust and collaborators investigate how social media platforms frame and perform safety and harm interventions.

Andres Lombana-Bermudez, Faculty Associate at BKC, discusses the issue of lack of diversity and representation in technology fields.

Andres Lombana-Bermudez spoke to CNN about how more diversity can help to combat bias in AI

Leah Plunkett speaks to Teen Vogue about the new "Right to Be Forgotten" bill introduced in Maryland to protect child influencers. 

Maitreya Shah joins a Center for Democracy and Technology Panel on centering disability rights in discussions of AI policy.

BKC Faculty Associate Petra Molnar challenges us to consider the potential impact of generative AI on the surveillance of borders and of migrants.

BKC Faculty Associate Petra Molnar joins the RefugeE Studies Center to discuss how the use of new technologies in immigration and asylum governance affect human rights. 

BKC Faculty Associate Salomé Viljoen and collaborator Amanda Parsons, explain why current laws are not well equipped to confront problems generated by the rise of informational…

Anna M. Gorska and BKC Faculty Associate Dariusz Jemielniak release a study on gender bias in AI-generated images of professionals. 

With collaborators, Zahra Stardust presents a brief overview of recent literature and popular commentary, including suggestions for new research agendas in the sextech sphere.

BKC Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury shares thoughts about her hopes and fears for AI.

BKC Affiliate Zahra Stardust writes about the data governance approach of prospective sextech industry professionals.

BKC Affiliate Zahra Stardust writes about the financial discrimination and barriers to digital financial infrastructure faced by sex workers.

BKC Faculty Associate Leah Plunkett comments on children's privacy rights.

BKC Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury comments on how the AI systems in banking are biased against marginalized communities.

BKC Affiliate Nathaniel Lubin writes about methods and approaches of evaluating effects of digital platforms on mental health.

Sue Hendrickson and BKC Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury write about the role of global governance alongside the development of AI.

BKC Faculty Associate Kishonna Gray and her work studying race and gender in gaming are profiled by Kotaku.  

BKC Faculty Associate Ethan Zuckerman discusses the fate of Twitter and the future of digital public squares.

BKC Faculty Associate Ifeoma Ajunwa writes about how algorithms can exacerbate employment discrimination.

BKC Affiliate Siva Mathiyazhagan writes about the need to eradicate caste and to build a safe, inclusive, just digital India.

Clinical instructor at the Cyberlaw Clinic Kendra Albert discusses how an internet that is safe for sex workers is an internet that is safer for everyone.

Clinical instructor at the Cyberlaw Clinic Alejandra Caraballo comments on changes to Twitter's content moderation rules and enforcement since Elon Musk's takeover.

BKC Research Assistant Pratika Katiyar was featured on a panel hosted by BKC discussing gender-based harassment.

BKC Affiliate Afsaneh Rigot comments on the arrests of LGBTQ+ people in Egypt.

BKC Affiliate Jenny Korn sits down with GBH News to discuss whether the success of “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once” means that opportunities for Asian actors have paid off.

BKC affiliate Leonard Cortana was profiled by United Nations Human Rights for his work in human rights.

"They erased Dulcie September, who remained a name in schools, streets, and cultural centers but nothing about her intellectual production and incredible life story as an anti…

"Instead of investing in costly technologies, governments could be using this money to strengthen access to justice, services and psycho-social support for people who are…

BKC Affiliate Afsaneh Rigot is quoted discussing the need to design technology for the groups of people who are most marginalized and impacted by the design.

BKC Faculty Associate Petra Molnar writes about new technologies of border management. “But when we really drill down, none of these conversations are just about technology. We…

"Twitter changed leadership from one mercurial billionaire to another, and in that regard it affirms that the site was never 'ours'..."

BKC Affiliate Elettra Bietti explores the distinctions and assumptions around platforms' functioning in markets. 

"A worry still is that these nations will never see any true benefits from tech investments until tech investors address the lack of the basic infrastructure necessary to support…

BKC Faculty Associate Ben Green writes about the challenge of creating equitable policy reforms around algorithmic fairness.

BKC Affiliate Afsaneh Rigot and Kendra Albert write about Big Tech and how they should support the Iranian people. "Expanded services...are no longer hindered by sanctions…

As part of her Berkman Klein fellowship, Zahra Stardust organized a Community Lab at RightsCon 2021 on "Alternative Frameworks for Sexual Content Moderation." The Lab was…

BKC Affiliate Zahra Stardust writes about the value of sex positivity as a framework for thinking about law.

Kendra Albert writes about how researchers should handle sex/gender variables in different contexts like medicine, and the different pitfalls researchers may fall into. “False…

"Long before FAccT or ProPublica’s COMPAS reporting or Andrew Ferguson's book, the Department of Homeland Security was using sexist, racist algorithms to determine who to subject…

Afsaneh Rigot connects Telegram in Russia, Elon Musk’s Twitter plans, and threats to abortion access and safety...

This report outlines how Design From the Margins can be used to build technologies for decentered cases from the beginning of the design process…

Affiliate Chinmayi Arun explores the complex, fragmented nature of Facebook’s internal governance and its uneven accountability to states, publics, and its own Oversight Board.

Afsaneh Rigot explains why Design from the Margins is necessary and salutary...

Juan Ortiz Freuler explores how datafication could impact human rights practice.

Elizabeth Renieris assesses a national ID scheme developing in Ethiopia amid the country’s civil war.

Jenny Korn pushes for the creation of "critical tech ethics" as a way to improve technologies, including the Internet, and reduce the propagation of ongoing racial injustices.

Jonnie Penn writes that tech critics should be wary of naturalizing a dependency on digital tools.

A metaLAB (at) Harvard project illustrates how a movement such as #MeToo is constituted by masses of unobserved tweets.

Juan Ortiz Freuler sketches the challenges of datafication for human rights.

Allissa Richardson examines how African American mobile journalism became a model for marginalized people’s political communication across the United States.

Zahra Stardust interviews Danielle Blunt about the prevalence of algorithmic biases against sex work.

Sameer Hinduja shares insight on the psychological damage that online harassment can inflict on victims — and the limitations of cyberbullying insurance.

Zahra Stardust and Helen Hester envision a post-work future that is more equitable for sex workers.

Kishonna Gray shares her journey engaging digital studies and Black studies. 

Apryl Williams shares the ways in which race underlies much of online life.

Mutale Nkonde discusses techno-racism and facial recognition software with CNN.

An op-ed by Ruth Okediji

Allissa Richardson interviewed by WBUR

Terry Fisher and Ruth Okediji propose changes to bolster global south’s ability to produce pharmaceuticals

Allissa Richardson joins Slate’s Amicus podcast

Allissa Richardson argues against sharing videos of violent police encounters in an op-ed for Vox.

Danielle Allen joins Amanpour and Company to discuss American Justice.

Dr. Allissa Richardson spoke with WUSA9 about having Black deaths aired on TV

Tunde Okunoye discusses the roles of Nigerian youth and technology in a post for the Council on Foreign Relations.

Berkman Klein Center event explores how technology factors into pandemic response

Three community members discuss how young Black people use technology for activism around the world

Brandeis Marshall interviewed by Harvard Business School’s Digital Initiative

Five community members speak about their vexed relationships to the law

James Mickens participates in MIT-hosted panel about ongoing challenges for Black scholars

Ifeoma Ajunwa outlines three reasons why COVID-19 could help the future inclusion of women in the workplace

Ifeoma Ajunwa on why she thinks the pandemic could benefit the future inclusion of women in the workplace

Babatunde Okunoye writes about an agenda for meaningful connectivity in Africa

A Q&A with Mary Gray

Amanda Third and colleagues produce report on online safety in the Pacific.

Lauren Chambers discusses an ACLU map that highlights incidents of police violence.

Allissa Richardson discusses her new book and the myth of objective journalism

Jenny Korn discusses Asian representation in film and TV in 2020

Allissa Richardson on mental health of Black journalists covering the anti-police brutality and Black Lives Matter protests

Urs Gasser discusses the BKC Policy Practice: Digital Pandemic Response

Ifeoma Ajunwa shares her thoughts on anti-racism training

Francine Berman shares her personal story in tech, and how the field can change

Structural racism can be combatted only if there is political will, not more data.

Sasha Costanza-Chock discusses their book Design Justice on New Books in Technology

Juan Ortiz Freuler joins “Tech Won’t Save Us” podcast

Human Rights Racial Equality & New Information Technologies

Apryl Williams explains that although memes are humorous, Karens and Kens of the world express a dangerous, audacious kind of White supremacy

‘Their Names’ project gathers the stories of 28,000 people, from Jan. 1, 2000, to George Floyd

Technological systems should be reimagined to include the needs and the rights of refugees, Dragana Kaurin argues.

Apryl Williams discusses how white allies can express solidarity without centering the conversations on themselves.

How can putting marginalized people at the very center of design and technology change the world for the better?

Mutale Nkonde suggests tech and AI companies embrace racial literacy

How the design of sociotechnical systems can be one means of dismantling or transforming systems of oppression

Twenty-seven prominent researchers from MIT, Harvard, Princeton, NYU, UC Berkeley and Columbia have signed an open statement of concern regarding the use of actuarial risk…

“Ghost Work” reveals labor structures masked by technology

What is the impact of digital technologies on deep-rooted Brazilian inequalities?

Desmond Patton says law enforcement officials should analyze social media posts about grief and stress to prevent violent crime among young people.

Siddharth Suri and BKC’s Mary Gray discuss their book “Ghost Work” with GeekWire

Localization Lab founder and Berkman Klein fellow Dragana Kaurin talks about communication tools to protect refugees, journalists, and human rights activists.

Millions of workers are doing on-demand work to keep the Internet running smoothly, and they are now fighting for similar rights that full-time employees won decades ago.

Dismantling inequality in AI with marginalized voices in leadership

Incorporating social work and values into community-based AI research

Feminist research and bridging conversations about consent

A critical perspective on this emerging notion of the data commons

“I am an optimist, who believes that creativity, rigor, and selective disruption can make outsized social impact possible."

Bringing into focus the impact that new technologies can have on socio-economic, civil and political rights

As internet technology continues to be an important part of humanity’s lived experience, humanity as a whole must be empowered to dictate their desired experience.

What we learned about social innovation in Norway, how to map local innovation ecosystems and the challenges and opportunities that Norwegian social entrepreneurs confront.

Greater diversity within research communities can control for bias in this process.

How do people respond to the predictions made by pretrial risk assessments?

There is no easy fix to the asymmetries existing between developing and developed countries.

Vasilis Kostakis describes sustainable, commons-based design and manufacture in prosthetics & in agricultural machinery for small farms.

Algorithms may be intended to have a positive impact, but what happens when the opposite occurs?

Police gather on social media in order to prevent and investigate criminal activity. But the clues found within aren't always conclusive

"Data scientists must recognize themselves as political actors and adopt an explicit politics of social justice."

Our Youth & Media team looked at how teens are using social media to figure out who they are.

World of Warcraft and the study of online communities

Government access to encrypted data is best conceptualized as a "wicked problem": one where the goals are unclear, the information is incomplete, and the solutions are always…

The shift away from social exchange and toward markets, and what this means for the sharing economy

A service providing off-grid communications services to everyday people received the grand prize at the Wireless Innovation for a Networked Society (WINS) Challenge from Mozilla…

Examining the unique socio-economic characteristics that affect how Small Islands States cope with health epidemics.

Malavika Jayaram discusses the language we use to talk about Artificial Intelligence, and the impact of AI in Asia.

Chinmayi Arun discusses the challenges unchecked AI development could pose to civil liberties in Asia.