Technology and the Public Interest
Books, essays, and commentary from John Palfrey
Essays
Notes from AI Action Summit in Delhi, India, February 2026
Reflections on AI, governance, and the public interest from the AI Action Summit in Delhi.
Read essayConcord Free Public Library 150th Anniversary Celebration
Remarks on libraries, civic institutions, and the enduring importance of public knowledge.
Read essayInvesting in the Arts—in Chicago and Beyond
Thoughts on philanthropy, culture, and why investing in the arts matters for public life.
Read essayCommentary from John Palfrey
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Green Dam Implementation Delayed in China
Xinhua is reporting that the MIIT in China has decided to delay implementation of the Green Dam Youth Escort software program. (HT: Rebecca MacKinnon, who has been doing a terrific job documenting the proposed Green Dam regulation from the start on her blog.) Much to their credit, leaders like Commerce Secretary Gary Locke of the…
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SCOTUS Denies Cert in Cablevision (Good Call!)
The Supreme Court says: “08-448 CABLE NEWS NETWORK, INC., ET AL. V. CSC HOLDINGS, INC., ET AL.: The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied. The Chief Justice and Justice Alito took no part in the consideration or decision of this petition.” (The Solicitor General wrote a terrific brief urging the Court to take…
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WebEcology Study on Tweets in the Iran
Congratulations to the Berkman-affiliated WebEcology project on their near-instant empirical study of tweets on the Iran election. They’ve tracked more than 2 million Tweets over the past 18 days.
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NYT story on Iran Elections and Technology, with Linkage to Green Dam
The New York Times’ Brian Stelter and Brad Stone have a very thoughtful piece in the paper today about the changing role of censorship in an Internet age, with references to ONI work. The final point, made in the story by Ethan Zuckerman, draws an appropriate connection to the Green Dam story in China from…
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ONI Releases New Iran Study
We at the OpenNet Initiative have released our 2009 study of Internet censorship in Iran, including new data from our most recent rounds of testing.
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Internet & Democracy: China, Iran, the Arabic Blogosphere
These are heady days for the study of Internet and its relationship to the practice of politics and the struggles over democratic decision-making. Three stories — in China, in Iran, and throughout the Arabic-speaking world — make a powerful case for the deepening relevance of the use of new technologies by citizens to the balance…
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ONI Releases Green Dam Software Analysis
At the OpenNet Initiative, we’ve spent much of this week looking hard at the Chinese Green Dam software that the state is asking all PC manufacturers to ship with their hardware. The analysis highlights — and confirms — a variety of problems with the software. As we argue in this ONI Bulletin, this announcement is…
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Solicitor General's Brief in Cablevision Case
The United States Solicitor General’s office has filed its brief (posted online here) in the long-running RS-DVR matter, popularly referred to as the “Cablevision” case. The brief is terrific. The United States takes the position that the Supreme Court should not review the case, which had been decided unanimously by the Second Circuit in favor…
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NPR's Talk of the Nation on Online Safety
NPR’s ToTN ran a piece yesterday on Online Safety that references lots of good data and the Internet Safety Technical Task Force report. Guests included three experts on this topic: Lenore Skenazy (author of Free Range Kids), Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, and Janis Wolak (UNH). It is rare that one hears such a nuanced…
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Online Intermediaries
Issues swirling around Craigslist have given rise to a new round of consideration of our liability scheme of online intermediaries. David Ardia — a very thoughtful observer of this scene, a Berkman fellow, and director of our Citizens Media Law Project — comments on a podcast at Legal Talk Network. The themes are similar to…
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Debate on Section 230 and Internet Intermediaries
ArsTechnica has posted my debate with Adam Thierer, the eloquent director of the Progress and Freedom Foundation’s Center for Digital Media Freedom. I read more or less everything Adam writes and by and large agree with it all. Here, we disagree on whether it’s time to rethink the scope of Section 230 immunity in certain…