Law and Tech Responses to Online Harassment – A Panel Discussion

09 Aug Law and Tech Responses to Online Harassment – A Panel Discussion

Trolls to Revenge Porn – Law & Tech Responses to Online Harassment is co presented by Legal Hackers LA, and Women’s Voices in Tech. Join us on Monday August 14th at the Yahoo Headquarters in Los Angeles, from 6:30 – 8:30 pm. Admission is free. RSVP here.

It seems there is no end to the problem of online harassment and abuse. If you are old enough to remember the beginning of the internet, you probably also remember the excitement around it: we would all be free to share ideas, and opinions! Anonymity meant even those most afraid to speak up could share their stories, power could be challenged, and free speech would reign supreme. But as with all good parties, some people found a way to use what was meant to be a good thing as the perfect vehicle to spread abuse, harassment, and threats. Then social media came along and the rest is well, very recent history.

Where do we go from here? We are dealing with very new technology, very old human problems, and a few years of research and legal cases. This is a topic that is very important to me, not only as a woman who uses social media, but as a person who values the freedom of expression we have and at the same time is appalled by the misuse of this right by a number of well known personalities and obscure “trolls.”

This is why I jumped at the opportunity to help Brett Heeger and Legal Hackers LA put together a panel to discuss what law and tech can do to prevent and combat such abuse. I had the pleasure to spend quite some time talking with each of our panelists and the more I research the topic, the more it’s clear that: 1) The situation is a lot more complicated that we can tell at first glance – and the more you dig in, the more grey areas you bump into 2) We need a lot more education and discussion on topics such as ethics, philosophy, and human rights 3) We are far from having laws and tech capabilities to fully address the issues 4) As someone remarked, “Why can’t people just stop being assholes?”

Join me on Monday August 14th, and hear from three leading authorities on the issue of social media, online abuse, law and tech.

Hope Garcia is the General Counsel of Tumblr and will talk about the legal challenges and considerations online content platforms contend with. From protecting the right to privacy of their users to acting as a content platform vs editorial board, what are the most challenging issues facing social media sites as we see a record number of content posted every day?

Bennet Kelley is the Founder of the Internet Law Center. Bennet is at the forefront of the legal fight to protect victims of online harassment and abuse. He led the effort to develop the first cybercrime primer for Californa lawmakers and was included in the 2014 Los Angeles Business Journal List of Most Influential Lawyers in eCommerce and Digital Media. He will share how most people often are not aware of the seriousness and danger of online harassment until they become a target, and what kind of legal response is possible and/or needed to fight the abuse.

Dr. Sarah T. Roberts is an Assistant Professor at UCLA and a leading authority on commercial content moderation. She has done extensive research on the impact moderation has on the people who are hired to sift through thousands of reported abusive images and the role they play in what is shown or removed from social media. She will delve into the beliefs that often underlie these decisions and the human and technological limitations of monitoring today’s amount of online content.

Trolls to Revenge Porn – Law & Tech Responses to Online Harassment is co presented by Legal Hackers LA, and Women’s Voices in Tech. Join us on Monday August 14th at the Yahoo Headquarters in Los Angeles, from 6:30 – 8:30 pm. Admission is free. RSVP here.