State of the Net Conference 2021: Full Schedule

11:00am EST

Welcome and Introductions

Tuesday January 26, 2021 11:00am - 11:05am EST

Break / Networking

11:05am EST

Rep. Anna G. Eshoo Keynote on COVID-19 Infodemic

Speakers

Anna G. Eshoo

U.S. Representative (D-CA 18th District), Congress

Tuesday January 26, 2021 11:05am - 11:15am EST

Keynote

11:15am EST

When Words Can Kill: The COVID-19 Infodemic's Impact IRL

With COVID-19 vaccination efforts underway nationwide, there is an urgent need to tackle increasingly widespread misinformation about its safety, efficacy and deployment. The Internet and social media should not become major vectors for mis-information dissemination.This panel will survey public service members, practitioners, and scholars across tech, government and academia to unpack how the incoming Biden administration is shoring up efforts to address this dangerous trend, and tackle best practices for public/private sector collaboration combat this existential threat to public health.

Moderators

Davey Alba

Technology Reporter, New York Times

Speakers

Dr. Ana Santos Rutschman, S.J.D.

Advisor, Biden Campaign COVID-19 Innovation Committee

Renee DiResta

Technical Research Manager, Stanford Internet Observatory

Dr. Joan Donovan

Research Director, Harvard Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Polic

Dr. Diana S. Grigsby-Toussaint, PhD, MPH

Associate Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Brown School of Public Health

Tuesday January 26, 2021 11:15am - 12:00pm EST

Panel

12:00pm EST

Lunch Break

Tuesday January 26, 2021 12:00pm - 12:55pm EST

Break / Networking

1:00pm EST

The Solar Winds of Cybersecurity: Biden and the 117th Congress Need A Unified Strategy

In the wake of the SolarWinds hack and a radically different cyber threat environment, questions arise around how the Biden administration will approach cybersecurity. Will its strategy offer a major departure from Obama’s arguably inconsistent approach or can we expect to see more of the same? Further, what role will a new Congress play? This discussion will center on some of the recent cyber appointments, offer predictions about threat priorities, and outline if and how there could be more cross-sectoral collaboration to arm up against growing cyberattacks.

Moderators

Shane Tews

Visiting Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

Speakers

Morgan Wright

Chief Security Advisor, SentinelOne

Tatyana Bolton

Policy Director, Cybersecurity & Emerging Threats, R Street

Kemba Walden

Digital Security Unit Attorney, Microsoft

Robert Mayer

Cybersecurity & Innovation Senior Vice President, USTelecom

Tuesday January 26, 2021 1:00pm - 1:50pm EST

Panel

1:55pm EST

Revising Section 230: What Proposals are on the Table?

In DC, Section 230 debates have ping-ponged between the binary choice of repealing the statute or leaving it as is. Invariably, congressional hearings around the statute veered off into unrelated debates about bias, antitrust, privacy, and beyond. Congress almost repealed the statute outright near the end of the session. For its lack of substantive debate, many proposals have been put forth to revise 230 – addressing certain classes of content like non-consensual porn, predicating 230 immunity on adhering to best practices or good samaritan-ship, suggesting a notice-and-takedown process, establishing better complaint-resolution mechanisms, creating a specialized digital agency to deal with these issues, and the list goes on. This panel will explore what’s on the table, what is likely to advance, what challenges Members face in the possible amending of Section 230, and whether it may be best to leave the provision as is.

Moderators

Alan Davidson

Senior Advisor, Mozilla

Speakers

Genevieve Lakier

Assistant Professor of Law & Herbert and Marjorie Fried Teaching Scholar, University of Chicago Law School

Olivier Sylvain

Professor & Academic Director, Fordham University, Center on Law & Information Policy

Ellen P. Goodman

Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School

Eric Goldman

Associate Dean of Research & High Tech Law Institute Co-Director, Santa Clara University School of Law

Tuesday January 26, 2021 1:55pm - 2:50pm EST

Panel

Room Convene Forum

2:55pm EST

Charlotte Willner Fireside Chat featuring Neil Potts, Facebook

Moderators

Neil Potts

Public Policy Director | Trust and Safety Policy, Facebook

Speakers

Charlotte Willner

Founding Executive Director, Trust & Safety Professional Association (TSPA)

Tuesday January 26, 2021 2:55pm - 3:25pm EST

Keynote

3:30pm EST

Stretch Break

Tuesday January 26, 2021 3:30pm - 3:40pm EST

Break / Networking

3:45pm EST

Civic & Gov Tech 3.0 Under Biden Featuring Matthew Lira & Nick Sinai

Welcome and Introductions

Wednesday January 27, 2021 11:00am - 11:05am EST

Break / Networking

11:05am EST

Resiliency & Network Performance: When A Low Impact, High Impact Event Happens

Internet architects designed the network to withstand nuclear war, a “low probability, high impact" event. While never tested by cataclysmic war, the pandemic has presented the most widespread "low probability, high impact" test of the Internet to date. According to many studies Internet traffic surged during COVID, fueled by work and school at home, gaming, and, most significantly, video streaming. Cloudflare observed that it's "hard to imagine another utility coping" with a similar surge. Our panel will explore how the Internet is handling the pandemic Internet surge and what lessons can be learned from this network test.

Here are the papers mentioned in this morning's chat:
- Characterizing Service Provider Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States Paper
- John Graham Cumming, Cloudflare

Speakers

Tim Lordan

Curator, State of the Net, Internet Education Foundation

Nick Feamster

Neubauer Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Data and Computing, University of Chicago

Matt Tooley

VP of Broadband Technology, NCTA

Wednesday January 27, 2021 11:05am - 11:35am EST

Panel

11:35am EST

How COVID-19 Has Impacted Communities of Color, Tribal Communities & Students Nationwide

Speakers

Tim Lordan

Curator, State of the Net, Internet Education Foundation

Matthew Rantanen

Director of Technology, Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association

Maurita Coley

President and CEO, Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council

Evan Marwell

Founder and CEO, EducationSuperHighway

Wednesday January 27, 2021 11:35am - 12:05pm EST

Panel

12:05pm EST

Michael K. Powell Fireside Chat with Clint Odom

Moderators

Clint Odom

Senior Vice President for Policy and Advocacy, National Urban League

Speakers

Michael K. Powell

President & CEO, NCTA - The Internet & Television Association

Michael K. Powell is the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), nominated by President Bill Clinton and sworn in on November 3, 1997. He served as a member of the FCC for eight years during which time he was designated its chair by President George W. Bush... Read More →

Wednesday January 27, 2021 12:05pm - 12:30pm EST

Keynote

12:30pm EST

Lunch Break

Wednesday January 27, 2021 12:30pm - 1:25pm EST

Break / Networking

1:30pm EST

You Thought 2020 Was Tough For Content Moderation? Welcome To 2021

The enormous challenges of moderating content and enabling free expression on the Internet became even more challenging in 2020. Internet companies, government officials, and leading experts dealt with election and voter misinformation at enormous scale. Just as the New Year rang in the new decade, the pandemic made content moderation a life and death challenge for everyone. Those challenges piled on top of the existing challenges everyone has already been working to address. Early in 2021 content moderation experts all felt a sickening feeling as an angry mob stormed the Capitol Building to overturn an election. Our panel of experts will discuss the efforts to manage content and expression online and where we are now.

Moderators

Tiffany Li

Professor & Fellow, BU/MIT Technology Law Clinic & Yale ISP

Speakers

Steve DelBianco

President and CEO, NetChoice

Jamal Greene

Dwight Professor of Law & Oversight Board Co-Chair, Columbia

Nora Benavidez

U.S. Free Expression Programs Director, PEN America

Joan Barata

Intermediary Liability Fellow, Stanford Center for Internet & Society

Wednesday January 27, 2021 1:30pm - 2:25pm EST

Panel

2:25pm EST

Rep. Katko Fireside Chat

Moderators

Shane Tews

Visiting Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

Speakers

Rep. John Katko

U.S. Representative (R-NY 24th District), Congress

Wednesday January 27, 2021 2:25pm - 2:40pm EST

Keynote

2:45pm EST

The New Geopolitics Of The Internet: How Will The Biden State Department Navigate Them?

Increasingly sovereign governments are seeking to exert more control over Internet technologies. Long ago the Internet enmeshed the terrestrial globe with little respect for national borders. Now governments are trying to exert control over Internet companies at all levels of the stack. Intermediary liability laws like the European DSA are becoming more common and the Trump Administration has sought to ban certain smartphone apps in the U.S. Governments are increasingly wary of Internet infrastructure technologies manufactured in foreign countries. Social media companies are now under enormous pressure regarding their users' speech. The few existing intergovernmental agreements on Internet policy such as the USMCA's Section 230 language and the EU-US's Privacy Shield are under enormous strain. Our panel will try to make sense of the new geopolitical challenge.

Moderators

Jim Prendergast

President, The Galway Strategy Group

Jim provides business strategy and public affairs counsel to corporate clients. As part of his work he is an active participant the policy making process of ICANN as well as in the United Nations' Internet Governance Forum which discusses and debates various internet governance issues... Read More →

Speakers

Dr. Josephine Wolff

Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity Policy, The Fletcher School, Tufts University

Josephine Wolff joined the faculty of The Fletcher School of Tufts University as an assistant professor of cybersecurity policy in 2019. Her research interests include international Internet governance, cyber-insurance, security responsibilities and liability of online intermediaries... Read More →

Daniel Sepulveda

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary Ambassador, U.S. Department of State

Rob Strayer

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Cyber and International Communications Policy, U.S. Department of State

Bruce Mehlman

Former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Technology Policy, U.S. Department of Commerce

Wednesday January 27, 2021 2:45pm - 3:45pm EST

Panel

3:55pm EST

Tech Competition: What Can Biden Learn From The Last Tech-ade Under Obama and Trump?

Regardless of your position on competition policy, the last decade witnessed enormous growth in Internet platforms spanning both the Obama and Trump Administrations. The COVID-induced recession may have exacerbated existing concentrations in the Internet marketplace. The Biden Administration pledges to "build back better." Competition policy is an important part of the economic recovery for working Americans. This panel will look at competition during the Obama and Trump administrations and what lessons, if any, the new Biden competition policy officials can learn from their approaches to competition in the Internet marketplace.

Moderators