Digital Speech Lab

The Digital Speech Lab is directed by Jeffrey Howard, a political philosopher at University College London. It is funded through a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship.

Through public events and closed meetings, the Digital Speech Lab offers guidance and analysis to a wide range of decision-makers within technology companies, civil society oversight organizations, and governments. 

If you are interested in any of these issues, please reach out to us.

Questions within the scope of our project include: 

• What exactly should count as incitement, threats, hate speech, and misinformation (among other categories) for the purposes of platforms’ content moderation policies?
• When is the right response to harmful speech to remove it, and when is the right response to demote it to reduce its amplification?
• Where the meaning of speech is ambiguous, how should platforms respond?
• How can artificial intelligence be responsibly used in content moderation?
• How should proportionality principles from international human rights law be applied to industrial-scale content moderation, where errors are inevitable?
• Should politicians be exempt from fact-checking systems or other policies on the grounds of newsworthiness?
• What content filters should be applied to the outputs of LLM-powered chatbots?
• What kind of legal regulation of internet platforms can be morally justified, consistent with respect for freedom of expression?

How we can help

We have delivered expert advice and comments to businesses, governments and international organisations. Our work evolves as the online landscape evolves, as reflected in our workshops, research papers and public comments.