Publications
Research
A Platform ‘Weaponized’: How YouTube Spreads Harmful Content – And What Can Be Done About It
Our report explains how the major platforms are fueling distrust of elections and recommends reforms such as enhanced fact-checking and outside auditing.
Knight Diversity of Asset Managers Research Series: Higher Education, Interim Release
An interim study on the degree to which the endowments of the country’s wealthiest private and public colleges and universities are hiring asset management firms owned by women and racial or ethnic minorities
Still Struggling: Migrant Construction Workers In Qatar During The Pandemic
Our report shows that foreign laborers in Qatar and throughout the Middle East are denied basic labor protections.
Enhancing the FTC’s Consumer Protection Authority to Regulate Social Media Companies
This white paper explains why the government needs to oversee platforms like Facebook and Twitter as a way to reduce misinformation, hate speech, and other forms of harmful content.
Seeking A ‘Smart-Mix’: Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives and Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence
In our white paper, we delve into the role of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives (MSIs) in defining and implementing industry-specific human rights standards, highlighting their potential to shape meaningful corporate practices with government support.
Making ESG Work: How Investors Can Help Improve Low-Wage Labor And Ease Income Inequality
Our report explains how outsourcing has reshaped corporate workforces in ways that ESG assessments do not adequately capture and proposes a new approach to addressing this gap.
Fueling The Fire: How Social Media Intensifies U.S. Political Polarization – And What Can Be Done About It
Our report explains that while the major tech platforms may not cause partisan hatred in the first instance, they do exacerbate the problem, which has dire consequences for our democracy.
Recommendations to the Biden Administration on Regulating Disinformation and Other Harmful Content on Social Media
This white paper recommends a range of steps the Biden Administration should take to counter disinformation and other harmful content on major social media platforms.
False Accusation: The Unfounded Claim That Social Media Companies Censor Conservatives
Our report debunks the myth that the political right is suppressed online and recommends that the platforms make their content moderation practices more transparent.
Purchasing Power: How The U.S. Government Can Use Federal Procurement To Uphold Human Rights
Our report makes a series of recommendations to reform federal procurement from four high-risk sectors to ensure the human and labor rights of workers are protected when they make goods for the U.S. government.
Making Mining Safe and Fair: Artisanal Cobalt Extraction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
We published a white paper in collaboration with the World Economic Forum which assesses recent approaches to formalizing artisanal and small-scale mining of cobalt. The learnings from the cobalt context in the DRC can help guide companies on how to address human rights issues in their global mineral supply chains and improve working conditions of more than 40 million people in artisanal mining worldwide.
Regulating Social Media: The Fight Over Section 230 — And Beyond
Our report on Section 230 and regulation of social media companies, recommends amending the foundational law of the commercial internet and creating a Digital Regulatory Agency.