LAW 449 - Data & Democracy Seminar

This seminar will explore how best to address the legal and policy challenges posed by foreign and domestic threats to U.S. elections, threats that uniquely exploit our digital economy and information society. Foreign interference of U.S. elections and the Capitol attack of January 6, 2021, have both exposed unprecedented vulnerabilities; widespread disinformation and misinformation campaigns; abuse of voter data and consumer data in psychographic profiling through voter manipulation and AI-driven voter microtargeting; underregulation of social media platforms and Internet governance; shortcomings to national cybersecurity policy and the failure to develop effective cyber deterrents; and what federal oversight of election administration and voting systems may be necessary while still respecting federalism principles and state sovereignty. Multiple intelligence reports have described the foreign interference of U.S. elections as an ‘influence campaign’ that blends covert cyber operations and overt propaganda operations. The course will explore how legal, policy and corporate reform efforts can be shaped by the emerging fields of cyber ethics and data ethics. The seminar will include a close examination of the January 6 Reports and intelligence reports, Special Counsel’s indictments, and other original source material to better understand the nature of interference in U.S. elections. It will focus on the interdisciplinary research of experts in multiple fields; data and information science, ethics, privacy law, cybersecurity, national security, federalism, state and local governments, corporate governance, election law and voting rights, media and communications law, internet governance, civil rights and civil liberties, international relations, and political science and political theory.