CrySP Speaker Series - Taking on Big Tech: New Paradigms for New Possibilities Safiya Noble, UCLA

The first CrySP Speaker Series on Privacy talk for the term will
be Tue Oct 6, 1:30 pm Eastern, at an online link TBA.

Taking on Big Tech: New Paradigms for New Possibilities

Safiya Noble, UCLA

October 6, 2020 1:30pm, in Online TBA

Abstract

In her recent best-selling book Algorithms of Oppression, Dr. Safiya
Noble challenges the idea that “Big Tech” offers an equal playing field
for all forms of ideas, identities, and activities. Her work argues that
the combination of private interests, along with the monopoly status of
a relatively small number of internet companies, leads to a limited
understanding of how racism is created, maintained, and disseminated in
everyday digital engagements.

Data discrimination is a real social problem, and in this talk, Noble
offers a powerful set of data points, examples, and provocations. She
asserts we are just at the beginning of creating new paradigms of
justice with the tech sector.

Bio

Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble is an Associate Professor at the University of
California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Department of Information Studies
where she serves as the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the UCLA Center
for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2). She also holds appointments in
African American Studies and Gender Studies. She is a Research Associate
at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford and has
been appointed as a Commissioner on the Oxford Commission on AI & Good
Governance (OxCAIGG). She is a board member of the Cyber Civil Rights
Initiative, serving those vulnerable to online harassment.

Dr. Noble is the recipient of a Hellman Fellowship and the UCLA Early
Career Award. Her academic research focuses on the design of digital
media platforms on the internet and their impact on society. Her work is
both sociological and interdisciplinary, marking the ways that digital
media impacts and intersects with issues of race, gender, culture, and
technology. She is regularly quoted for her expertise on issues of
algorithmic discrimination and technology bias by national and
international press including The Guardian, the BBC, CNN International,
USA Today, Wired, Time, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The New York
Times, and Virginia Public Radio, and a host of local news and podcasts,
including Science Friction, and Science Friday to name a few. Recently,
she was named in the “Top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers of 2019” by
Government Technology magazine.