Phillip Howard is the Director of the Oxford Internet Institute and Professor of Internet Studies at Balliol College at the University of Oxford, where he researches how digital media affects political life and civic engagement. We talked about his latest book, Lie Machines, which investigates the impact of misinformation from bots, fake profiles, and fake news on our political system. He walks us through multiple potential policy solutions, applying existing and novel regulatory approaches to tackle misinformation on social media.
Phillip also describes what it takes to operate a successful tech policy institute at an academic university. He shares his strategy for building an academic institution that’s capable of responding to the challenges in the tech sector.
