Georgetown's McCourt School Names Inaugural Tech & Public Policy Fellows

Students will work with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen's Duty of Care project

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Tech & Public Policy program at Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy is pleased to announce its inaugural class of Tech & Public Policy Fellows: Ryan Arazi (MPP'23), Rachel Bogdan (MPP'24), Jeremiah Ong (MPP'24) and Morgan Zimmerman (MS-DSPP'23).

Seeded by a $25M gift from Project Liberty's McCourt Institute, which was established in 2021 by the McCourt School's foundational donor and Project Liberty's founder, Frank McCourt, the Tech & Public Policy Fellows program will support the work of social media safety advocate and Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen and her organization Beyond the Screen to advance its Duty of Care project. Duty of Care is an open-source effort aimed at holding social networking platforms accountable for harmful practices and reducing social media's negative impacts. It was launched in collaboration with Project Liberty, a groundbreaking initiative to transform how the internet works, create a more equitable digital economy and develop a new civic architecture for the digital world. 

"The Tech & Public Policy program is thrilled to welcome these four students as inaugural Fellows," said Tech & Public Policy program Director Michelle DeMooy. "We are grateful to our partners at Project Liberty's McCourt Institute, and to Frances, for the opportunity to contribute to this important work, and excited to foster new means of connection and impact for our students."

Mapping Social Media Harms
The Tech & Public Policy Fellows will map online harms and create levers to mitigate them, so that investors, litigators and other civil society actors can compel social platforms to act with a "Duty of Care" towards their users. The work will deepen students' understanding of social media harms and the ways in which policy and technology might be applied to limit those harms.

"Today's social media systems were built on the assumption that technologists knew best. If we want social media that brings out the best in us, we need to cultivate a generation of interdisciplinary scholars and students, who can think critically about the tradeoffs presented by social media. Embedding ethics, the humanities and social sciences helps us to design for the whole person and reduces harm," said Facebook whistleblower and advocate for accountability and transparency in social media Frances Haugen. "We look forward to working with and learning from our first cohort of scholars at Georgetown's McCourt School, and are grateful for the support and leadership of Project Liberty's McCourt Institute."

"The Duty of Care project represents a bold, inclusive and much-needed effort to drive a seismic shift in how social media operates with society," said Frank McCourt, founder of Project Liberty. "We are excited to welcome an outstanding group of Fellows into this work and are confident they will advance the goals that brought Frances, Georgetown and Project Liberty together: enabling healthier digital communities, stopping harmful business models and empowering people over platforms."

Elevating Technology Policy Expertise
In the fall of 2022, the McCourt School elevated their technology policy expertise with the formation of the Tech & Public Policy program, which catalyzes cross-disciplinary research, supports emerging leaders, and convenes experts and policymakers to address the challenges and opportunities posed by an ever-evolving digital society.

"The impact of technology — in particular, social media — on our democracy is one of the most pressing and consequential issues of our time," said McCourt School Dean Maria Cancian. "The McCourt School and our Tech & Public Policy program are pleased to join this work as part of our broader efforts to shape and advance tech to better serve the common good."

The Tech & Public Policy program leverages partnerships at the McCourt School, at Georgetown and beyond to contribute cutting-edge research that addresses the challenges and opportunities related to technology and to educate the next generation of technology policy leaders. Outside of the Duty of Care project, the Tech & Public Policy program is supporting innovative research in collaboration with the McCourt Institute, advancing healthier digital communities, training tomorrow's leaders and bringing top technology minds to the Hilltop.

About the McCourt School
The McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University is a diverse community of problem-solvers, committed to moving bold ideas to action. We are global citizens, conducting policy-relevant research, and building bridges between our work and the communities we serve.

SOURCE Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy