Civic Engagement

Is bias in responsiveness to constituents conditional on the policy preferences of elected officials? The scholarly conventional wisdom is that constituency groups who do not receive policy representation still obtain some level of responsiveness by legislators outside of the policy realm. In contrast, we present a theory of preference-induced responsiveness bias where constituency responsiveness by legislators is associated with legislator policy preferences.

Network neutrality activist groups were lining up their protest efforts June 11 as the Federal Communications Commission's rules against online blocking, throttling and paid prioritization sunset in favor of a deregulatory regime centered on Federal Trade Commission oversight/enforcement. 

The Federal Communication Commission wants more than $200 to release e-mails related to Chairman Ajit Pai’s novelty, oversized coffee mug under the Freedom of Information Act.  The mug gained mild notoriety after Chairman Pai was photographed with the drinking vessel. But when Taylor Amarel, a frequent FOIA-filer who secured the release of Chairman Pai’s calendar earlier in 2018, requested all of Chairman Pai’s executive assistant’s e-mails that included terms such as "reeses", "mug", or "Reese's,” the FCC pushed back.

[Analysis] The ruling that President Trump violated the constitutional rights of Americans when he blocked some of his Twitter followers after they criticized him politically raises many more questions about the extent of those First Amendment obligations. President Trump cannot legally block his Twitter followers for political reasons, the judge ruled, because that would amount to “viewpoint discrimination” by a government official in a public forum. 

President Donald Trump's decision to block his Twitter followers for their political views is a violation of the First Amendment, a federal judge ruled May 23, saying that President Trump's effort to silence his critics is not permissible under the US Constitution because the digital space in which he engages with constituents is a public forum. The ruling rejects administration arguments that the First Amendment does not apply to President Trump in this case because he was acting as a private individual.

[Speech] Something here is not right—and what is wrong is not confined to the Federal Communications Commission. Because fake comments and stolen identities are pouring into proceedings across Washington. They’ve been uncovered at the Department of Labor, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The civic infrastructure we have for accepting public comment in the rulemaking process is not built for the digital age.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal its net neutrality rules in December 2017. “The backlash to the repeal was overwhelming from internet users across the political spectrum. It led to a situation where we’re actually on the offense and we have this incredible tool, a powerful tool, somewhat of a blunt instrument, that Congress can use to block the FCC’s incredibly unpopular decision and keep these rules in place,” said Evan Greer, deputy director of internet advocacy group Fight for the Future.

If there’s ever a moment to capture the existential crisis at Facebook, it was these past couple of weeks. But while Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was confronted by members of Congress with his company’s failures, more than 30,000 Oklahoma teachers were rallying at the state Capitol to demand better pay and funding for their state’s struggling schools. It was the teachers’ eighth day on strike.

[Commentary] While online rights are coming into question, it’s worth considering how those will overlap with offline rights and civic engagement. We need a conversation about data protections, empowering users with their own information, and transparency — ultimately, data rights are now civic rights.While the US still lacks such data standards, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), scheduled to take effect in May, demonstrates a path toward reliable online privacy balanced with transparency.