Good morning! 

In a June report that I helped co-author with Paul Barrett, Deputy Director of the NYU Stern School of Business Center for Business and Human Rights, we noted something that other observers of the major tech firms often point out about YouTube: that the massive social video-sharing platform has received disproportionately less scrutiny from journalists, social scientists, politicians, and civil society groups compared to other platforms. Legal scholar evelyn douek calls YouTube’s uncanny ability to escape the kind of attention that Facebook draws “magic dust.”

But there are those who do pay very close attention to the company, including journalists and researchers working hard to understand its role in the world. In this week's podcast, you'll hear from Bloomberg journalist Mark Bergen. He’s the author of Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination, available Tuesday from Viking. It's a business book, a history, and a contemplation of YouTube’s role in society all in one.

And, read on for new research from NYU's Center for Social Media and Politics (CSMaP), that considers whether YouTube's recommendation algorithm suggested videos about election fraud to individuals already skeptical of election legitimacy in the 2020 presidential cycle in the U.S. 

It's the first newsletter of the month, so you can also check out the latest monthly Tech Policy roundup from Kennedy Patlan, Ake Kankirawatana, and Rachel Lau at Freedman Consulting. No matter how closely you follow these issues, there is likely something you missed!

Also this week, I spoke to Tech Transparency Project director Katie Paul about a disturbing report on the presence of white supremacists on Facebook.

And don't miss a piece from Gretchen Peters and Kathleen Miles, the co-founders of the Alliance to Counter Crime Online, about recent court rulings that suggest the tide may be turning on online child exploitation. 

I hope you have a wonderful Labor Day for everyone celebrating it- and a great week no matter where you are in the world!

Justin

Tech Policy Press hosts essays, opinion, reporting, events, a podcast, and other forms of content on the following topic areas:

• Concentrations of power: the role and interaction of tech platforms, governments and the media, and the future of the public sphere;
• Geopolitics of technology: how nation states approach technology in the pursuit of advantage;
• Technology and the economy: the relationship between markets, business, and labor;
• Racism, bigotry, violence & oppression: how tech exacerbates or solves such challenges;
• Ethics of Technology: how technology should be viewed alongside existing democratic ethos, especially with regard to privacy, surveillance, and personal freedoms;
• Election integrity & participation: mechanisms of democracy, problems such as disinformation, and how citizens come to consensus.

We invite contributions from the community. Write to me by reply if you are interested in potentially contributing an essay or article, or have other ideas on ways we can collaborate.

-Justin Hendrix