Internet Censorship Research Presentation for National CS Ed Week
By: Nick Feamster
Tags: Csedweek, Censorship, Internet, Outreach, Digital Divide

How Encore Works. Briefly, Encore works by embedding Javascript code on a volunteer website; any browser that visits that volunteer website can then run the Encore Javascript code, which instructs the user’s browser to load an object from a third-party site. This mechanism is the same that is used for third-party content of all sorts, from images to advertisements and trackers. The technical contributions of the work involve figuring out how to get useful information about reachability to third parties from the script, given the restrictions of the web security model. You can read all about Encore in the research paper, and the code itself is also open source. We encourage others to use it, extend it, and deploy it themselves.

Why Encore Makes a Great Introductory Computer Science Course Topic. I found that Encore is a great use case to discuss in an introductory computer science class, for a variety of reasons:

Simple programming. First, for students who are just learning to program, it is a good example of a simple Web-based program. Applications of computer science to a socially important problem. Second, it is an example of how computer science insights and technologies can be used to address a social problem, towards making the Internet more free and open and ultimately improving people’s lives. Web security models. Third, the details of Encore’s implementation require some understanding of the Web security model, including the same origin policy, and thus for those just starting to learn about Internet security and Web security, it presents an opportunity to discuss Web security at an appropriate level of depth. Ethics. Finally—and perhaps most importantly—Encore is a technology that presents an ethical dilemma, on the one hand gathering incredibly valuable information about what, when, and how the Internet is censored around the world, and on the other hand collecting measurements from users’ Web browsers, potentially without their knowledge or consent. (The ethical implications of the work are discussed at length in Matt Salganik’s excellent book, Bit by Bit.) In today’s world, the ethical implications of technology are increasingly clear, particularly in the areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence—but also in the areas of data collection and privacy. When we developed Encore in 2013–2014, it was less common to be thinking about ethics of deployed technologies. The experience was eye-opening for me, and particularly enjoyed talking to budding computer scientists about how the technologies one develops and deploys can sometimes be subtle and unexpected.

The Next Wave of Control: Disinformation and Propaganda. It is difficult to talk about Internet censorship these days without addressing the elephant(s) in the room: platform censorship, propaganda, and disinformation. I took the chance to talk about how the issues of platform censorship are not new—in fact, they date back almost 25 years, to the 1996 Communications Decency Act—and how even our understanding of propaganda as it relates to censorship is not new. I talked about our paper from 2012 on bias and propaganda on Twitter, as well as the phenomenal work from Molly Roberts on how censorship can often backfire, resulting in more unrest and even increased access to information. (I highly recommend her book, Censored, to anyone who is interested in learning more about this topic.)

Bonus: Talking about the homework gap to the students who are experiencing it. I also used the talk as an opportunity to talk about some of our newer projects to address the “urban digital divide” and the Homework Gap—a topic that hit close to home, as many students in the Chicago Public Schools system are experiencing issues with remote learning due to barriers to Internet connectivity. And, I advertised the Summer Lab program at the Center for Data and Computing, which is open to high school students and undergraduates who are interested in data science research questions. (As the faculty director of the center, I strongly encourage any interested students to apply and reach our with questions. We are particularly interested in broadening participation across computer science, to include diverse representation.)