Two Upcoming Events at Brookings

Radical online activism is a new public policy challenge, with groups such as Anonymous being described as everything from terrorist organizations to freedom fighters. With activities ranging from attacking government websites to revealing private information about targeted organizations, these groups have commanded the public’s attention with often-subversive cyberactivism. Policymakers and technology experts are working in particular to understand Anonymous’s origins and motives—and how it functions with no leaders, hierarchy or structure—in order to develop appropriate policy responses to this new type of online collective action.

 

On December 9, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings will host a discussion exploring the impact of "hacktivism" and vigilantism in a digital age. Panelists will examine the environment in which it emerged, implications for developing an effective cybersecurity agenda and how public policies can help deter particularly malicious behavior without quashing internet freedom.

Technology unimaginable at the time of the nation’s founding now poses stark challenges to America’s core constitutional principles. Policymakers and legal scholars are closely examining how constitutional law is tested by technological change and how to preserve constitutional principles without hindering progress. In Constitution 3.0: Freedom and Technological Change (Brookings Institution Press, 2011), Governance Studies Senior Fellow Benjamin Wittes and Nonresident Senior Fellow Jeffrey Rosen asked a diverse group of leading scholars to imagine how technological developments plausible by the year 2025 could stress current constitutional law. The resulting essays explore scenarios involving information technology, genetic engineering, security, privacy and beyond.

 

On December 13, the Governance Studies program at Brookings will host a Judicial Issues Forum examining the scenarios posed in Constitution 3.0 and the challenge of adapting our constitutional values to the technology of the near future. Wittes and Rosen will offer key highlights and insights from the book and will be joined by two key contributors, O. Carter Snead and Timothy Wu, who will discuss their essays.