About

The Digital Speech Lab, based at UCL, produces scholarly research on the proper governance of online communications. Our purpose is to identify the fundamental principles that should guide the private and public regulation of online speech, and to trace those principles’ concrete implications in the face of difficult dilemmas about how best to respect free speech while preventing harm. The research team synthesizes expertise in philosophy (especially ethics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of language), social science, computer science, and law.

Through public events and closed meetings, the Lab offers guidance and analysis to a wide range of decision-makers within technology companies, civil society oversight organizations, and governments. If you are interested in any of these issues, please reach out to us.

Questions within the scope of our project include: 

  • What exactly should count as incitement, threats, hate speech, and misinformation (among other categories) for the purposes of platforms’ content moderation policies?

  • When is the right response to harmful speech to remove it, and when is the right response to demote it to reduce its amplification?

  • Where the meaning or intent of speech is ambiguous, how should platforms respond? 

  • How can artificial intelligence be responsibly used in content moderation?

  • How should proportionality principles from international human rights law be applied to industrial-scale content moderation, where errors are inevitable?

  • What special responsibilities should platforms have to break echo chambers?

  • What special responsibilities should platforms have for journalists and journalistic content?

  • Should politicians be exempt from fact-checking systems or other policies on the grounds of newsworthiness? 

  • What content filters should be applied to the outputs of LLM-powered chatbots? 

  • What kind of legal regulation of internet platforms can be morally justified, consistent with respect for freedom of expression?

The Digital Speech Lab is directed by Jeffrey Howard, a political philosopher at University College London. It is funded through a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship.