Announcing the New Program on Platform Regulation

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter may run the “modern public square,” as the Supreme Court called social media. But laws and governments have a major role in shaping those companies’ choices about what speech we hear, and how we participate in our world online. 

The new Program on Platform Regulation, led by Daphne Keller, offers lawmakers, academics, and civil society groups ground-breaking analysis and research to support wise governance of Internet platforms. As a world-renowned expert on both platform regulation and the operational realities of tech companies, Keller is uniquely positioned to assess legislative proposals for their impact on Internet users’ rights under the U.S. Constitution and international human rights laws, as well as laws’ likely consequences for companies and competition. This work is critical now, as lawmakers in Washington, D.C., Brussels, and around the world rush to enact laws – some well-considered, some less so – that will shape the digital future.  

“Daphne is literally the best in the world on the issues of intermediary liability and regulating speech through platforms,” said Nathaniel Persily, the James B. McClatchy Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and Co-Director of the Cyber Policy Center. “She knows everything about the Communications Decency Act. She pays attention to every foreign judgment and she’s keyed in to the European regulatory developments.”  

Keller’s work at Stanford began at the Center for Internet and Society, where she directed the Intermediary Liability program. Before that, she served until 2015 as associate general counsel for Google and had primary responsibility for the company’s search products. She has testified before the European Parliament and the U.S. Senate, as well as legislatures, courts, and regulatory bodies around the world. She’s widely published both academically and in the popular press on topics including platforms’ content moderation practices, constitutional and human rights law, copyright, data protection, and national courts' global takedown orders. Her interactive Platform Policy Bingo game is a favorite at tech policy conferences around the world.

Keller’s work is supported by generous grants from Knight Foundation, the Charles Koch Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, and Microsoft. A lecturer at Stanford Law School, Keller teaches courses in Intermediary Liability and Foundations of Internet Speech Regulation to train the next generation of scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.