Building Bridges for Science in Technology Litigation
January, 2025
As governments pass more technology regulations and the public becomes more aware of the harms of digital technologies such as social media and AI, scientists will increasingly be asked to serve as arbiters of harms on wide-ranging issues including mental health, discrimination, product safety, and civil liberties including freedom of expression.
Because U.S. courts require different standards of evidence and argument than science, we can expect these cases to be frustrating for juries, judges, and scientists alike. Unlike medical or environmental scientists, researchers studying digital technology and society have not yet developed robust pathways for the production of science that can be easily interpreted by courts.
How can we bridge the knowledge gaps between empirical researchers, litigators, and regulators?
In January 2024, CAT Lab, the Knight First Amendment Institute, and the Coalition for Independent Technology Research organized a workshop to discuss how to bridge the knowledge gaps between empirical researchers, litigators and regulators.
Working together, we set out address structural and technical barriers to successful legal action, and to bring together experts from across different fields to explore commonalities of needs. This page lists outputs from the closed-door workshop. We are especially grateful to everyone who advised and facilitated, including Katy Glen Bass, Laura Bingham, Elizabeth Eagen, Brandi Geurkink, Meetali Jain, J. Nathan Matias, Jake Metcalf, Amy Orben, Megan Price. The event was funded by the Siegel Family Endowment, with support during Nathan’s fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.
Publications
Matias, J.N., Penney, J. (2025) How Science Can Inform Technology Accountability. Journal of Online Trust and Safety, 2(5). doi:10.54501/jots.v2i5.233.
Miller, J. (2025) New Tools Move Faster than New Rules; Bridging Science and the Law for a Better Technology Ecosystem. Tech Policy Press
- Emerging AI practices need a stronger grounding in computational science—and in the experience of communities impacted by tech design and tech policy. The workshop on “Platforms, Causality, and the Law” has sparked new conversations between researchers, litigators, and advocates.
- In the insights from the Workshop, we can see several actionable lessons about how to build and maintain the bridges between researchers and legal advocates, between science and law. Based on conversations with participants and presenters, this note includes three key lessons from the workshop regarding the mismatches in pace and sequence between science and litigation and the legitimate (and necessary) cultural differences that make researchers and lawyers think differently about concepts of causality and evidence.
Woluchem, M. (2024) A Collective Front Towards Platform Accountability. Citizens and Technology Lab.