Philip N. Howard is a sociologist and communication researcher who studies the impact of information technologies on
democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...
and
social inequality
Social inequality occurs when resources in a given society are distributed unevenly, typically through norms of allocation, that engender specific patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons. It posses and creates gender c ...
. He studies how new information technologies are used in both civic engagement and social control in countries around the world. He is Professor of Internet Studies at the Oxford Internet Institute and
Balliol College
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the ...
at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
. He was Director of the Oxford Internet Institute from March 2018 to March 26, 2021. He is the author of ten books, including ''New Media Campaigns and The Managed Citizen'', ''The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy'', and ''Pax Technica: How the Internet of Things May Set Us Free or Lock Us Up''. His latest book is ''Lie Machines: How to Save Democracy from Troll Armies, Deceitful Robots, Junk News Operations, and Political Operatives''.
Research
His research has demonstrated that the diffusion of digital media has long-term, often positive, implications for democratic institutions. Through
information infrastructure
An information infrastructure is defined by Ole Hanseth (2002) as "a shared, evolving, open, standardized, and heterogeneous installed base" and by Pironti (2006) as all of the people, processes, procedures, tools, facilities, and technology whic ...
, some young democracies have become more entrenched and durable; some authoritarian regimes have made significant transitions towards democratic institutions and practices; and others have become less authoritarian and hybrid where information technologies support the work of particular actors such as
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
civil society
Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.astroturfing in his research on the Gore and Bush presidential campaigns. ''New Media Campaigns and the Managed Citizen'' (2005) is about how politicians and lobbyists in the United States use the internet to manipulate the public and violate privacy. His research on technology and social change has been prescient. The subject's study of the
2016 U.S. presidential election
The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...
did not identify the Russian sources of disinformation that other investigations have alluded to, though Howard later studied the disinformation campaigns launched by the
Internet Research Agency
The Internet Research Agency (IRA; russian: Агентство интернет-исследований, translit=Agentstvo internet-issledovaniy), also known as ''Glavset'' (russian: link=no, Главсеть) and known in Russian Internet sla ...
.
Digital media and the Arab Spring
Howard wrote presciently about the role of the internet in transforming Political Islam, and is the author of ''The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy'' (2010) which argues that how states respond to new information technologies has become a defining feature of both democracy and authoritarianism. Howard demonstrated that the internet was having an important impact on political Islam. The book was published before the
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econo ...
, and shows how
new social movements
The term new social movements (NSMs) is a theory of social movements that attempts to explain the plethora of new movements that have come up in various western societies roughly since the mid-1960s (i.e. in a post-industrial economy) which are cl ...
in
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
and the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...
were using
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
to outmaneuver some of the region's dictators, partly because these regimes lacked effective responses to online evidence of their abuses. Using Charles Ragin's method of "
qualitative comparative analysis
In statistics, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is a data analysis based on set theory to examine the relationship of conditions to outcome. QCA describes the relationship in terms of necessary conditions and sufficient conditions. The techn ...
" Howard investigated technology diffusion and political Islam and explained trends in many countries, with the exception of Tunisia and Egypt. But very shortly the trends in social activism and political Islam he had identified appeared in those two countries as well in the "Arab Spring."
''Democracy's Fourth Wave?'' (2013), with Muzammil M. Hussain, suggests that turning off the Internet, as the Mubarak regime did on January 28, 2011, actually strengthened the revolution by forcing people into the streets to seek information. It sees events like the
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econo ...
as "early signs of the next big wave of democratization. But this time, it will be wrestled into life in the digital living room of the global community." His research and commentary is regularly featured in the
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...
, including recent contributions about media politics in the US, Hungary and around the world
the New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
and
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
.
Politics and the Internet of Things
In ''Pax Technica'' (2015) he argues that the Internet of Things will be the most important tool of political communication we have ever built. He advocates for more public input in its design and more civic engagement with how this information infrastructure gets used.
Computational propaganda
In the book ''Lie Machines'' (2020) Howard surveys the extent to which large-scale misinformation campaigns have shaped politics. He highlights the roots these developments have in propaganda but mobilizes contemporary data to argue that a host of technologies, techniques, and actors (e.g., AI bots, political activists, conspiracy theorists, national governments, and so forth) are innovating at a rapid pace. ''Lie Machines'' extends Howard's 2014 hypothesis that political elites in democracies would soon be using algorithms over social media to manipulate public opinion, a process he called "computational propaganda." Evidence from Russia, Myanmar, Hungary, Poland, Brazil, and of course the United States, documented in ''Lie Machines'' and scholarly articles and policy reports, further substantiate this hypothesis.
For example, his research on political redlining, astroturf campaigns and fake news inspired a decade of work and became particularly relevant during the Brexit referendum and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign. His research has exposed the global impact of bots and trolls on public opinion.
Impact
As Director of the Democracy and Technology Programme at the Oxford Internet Institute, Howard has contributed to more than 130 reports on computational propaganda, political communication, election interference, and the abuse of social media by politicians and foreign governments. Like fellow Canadian researcher Ronald Deibert of the Citizen Lab, Howard's work is often critical of authoritarian regimes and the use of technology for political manipulation. Howard has testified before the UK Parliament, European Commission, and US Senate on election interference.
Howard is sometimes critiqued by the subjects of his research and investigations. After a reporter presented one of the research findings from a report that Dr. Howard was listed as the Primary Investigator on, President Rodrigo Duterte said: “Oxford University? That’s a school for stupid people.” Erik Wemple in
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
and Elizabeth Harrington in The Washington Free Beacon argue that his research is biased against those who voted for President Donald J. Trump .
Books
* Howard, Philip N. ''Lie Machines: How to Save Democracy from Troll Armies, Deceitful Robots, Junk News Operations, and Political Operatives''. Yale University Press, 2020.
* Woolley, Samuel and Philip N. Howard. ''Computational Propaganda: Political Parties, Politicians, and Political Manipulation on Social Media.'' Oxford University Press, 2018.
* Howard, Philip N. ''Pax Technica: How the Internet of Things May Set Us Free or Lock Us Up''. Yale University Press, 2015. Also published in German and Chinese.
* Howard, Philip N. (editor). ''State Power 2.0: Authoritarian Entrenchment and Civic Engagement Worldwide.'' Ashgate Press, 2013.
* Howard, Philip N. (coauthor). ''Democracy's Fourth Wave? Digital Media and the Arab Spring.'' Oxford University Press, 2013.
* Howard, Philip N. ''Castells and the Media.'' Polity Press, 2011.
* Howard, Philip N. ''The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Information Technology and Political Islam.'' Oxford University Press, 2011.
* Howard, Philip N. (editor). ''Handbook of Internet Politics.'' Routledge, 2009.
* Howard, Philip N. ''New Media Campaigns and the Managed Citizen.'' Cambridge University Press, 2006.
* Howard, Philip N. (editor). ''Society Online: The Internet in Context.'' Sage, 2004.