My current research connects social philosophy of language to the ethics of emerging technology, examining how online speech is and isn’t different from offline speech—in both its pragmatics and its ethics.
To this end, I am in the process of drafting a book manuscript tentatively titled: Virtual Speech, Material Harms: Bringing Speech Act Theory Online (suggestions for a better title welcome!). This will examine the real-world harms of online speech, as well as an argument for the need to re-imagine speech act theory in light of the pragmatics and possibilities of online speech.
See below for other works in progress. And my Talks page to see what else I’m working on. Most of my already-published papers are available through my PhilPapers page. If anything interests you that you cannot access on your own, email me.
Papers in (various stages of) Progress
“Responsibility for Recommendations”: A paper using speech act theory to clarify the moral responsibility of social media platforms.
“Interrogating Collective Authenticity as a Norm of Online Speech”: A co-authored paper (with Megan Hyska) on the legitimacy of platform company content moderation regimes, specifically as they apply to groups—most notable in their ‘coordinated inauthentic behavior’ policies’.
“Technological Affordances and Speaker Authority”: A paper examining how various affordances of digital communications tools impact perceptions of speaker authority, and how we should understand that concept.
“Organized Labour As AI Governance”: A co-authored paper (with Emily Cichocki, Nathalie Diberardino and Luke Stark) that makes the case for organized labour as a form of AI governance.
“Working for the Machine”: A paper on the type of exploitation involved in micro-work, and their relationship to AI and automation.
“Whose Tweets? Our Tweets!: The Challenges of Online Protest”: A paper on the practical and conceptual challenges of protest movements organizing and operating in online spaces.
“Free Speech, Hate, and Harm”: A co-authored paper (with Chris Bousquet) that explores different understandings of how hate speech harms.
“Mapping the Ethical Landscape of AI-Assisted Sex Work”: A co-authored paper (with Mercedes Corredor), commissioned by Phil Compass, that investigates the ethical impact of recent—and ongoing—changes to sex work brought about by AI.
“When Porn Doesn’t Speak”: A co-authored paper (with Mercedes Corredor), that reconsiders the ‘Authority Problem’ of radical feminist critiques of pornography in light of new technologies.
Book Project
Virtual Speech, Material Harms: Bringing Speech Act Theory Online: A manuscript that updates speech act theory for the age of online communication and technologies like LLMs, examining how our digitally-mediated interactions cause real-world harms, and what should be done about them.