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 offer a comprehensive overview of the 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 (and my Talks page) for other works in progress. 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 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 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 social media and digital communications tools impact perceptions of speaker authority, and how we should understand that concept.
“Solidarity and Structural Injustice: Labor Action as AI/ML Governance”: A (co-authored) paper 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 content moderation, and their relationship to AI and automation.
“Conspiracy Theories & Propaganda Practices”: A paper on the relationship between conspiracy theories and propaganda.
“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.
“Bing’s Little Lies: Assertion and Deception in Generative AI”: A paper exploring the speech acts of generative AI models.