The algorithmic recommender systems that select, filter, and personalize experiences across online platforms and services play a significant role in shaping user experiences online. These systems largely determine what users see, read, and watch, fueling debates around their potential to amplify harmful content, foster societal division, and prioritize engagement over user well-being. In reaction, policymakers in the US, EU, and elsewhere have turned to blanket bans on personalization or to the promotion of chronological feeds. But there are many better alternatives. Suggesting that users must choose between today’s default feeds and chronological or non-personalized feeds creates a false choice.
Better Feeds: Algorithms That Put People First is a research-based roadmap published earlier this year by the Knight-Georgetown Institute to help guide policymakers and product designers in optimizing feeds for long-term user value instead of attention maximization, without resorting to chronological feeds. This talk will explain the Better Feeds policy guidance, assess how it has been received by state legislators and EU policymakers, and discuss possible future research directions to support more informed policy concerning algorithmic feed optimization.
Bio: Alissa Cooper is the executive director of the Knight-Georgetown Institute (KGI). Prior to joining KGI, Cooper spent a decade at Cisco Systems in a variety of senior engineering and executive roles, including vice president of technology standards and vice president and chief technology officer for technology policy. She played a central role in shaping Cisco’s approach to technology standardization, public policy, and privacy across the company’s networking, security, and collaboration businesses. Cooper was the first woman in Cisco history to be promoted to fellow, the company’s highest engineering distinction.
Cooper has been a leader in the development of global Internet standards and governance. She served in a variety of leadership roles in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), including serving as IETF chair from 2017 to 2021. She led the IETF through times of significant transition related to Internet security and encryption, network performance, privacy, and real-time voice and video. She also served as the chair of the IANA Stewardship Coordination Group, which delivered the technical plan used by the U.S. Department of Commerce to transfer the stewardship of key Internet functions to the global multistakeholder community.
Prior to joining Cisco, Cooper served as the chief computer scientist at the Center for Democracy and Technology, where she was a leading public interest advocate and technologist focused on privacy and net neutrality. Cooper holds a D.Phil from the Oxford Internet Institute and M.S. and B.S. degrees in computer science from Stanford University. She currently serves on the board of The Tor Project.
In-person attendance is open to Princeton University faculty, staff and students.
This talk will be livestreamed and recorded. The recording will be posted to the CITP website, the Princeton University Media Central channel and the CITP YouTube channel.
If you need an accommodation for a disability please contact Jean Butcher at butcher@princeton.edu.