Person

Dipayan Ghosh

Residence:

Brooklyn, New York

Occupation:

Tech Policy Advocate

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Dipayan Ghosh is a left-leaning technology policy advisor and computer scientist who currently is a fellow and co-director of the Platform Accountability Project at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He previously was a White House technology policy advisor in the Obama administration and has sat on a variety of corporate and nonprofit boards. He has spent much of his career focused on technology related to election administration and sits on the National Task Force on Election Crises alongside many other left-of-center election policy advocates. 1 2

Background

Dipayan Ghosh attended the University of Connecticut and subsequently completed a master’s and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University. While completing his education he worked at Northeast Utilities, IBM, and Thomson Reuters. 3 His doctoral dissertation focuses on data privacy in cyber-physical systems as well as mechanisms to encourage companies and consumers to adopt data privacy policies. 4

In 2013, Ghosh joined the Obama White House where he was a technology policy advisor. At the White House, Ghosh worked with the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Economic Council to promote left-of-center policy initiatives affecting the “heart of the digital economy.” He also provided support to the Obama administration’s policy work around “Big Data” and its impact on consumer privacy, “algorithmic discrimination and its interaction with civil rights,” and the promotion of net neutrality policies. 5

Ghosh left the White House in 2015 and joined the Washington, D.C.-based privacy and public policy department of Facebook, where he worked until 2017. In 2016 he was named to the Forbes “30 under 30” list in law and public policy. In 2017, Ghosh joined left-leaning policy think tank New America as a fellow. 6

Harvard Kennedy School

In 2018, Dipayan Ghosh joined the staff of the Harvard Kennedy School as a fellow and the co-director of the Digital Platforms and Democracy Project at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the school. Ghosh also works as a faculty member at Harvard Law School. As part of his work for Harvard he has authored multiple academic articles and opinion pieces, many of which promote left-leaning technology policy and defend the perceived left-leaning biases of technology companies. 7 8

Writings and Publications

Dipayan Ghosh’s published writings include a 2020 book titled Terms of Disservice: How Silicon Valley is Destructive by Design, which promotes using technology for a “more equitable global economy” and derides “elections influenced by fake news.” 9 10

Ghosh has also published opinion pieces critical of former President Donald Trump and defending algorithms at tech companies such as Google and Facebook that rank left-leaning news sources over right-leaning ones, claiming that left leaning sources are likely viewed as “more trustworthy” to the average American. 11 Another opinion piece by Ghosh claimed that “The elections of 2016 and 2017 … ushered in a new era of digital threats to democracy and called into question the power that technology companies hold over society.” 12

National Task Force on Election Crises

Dipayan Ghosh also sits on The National Task Force on Election Crises, an organization that promotes left-of-center election administration policies and is also comprised of representatives from left-of-center groups including the Democracy Fund, the Brennan Center for Justice, Common Cause, and the Center for Tech and Civic Life. 13 14

References

  1. Home.” Dipayan Ghosh. Accessed April 27, 2022. https://dipayanghosh.com/
  2. “Members.” National Task Force on Election Crises.” Accessed April 27, 2022. https://www.electiontaskforce.org/members
  3. “CV.” Dipayan Ghosh. Accessed April 27, 2022. https://dipayanghosh.com/cv/
  4. “Dipayan Ghosh.” New America. Accessed April 27, 2022. https://www.newamerica.org/our-people/dipayan-ghosh/
  5. “Dipayan Ghosh.” New America. Accessed April 27, 2022. https://www.newamerica.org/our-people/dipayan-ghosh/
  6. [1] “Dipayan Ghosh.” New America. Accessed April 27, 2022. https://www.newamerica.org/our-people/dipayan-ghosh/
  7. “Dipayan Ghosh.” Harvard. Accessed April 27, 2022. https://cyber.harvard.edu/people/dghosh
  8. Ghosh, Dipayan. “Yes, Silicon Valley needs regulation. But Trump’s reason why is misguided.” The Guardian. September 5, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/05/trump-silicon-valley-regulation-google-fake-news-misguided
  9. Ghosh, Dipayan. “Terms of Disservice: How Silicon Valley Is Destructive by Design Kindle Edition.” Amazon. Accessed April 27, 2022. https://www.amazon.com/Terms-Disservice-Silicon-Valley-Destructive-ebook/dp/B07N8FQ347
  10. Ghosh, Dipayan. “Terms of Disservice: How Silicon Valley Is Destructive by Design.” Harper Collins Publishers India. Accessed April 27, 2022. https://harpercollins.co.in/product/terms-of-disservice/
  11. Ghosh, Dipayan. “Yes, Silicon Valley needs regulation. But Trump’s reason why is misguided.” The Guardian. September 5, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/05/trump-silicon-valley-regulation-google-fake-news-misguided
  12. Ghosh, Dipayan and Scott, Ben. “How to make technology a force for good.” CNN.  September 26, 2018. Accessed April 27, 2022. https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/26/opinions/new-digital-social-contract-ghosh-scott/index.html
  13. “Members.” National Task Force on Election Crises.” Accessed April 27, 2022. https://www.electiontaskforce.org/members
  14. “About.” National Task Force on Election Crises.” Accessed April 27, 2022. https://www.electiontaskforce.org/about
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