Center for Civil Rights and Technology
Ensuring technology works for all of us
A fair and just society does not differentiate between technological innovation and civil rights. Technology holds the potential to empower community voices, dissolve historic inequities, and build economic opportunities for everyone, , but only with the necessary guardrails to protect against threats and bias – both intended and unintended. We deserve technology that works for all of us.
The Center for Civil Rights and Technology is a joint project of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund. The Center, launched in September 2023, serves as a one-of-its-kind hub for advocacy, education, and research at the intersection of civil rights and technology policy. Our experts dive into the most pressing policy issues in three key areas: AI and privacy, industry accountability, and broadband access.
Innovation Framework
Technology is shaping nearly every aspect of modern life. While technological progress can benefit everyone, many AI tools can also carry tremendous risks. These risks are not theoretical. Defective AI systems mean that you could pay more for the products you buy, fail to get considered for the job you applied for, or unfairly pay more for your insurance. Faulty AI systems can deny someone access to public benefits or even falsely accuse them of a crime. We have seen this happen time and time again.
AI is especially harmful when it automates existing biases against marginalized communities, including women, people with disabilities, immigrants, and communities of color. Rather than entrench faulty AI, further existing bias, or automate discrimination, technology should be safe and fair for all of us.
The Center for Civil Rights and Technology is building the Innovation Framework recognizing that in addition to policymakers, companies investing in, creating, and using AI and emerging technologies have a responsibility to ensure that the systems they develop and deploy respect people’s civil rights. People need assurances that the technology that makes decisions impacting them actually works, and works fairly. Now is the time to move beyond principles and implement concrete measures to ensure that the technology being used that impacts their lives have appropriate guardrails. Companies and the people that work there have front line responsibilities to ensure that goal is achieved.
The Center’s Innovation Framework will provide a foundation for assessing how industry is incorporating principles such as safety and fairness into the development of their products. More information is coming soon.
Our Work & Impact
Ensuring Fair Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Privacy for All: Innovation without equity and fairness is not innovation. We are in one of the most significant industrial revolutions of our time with the rapid growth of AI systems, but there are significant risks to our communities. Knowing that AI systems make decisions impacting people’s access to quality jobs, housing, and healthcare and play critical roles in our criminal legal system, we demand that AI systems be fair for all and free from bias.
Data privacy and fair AI are inextricably linked. Privacy rights are civil rights. AI and other algorithmic systems operate based on troves of personal data. As of now, 19 states have some form of comprehensive data privacy laws on the books. However, only two states’ data privacy laws include explicit prohibitions on discriminatory uses of data. Lack of federal action means 321.41 million people in the United States lack explicit civil rights data protections — and 132.59 million of those individuals are people of color. Ensuring that technology works for all of us also means preventing discriminatory data practices and algorithmic surveillance through common-sense guardrails.
State Data Privacy Laws & Civil Rights Protections
Snapshot: Civil Rights, AI, and Privacy (September 2024)
Letter to the Biden White House AI Executive Order (August 2023)
Comments to Office of Management and Budget on AI Guidance Memo (December 2023)
Holding Industry Accountable: Voters deserve to know that the information they are gathering online around voting and our elections is honest. Social media and technology users deserve an online and digital space that is free of dangerous hate speech. The technology industry, however, has largely abdicated its responsibility to its users, their freedom to vote, and their safety. A future where people can count on the internet and technology they use being free from falsehoods and hate is possible when industry steps up to the plate.
Letter Demanding Big Tech Protect Voters Against Disinformation (June 2024)
Online Guide for Voters to Combat Digital Voting Disinformation (English/Spanish)
Statement on Facebook Civil Rights Audit (July 2020)
Expanding Broadband Access to Everyone: Without broadband access, our communities will never see the benefits of AI or other emerging technologies. Access to high quality, affordable internet is essential to attaining good-paying jobs, quality health care, education opportunities, and so many more critical goods and services. Despite this, over 24 million people lack access to quality broadband in the United States — especially people who live in rural areas, tribal lands, communities of color, and low-income neighborhoods. Everyone deserves quality and affordable broadband.
Snapshot: Affordable Connectivity Program (January 2025)
Census and Media/Telecom Task Force Comments to the Department of Commerce on Local Estimates of Internet Adoption (Project LEIA) (October 2024)
Letter In Support Of Affordable Connectivity Program (November 2023)
Artificial Intelligence
Everyone deserves fairness and equity. As artificial intelligence (AI) use grows and provides opportunities for innovation and productivity, it is essential that the federal government protects everyone from the potential harms of AI and ensures we have equitable access for all communities to its benefits. Civil rights protections do not fall away when you interact with an automated system. AI systems that are biased do not provide full information or protections for marginalized communities. Therefore, the current decisions made using those systems cannot be trusted. We are advocating across the federal government and White House administration to ensure that AI legislation and regulatory measures center on civil rights, and that AI systems are equitable and do not discriminate.
2023 Letter to the White House on Forthcoming AI Executive Order ›
Holding Meta Accountable
In October 2017, we joined with civil rights organizations to express our deep concern regarding ads, pages, and hateful content on Meta’s platform used to divide our country, and in particular, to promote anti-Muslim, anti-Black, anti-immigrant, and anti-LGBTQ animus. In May 2018, Facebook committed to a long-overdue civil rights audit.
Along with Color of Change, we wrote to Facebook again in November 2018 urging them to take immediate steps to build public faith in the platform – faith that is further eroded as we learn more about how the company has undermined our democracy and civil society. We also called for an update on the status of their audit, and a commitment to addressing the problems and implementing recommendations.
Broadband Infrastructure
The transition from copper circuit-switched wireline networks to fiber, co-axial cable, and wireless all-Internet Protocol (IP) networks is an important evolution of our communications infrastructure that impacts all people in America. Upgrading technologies can offer great benefits for economic growth and competitiveness, flexibility, job creation, consumer service, and cost. But challenges may arise as providers upgrade the nation’s infrastructure.
On February 13, the Center for Civil Rights and Technology, a new initiative created by The Leadership Conference Education Fund, hosted its first major event: Regulatory Code: AI, Civil Rights, and the Future of Our Democracy. The event brought together congressional, regulatory, and industry leaders for a convening on the future of AI regulation and the intersection with key civil rights issues, including voting, employment, and health care. The Center for Civil Rights and Technology is the first of its kind research and advocacy hub, and this is the first major event it hosted.