Safiya U. Noble Selected to Aspen Institute Commission on Information Disorder

Safiya U. Noble, UCLA associate professor of Information Studies and African American studies, has been selected as a commissioner on the Aspen Institute’s Commission on Information Disorder. Noble, who is the co-founder and co-director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2I2), will join 14 other experts and scholars from across the political spectrum for a six-month intensive exploration of the most effective policy solutions and stakeholders to address near-term disinformation threats; the lawful and ethical means by which the federal government can promote fact-based information; how government, private industry, and civil society can work together in the short term to help protect underrepresented groups, and engage disaffected populations who have lost faith in evidence-based reality; and longer-term, more foundational challenges that will require deeper societal engagement.

The “Commission on Information Disorder” will be co-chaired by journalist Katie Couric; cybersecurity expert Chris Krebs, founding director of DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA); and racial equity leader Rashad Robinson, president of Color Of Change.

Among the commissioners are Sue Gordon, former principal deputy director of national intelligence; elected officials Aaron Ford, Nevada’s attorney general, and former Texas congressman Will Hurd; threat researchers and academics Yasmin Green of Jigsaw, Herb Lin of Stanford University, and Kate Starbird of the University of Washington. 

Professor Noble is a research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford and has been appointed as a commissioner on the Oxford Commission on AI & Good Governance (OxCAIGG). She is a board member of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, serving those vulnerable to online harassment. 

Noble currently serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, and is the co-editor of the Commentary & Criticism section of the Journal of Feminist Media Studies, among many other editorial and advisory boards. 

In 2018, Professor Noble was awarded the top Distinguished Alumni Award at Fresno State, her undergraduate alma mater, and in 2020, she was awarded the Distinguished Alumna Award from the iSchool Alumni Association (ISAA). Noble is also the inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Award winner from the Illinois Alumni Association at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Noble is the author of “Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism,” published by NYU Press. She is regularly quoted for her expertise on issues of algorithmic discrimination and technology bias by national and international press including The Guardian, the BBC, CNN International, USA Today, Wired, Time, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The New York Times, and a host of local news and podcasts. Last fall, she took part in a TIME 100 discussion moderated by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Photo by John Davis