Chilling Effects – Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age

Join us for the book launch of Chilling Effects: Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age, featuring author Professor Jonathon Penney in conversation with renowned international experts in privacy, technology, and human rights Professor Ronald J. Deibert (O.C., O.Ont., Ph.D.) (Citizen Lab, University of Toronto), Professor Neil Richards (Washington University Law), and Senior Research Fellow Kate Robertson (Citizen Lab) — exploring how surveillance, censorship, and emerging technologies are being weaponized to shape behavior and chill and repress fundamental rights and democracy. Please RSVP! 

States, companies, and extremist groups are increasingly using surveillance, law, censorship, and technologies like AI and facial recognition to chill and repress the public, often targeting critics and marginalized groups. With far‑right movements growing globally, these threats to democratic freedoms are a major concern. Conventional legal and policy responses fall short.

In this book, Professor Jonathon Penney advances a new theory of how technology and power create repression and conformity, and provides a roadmap for resisting their weaponization.

“A masterclass on the social force and meaning of chilling effects at the behest of governments, companies, and cyber mobs”

Danielle Keats Citron
Jefferson Scholars Foundation Schenck Distinguished Professor in Law
University of Virginia School of Law

“Essential reading for anyone wishing to endure this era with our fundamental freedoms and democracies intact”

Bruce Schneier
Renowned Security Technologist and
Author of Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship

Presenter & Commentators

Presenter

Jonathon Penney, Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School and York Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence, Data Governance, and the Law

Commentators:

• Ronald Deibert, Director of The Citizen Lab and Professor Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto
• Neil Richards, Koch Distinguished Professor in Law, WashU Law School
• Kate Robertson, Senior Researcher of The Citizen Lab, University of TorontoBook Launch

Sponsored by the Jack and Mae Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security.