The Internet has transformed political behaviour, from voting and campaigning for policy change, to protest and even revolution. This poses a challenge to states, as political movements become more turbulent, unpredictable, and societies harder to govern.
To understand this radically transformed political world, we are re-examining the models and conceptual frameworks of political science and theory, and developing social data science methodologies to understand political behaviour.
This project examines the fragmented legislations and legal landscape that governs the development, sale, and deployment of AI technologies used for government surveillance.
Based on a case-study analysis of bias in the Chicago Crime Prediction Algorithm, this project explores the extent to which evidence of algorithmic bias can be used to guide policy responses to the societal disparities replicated in these tools.
This project uses machine learning techniques to model technical trends in internet shutdown behaviours, and positions these technical developments within broader censorship activities, and the associated deterioration of civil and political rights.
12 April 2024
Four University of Oxford researchers have been awarded European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grants of up to €2.5 million each to explore their most innovative and ambitious ideas.
9 February 2024
On 14th February 2024, Indonesia will hold its fifth direct presidential election since transitioning to democracy in 1998.
2 February 2024
Why 2024 promises to be an important year for elections and internet research and how students and colleagues at the OII plan to make sense of these events.
Evening Standard, 26 March 2024
City Voices: It is not possible to build an innovative, robust, and resilient digital government on top of the infrastructure built almost 10 years before the internet existed
Al Jazeera, 21 March 2024
The Al Jazeera 'Counting the Cost' programme interview Prof Vili Lehdonvirta about the potential US TikTok band and its economic and geopolitical impacts.
New York Times, 04 March 2024
For years, Apple, Google, Meta and others operated unfettered. But new laws and regulations have finally compelled them to make major shifts to their products and businesses.
Professor of Society and the Internet
Helen Margetts is Professor of Society and the Internet, a political scientist specialising in digital government and politics. She was Director of the OII from 2011-18. She is a Professorial Fellow of Mansfield College.
The OII is home to some of the top academics studying digital politics and government, including Professor Helen Margetts. She is a political scientist specialising in the relationship between digital technology and government, politics and public policy. She is an advocate for the potential of multi-disciplinarity and computational social science for our understanding of political behaviour and development of public policy in a digital world.
She has published over a hundred books, articles and policy reports in this area, including Political Turbulence: How Social Media Shape Collective Action (with Peter John, Scott Hale and Taha Yasseri, 2015); Paradoxes of Modernization (with Perri 6 and Christopher Hood, 2010); Digital Era Governance (with Patrick Dunleavy, 2006, 2008); and The Tools of Government in the Digital Age (with Christopher Hood, 2007).
Professor Margetts joined the OII in 2004 from University College London where she was a Professor in Political Science and Director of the School of Public Policy. She began her career as a computer programmer and systems analyst with Rank Xerox after receiving her BSc in mathematics from the University of Bristol. She returned to study at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1989, completing an MSc in Politics and Public Policy in 1990 and a PhD in Government in 1996. She worked as a researcher at LSE from 1991 to 1994 and a lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London from 1994 to 1999.
Research Associate
In 2022 Jonathan Bright became the Head of AI for Public Services at the Turing Institute, having previously been a faculty member of the OII. A political scientist, he specialises in computational and ‘big data’ approaches to the social sciences.
Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow
Dr Scott A. Hale is an Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow, and Turing Fellow. He develops and applies computer science techniques to the social sciences focusing on increasing equitable access to quality information.
Professor of Internet Studies
Philip N. Howard is a professor of sociology, information, and international affairs. He is Director of the Programme on Democracy and Technology, and is a Professorial Fellow of Balliol College.
