In order to understand and address contemporary issues of social justice and democracy on the Internet, the Digital Democracies Institute researches sources of, and solutions to, polarization. We focus on challenging the spread of misinformation, desegregating network neighbourhoods, and countering radicalization and abusive language. This draws from Dr. Chun’s own research on the relationship between culture, society, politics, and networked communications, which spans two decades, as well as her previous experience as a network and software engineer. Our goal is to create new modes for connection that draw from the broad spectrum of human experience.

Our work comprises seven intersecting research streams and objectives: