“UCI Law Chancellor’s Professor of Law Richard L. Hasen Receives Grant from Craig Newmark Philanthropies for Work on New Book on Cheap Speech and American Elections”

September 22, 2020, 7:28 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Richard L. Hasen (Rick Hasen), Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine School of Law (UCI Law), has received a grant from Craig Newmark Philanthropies for work on a book project entitled, “Cheap Speech: Saving American Elections in the Disinformation Age.” The $45,000 gift will help cover Prof. Hasen’s Fall 2020 teaching leave as he completes research and writing on his manuscript. The book is under contract with Yale University Press.

“The 2020 election season has shown us that misinformation, disinformation, the loss of local news coverage, and manipulation of political views through social media platforms threaten the competence of American voters in making electoral decisions. I am grateful that Craig Newmark Philanthropies is generously supporting my work diagnosing these problems and proposing real solutions,” Hasen said.
“American democracy is under attack, and we all need how to defend ourselves. Rick Hasen’s new book helps us work together to defend the best of our country,” said
Craig Newmark, the Founder of Craig Newmark Philanthropies.
In addition to the Craig Newmark Philanthropies grant, Prof. Hasen received support for the Cheap Speech project from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of a larger national grant to support universities, think tanks and advocacy organizations to conduct independent research into issues at the forefront of national tech policy debates. UCI Law received $170,000 from Knight – of which Hasen received $85,000 — to support two research projects on the destabilizing effects of digital speech on American democracy and models of self-regulation and multi-stakeholder governance of content moderation on digital platforms.

“We are so thankful for the generosity of Craig Newmark Philanthropies and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation,” said L. Song Richardson, Dean and Chancellor’s Professor of Law at UCI Law. “The work Rick is doing is impactful and important to protect the integrity of our elections and our democracy.”