On 7 March 2024, the Action Coalition on Meaningful Transparency formally launched the Transparency Initiatives Portal, in a joint event co-hosted with the Integrity Institute and the Global Network Initiative.
The event also served to launch a comprehensive report from the Integrity Institute on platform transparency, with a presentation from Hilary Ross, Integrity Institute member and GNI Special Projects Advisor. Shining a Light on Platform Transparency Best Practices outlines the broader transparency landscape, as well as offering suggestions about which kinds of transparency practices will best suit the needs of different audiences and achieve different goals.
Watch the launch and panel discussion
Tom Barraclough, director at the Brainbox Institute and ACT project lead, hosted a panel discussion exploring how we might take a durable and systematic approach to meaningful transparency. We were joined by four fantastic panellists, including:
Shashank Mohan, Program Manager at the Centre for Communication Governance (CCG) at the National Law University Delhi
Wafa Ben-Hassine, Principal, Responsible Technology, Omidyar Network
Jess Hemerly, Senior Manager, Government Affairs & Public Policy, YouTube
Brandon Silverman, member at the Integrity Institute, Advisor at Mozilla, and Co-Founder of CrowdTangle
The launch and panel discussion was a timely reminder that transparency is not a "set and forget" exercise – instead, it's a cross-cutting strategy for technology regulation that will be with us for decades to come.
Transparency is transnational in nature, sits across multiple regulatory areas, and will be continuously developing as we learn from implementation and review. If we want transparency to be meaningful, we'll have to take a systematic approach based on continuous learning and shared infrastructure.
If you missed it, you can watch a recording of the event below.
The discussion concluded with an invitation to make use of the Transparency Initiatives Portal and to promote it in your networks.
You can make the Transparency Initiatives Portal work for you
Going forward, there are some key ways that you can take advantage of the portal to benefit you and your organisation.
Submit an event to promote your own conference or function.
Share a consultation deadline, or keep an eye on consultation deadlines submitted by others.
Add an initiative to promote your programme, or share your research reports.
Add yourself as an actor in a specific country or region so other people can find you.
Use the portal to discover partners in your region, or to find partners in other parts of the world.
Companies and governments can make a tangible step toward effective transparency by making it easier for people to find their disclosures in the portal, rather than your own transparency websites.
Use the portal to design programmes to build on existing work, rather than duplicating work unnecessarily.
And funders can use it to share information about funding programmes, promote the work of grantees, identify potential partners, and keep people informed about application deadlines.
Make a portal submission using the form on the portal homepage, and refer to the concise user guide if you have any questions.
Our thanks, and join us!
Transparency in technology regulation is a complex topic – and there's always more to discuss! For more, consider signing up to the Action Coalition on Meaningful Transparency using the sign-up link here.
Thank you to the Integrity Institute for hosting this event with us, the ACT steering group and advisory group, ACT members. Thanks in particular to key portal supporters – the Omidyar Network, the Christchurch Call, Google, Meta – and to the Global Network Initiative for its creation and funding of the Action Coalition on Meaningful Transparency.