What is REPHRAIN?
Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction, Adversarial Influence Online (REPHRAIN) - the National Research Centre that aims at protecting citizens online through delivering privacy at scale, minimising online harms, and balancing individual agency versus social good. Researchers in Computer Science, International Relations, Law, Psychology, Management, Design, Digital Humanities, Public Policy, Political Science, Criminology and Sociology at Bristol (lead), University College London, Bath, King’s College London and Edinburgh teamed up to lead an £8.6 million three-year UKRI Research Centre of Excellence focused on the protection of citizens online. This activity is designed to build and lead the UK’s world-leading interdisciplinary community on this mission and provide a clear single front door to engage and build capacity with government, industry and citizens.
How it started?
REPHRAIN was established in 2020, and its missions and outcomes are derived from and aligned to two key research outputs:
Online Harms White Paper (DCMS, 2019). This white paper was presented to the Parliament by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and by the Secretary of State for the Home Department by Command of Her Majesty on 15 December 2020. The UK government's response confirmed the introduction of a statutory duty of care for high-risk tech platforms to assess and mitigate online harms.
Solove, D. J. (2006), A Taxonomy of Privacy, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 154 (3): 477-560. Daniel J. Solove proposed a taxonomy of privacy with the aim to provide a clearer account of privacy. The taxonomy assists in understanding privacy as a multidimensional concept and advocates that privacy harms may be related in some way, but they are not all related in the same way.
Missions
REPHRAIN will address fundamental tensions and imbalances pertaining to protecting citizens online through three over-arching missions. We represent these as high-level dimensions:
Cross Cutting Strands
Four cross-cutting strands – each with dedicated resources – transect the Missions to draw together and implement good practice in co-production, co-creation and impact at scale across academia, industry, policy and third sector
Design & Engagement
Engage users, technologists and stakeholders in participatory and co-design processes – putting citizens, their care and usability at the heart of outcomes across missions.
Adoption & Adoptability
Co-develop, with stakeholders, a shared understanding of the drivers and barriers to adoption of technologies and interventions at both the organisation and citizen level – feeding requirements into projects and aligning their outcomes to stakeholders’ usage contexts.
Responsible, Inclusive & Ethical Innovation
Develop a collective knowledge-base of novel and innovative methods and strategies that seek to orientate the competing ethical and political demands – encouraging cultures of accountability and responsibility.
Policy & Regulation
Bring together UK / international regulatory and policy expertise to develop fresh thinking on optimal regulatory modes and policy interventions to reduce online harm.