California Initiative for Technology and Democracy

The California Initiative for Technology and Democracy seeks state-level solutions to the threats that disinformation, AI, deepfakes, and other emerging technologies pose to our democracy and our elections. CITED is intentionally cross-disciplinary. To ensure our solutions are both impactful and implementable, we have brought to our work leaders from civil rights and civic engagement, law and public policy, industry and tech, and more. Our advisors include a former Democratic leader and a former Republic leader of the State Legislature, former civic trust and integrity executives from the nation’s largest social media platforms, leading academics studying cybersecurity and digital threats, and many others. CITED recognizes that a challenge this enormous requires multiple strategies employed simultaneously. In addition to leading a legislative strategy in 2024, CITED intends to provide active public leadership and strategic communications throughout the election cycle around use of AI and deepfakes in the public debate. CITED will also do mass communications and voter education, host events to raise the visibility of these issues, and work in coalition with civil rights, civic engagement, GOTV, and powerbuilding partners.