Interpretive Transparency for Democratic Information Environments

A research-driven, open-source infrastructure making algorithmic influence visible, contestable, and accountable.

WHY STOA EXISTS

Digital platforms shape what billions of people see, believe, and act on — yet the systems governing visibility, amplification, and influence remain largely opaque.

STOA (Standards for Transparent Online Agency) is an open-source interpretive transparency infrastructure that helps communities understand how information spreads, how influence campaigns operate, and where uncertainty exists — without automating truth or enforcement.

Rather than labeling content as “true” or “false,” STOA surfaces contextual signals that support critical reasoning, democratic participation, and accountability.

Research Prototype Walkthrough

A walkthrough of the STOA research prototype demonstrating interpretive transparency in action.

What Makes STOA Different

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    Rights-Aligned by Design

    No user is required to flag or experience harmful content to enable accountability.

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    AI-Enabled, Human-Governed

    AI surfaces patterns at scale; humans interpret, contest, and oversee.

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    Literacy Infrastructure, Not Enforcement

    STOA strengthens critical reasoning rather than replacing it with automated judgments.

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    Open Source Civic Technology

    Built for community contribution, transparency, and ecosystem adoption.

DEMOCRATIC IMPACT

STOA advances democratic practice by making algorithmic governance transparent, interpretable, and contestable at the scale where manipulation occurs.

AI enables real-time detection of amplification patterns, coordinated influence campaigns, and cross-platform dynamics across languages and regions — making transparency accessible to communities most impacted by information harm.

Human oversight committees and a global advisory board ensure interpretations remain contestable, culturally grounded, and rights-aligned.

  • "I definitely feel like this would be such a good resource to have, especially for CSAM and related harms, which come up a lot in EU AI Act discussions."

  • "In non-English regions, there's often only a handful of moderators for countries of over 100 million people."

  • “It’s too hard a problem for one platform to solve… has to be infrastructure, not just another product…”

LEARN MORE

Open Research & Technical Foundations

Technical Specification — Version 1.1 (Preprint)

Conference Paper

Download Paper

Figma Make Research Prototype V1.1

Explore Prototype

GitHub Repository

View Repository

Open technical specification defining STOA’s transparency protocol, governance model, and scalable interpretive infrastructure.

Read Specification

Peer-reviewed research detailing the design-science methodology, prototype development, and expert validation of interpretive transparency.

Interactive prototype demonstrating how STOA surfaces influence dynamics, contextual signals, and contestable interpretations in real content environments.

Open-source codebase and documentation supporting STOA’s protocol development, research tooling, and community contributions.