i wish i had spoken more about global stability, when you have this kind of misinformation wreaking havoc on the less fortunate countries. How much is the current administration proposing for their massov 20 first century new deal infa structure? A couple of trillion dollars, no simil value. We've got about 200 billion to a hundred in terms of scaleet of information that's running through a system without moderation. These companies probably invest more into english speaking constent moderation, fact checking and election war rooms than in any other country. And look how bad it is. You can spend billions of dollars developing vaccines to get the world out of this covid pendemic, but then have a digital information
Back in January 2020, Tristan Harris went to Washington, D.C. to testify before the U.S. Congress on the harms of social media. A few weeks ago, he returned — virtually — for another hearing, Algorithms and Amplification: How Social Media Platforms’ Design Choices Shape Our Discourse and Our Minds. He testified alongside Dr. Joan Donovan, Research Director at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media Politics and Public Policy and the heads of policy from Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. The senators’ animated questioning demonstrated a deeper understanding of how these companies’ fundamental business models and design properties fuel hate and misinformation, and many of the lawmakers expressed a desire and willingness to take regulatory action. But, there’s still room for a more focused conversation. “It’s not about whether they filter out bad content,” says Tristan, “but really whether the entire business model of capturing human performance is a good way to organize society.” In this episode, a follow-up to last year’s “Mr. Harris Goes to Washington,” Tristan and Aza Raskin debrief about what was different this time, and what work lies ahead to pave the way for effective policy.