Thread by @tristanharris

🎧New podcast episode: "Mr. Harris Goes to Washington"

Behind-the-scenes discussion w/ @Aza on my testifying before the U.S. Congressional hearing on Online Deception and Deep Fakes January 8th in DC.

humanetech.com/podcast/

https://twitter.com/HumaneTech_/status/1222973637080363008

We discuss our framing of the problem:

Tech platforms have taken the lawful, physical world we live in (protected by an FDA, NIH, DoD/Pentagon and Children's TV standards) and created an *unlawful* unregulated world on top.

In other words, "software is de-regulating the world."

While platforms want to frame the problem in terms of a few BAD APPLES… 🍎

e.g.
> Fake content
> Fake news
> Fake users (bots)
> Dark patterns
> DeepFakes

e.g. "Our platforms are great, we just have to get rid of the bad guys…"

I argued in the hearing that it's not that we have DARK PATTERNS. We have DARK INFRASTRUCTURE:

Platforms have become the infrastructure for society -- our eyes, ears and mouths that constitute our daily means of communication, sensemaking, elections, kids development. 🗣🤔👂👶

But instead of infrastructure that serves the PUBLIC interest, we have accidentally allowed PRIVATE self-interest of tech to govern issues of national security, public health, civic health, children… w/out the incentive to take care of it.

➡️Govt must reinstate public interest

For example…

While countries obsess over protecting their PHYSICAL borders, tech leaves their DIGITAL borders wide open:

If Russia or China fly a plane into the U.S., they'll be shot down by the U.S. DoD and Pentagon. 🗡🛡

But if Russia or China fly an "information bomb" into any country digitally, Fbook/YouTube respond with, "what Custom Audience or zip code do you want to target?"

Instead of being protected by a military w/ massive budget, we have a 100 ppl on their Trust & Safety teams. 💣💣

Instead of regulating tech platforms' myriad harms w/ one master digital agency (e.g. Office of Tech Assessment) we could mandate each *existing* regulatory agency to issue a "Digital Update" to monitor those concerns in the digital realm, putting the burden on tech companies:

For example, unlike Tobacco and Alcohol companies who don't know which of their users are addicted, tech companies know exactly how many users exhibit addictive behavior, loneliness, mental health issues, etc.

💉🚬🍺

A "Digital Update" of Dept of Health Services or N.I.H. could force tech companies like Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok etc to report on exactly how bad those harms are (# of teen users logging in > 100 times per day or post-2am) and make quarterly improvements to reduce those harms.

We shared many more ideas in my written testimony:
energycommerce.house.gov/sites/democrat…

And the full video of the hearing is here:
energycommerce.house.gov/committee-acti…

Hope you enjoy. And pls share this with others!