Social Media Heads to Washington

Today, I sat in on my first Factual Democracy call, on Social Media Heads to Washington. Factual Democracy is a fascinating effort to, as they put it, pioneer a multi-disciplinary response to internet weaponization. With conference calls, as the Kickstarter I supported a couple months ago made clear.

This call was about, well, I’ll let let them tell the story:

Tech companies are on the hot seat both for allowing Russia to target American voters on their platforms, and for continuing to allow fake news created by hostile actors to thrive on their platforms. The Senate Intelligence Committee has scheduled a public hearing On November 1 and has invited Facebook, Google, and Twitter to testify. In advance of this hearing Factual Democracy Project’s next call will explore why our social media companies are so easily exploited, what Americans (regardless of political affiliation) expect tech companies to do about it, and how we can make our voices heard before the Senate Intelligence Committee and other congressional hearings.

I missed the first couple of Factual Democracy calls. I’ll have to catch up when I have a chance.