Eric Sears, Director, Technology in the Public Interest, reflects on growing public oversight and accountability for the technology sector and the need for more investment.
This past year, a wave of policy and regulatory activity began in the United States that will define our relationship with technology, and, more broadly, the future of democracy.
Two events illustrate the urgency.
First is the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. While it is too simplistic to blame the leading social media platforms for the insurrection, it is also clear that platforms played an enabling role through policies and practices that accelerated and spurred the spread of misinformation, hatred, and dangerous speech that sought to catalyze the violence on that day.
Second are the disclosures of Facebook whistleblower Francis Haugen. She provided a clearer view into the significant influence that Facebook exercises on users and societies, insights that build on whistleblower Sophie Zhang’s disclosures in 2020. These disclosures affirmed concerns that many advocates and researchers have been raising for years: that all too often, Facebook has optimized for growth and profit over the safety of its users and society to detrimental effect.
Whoever controls prevailing technologies’ creation, deployment, and use has immense social, economic, and political power. That power now rests largely with a handful of companies such as Facebook (recently rebranded as Meta), Alphabet (the parent company of YouTube and Google), and Amazon, among others. To date, these companies have faced little government scrutiny relative to their influence.
That appears to be coming to an end thanks to the persistent work of public interest researchers, accountability journalists, advocates, and activism and whistleblowing from within the industry.
The Biden Administration is sending a clear signal that the time has arrived for greater public oversight of the technology sector and the tools it creates, uses, and sells. Across the federal government, the administration is appointing public interest technology experts to help advance new policy and regulatory action, while ensuring that agencies exercise their existing authority for technology sector oversight.
A wide array of efforts is now underway to better align the technology sector and its products with democratic values. Efforts range from regulating specific categories of technologies to actions aiming to advance competition in the sector.
For example, there is a growing focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and other data-intensive technologies that often aid or replace human decision-making. AI systems are being rolled out across high-stakes domains with too little oversight, such as law enforcement, health care, education, finance, and housing. While often touted as neutral, AI systems can carry significant risks. Risks include reinforcing and deepening racism, inequality, and other forms of oppression.
Agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have begun looking into how to mitigate potential harms caused by AI systems and to ensure civil rights and civil liberties are protected. Congress is increasingly engaged with AI regulatory issues, too.
In an opinion published in Wired, Dr. Eric Lander, the President’s Science Advisor and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and Dr. Alondra Nelson, OSTP’s Deputy Director for Science and Society, announced a White House initiative to create a Bill of Rights for an Automated Society. It seeks to “…clarify the rights and freedoms we expect data-driven technologies to respect.” Critically, the White House is seeking input from the American public on this effort and reaching out to a wide array of stakeholders to inform its work.
It is tempting to believe that we are on the cusp of dramatic and accelerated policy and regulatory change in the United States. A more realistic view is that we are heading into a decade of work to assert greater democratic oversight of the technology industry and the platforms and tools it produces. For grantmakers seeking to help advance technology in the public interest, this means responding with urgency to the moment. But it also means taking a long view and supporting work that is transformative, not merely transactional.
Success will require at least three types of interventions from philanthropy.
First, we must widen understanding of the kinds of expertise required to advance the democratic governance of technology. That includes meaningful support for experts whose lived experiences best position them to mitigate harms and build more just and equitable futures.
Second, it is imperative to support efforts that compel technology companies to allow independent researchers and accountability journalists to ethically study their platforms and tools, and to deepen investments in this work. We cannot rely on companies to act in the public interest. Regulation and policy should be informed by evidence, and companies have typically prevented this kind of research and transparency.
Third, philanthropy should support spaces to foster dialogue and collaboration among diverse stakeholders to forge practices and policies that advance the public interest in the digital age. This includes better connecting policy conversations happening in different parts of the world, and within the U.S. at the federal, state, and municipal levels.
Silicon Valley spent decades building towards the present moment in an all too insular and exclusionary way. However, we can work together to ensure that the prevalent technologies of the future are built in a more just and equitable way that better aligns with democratic values, while also addressing the challenges that exist today.
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