Update: It went great! Here’s the recap link to watch it and get a summary
Here’s what the recap said about my part:
As a former Facebook employee, Sahar Massachi stressed how the organizational dynamics inside social media companies influence their products. For example, to increase profit, Facebook optimizes for metrics like growth and engagement, which often tend to fuel harmful content. Although platforms have integrity workers to help mitigate these harms, the focus on engagement often undercuts their efforts. Only by changing the incentives, he said, can we change how social media companies approach harm on their platforms. Massachi co-founded the Integrity Institute to build a community of integrity workers to support the public, policymakers, academics, journalists, and social media companies themselves as they try to solve the problems posed by social media.
So, as part of my work with the Integrity Institute, I get to be on a fancy panel.
Wanna come?
Here are the details, copied from the website:
Reducing Harm on Social Media: Research & Design Ideas
Wednesday, December 15, 2021 | 3:00 – 4:15pm ET
When social media platforms first launched nearly two decades ago, they were seen as a force for good – a way to connect with family and friends, learn and explore new ideas, and engage with social and political movements. Yet, as the Facebook Papers and other research have documented, these same platforms have become vectors of misinformation, hate speech, and polarization.
With attention around social media’s impact on society at an all-time high, this event gathers researchers and practitioners from across the academic, policy, and tech communities to discuss various approaches and interventions to make social media a safer and more civil place.
Panelists
- Jane Lytvynenko, Senior Research Fellow, Technology and Social Change Project, Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy (moderator)
- Niousha Roshani, Deputy Director, Content Policy & Society Lab, Stanford University’s Program on Democracy and the Internet
- Rebekah Tromble, Director, Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics, George Washington University
- Joshua A. Tucker, Co-Director, New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics
- Sahar Massachi, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Integrity Institute