Mr. Harris Zooms to Washington

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.