Social media platforms have become increas ingly opaque at precisely the moment their influence on society has reached unprecedented levels. Over the long-term\, we need to conceptualize true i ndependent transparency as an infrastructure project built on four pillars— government requirements & legal protections\, international standards\, sha red tooling\, and sustainable funding. We are making slow but steady progre ss on all four.
Former CrowdTangle CEO Brandon Silverman argues there is a critical\, urgent path forward in the short term: responsible public interest scraping at scale. This approach requires developing ethical frame works for conducting unpermissioned research and building accessible toolin g & infrastructure\, as well as an international strategy to proactively ad vance legal protections for researchers.
Join a timely conversation t o learn why this path is not without its challenges\, particularly given th e likelihood of reduced government and industry support in the coming years \, but why it also represents our best chance to establish the critical ove rsight function that democratic societies require.
Speaker
Brandon Silverman was the co-founder and former CEO of CrowdTan
gle\, a social media analytics tool that became instrumental in providing t
ransparency for social media platforms like Facebook\, Instagram\, and Redd
it. In 2016\, Facebook acquired CrowdTangle\, bringing Silverman and his te
am into the company. Under Facebook (later Meta)\, CrowdTangle became an im
portant resource for researchers\, journalists\, and fact-checkers seeking
to understand content trends\, particularly around elections\, misinformati
on\, and public health issues.
Silverman left Meta in October 2021. S ince his departure\, he has become an outspoken advocate for social media t ransparency and has worked with lawmakers on legislation to require more da ta access for researchers. He has testified in the US Senate\, as well as A ustralian Parliament\, advised the White House and European Commission\, an d regularly works with a wide ranging group of international NGOs\, non-pro fits and platforms. His writing and commentary have appeared in the New Yor k Times\, CNN\, BBC and more.
He is currently a Knight Policy Fellow at George Washington's Institute for Data\, Democracy and Politics\, as wel l as an affiliate the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and advisor to a handful of think tanks & civil society organizations.
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