July 23rd, 2024 // Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up to receive your own copy here.

Audrey Tang on why democracy is a social technology

When she was 14 years old in Taiwan, Audrey Tang dropped out of school to pursue computer programming full-time. The internet of the mid-1990s became her new teacher, and she studied social movements, helped rewrite computer languages, joined communities centered around free software, and drove her own online research.

The internet was a different place then, and Tang’s experience has shaped her perspective today. She believes the internet remains an unfinished project, and there is more work to be done to realize the fundamental beliefs and rights that pulsed through its creation three decades ago.

Tang became Taiwan’s first Digital Minister (2016-2024) where she reshaped democratic processes to create a continuous dialogue between the government and its citizens.

Her work in government pointed to a higher ideal of cultivating a pluralistic society.

The idea of plurality, which she defines as collaboration across social diversity, is central to her work.

Indeed, plurality is urgently needed in today’s dominant online spaces, which are more often defined by echo chambers and polarization than by collaboration across lines of difference. 

Today, Tang has become a global leader of what a healthier, collaborative, and more pluralistic internet can look like. She recently published a new book with Glen Weyl, Plurality: The Future Of Collaborative Technology And Democracy, and joined Project Liberty Institute as a senior fellow.

Without copyright and in the public domain, Tang’s book embraces the idea of co-creation and challenges the concept of traditional authorship. Tang sees it less as a finished text and more as a platform that others can adapt and build upon.

In a two-part series with Tang, this week we will explore Tang’s vision: Shaping democracy as a social technology. Next week we will focus on the case-study of Taiwan and the ways it is a model for how civil society, the government, and the populace harnessed technology to strengthen democracy.

//

“A lot of the symptoms that we're seeing in today’s social media landscape are because the fundamental internet protocols were left unfinished.”

//

// Unfinished freedoms

Tang’s formative years coincided with the internet’s early years; it was a time brimming with hope for what the internet could be and what freedoms it might offer. Freedom of expression. Freedom of identity and personhood. Freedom of association. Freedom of commerce.

As the internet has expanded and been commercialized, the fundamental freedoms that sparked so much early optimism weren’t fully encoded into the internet’s design. Far from being an open digital public square or place where different perspectives are welcome, or even encouraged, Tang believes that the architecture and business models of today’s platforms flatten our intersectional, social diversity.

For example, the architecture of our digital spaces reinforces binary tropes of one side versus the other. A 2023 report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found that American voters are less ideologically polarized than they think they are, and that misperception is greatest for the most politically engaged people.

“It is only when these freedoms are all protected by fundamental protocols of the internet that we can have a healthy media landscape,” Tang said. “A lot of the symptoms that we're seeing in today’s social media landscape are because the fundamental internet protocols were left unfinished.”

For Tang, a healthier digital media landscape is only possible by integrating principles of plurality into the internet’s core operating system: redesigning protocols, experimenting with new participatory governance models, and reimagining how technology can strengthen democratic practices.

// Democracy as a social technology

It might be tempting to conclude that technology is a threat to democracy. After all, social media platforms have contributed to polarization, and there are growing concerns that disinformation will undermine free and fair elections.

But Tang doesn’t believe technology and democracy are at odds. Instead, she views democracy as a kind of technology that enables collaboration across social diversity. In other words, democratic processes and practices can drive plurality. Democracy, Tang said, is a “social technology.”

Like any technology, democracy gets better the more people contribute to its continuous improvement, and there are opportunities to improve both democracy’s bandwidth and latency.

In tech-speak, bandwidth refers to the amount of data that can be transmitted, whereas latency refers to the amount of time it takes for that data to reach its destination. 

By reframing democracy as a social technology, Tang has been able to use tech tools to increase democracy’s bandwidth and reduce its latency in Taiwan. The right tech can make democratic processes less like a once-every-four-years dial-up connection and more like high-speed, broadband internet.

• Increasing democracy’s bandwidth means using tech tools to increase the amount of interactions, participation, deliberation, and understanding where members of the public can participate in shaping democratic outcomes: from policies to elections.
• Reducing democracy’s latency means using tech tools to reduce the amount of time between the touch-points when a government is accountable to its people. Instead of elections once every four years, technology can reduce the lags between what a citizenry wants and how its government represents those wishes.

Tang has found that when you increase democracy’s bandwidth and reduce its latency, you can create a continuous dialogue and an ongoing relationship between a government and its people. The speed and quality of collaboration across social diversity gets better and better. 

This is what Tang has done in Taiwan. 

Next week, we’ll explore the case-study of Taiwan and how it could be a model for high bandwidth, low latency democratic processes in the digital age.

Project Liberty News

// New Project Liberty website

Last week Project Liberty launched a new website that houses all facets of the Project Liberty ecosystem. You can now read about the happenings at Labs, check out the recent Institute reports, see the list of all Alliance members, and follow the progress of the People’s Bid in one place.

// Profile of Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt

Boston Magazine featured Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt in its current issue where he discusses the need to reign in big tech and his personal ties to Boston.

Other notable headlines

// 🖥 An article in WIRED examined exactly how one bad CrowdStrike update crashed the world’s computers.

// 🚨 Spain has become reliant on an algorithm to score how likely a domestic violence victim is to be abused again. An article in The New York Times found that sometimes it makes mistakes leading to fatal consequences.

// 👩‍🔬 After years of contentious relationships with researchers, Meta is launching a 6-month pilot program for researchers to study the Instagram's effects on teens, according to an article in The Atlantic.

// 🏛 An article in Tech Policy Press reported that the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments about the constitutionality of California’s Child Online Safety Law.

// ✍️ Polls on social media deliberately distort political reality, according to an article in El Pais. A study concluded that they are carried out mostly by older men, that more bots participate than real users, and the results are more biased before than after elections.

// 🤔 An article in Noema argued that we need an FDA for artificial intelligence. It outlined what AI regulators can learn from the history of the FDA.

// 🧱 An article in CoinDesk argued that philanthropy's blockchain uptake is slow, but the future is bright for how the technology can be used for good.

// 🤖 An article in The Economist chronicled a short history of AI and how the technology overcame decades of underdelivering.

Partner news & opportunities

// 2024 Ecosystem Pulse Report: Insights from All Tech Is Human

All Tech Is Human's 2024 Ecosystem Pulse Report explores the demographics and motivations of their diverse audience across civil society, government, industry, and academia. The report provides key insights into community focus areas, top cities for involvement, and recommendations to enhance the Responsible Tech ecosystem.

// Virtual conversation on how to boost your digital intelligence

July 31 at 8:00am ET

Ashoka is hosting a webinar for attendees to learn about global standards for digital intelligence (DQ) with Yuhyun Park, founder of the DQ Institute. Discover how to measure your DQ and build online competencies. Register for the talk here.

// OECD Is Now Open Access

The OECD worked with Project Liberty Alliance member Creative Commons to adopt a new Open Access policy. Now, all OECD data, publications, and analyses are freely accessible under an open license. Explore, download, and share comprehensive reports, detailed datasets, and insightful analyses on the new OECD website.

What did you think of today's newsletter?

/ Project Liberty is leading a movement of people who want to take back control of their lives in the digital age by reclaiming a voice, choice, and stake in a better internet.

Thank you for reading.