2021 Humane Technology Highlights

‍#1 - Whistleblowers Increase Accountability

In October, Ifeoma Ozoma, the Pinterest whistleblower, released a Tech Workers Handbook to help guide employees looking to speak out against Big Tech. Ozoma also played a role in the passing of California’s Silenced No More Act (SB331), which prevents firms from forcing non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements that limit workers’ ability to speak out about harassment and discrimination. Shortly after, Frances Haugen came forward with the release of the Facebook Files — which outlined the platform’s opaque and negligent practices underscored by a prioritization of profit over user safety and well-being — and has since been testifying for policymakers globally.

The progress made by whistleblowers in 2021 builds on the work of others in prior years including Sophie Zhang and Timnit Gebru. In speaking up, whistleblowers have granted society critical insight into problematic practices within tech firms, increased the leverage of tech employees, created a culture of accountability, and mobilized regulatory action.

‍‍

#2 - Growing Awareness of Algorithmic Bias & Discrimination

The documentary Coded Bias (available on Netflix) helped spread an understanding about technology’s built-in biases. As the film explains, these biases reinforce inequalities and eventually determine our realities. The film follows MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini through her investigation of algorithmic discrimination in facial recognition technologies that do not detect darker-skinned faces. Coded Bias has influenced the passing of US state and local legislation to rein in the use of biased algorithms and educated technologists on building more humane products.

The importance of this work is demonstrated by the fact that in November, 193 countries adopted the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence — the first global agreement that defines values and principles for the inclusive development of AI in order to prevent many of the harms discussed in the film.
‍‍

#3 - Accountability for Facebook’s Role in the Rohingya Genocide

A class action complaint, has been launched in the US and the UK to hold Facebook accountable for its role in the Rohingya Genocide. The suit claims that Facebook was “willing to trade the lives of the Rohingya people for better market penetration in a small country in south-east Asia.” As the Facebook Papers, Karen Hao, and many others have revealed, Facebook has not only been negligent in global content moderation, but frequently prioritizes growth over user safety.

The suit highlights the egregious externalities of Facebook's business model, demonstrating that there are financial costs to unmoderated growth at the expense of human rights. As Facebook continues to allow the algorithmic amplification of violent content globally, the lawsuit has the potential to shift the platform’s business model by forcing the platform internalize the costs of its external harm. The pursuit of the lawsuit alone illustrates that the demand for platform accountability is growing globally.

‍

‍#4 - Technology Protections for Youth

The UK’s Age Appropriate Design Code, which went into force in September, provides 15 standards for online services to abide by in order to ensure the protection of children’s personal data. This UK legislation will have global effects because it requires compliance by all platforms that process UK-based children’s data.

In the US, we have seen bipartisan support of legislation to protect kids on the internet. There are several bills aiming to increase protections for children that are currently being considered:

1. The ​​Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act (an update to COPPA), prohibits the collection of personal data from kids 13 to 15 without consent, implements a “Digital Marketing Bill of Rights for Minors,” and creates an “Eraser Button” that parents and kids can use to remove kids’ personal information from platforms.
2. The KIDS Act, which applies to youth under 16, bans quantifiable popularity features and certain addictive design features (e.g., autoplay, push alerts, reward badges) as well as prohibits the amplification of harmful content and influencer marketing.
3. The Kids PRIVCY Act implements key features of the UK’s Age Appropriate Design Code including the requirement that the best interest of children be a primary design consideration.

In a recent but important move, a bipartisan group of US Attorneys General, who act as the “people's lawyer” of their states, launched an investigation into Instagram’s impact on young people. This investigation has the potential to shift the extractive tech ecosystem as Big Tech is held accountable during its "Big Tobacco" moment.

Protections for kids using social media are expanding, largely through external regulations. The passed and proposed pieces of legislation tackle both platform changes (e.g. autoplay) and the platform business model (e.g., banning surveillance advertising for kids). These interventions come after years of growing awareness about social media’s harms on children, most recently reaffirmed through the Facebook Files, and demonstrate a cultural shift around the issue.

‍

#5 - Nobel Peace Prize for Protecting Journalism

On December 10, 2021, Maria Ressa was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Dmitry Muratov, “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.” Ressa has exposed abuses of power, growing authoritarianism, and the weaponization of social media to spread disinformation and manipulate public discourse in the Philippines (her native country). She is currently on bail pending an appeal against her June 2020 conviction of cyber libel, which press freedom watchdog groups criticized as a direct attack on a democratic media by the Duterte administration. The honor is shared with Dmitry Muratov, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, one of the last independent news sources in Russia.

This Nobel Peace Prize marks a critical moment in history in which we collectively recognize the inconceivable challenges faced by journalists in protecting open society values, such as truth and democracy. Journalists play a necessary role in navigating the many crises we are faced with today, from climate change to social and economic inequality‍

‍

Thank you to all of our newsletter subscribers who contributed ideas —there were many excellent examples we could have chosen. To each of you who shared your own work that you’re doing to build a humane tech ecosystem — thank you for building this movement with us.

‍