Society

The Responsible tech playbook is a collection of tools, methods, and frameworks that help you – and your teams – to assess, model and mitigate values and risks of the software you are creating.

Ever bought an item of nice clothing or a fancy notebook and found it lying pristine and unused forever? The item has become (or always was) “special” and its specialness reinforces its…

Frances Haugen’s testimony at the Senate hearing today raised serious questions about how Facebook’s algorithms work—and echoes many findings from our previous investigation.

Family leave is productive as well as humane, but American management has been keen to keep its boot on workers' necks.

Facebook’s behavior isn’t just anti-competitive; it’s anti-consumer.

Learn more about our 2021 competitive dissertation award winners.

Countries around the world have made it easier to get an abortion legally, but policies in many parts of the United States are making it harder.

Against using identity as a rhetorical cudgel, even though it’s very effective

The founder of this finance platform credits cutting daily meetings as part of his company’s COVID-era success.

Letters to the Sydney Morning Herald during the planning of the Sydney Opera House: “Faced with the nightmare illustrated in your columns, some 25th century Bluebeard’s lair, its ominous vanes pointed skywards apparently only for the purpose of discharging guided missiles or some latter-day nuclear Evil Eye, words fail.” — W.H. Peters, Sydney, Jan. 31, 1957 “To me, the winning design suggests some gargantuan monster which may have wandered over the land millions of years ago. It certainly is right out of place beside the dignity of the Harbour Bridge.” — M. Rathbone, Kensington, Jan. 31, 1957 “This whale of...

Posted on Wednesday 6 Oct 2021. 622 words, 2 links. By Matt Webb.

It has taken us by surprise, but in our current situation, when everyone has more of a voice and more impact on the public than ever before, it suddenly matters. You wouldn’t take your car to…

We've been running our Greenhouse discussion on content moderation at the infrastructure level for a bit now, and normally all of the posts for these discussions come from expert guest commentators. However, I'm going to add my voice to the...

America’s top telecom giant nurtured OAN, the pro-Trump news channel now at the center of a bitter national divide over politics and truth.

Facebook’s political problems stem directly from its size and drive for growth; they are societal issues, not antitrust ones.

Among painters, poets, writers, actors, bloggers, directors, influencers, capitalists, fundraisers, politicians and singers, you’ll find a few who want to go all the way to superfamous. They …

Pondering the issue of repetition in four different ways, in an effort to not repeat myself. Ever feel like you’re repeating yourself? Read this.

I'm sure by now most of you have either seen or read about Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen's appearance on 60 Minutes discussing in detail the many problems she saw within Facebook. I'm always a little skeptical about 60 Minutes...

Defector.com launched just over a year ago, formed by Deadspin employees tired of the necrophilic private equity firm extracting value from the former Gawker site at any cost. The new media venture…

There’s an economic theory here: Free customers are more valuable than captive ones—to themselves, to the companies they deal with, and to the marketplace. If that’s true, the intention…

Today's episode is about remote work. Well, sort of. I found someone with a different perspective on remote work and a fantastic story to share, Paul Lutus. I think that he might be the original remote software developer. He left California behind for a lower cost of living in Oregon. And from Oregon, he developed software for Apple. But the... […]

Mud, cold water, a modicum of risk, and hours of pure fun: “In an ordinary playground, they wouldn’t have the opportunity to develop those skills”. See also Britain’s intent…

Internal evidence that former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen shared shows Facebook has known — but ignored — the harm it causes.