How we're incentivizing tech to build social cohesion

The Council on Tech and Social Cohesion's three Co-Chairs share how the Council's collective efforts are influencing how tech is designed and deployed

Each day, as technology's influence on our lives intensifies, a critical question arises: Is it bringing us together or tearing us apart? At the Council on Tech and Social Cohesion, our vision of incentivizing technology to build trust and collaboration, rather than polarization and violence – has never been more critical.

Since the landmark February 2023 Conference in San Francisco, we've made significant strides. We're eager to share these updates and invite you to join our efforts. 

Revamped Steering Committee:

We're excited to introduce the revamped Steering Committee, a diverse group of technologists, academics, policy influencers and  peacebuilders working on the critical intersection between technology and social cohesion:

• Lisa Schirch, University of Notre Dame/Toda Peace Institute: A professor at the Keough School of Global Affairs, Lisa's work focuses on the role of technology in strengthening social cohesion.

• Ravi Iyer, USC Marshall School Neely Center: Ravi, a technologist who worked at Meta on divisive content for 4+ years and academic psychologist who studied polarization, focuses on improving technology's impact on society.

• Lena Slachmuijlder, Search for Common Ground: As Executive Director of Digital Peacebuilding, she harnesses the power of digital tools to improve peacebuilding across 35 countries around the world. 

• Antonella Guidoccio, Exygy: An Innovation Strategist and Director of Product, Antonella works on building equitable digital products and services.

• Caleb Gichuhi, Africa Lead at Build Up, bringing more than a decade of experience in harnessing technology for development and conflict transformation.

• Camille Carlton, Center for Humane Technology: As the Senior Policy and Communications Manager, Camille's focus is on technology research and its societal impacts.

• Deepti Doshi, New_ Public: Co-Director of New_Public, Deepti has a rich background in social change, community organizing, and leadership development.

• Devika Malik: A policy consultant with extensive experience in public policy related to online harms and human rights.

• Helena Puig Larrauri, Build Up: Co-founder and Strategy Lead, specializing in the integration of digital technology in peace processes.

• Jonathan Stray, Center for Human-Compatible AI (CHAI) at UC Berkeley: A Senior Scientist researching recommender systems and their societal effects.

• Julia Kamin, Civic Health Project/Prosocial Design Network: Focusing on leveraging social science to foster social cohesion.

• Karina Alexanyan, Humanication: Founder/CEO with expertise at the nexus of tech, social impact, media, and education.

• Laure X Cast, Prosocial Design Network: A product discovery consultant with a focus on human-centered technology development.

• Michele Giovanardi, Global Peacetech Hub: A project associate with experience in communication, digital education, and learning technologies.

• Paul Gowder, Integrity Institute: A board member guiding Integrity’s strategic priorities and a Professor of Law at Northwestern University.

• Paul Heidebrecht, University of Waterloo: Director of the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement, focusing on the intersection of peacebuilding and social innovation.

Each member brings unique expertise and perspectives, collectively driving our mission forward, as you can see with just a few of the excellent initiatives underway.

• Ravi Iyer of USC’s Neely Center is popularizing a design code listing specific steps we can take to design social media systems to better serve society, particularly during this year of more than 60 elections across the globe, as well as globally scalable measures of which platforms are having better or worse impacts.

• Also on elections, the Integrity Institute published a guide on Elections Integrity Best Practices, and a Part Two, offering platforms best practices from across the industry to help better support healthy elections. 

• Jonathan Stray and Gillian Hadfield wrote A Unique Experiment That Could Make Social Media Better explaining how  multiple universities, nonprofit and advocacy organizations, together with  Meta, are experimenting and learning about changes to Facebook’s feed ranking.

• New_Public runs a Community Stewards Guild, where online stewards can learn and connect with each other, as well as contributing their perspectives towards design patterns that can enable healthy digital spaces.

• Search for Common Ground has codified a curriculum to help digital community stewards build trust and cohesion in online groups. This course is now available in a self-guided online version..

• Julia Kamin of Civic Health Project wrote The Personal Norms Signal in which she explains what it may look like for platforms to give individual users the tools to be their own norm-signalers (and enforcers).

• Camille Carlton of the Center for Humane Technology, along with Jamie Neikrie, wrote To Move Forward with AI, Look to the Fight for Social Media Reform, pointing to what we can learn from social media reform efforts as we tackle the risks and opportunities of AI.

• Council Co-Chairs Lisa Schirch, Ravi Iyer and Lena Slachmuijlder published ‘Toward Prosocial Tech Design Governance‘ in Tech Policy Press, advocating for a design governance focus to incentivize tech to mitigate harms and build cohesion. 

Want to keep up with all this? Explore our website, especially our curated Resources section, featuring podcasts and substacks at the forefront of this evolving field.

We’ve landed on a three-year vision of change, which we aim to achieve by progressing on five mutually-reinforcing lines of action.

Our five lines of action

1. Public Policy: We're shaping a future where governments are not just aware but actively supportive of cohesive tech design. Our engagements with policymakers, especially in the Global South, are setting the stage for critical changes in tech governance.

2. Funding: We're fostering conversations around business models and capital for prosocial tech, tapping into public, private, and philanthropic sources to fuel our mission. This involves how new tech is designed, as well as how prosocial technologies’ use can be expanded.

3. Metrics:  We're working on establishing credible and accessible standards for tech that promotes social cohesion. Our aim is to create a framework that rewards positive contributions and holds accountable those that foster polarization.

4. Scientific Evolution: The integration of prosocial tech and digital peacebuilding in academic studies will inspire a new generation of technologists and peacebuilders to see this important interconnection. We are working to mainstream these approaches in education and training.

5. Implementation: We continue to deploy digital tools to mitigate harms and strengthen peacebuilding outcomes conflict-affected communities with a high likelihood of online harms triggering real world violence. These projects and methodologies are setting industry benchmarks for prosocial technology development and deployment.

What’s coming up for 2024

The road ahead is dotted with exciting milestones. We're preparing for a series of panels and workshops at various international forums, ranging from Peacebuilding gatherings to Tech & Society conferences. Our presence will be felt at the ICT4D conference in Ghana, the Skoll Forum in Oxford, the All Things in Moderation Conference (Australia/virtual), TrustCon in San Francisco, Build Peace ‘24 in the Philippines, and many more. We’re collaborating with several multi-stakeholder fora involved in advocacy around tech policy reform in the Sahel, in Kenya, and in Sri Lanka. We’re piloting the use of digital deliberation and consultation tools in the United States and in various conflict-affected contexts in Africa, Asia and the Middle East and learning from efforts to prevent and address technology-facilitated gender-based violence.

But this is just the beginning. As we continue to push the boundaries, we remain committed to co-elevation and collaboration. Our focus is on strengthening social cohesion, influencing policy, and driving the pivot to prosocial tech design governance.

Join us!

This journey is not ours alone. We invite you, our readers and collaborators, to be part of these groundbreaking efforts. Share your thoughts, resources, and insights on our Substack page. Your voice is crucial in shaping a future where technology is a force for social cohesion.

As Co-Chairs of the Council, we invite you to join us on this journey this journey, redefining the intersection of technology and social cohesion, creating a digital landscape where trust and collaboration thrive.

Lisa Schirch, Ravi Iyer and Lena Slachmuijlder

Co-Chairs, Council on Tech and Social Cohesion