Aza Raskin

They are deciding what billions of people see, hear, and believe.

They built the algorithm, they tuned the ranking, they set the rules for what's going to amplify and what gets suppressed.

And so the only question is not whether they should be the arbiter of truth, but rather, will they take responsibility for the arbitration they're already doing?

Or whether they're just going to wave it off and say, we're just a platform.

And that brings us to principle number four, which is technology is never neutral.

It's more like you go to make TikTok and that does the whole short form video thing.

And you might say, well, we're just letting anyone post videos there.

So obviously we're neutral.

But by the choice, the very fact of having chosen short form video, you are selecting against long form things.

Like what gets into a book is very different than what goes into a TikTok video.

And so that choice was not neutral.

The solution for technology is not neutral or is never neutral is accountability and responsibility.

It's saying that you understand as a designer that the choices you make are always going to have values embedded in them and you're always going to take those values and

and project them into the world.

So if you are not aware of those values or think you're being neutral, then you are messing with the world at scale, completely blind or with motivated reasoning.

And so there isn't a technical fix to this.

This is a philosophical fix of the people that are making the technology.

Next up is principle number five.

Match power with responsibility.

So I want everyone listening to close your eyes and just imagine the world was a little different.