Recent Responsibility Commentaries

Featured image for “How Do We Fix Facebook? – Part 2”
How Do We Fix Facebook? – Part 2
Easier said than done. However, Frances Haugen, the former Facebook data scientist who came forward with thousands of internal documents to back up her claims that the engagement-based algorithms created by the tech giant are used to deepen “divides, destabilize democracies, and make young girls and women feel bad about their bodies,” has been in talks with the House Judiciary...
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October 22, 2021
How Do We Fix Facebook?
Embed from Getty Images Facebook is optimizing “content that gets engagement, a reaction, but its own research is showing that content that is hateful, that is divisive, that is polarizing, it’s easier to inspire people to anger than it is to other emotions.” Haugen, a former data scientist who worked for Facebook, came forward with thousands of documents that show...
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October 19, 2021
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Now
What is actor, William Shatner looking at? “This covering of blue is this sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue around that we have around us.” That’s how Shatner described the earth’s atmosphere after a 10-minute flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard space capsule. What I would love to do is to communicate as much as possible is the jeopardy....
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October 15, 2021
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That’s Their Mindset
What do these four things have in common: money, status, power and politics? “Gamal Abdelaziz, a former hotel and casino executive is accused of paying $300,000 to get his daughter admitted to the University of Southern California as a basketball player based on false qualifications. “John Wilson, a private equity executive, is accused of paying $220,000 to get his son...
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October 12, 2021
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The Insiders
Jeffrey Wigand and Frances Haugen have two things in common. Both blew the whistle on impropriety within their respective companies, and both appeared on the news show, 60 Minutes to tell their stories. At the social media company, Facebook, Haugen—with a degree in computer engineering, and a master’s degree in business from Harvard—has 15 years experience in the computer world...
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October 8, 2021
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Denial
Denial tells the story of American Holocaust studies professor Deborah Lipstadt who is sued for libel by David Irving when she declares in lectures and writings that he’s a fervent Holocaust denier. The film takes a turn when Lipstadt discovers that in the UK the accused has the burden of proof, meaning that Lipstadt’s legal team must prove that Irving...
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October 1, 2021
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Trust is a Battlefield
The country is being torn apart by an alarming lack of trust in institutions and ourselves. At an event last week made up of mostly strangers, I witnessed, firsthand, the divide between the faithful and the faithless. Those who largely have faith in medical science and the faithless who don’t trust much of anything the government has to say. People...
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September 28, 2021
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Just Tell Us The Truth
In 2005, I was speaking to a group of teachers, students, administrators and alumni at the Penn State Forum. During the Q&A that followed, one audience member asked, “if you only had five minutes to speak with the president of the United States, what would you tell him?” “Only five minutes?” I said. Even though I had not meant it...
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September 17, 2021
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We Can Do This
Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.  —Robert Kennedy Before a campaign appearance in Indianapolis, Indiana, Sen. Robert Kennedy had just learned of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.. The crowd he was planning to address had not yet...
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September 14, 2021
Featured image for “My Wants v. Our Needs”
My Wants v. Our Needs
The country and the entire world have suffered from a deadly virus for more than a year and a half, and thanks to the delta variant, the danger is still thriving. But that’s only one of the problems. America is not only an economic powerhouse, but leads the world in arts and sciences. It’s sad to see that fewer and...
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July 16, 2021