Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt highlights five key insights from his book, Our Biggest Fight

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February 27, 2024 // Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up to receive your own copy here ([link removed] ) .

Five insights from our founder Frank McCourt

In two weeks, my book, Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age, is coming out.

The book captures my life’s most important work, and the work I believe we all need to undertake: to advance the responsible development of tomorrow’s internet—designed to empower people over platforms and governed for the common good.

Net proceeds from the book will go to Project Liberty Foundation ([link removed] ) to strengthen the critical work of the Foundation and its growing alliance of partners worldwide.

Today, I want to share five insights from the book. Together, these insights represent a roadmap for how to upgrade the internet and build the infrastructure needed to support a healthier version of the web.

// Insight #1: The internet is broken.

Despite the connectivity and conveniences today’s internet provides, its current user experience is broken. The tech that underpins our daily lives is doing real damage. It’s fueling a youth mental health crisis, incentivizing the spread of misinformation and inflammatory content, breaking down civil discourse, and undermining our democratic institutions. These destructive trends all connect back to a corrupted and disabled information system.

From my perspective as a fifth-generation builder, the problem starts with the web’s basic architecture. We have an infrastructure and engineering problem. And the internet’s flawed design is the root cause of incredible harm.

The problems we’re seeing today are not an accident. It’s what happens when technology is co-opted and corrupted in ways that prioritize a few platforms, rather than the people who use it.

// Insight #2: It doesn't have to be this way.

If we change how the internet works—by shifting its power from platforms to people, returning control of data to individuals, giving us a voice in how platforms and applications are built, and enabling everyone to benefit economically from the data and content we’re creating—then we have a whole new ballgame.

This isn’t a pipe dream; it’s a natural next step. The first generation of the internet was enabled by a protocol called TCP/IP. The second generation, or the World Wide Web, was enabled by HTTP, which we use every day. So, why not a new protocol, which is essentially a set of new operating rules?

With Project Liberty, we’ve developed and released an open, decentralized social networking protocol called DSNP ([link removed] ) . This protocol was designed to return ownership and control of data to individuals, while at the same time, giving developers the opportunity to build amazing new apps utilizing that data, but with our permission and on our terms. DSNP is available to anyone and stewarded by the nonprofit Project Liberty Foundation. And it’s providing the foundation for a new, healthier digital ecosystem. Apps on this new protocol will be interoperable. Our data and our social graphs will be portable. And the platforms of the future would have to accept our terms and conditions for using our data—and not the other way around.

If we can treat the internet’s flaws as an engineering problem and fix them, then we can begin to solve some of the societal problems the internet is creating and making far worse. Most importantly, upgrading the internet will help leverage technology to benefit humanity.

//

The platforms of the future will have to accept our terms and conditions for using our data—and not the other way around.

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// Insight #3: Data is personal.

When you hear the word “data,” think “personhood.” We’re now living in a digital age, when everything we do is impacted by technology. We all search the internet. We all shop online. We all have smart devices in our pockets, our cars, and our homes. All of the tools and devices we use scrape our information—reams of information—and hand it over to a few giant platforms that decide what to do with it. And the things they’re doing aren’t optimized for society or humanity; they’re optimized to keep us online, to show us more ads, and to generate more revenue. Yet too often, we think of that data-scraping—if we think of it at all—as just a part of daily life. Too many people accept that “we’re the product,” even though we can break free from this dynamic and access great tech that doesn’t exploit, outrage, and addict us for profit.

We need to merge in our minds the notion of the biological us and the digital us. Big Tech is using their autocratic, centralized surveillance technology to suck out the soul of each of us. These platforms are dehumanizing us. The internet can do wonderful, marvelous, awesome things for humanity—if it’s redesigned. But we need to put human beings at the center. And our technology must be embedded with the values we care about as individuals and as a society.

// Insight #4: A decentralized web is good for prosperity.

Already the Big Five tech companies are worth trillions of dollars. That amount of wealth is unprecedented in human history. And, in the next generation of the internet, that number is undoubtedly going to grow.

So, we know data is valuable.

Now imagine a world where the value we create online is shared with individuals, instead of hoarded by platforms; where we get to decide what to do with our data; and where we get to participate in the value we help create. I believe that a new set of digital property rights would unleash massive economic innovation and growth, generating new ideas, new wealth, and new opportunities at a rate and scale we’ve never seen. This isn’t a matter of stripping wealth from a few companies; it’s a matter of fueling unbelievable growth and progress, not just socially but economically, and giving every person who uses the internet the ability to participate and benefit in new ways.

// Insight #5: Time is of the essence.

Look at what’s happening. The Big Five tech companies are all elbowing each other out of the way to be the dominant player in the next phase of this next big thing. This is especially clear now that we’ve entered the AI age. If they have their way, we’ll all double down on the existing model of the internet—giving these centralized platforms more control, more data, and more power with generative AI. We’ll be exploited and excluded even further.

We need to make a different choice—and we need to make it soon. If you ask somebody right now, Do you think your kids will have a better life than you?, polls show that most people will say no. If you ask the kids, they definitely don’t think their lives are going to be better than their parents’ lives. We are dangerously off course. If we don’t seize the moment, we’re going to be dragged into a future that none of us want.

Sometimes it takes a crisis for people to focus on and fix a problem. I see crises as opportunities, and I think that’s where we are right now. I am hugely optimistic that if we seize this moment to redesign the internet—if we prioritize people; give individuals agency and control over their data; and return personhood to people—I believe our best days are before us.

Getting there is, indeed, our biggest fight. And I hope you’ll join me in it.

To go deeper, you can pre-order Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age here ([link removed] ) .

With gratitude,

Frank H. McCourt

Founder of Project Liberty

Project Liberty Foundation news

// Project Liberty Foundation interim CEO Tomicah Tillemann spoke with Fortune ([link removed] ) about the organization's Insights Report and the impact of social media companies.

Other notable headlines

// 🎨 An article in The Economist ([link removed] ) explored how Refik Anadol's use of AI in his art has made him the artist of the moment, blurring the boundaries between art and engineering.

// 🤠 Texas’s social media law is dangerous, but striking it down could be worse. An article in The Atlantic ([link removed] ) cautioned against giving Big Tech a constitutional right to avoid regulation.

// 📱 More people are turning to Instagram for news, even as the platform tries to de-emphasize political content, according to an article in the New York Times ([link removed] ) .

// 🟦 According to an article in TechCrunch ([link removed] ) , Bluesky is now allowing anyone to connect their own server to Bluesky’s network, making it a federated, decentralized social media platform.

// 🤖 Amidst the swirl of attention surrounding Nvidia, WIRED ([link removed] ) probed the mind of its CEO, Jensen Huang.

// 🛡 An investigation by The Markup ([link removed] ) found that data on sensitive locations, such as abortion clinics, could be sold off if a data broker goes bankrupt.

// 🇪🇺 A year after banning the Chinese-owned app, Europe’s politicians have learned to love TikTok as they fight for re-election, according to an article in Politico ([link removed] ) .

// 🇨🇦 Yesterday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced the Online Harms Act to Parliament. It aims to make social media platforms responsible for reducing exposure to harmful content, according to an article in Bloomberg ([link removed] ) .

Partner news & opportunities

// Responsible Tech Mixer & Fireside Chat with Frank McCourt

Monday, March 11th at 6pm ET in New York

All Tech is Human ([link removed] ) is hosting a responsible Tech Mixer in New York featuring a fireside chat with Project Liberty Foundation founder Frank McCourt about his upcoming book, Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age ([link removed] ) . The first 200 attendees will receive a free copy of the book. Register here ([link removed] ) .

// Applications are open for the DWeb Camp Fellowship

Applications are open for the DWeb Camp Fellowship ([link removed] ) from August 7-11th in Camp Navarro, CA. DWeb Camp is seeking community organizers, technologists, educators, researchers, activists, and designers who are imagining and building a better web. Apply here ([link removed] ) .

// In-person book talk and dinner

Friday, March 15th at 5:30pm PT

Join Glen Weyl and Audrey Tang to discuss their upcoming book, Plurality ([link removed] ) , in Berkeley, California. Plurality written in collaboration with 500+ others on the future of collaborative technology and democracy. Join them for dinner and a book discussion. Register here ([link removed] ) .

/ Project Liberty Foundation is advancing responsible development of the internet, designed and governed for the common good. /

Thank you for reading.

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