7 Tech platforms that unite instead of divide
Imagine what the headlines could have been.
“Online platform helps citizens find common ground.”
“The internet delivers on its promise to reduce polarization.”
“Researchers find that social media creates intentional space for listening and dialogue.”
“Study finds that spending more time online reduces bias and boosts mental health.”
“The best tool for democracy: Digital platforms where citizens engage with each other in constructive conversation.”
But instead, we have: “The Internet is a Misery Machine,” and “The Internet is a Wasteland, So Give Kids Better Places to Go”.
In the last two decades, we’ve learned that social media reinforces echo chambers and reduces exposure to diverse perspectives. We’ve read studies that found that incendiary posts receive more engagement and widen divides. And we’ve seen how provocative posts fuel engagement, and engagement fuels the profit of Big Tech platforms.
The fictional headlines above strike us as almost fantastical. The technology that shapes our lives does not bring us together to find common ground, and it does not ease polarization or expand our tolerance for each other. Outside a few small pockets of the web, sustained, constructive dialogue across ideological, racial, or religious lines has been the exception rather than the norm.
Yet as we explored last week in Part I of our series on prosocial technology, none of this was preordained. The fractures we see online reflect design choices. Platforms that were optimized for attention created the incentives that now shape our information diets and civic life. Different choices—grounded in human agency and connection—could have produced a very different internet.
With Thanksgiving around the corner in the U.S., a holiday centered on gathering and taking stock of what holds us together, it’s worth remembering that the digital world can reflect those same values.
Prosocial platform design creates online behavior that upholds human dignity and supports public problem-solving, as the authors of the Blueprint on Prosocial Tech Design Governance note. The Blueprint’s goal is simple: make prosocial design the norm. While many platforms have far to go, some already embed these principles. They are bridging divides, fostering constructive dialogue, and surfacing collective wisdom.
In this week’s newsletter, we explore the state of prosocial, deliberative technology by highlighting seven examples.
// The landscape of prosocial tech
Here are seven tech tools that are bringing prosocial design to life.
#1: Pol.is - Deliberation at scale
What it is: Pol.is is a free, open-source platform that helps societies “listen at scale” and make sense of diverse viewpoints.
Who uses it: Governments from Finland and the U.K., to Singapore and Taiwan, have used Pol.is. In Taiwan, Digital Minister Audrey Tang used it to power vTaiwan, an open consultation process for national issues.
What it reveals: Pol.is generates automatic data visualizations showing where agreement already exists beneath polarized debates. Algorithms identify statements supported across all opinion clusters, helping groups discover the consensus they already share. Most issues aren't “us vs. them” but complex spectrums with shared values at the center.
How it works differently:
- It reduces self-censorship through anonymity.
- It eliminates toxicity by removing the reply button.
- Participants can agree, disagree, pass, or submit their own ideas.
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#2: Ethelo - Structured community input at scale
What it is: Ethelo is a digital platform powering Engaged California, a deliberative democracy initiative launched in California in 2025.
Who participates: California residents and specific communities (such as wildfire survivors in Los Angeles) participate via engaged.ca.gov.
How it works: It facilitates anonymous, moderated online sessions where participants:
- Weigh policy options.
- Rank priorities.
- See how their responses compare with the broader group.
What the algorithm does: The Ethelo technology funnels thousands of comments into structured choices and highlights consensus-backed actions.
What it delivers: Ethelo generates community-driven recommendations that the state presents to policymakers.
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#3: Remesh - AI-powered conversational research
What it is: Remesh is an AI platform for conversational research that helps people find common ground.
Real-world application: Remesh powers AI Pulse, launched by the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) after the October 7, 2023 escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Who participated: Jewish Israelis, Palestinians, and Palestinian citizens of Israel all participated in anonymous, structured conversations about the region's future.
How it works: Real-time text-based engagement in participants' own languages, where they:
- Respond to open-ended prompts.
- Vote on statements made by others.
- Participate in subsequent polls.
What the AI does: AI algorithms then analyze responses in real time to identify shared values, areas of division, and actionable insights.
What it delivers: Remesh delivers data-driven insights that are shared with ALLMEP's network of 170+ member organizations and international policymakers.
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#4: Frankly - Open-source video deliberation
What it is: Frankly is an open-source (AGPL license) online video-based discourse platform designed for constructive dialogue and collaborative decision-making.
Who built it: Frankly originated out of Harvard's Applied Social Media Lab at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. It was co-developed with Professor Lawrence Lessig (founder of Creative Commons, Deliberations.us, and Equal Citizens).
Background: Built on a framework from Lightning Rod Labs (acquired by Harvard in 2024), Frankly has been previously used by Deliberations.us, AllSides, Living Room Conversations, Listen First Project, and Unify America.
How it works: Frankly offers...
- Video-based discussions in balanced breakout rooms, with intelligent group matching, which automatically creates diverse breakout rooms to ensure a variety of perspectives.
- Structured discussion guides embedded directly in the platform.
- Deliberative tools to gather feedback and crowdsource solutions.
- A “Nymity” feature creates a “trustspace” where participants explore ideas without pressure of personal identifiers.
Who uses it: Educational institutions, government agencies, corporations, and civic organizations seeking to bridge societal divides have used Frankly.
What it delivers: Frankly helps move communities beyond polarization toward understanding and collaborative problem-solving.
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#5: Deliberation.io - AI-facilitated mass dialogue
What it is: Deliberation.io is a nonprofit platform enabling large-scale citizen deliberations for democratic decision-making.
Who built it: It is a collaborative effort between Stanford's Digital Economy Lab (DEL) and MIT GOV/LAB.
Key innovation: Deliberation.io uses AI agents as facilitators to enable thousands of participants to engage in structured, productive dialogues simultaneously.
How it works: It has four core components:
- Solo engagement with the topic.
- AI-human Socratic dialogue that prompts reflection.
- "Face of the Crowd" view showing distribution of others' opinions.
- Dynamic Deliberation where AI generates follow-up questions.
Washington D.C. first deployment: The District of Columbia is the first U.S. city to use Deliberation.io for its AI Public Listening Session (July 2024), gathering public input on AI policy development.
What it delivers: Deliberation.io creates actionable solutions and consensus statements with overwhelming support across diverse participants for high-stakes public policy contexts.
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What it is: Stanford’s Deliberative Democracy Lab is a research lab devoted to studying democracy and public opinion through Deliberative Polling methodology.
How Deliberative Polling works:
- Brings together randomly selected citizens.
- Surveys initial opinions on important issues.
- Provides balanced information and extended discussion time with experts and each other.
- Re-surveys participants to measure how views changed through deliberation.
Real-world application: In 2024, Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs partnered with the Lab to bring together 447 Taiwanese citizens in small groups on Stanford's Online Deliberation Platform to discuss policy options for addressing false information and deepfakes.
What it delivers: The Lab generates research-backed insights into how informed deliberation shapes public opinion and democratic decision-making.
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#7: Make.org - Civic tech at scale
What it is: Make.org is a Europe-based civic-tech platform enabling a wide spectrum of participants to express concrete ideas and vote on proposals through human-driven moderation.
Who they work with: It has worked with public institutions, nonprofit organizations, corporations, and researchers to engage large groups democratically.
Scale: 11.9 million participants and 1,200+ partners to date.
2024 initiative: Make.org launched “AI For Democracy Democratic Commons” with Sciences Po and other partners—a global research program exploring how generative AI can enhance democratic processes and citizen engagement.
// The beginning of prosocial technology
The seven platforms and initiatives above are a small sampling. Project Liberty Alliance Member RadicalxChange shares additional tools on its website.
“There is a lot of energy around these technologies that can drive democratic change and upgrade institutions,” Harrison Leon of Project Liberty said. “Assuming that governing institutions must scale and evolve as populations grow, we are at a unique and exciting moment because there is an acute demand for new democratic tools. Many of the existing solutions are now fit for purpose and ready for deployment.”
For democracy to thrive in the digital age, we need smaller spaces, deliberative practices, and tools that cultivate healthy dialogue. Tech is no panacea for the project of embracing pluralism and leaning in, nor is it a substitute for the bridging that happens offline (such as during Thanksgiving this week). But, as Leon says, these tools represent some of the best of “what democracy looks like.”
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