Advocating for a public policy agenda that sets fair rules and standards for Big Tech
Digital Threats, ethics and Big Tech regulation
In 2019, Purpose designed, launched and incubated a new policy think tank and research organisation, Reset Australia to drive action on addressing the social harms caused by the Big Tech business model. Reset Australia is the Australian affiliate of Reset – a global network of policy experts and leading thinkers combating digital threats to democracies across the globe, and advocating for a public policy agenda that sets fair rules and standards for Big Tech.
My position was Creative Director for Reset Australia.
Theory: If we deploy advocacy and public mobilisation campaigns to amplify an evidence-based policy agenda that sets fair rules and standards for social media companies, we can build the political cover for decision makers to prioritise policy that tackles digital threats to democracy.
Campaigns and Interventions
The Live List + Campaign
In order to measure and act on misinformation and to hold platforms accountable, we needed to see and measure the issue of the huge amounts of misinformation circulating online.
We worked to design, consult and develop a policy that would shine a light on content that was spreading on social media and create a number of interventions and tactics that fell out of this to gain public traction and awareness of the issue.
The live list policy aimed to create a way to detect and quell misinformation before it went viral. Giving public health officials the front foot to respond with correct information before too much harm is caused.
We crafted a public campaign to gain attention and educate the public called Clean up social media.
This campaign consisted of a large social media campaign to direct people to a petition that directs to the advocacy work - a demonstration of how many people care about this issue.
We also made a website that polluted.
The Conspiracy Chronicles was a DM piece to Australian MPs. We created a physical newspaper to demonstrate the disparity between social media ‘news’ sources, and physical media sources and the cognitive dissonance of accepting fake news online, and not in print.
You can flick through it here!
I particularly had fun with the Horoscopes section.
The Children’s Data Code
With the Privacy Act 1988 under review, Reset Australia launched a campaign calling for a Children’s Data Code to regulate the way companies collect, use and monetise the personal data of young Australians, and ensure they operate in children’s best interests.
We released several research pieces to raise the salience and bring new evidence to the issue, including a piece around Facebook’s use of children’s data for advertising which exposed how the company allowed advertisers to profile teenagers interested in vaping, alcohol, tobacco, extreme weight loss and even online dating.
