In the Worldwide Information War, a Nerd’s Got to Do What a Nerd’s Got to Do
Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist and Craig Newmark Philanthropies, recently invited Alex Stamos, former chief security officer of Facebook, into his San Francisco home to discuss a shared passion — fighting against internet abuse and disinformation.
Announced today, Newmark has committed $5 million to the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), a new program run by Stamos that seeks to address the abuse of today’s information technologies, with a particular focus on social media.
Newmark said that SIO’s goal of combating some of the toughest problems of internet security and disinformation enticed him to support the program’s work.
“Like we say in New Jersey, I want to put my money where my mouth is. My aim is to help people doing good work tackle all facets of this problem,” Newmark explained. “That includes trustworthy journalism and related ethics, and helping the people who are defending the country when it comes to information warfare.”
Using “Do Not Track” on your browser? Watch this video directly on YouTube
Stamos told Newmark that he is particularly worried about the politicization surrounding the issue of American election security, which he addresses at length in “Securing American Elections: Prescriptions for Enhancing the Integrity and Independence of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election and Beyond,” a report co-authored by Stamos and his Stanford colleagues at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Cyber Policy Center.
“The political breakdown isn’t as bad as people think,” Newmark replied. “There are people in Congress on both sides of the aisle — often with military or intelligence experience — who want to protect the country, even if some of their leaders may not want to.”
Using “Do Not Track” on your browser? Watch this video directly on YouTube
Newmark is more concerned about some of the other challenges that have emerged because the internet has increasingly lower levels of “friction,” such as addressing online hate and terror groups.
“The internet has made it easier to weaponize information, particularly on some of the social media platforms,” said Newmark. “As a founder, that kind of stuff came as a complete surprise to me.”
Using “Do Not Track” on your browser? Watch this video directly on YouTube
Looking back on his 40-plus year career in the tech industry, Newmark said one of the most important lessons he learned is that doing the right thing is not always as simple as one might think.
“Sometimes you do the right thing, then it turns out that the people you’ve gotten advice from are bad actors, and they will publicly criticize you for doing what they told you is the right thing,” said Newmark. “That is hard for any tech person. We’re used to building things; we are not used to duplicity.”
Using “Do Not Track” on your browser? Watch this video directly on YouTube
“But as I like to say,” Newmark concluded to Stamos, “A nerd’s got to do what a nerd’s got to do.”
