Michael Slaby is an American entrepreneur, currently serving as the chief strategist at

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

-based nonprofit, Harmony Labs. He previously ran the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

-based startup he founded, Timshel, which developed the platform known as The Groundwork.

Background

Slaby attended Brown University, where he earned an A.B. degree in English literature and Biochemistry. Slaby was the chief technology officer of Obama for America in 2008 campaign. In 2012, he rejoined the campaign as chief integration and innovation officer. When that campaign finished, he began work on social impact organizations that leverage technology to create social movements.

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States senat ...

also used the technologies developed by Slaby and his team in her

presidential campaign President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

. Slaby is the former chief technology strategist for TomorrowVentures, which is an angel investment fund for

Eric Schmidt Eric Emerson Schmidt (born April 27, 1955) is an American businessman and software engineer known for being the CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011, executive chairman of Google from 2011 to 2015, executive chairman of Alphabet Inc. from 2015 to 2 ...

examines disinformation and promoting divisiveness

In 2021, Slaby authored a book entitled, ''For All the People: Redeeming the Broken Promises of Modern Media and Reclaiming Our Civic Life'', in which he addressed

disinformation Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate. The English word ''disinformation'' comes from the application of the ...

, the encouragement of divisiveness, and those profiting off of it and

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * * * * The term has a neg ...

. He stresses that the rationalization offered by those reaping enormous profits off of Internet platforms used to communicate dialogue promoting them, "protecting free speech", is baseless because the free speech amendment of the United States Constitution relates to prohibiting suppressive actions by the government, not private entities. Slaby then examines how

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and

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are seen to have polarized their users, allowed hate speech, and created an environment in which conspiracy theories could thrive. He cites the social basis for the Internet entities to have optimized their profits massively in this way and he calls for reigning in those with such profound influence in the public sphere through new governmental regulations, engagement by politicians, encouragement of moral leadership, and collective action by users in order to reestablish healthy discourse.Smith, David,
Optimizing for outrage: ex-Obama digital chief urges curbs on big tech
',

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, Monday, March 1, 2021

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slaby, Michael Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign Barack Obama 2012 presidential campaign People from Chicago Brown University alumni