Tech + democracy + media. Now: New_ Public, husband+dad. Then: Upworthy, "Filter Bubble," MoveOn ED. Pessimist of the intellect, optimist of the will.
We’re trying something new! In the spirit of cutting through the noise and building connections online, New_ Public is starting a bulletin board-style newsletter.
This is a dedicated space for community requests, upcoming events, project updates from our team, and our most thought-provoking links. Take a look around!
https://newpublic.substack.com/p/bulletin-board-experts-creativemornings
Join New_ Public Co-director @elipariser for a breakfast talk this Friday!
Hosted by CreativeMornings, a global community founded by friend of New_ Public @swissmiss, this month’s theme is Camino (way/path).
Register to join in person in NYC or to watch virtually.
Be careful what you prompt for…
New research shows optimizing AI chatbots for engagement can boost disinformation by nearly 190% and override explicit safety instructions, a phenomenon the researchers call “Moloch’s Bargain for AI.”
The first step towards creating a better future is taking the time to imagine one. So, as digital optimistics, we loved to see what our friends at Press Forward have envisioned for a better local news in ✨2036✨
Here are three different possible pathways they envision. Which do you think is the most likely?
@baratunde, host of the How To Citizen podcast, explains what makes our new app Roundabout different from Big Tech social media.
“The product is explicitly made to foster and coordinate and support offline relationships. It's really about finding your neighbors and doing stuff together instead of performing for followers you'll never meet. And it's pretty important that the business model is non-extractive.”
New_ Public Co-director @elipariser tells legendary @PBSNewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff why we need flourishing digital spaces that serve the public, beyond just the for-profit platforms making hundreds of billions from our data.
Want to get more involved in socially responsible tech and improving digital public spaces? We love the great work happening at the Prosocial Tech Collab (which started after a career chat with New_ Public Co-Director Deepti Doshi!)
They recently updated their website, laying out the resources and community available to support your explorations in this field – go check it out!
What is the relationship between social media and memory?
As our digital footprint ages with us, nostalgia becomes more common. Some comment sections have become rare sources of warmth on the internet.
Social infrastructure makes our communities more resilient and safer. It also prevents isolation and inequality, connecting neighbors and building social trust and belonging.
What if we had digital spaces as vibrant and flourishing as the best IRL social infrastructure?
What brought you to the internet in the first place? Before the algorithm, before AI brainrot, it was probably a desire to connect and be seen.
In the New_ Public newsletter, journalist Jessica Furseth shows us that human connection persists in the comments sections of YouTube’s longest, oldest, anti-algorithmic videos.
https://newpublic.substack.com/p/something-beautiful-is-happening
Yes, we need rules to regulate social media, but new rules on old, Big Tech platforms can only go so far.
We need new platforms, new infrastructure, and a lot of ingenuity to make something better.
Americans drastically overestimate how many people are posting toxic content.
When shown that only about 3-7% of Redditors post hateful or aggressive comments, participants think better of their fellow posters.
https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/4/12/pgaf310/8377954?login=false
When writer and tech entrepreneur @anildash first heard about Wikipedia, his reaction was:
“Well… good luck to those guys.”
That was 25 years ago. Now, he recognizes Wikipedia’s unbelievable collective generosity and reflects on how it’s adapted to each new era of the internet.
Europeans should be able to shape their own online spaces, which is why we’ve been working with public service media in Switzerland, Belgium, and Germany over four years.
Now, open, decentralized protocols like Activity Pub and AT Protocol represent a new avenue for European digital sovereignty.
Despite widespread disconnection and isolation, a majority of Americans (72%!) report a sense of belonging in their local communities and neighborhoods, according to Social Connection in America’s latest survey report.
https://socialconnectioninamerica.org/2025-report/
This is why we’re building Roundabout, our local community app. People are proud of their communities and their neighbors — they just need better tools for connection.
How do we build more escape hatches from closed Big Tech social media? @fediforum is looking for ideas on how to grow the Open Social Web!
Submit a position paper for their Un-workshop by Feb. 16th, hosted by @j12t and @mmasnick :
AT Protocol, the infrastructure powering Bluesky, “represents one of the most concrete opportunities for Europe to create their own social networking infrastructure,” says Dutch data analyst @laurenshof
Here are four case-studies on European projects that give us hope:
Our research into local digital spaces shows that community stewards, the admins and mods who care for these spaces, make a real difference!
That’s why Roundabout, our local community app in closed beta, is organized around stewardship.
Ok, yes, the state of the social internet is not ideal. We’re so numb to horrific violations of decency and disrespect, that we mostly accept that “this is just how it is.”
But here are some thriving spaces and powerful ideas we discovered last year that give us hope for 2026 and beyond. 🧵👇(1/6)
Join @blaine, New_ Public’s Principal Software Engineer for Roundabout, at a @dweb virtual meetup this Wednesday from 1-2pm EST
DWeb’s principles stand for “technology that enables the primacy of people as beneficiaries of the technology, by upholding their security, privacy and self-determination.”
Blaine will present on Roundabout, our new local community app. Folks from Awana Digital and Department of Decentralization will also present.
