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If you wanted to build a machine that would distribute propaganda to millions of people, distract them from important issues, energize hatred and bigotry, erode social trust, undermine respectable journalism, foster doubts about science, and engage in massive surveillance all at once, you would make something a lot like Facebook.

Of course, none of that was part of the plan.

Join us for this in-person event featuring Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan as he explains how Facebook has devolved from an innocent social site hacked together by Harvard students into a force that, while it may make personal life just a little more pleasurable, makes democracy a lot more challenging.

It’s an account of the hubris of good intentions, a missionary spirit, and an ideology that sees computer code as the universal solvent for all human problems. It’s also an indictment of how “social media” has fostered the deterioration of democratic culture around the world, from facilitating Russian meddling in support of Trump’s election to the exploitation of the platform by  authoritarian regimes in Myanmar and the Philippines.

A sought-out expert on the subject, Dr. Vaidhyanathan talks about how and why Facebook’s mission went so wrong.