On October 7th, Tech Policy Press hosted a mini-conference called Reconciling Social Media and Democracy.

While various solutions to problems at the intersection of social media and democracy are under consideration, from regulation to antitrust action, some experts are enthusiastic about the opportunity to create a new social media ecosystem that relies less on centrally managed platforms like Facebook and more on decentralized, interoperable services and components. The first discussion at the event took on the notion of ‘middleware’ for content moderation, and featured Francis Fukuyama, Nathalie Marechal, Daphne Keller and Richard Reisman.

This second session focuses on ideas put forward by Joan Donovan and Robert Faris, researchers at the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, in a Journal of Democracy article titled Quaranting Misinformation that is itself a response and critique of the idea of decentralization and middleware.