### Summit on Internet Reform: Solutions for a Better Online Experience

The summit unites diverse voices to collaboratively envision a better, user-centered Internet.

### Reimagining the Internet: A Summit for Solutions and Community Ownership
* 🌐 Nearly 500 participants, including 100 speakers, gathered at the summit to address the **issues plaguing the Internet** and discuss **potential solutions**.
* 💬 Lawmakers from both parties, including Nancy Mace and Ro Khanna, engaged in discussions about the **need for policy intervention versus alternative solutions** to improve the online landscape.
* 🔍 The summit highlighted the challenges posed by big tech companies, which have become **too powerful for traditional policymaking to effectively manage**.
* 💡 The initiative, Project Liberty, was launched to reimagine the Internet, emphasizing the need for individuals to **reclaim ownership of their data and identity**.
* 🤝 While recognizing the positive aspects of social media, such as **fostering connections and community**, the summit aimed to create a **decentralized social network protocol** that **enhances user control**.
* 📈 The goal is to transition TikTok users to an open-source platform where they can **own a stake in the network**, similar to how fans **own the Green Bay Packers**.
* 🕒 With a legal decision on TikTok's future expected in early December, the summit participants are prepared to act, advocating for a **user-owned alternative Internet**.
* 🚀 "We want to have an Internet technology that really is **amplifying good**," focusing on **user empowerment** and **community engagement**.

Just tell us a little bit more about the
summit that you're having, because it's all about trying to have, whether it's
lawmakers or whether it's TikTok creators in and of themselves talking
about their experience on the Internet

and how it can be improved, right?
Yeah, exactly. Caroline, nice to see you again.
It's a it's a really a great gathering of many, many different people, nearly
500 people here, almost 100 speakers,

really brilliant people who are really
concerned about our broken Internet and want to fix it.
It's not just complain about it. And so, as you pointed out, it's a it's
an array of folks, not just technologists or just investors or just
influencers or just parents.

It's all of the above, plus others.
So the conversations are really, really extremely interesting.
And the level of energy is very high because people are talking to people
they otherwise might not be talking to if they were just in their own bubble.
So yeah, and it's very solutions

oriented.
We're making a number of announcements yesterday and today, and
I'm thrilled with how things are going. Well, let's go to solutions, because day
one was held at the McCourt School of Public Policy.
Therein lies the idea that this might

have some sort of policy solution.
And you had lawmakers such as Nancy Mace, Republican, and Democrat Ro Khanna,
sat down together to discuss it. Is it about government intervention here
or is it some other solution? Yeah, well, the point I made yesterday
and I had the privilege of helping start

that school a decade ago is that, you know, I started this adventure thinking that maybe policy intervention was the answer that you could see a decade ago. The Internet was headed in a not a great direction. It could do a lot of harm, which it has

subsequently done, and thought, well, maybe we can help get the policymaking apparatus to get out in front of this. Turned out that big tech is policymaking is no match for big tech. Big tech is too powerful.

It's too fast, it's too big, it's too rich. It has too much influence, quite frankly. So that's when we launched Project Liberty five years ago to actually reimagine how the Internet works, build the technology, bring in partners from

all over the world who share the same concerns that we have, which is, you know, the data that is is now driving the Internet is being scraped from us all. It's being aggregated by big platforms, algorithms, and being applied to it. And we're all being, you know, stripped

of our humanity and never mind the value we create. So, you know, think of data as personhood and we need to reclaim ownership of ourselves. We should own and control our identity and our data. That's fundamentally the point.

And now, thankfully, lots of people around the world are recognizing this and wanting to build this new version of the Internet. And that's what this is about. I want to recognize, though, on the flip side, that a lot of the social media has good in it, has connections, helps

people who feel alone and in certain
parts of the world who don't see identity that they resemble near them.
Find community online. There's social media, there's businesses that
are built on these social media platforms.
So that is positive as well as some of

the harms.
And I'm interested as to when you look at making a bid for TikTok, for example,
how you support the positive at the same time as having some sort of
decentralized social network protocol that allows people to keep their
identity a little bit more.

Yeah, there's massive good that can come
out of technology, massive good that can come out of social media, but we don't
have to have all the bad as well. I mean, it's just it's not like this
is some good, so let's accept the bad.

We want to have a, you know, Internet
technology that really is amplifying good.
It's it's really optimizing for people. It's really protecting children.
It's strengthening democracy. It's helping us get smarter, not dumber.
And so what we want to do with TikTok

is actually move the user base over.
By the way, we don't want to see it shut down either.
We want to move the user base over to this open source protocol where people
can own and control their identity and their data and the value proposition is
shared with the users.

I want to see this at least a portion of
it, Green Bay Packers. And what I mean by that, just as the
fans own the Green Bay Packers football team, let those that are on TikTok
that create the value own a piece of the

platform, how likely is that within the
next administration? It's a great question.
I'm not sure I've heard President-elect Trump say he doesn't
want to ban TikTok either. We're waiting on the legal decision.
The Congress passed a piece of

legislation really demanding that it
either be shut down or banned, that's much of a national security threat.
So I assume that it will be sold and then we're in a position to buy it
when and if it is sold. So we're watching very carefully.
We expect the legal decision will be the

first week of December, and then we'll
see what the new Trump administration does.
But we're here ready to buy it. And again, it's not me buying it.
I don't want to be the CEO of TikTok. 

I want to I want the people to buy it.
This is a great opportunity to catalyze an alternative internet.
And, you know, the technology is here. It's working.
We have nearly a million and a half people using this new technology.
Now we need scale. 

Project Liberty: We're In a Position to Buy TikTok

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Summit focuses on lawmakers and TikTok creators discussing internet experiences and improvements.

Nearly 500 attendees, almost 100 speakers, addressing concerns about the broken internet.

Participants include technologists, investors, influencers, parents, and others.

Solutions-oriented discussions with high energy levels due to diverse participants.

Announcements made, exploring policy solutions with lawmakers from both parties.

Ineffectiveness of Policy Intervention and Project Liberty

Initial belief that policy intervention could solve internet issues proved wrong due to big tech's power.

Project Liberty launched to reimagine internet functionality, building technology and partnering globally.

Addressing concerns about data scraping, aggregation, and the loss of user control.

Focus on reclaiming data ownership and control over identity.

Growing global recognition of the need for a new internet version.

Balancing the Positive and Negative Aspects of Social Media

Acknowledging the positive aspects of social media, such as community building and business opportunities.

Addressing concerns about the harms of social media, particularly regarding identity and decentralization.

Exploring how to support the positive while creating a decentralized social network protocol.

The goal is not to accept the negative aspects of social media, but to create technology that amplifies good.

Proposed Solution for TikTok and Future Plans

Desire to create internet technology that optimizes for people, protects children, strengthens democracy, and promotes intelligence.

Plan to move TikTok's user base to an open-source protocol where users own and control their data.

Proposal for TikTok users to own a piece of the platform, similar to the Green Bay Packers model.

Uncertainty regarding the next administration's stance on TikTok, awaiting legal decisions.

Readiness to buy TikTok if sold, aiming to catalyze an alternative internet.

Focus on scaling the new technology using TikTok as a potential means to achieve this.