Beyond the Screen

Beyond the Screen is a non-profit driving systems-level change for social platforms by building an ecosystem of accountability for the industry.

Social platforms have an immense influence on society at large but operate with minimal transparency. Though billions of people use these platforms, only a few hundred deeply understand how they operate. Regulators, concerned citizens and researchers are in the dark, unable to bring their expertise to the challenges and harms emerging from social platforms.

We can know what's really happening at Big Tech companies. To get there, we first need to build the capacity for accountability.

Key Issues; Lack of Transparency, Too Few Experts, Siloed Data.

Solutions;
A New Standard for Care
We need a map of social platform-specific harms as well as the levers available to prevent and mitigate those harms. Empowered with this level of detail, investors, governments, and civil society actors can compel social platforms to act with a newly agreed upon Standard of Care towards their users.

Minimum Viable Queries
Based on the insights from the Standard of Care project, we will work backwards to identify which data the public and researchers need to explore and understand the harms and platforms' progress to mitigate them. The Minimum Viable Queries (MVQS) is an industry wide data standard.

Simulated Social Network
A new tool for exploring how product design choices influence social media dynamics, teaching key insights about how social platforms’ harms evolve and can be mitigated. The Simulated Social Network allows independent developers to confirm their insights fostering greater credibility and consensus.