cover of episode Governing democracy, the internet, and boardrooms

Governing democracy, the internet, and boardrooms

2024/9/2
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Andy Hall
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Noah Feldman
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Robert Hackett
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Robert Hackett:探讨互联网平台的治理模式,包括公司治理、政府监管和混合模式。 Noah Feldman:公司受现有法律法规严格监管,但关于社交媒体平台内容审核的监管程度仍存在争议。美国最高法院正在审理相关案件,这将对未来产生重大影响。此外,还探讨了Facebook监督委员会和Anthropic长期利益信托基金等混合治理模式的优缺点。 Andy Hall:在理想的完全竞争环境下,用户可以通过选择来进行治理。但由于网络效应和规模经济,用户难以“用脚投票”。大型平台可能需要探索额外的治理模式,例如与其他平台合作进行自我监管,或建立混合治理结构。他还讨论了广告商在平台治理中的作用,以及在高度两极分化的世界中,平台做出的任何决定都不是中立的。 Noah Feldman:Facebook监督委员会的设立是为了处理内容审核中难以决定的问题,并通过解释决策过程来提高透明度和合法性。监督委员会的合法性源于法院等现实世界机构的经验,这些机构的决策通常具有权威性,即使存在争议。他还讨论了监督委员会的设计,避免了党派性,使其决策过程更加稳定和客观。 Andy Hall:Facebook监督委员会根据Facebook的原则进行裁决,这与法院根据民主制定的法律进行裁决有所不同,这引发了关于如何使立法过程民主化的讨论。他还讨论了公民大会和加密货币组织等尝试绕过传统民选代表制度的实验性方法,以及这些方法的优缺点。 Noah Feldman:讨论了公民大会和加密货币组织的优缺点,以及如何提高投票参与度和信息获取。他还讨论了如何平衡规则和灵活性,以及如何避免权力滥用。 Andy Hall:讨论了直接民主的局限性,以及如何利用技术改进治理。他还讨论了委托制度在DAO治理中的作用,以及如何确保代表的责任感。

Deep Dive

Chapters
The current model of internet governance, where platforms owned by corporations call the shots, is being questioned. There's a growing need for more governance, potentially from governments, raising questions about platform and user rights, and the government's role in social media.
  • Corporations are already regulated by various laws.
  • The Supreme Court is currently addressing platform rights, user rights, and the government's role in social media.
  • There's a need for more transparent and trustworthy decision-making processes for content moderation and other platform policies.

Shownotes Transcript

with @NoahRFeldman), @ahall_research), @rhhackett)

Welcome to web3 with a16z). I'm Robert Hackett and today we have a special episode about governance in many forms — from nation states to corporate boards to internet services and beyond.

Our special guests are Noah Feldman, constitutional law scholar at Harvard who also architected the Meta oversight board (among many other things); he is also the author of several books. And our other special guest is Andy Hall, professor of political science at Stanford who is an advisor of a16z crypto research — and who also co-authored several papers and posts about web3 as a laboratory for designing and testing new political systems, including new work we'll link to in the shownotes.

Our hallway style conversation covers technologies and approaches to governance, from constitutions to crypto/ blockchains and DAOs. As such we also discuss content moderation and community standards; best practices for citizens assemblies; courts vs. legislatures; and much more where governance comes up. 

Throughout, we reference the history and evolution of democracy — from Ancient Greece to the present day — as well as examples of governance from big companies like Meta, to startups like Anthropic.

Resources for references in this episode:

A selection of recent posts and papers by Andrew Hall:

As a reminder: none of the following should be taken as tax, business, legal, or investment advice. See a16zcrypto.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.