Like many people, I was stunned to see how prevalent misinformation had become in America, especially during and after the 2016 presidential election. As the 2020 election neared, the problem only seemed to get worse, and no one seemed to know what to do about it. I felt like I barely even understood how misinformation spread, let alone how to stop it, so I embarked on a huge research project.
In September 2020, my brother Aidan and I launched Trump Donald, a site that let people donate small amounts of money to support Biden every time Trump tweeted. As we said: When Donald gives us his "two cents", you give his opponent 2¢ (or more). Let's make Trump (literally) pay for his tweets!
Be Heard (formerly ePluribus) is a civic engagement platform I built with my brother Aidan while we were college students. Be Heard makes it super easy to contact your representatives in government — from the president down to your local Superintendent of Public Instruction. And it uses Unum ID so you can verify your identity and send messages as a verified constituent. That way, your representatives can be sure you're not a bot or foreign actor.
We're thrilled that, by now, thousands of people across 48 U.S. states have used Be Heard to contact their representatives and, well, be heard!
Data and Power: Big Data and Corporate Control in Modern America is a book I published my freshman year at Stanford. The summer before I arrived on campus, I began researching technology and society, curious to understand the odd world of Silicon Valley. That research spawned what I thought would be a short essay but what then became a full-length book. It's available for purchase on Amazon.