 Hi everyone, I've chosen a slightly contentious headline for the start of my talk here in Sweden, but I hope you'll hear me out. First and foremost, very, very, very happy to be here. I've seen and heard some amazing talks the last couple of days, and I'm feeling a little bit of pressure to be the last one to finish this all off, so please bear with me. My name is Alexis, as you heard, I'm here to talk to you guys about what I think very, very important stuff, because we have an amazing internet, and if I think most of you will agree it is not a fad, it is going to be around for a little while, and I want to see that we make the most out of it. Now for the non-Swedes here, I've used this wonderfully Swedish term called lagom, I don't know how my pronunciation is, but it is an amazing word that actually does not translate into English, which could say something about our respective cultures. It means not too much, not too little, just about right, lagom. It's an amazing, wonderful word, and when applied to society, I think we would all agree that this is a very desirable goal, that everyone has enough. When it comes to the internet though, and when it comes to the things that I hope many of you want to do on that wonderful World Wide Web, I hope we don't settle for just that, because the people who have the most to lose, the powerful who have the most to lose from this new platform will not settle at lagom, and that's why it's so important for us to make sure that we take full advantage of these opportunities we have. Now, normally I talk a lot about startups, these are the companies I've started, they all have cute mascots, I just like drawing cute mascots for all the things I start, I'm not going to talk about them today, but you're welcome to tweet at me about Reddit or Hitmonk or Breadpig, and I hope you use all of them in whatever your daily activities might require, but today I wanted to talk about something else, I'm leaning on some of the lessons that I learned, I'm also leaning on some of the good fortune that I had in playing a role in the fight against SOPA and PIPA as you heard, that was something that months before the blackout happened on January 18th when I joined the fight, there were people fighting this for years, literally years before I even got on board, and it was because of their work that we were able to do something that everyone in DC said was literally unthinkable, like unimaginable. There's 94 million dollars in lobbying by the entertainment industry that was going to make sure those two bills passed, they had Democrats and Republicans signed up co-sponsoring it, it was a done deal, and thanks to a bunch of people with an internet connection and a telephone, they were able to stop this because millions of Americans actually raised up and showed that they can still defeat lobbyists in Washington, which I can tell you was something that surprised even me, but then look forward, that momentum carried over and a terrible bill named ACTA was slammed down here in Europe thanks to a bunch of enterprising citizens with internet connections and telephones, again same kind of communication technology, and this was a big deal, but it has to only be the beginning, now I should actually start from the beginning. Before I was doing the like interview thing, and that was literally one of the only times outside of weddings that I've worn a tie, this is what Steve and I looked like maybe a week after we started Reddit, we had just graduated from college, we were 22 years old, actually I think Steve was still 21, and neither of us had any idea what the fuck we were doing, not a clue, no idea, we were, we were in no business to be running a business, but that turned out to be a great asset, not knowing just how in over our heads we were, not knowing what we were doing, not knowing what we should have been doing, actually it was a huge strength that I'm going to get back to a little later in the talk and then I hope you all can also embrace, because it is one of the best assets we have right now as people trying to make our dents in the universe using the internet because no one knows what they are doing, in fact you see me now this is the product of like eight years of still not knowing what I am doing, anyone who claims that oh yeah they know what they're doing, they're lying, all right, or they're just not trying hard enough, I am constantly trying to fail and put myself in a situation where I am learning new things because I feel like that's the only way to keep moving forward and especially when there's so much new stuff coming, we need to be comfortable on that and that's a big part of what I'm here to talk about, now I wanted to show something to you guys that I'm not terribly proud of, this is the first screenshot of Reddit, this is the very moment after we launched it, I screen capped it, there are a couple of test posts that Steve submitted, but you'll see the very first post to Reddit, it was just, remember this is me and Steve in a little apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts, and the first post I submitted was a link to the Downing Street memo, I don't know if you guys remember this, but a little ways back a memo was leaked out of the British government that had recorded conversations with the White House, then the Bush administration essentially indicating that there were plans for the war in Iraq much sooner than WMD were purportedly found, and it was a rather damning memo, I unfortunately didn't shorten that war, but it was a powerful moment and it certainly shed some light on where this world was headed, certainly in the context of WikiLeaks, in the context of the recent NSA revelations by Edward Snowden, it was an interesting bit of foreshadowing, and it was just coincidence, trust me we did not launch Reddit in order to be a part of this thing, we launched Reddit just so we could have a place to find new and interesting links, and if you'll also humor me, back then there was no Twitter, there was no Tumblr, it was just Facebook, which was then just limited to colleges in the United States, a site called Flickr and Delicious, I flicker still around despite Yahoo's best efforts to destroy it, and Delicious, same kind of story there, but the point is this is what the first version of it looked like, and again remember we didn't know what we were doing, if that's not clear from how this looks, we didn't know what we're doing, but we launched something, and so often I meet people, and I'm not just talking about startup founders, and I certainly meet plenty of them, but just people who are being entrepreneurial, people who are doing new things in the arts, in philanthropy, who get hung up not wanting to launch, not wanting to get something out in the world, because they're embarrassed, and the point is if you're not a little embarrassed, you probably waited too long to launch that thing, and this is my reminder because it really did start from a pretty humble beginning, and the observant members of the crowd will notice that Steve downvoted me, I have negative one karma because he's a dick, but one of the things that I really wanted to dwell upon was that, you know, so many of us talk about the internet, is this amazing revolutionary communication platform, myself included, but the reality is the 20th century has been full or was full of amazing world changing revolutionary communication platforms, in fact, many of the things we read about the internet today were said about things like telephone, and radio, and television, and every single one of them, which started out with the highest minded democratic ideals, these amazing opportunities, right, where we thought anyone, finally, anyone has their soapbox, anyone can share an idea with the world, they'll have their own radio station, or they can broadcast it anywhere, and people can hear, and it can mobilize, it'll be amazing, and in every single instance, these revolutionary communication platforms, either through government or through business or some combination of the both, became closeted, became controlled, and became to represent the oligarchies, or oligopolies and monopolies that they are today, and every one of those platforms had such high hopes, in fact, Tim Wu, a fabulous researcher back in the States wrote an entire book about this called the master switch, which I really recommend you read, there is every reason, historically speaking, for the internet to follow the same route, the same route that telephones did the same route, radio did the same route that television did, and not be the thing that we hope and dream it can be. But it doesn't have to be that way. And the biggest asset that we have in fighting that is by simple fact, that this is a wonderful two way mechanism, and that we can create content as easily as we can receive it. So long as all links are created equal. This is this is an interesting point, because there's a dude, Tom Freeman, who wrote a very popular book called the world is flat, and he's wrong, the world is not flat. We've known this for a little while, Tom, I don't know what he was thinking. But the world wide web is, technologically, when all links are created equal, it is a hierarchy free system. But it's not guaranteed to be that way. And there are lots of companies that have their best interests in mind, in not making it so that all links are created equal and making it so that if you buy the, you know, default internet package, you'll get Yahoo search for free. But if you want Google, that's going to be an extra $20 a month. Just imagine the worst cable experience and then apply that to your internet connection. It's a kind of terrifying prospect. And it's one that we thought we had put away for a little while, but it seems to keep creeping back up. But again, we also have to remember this is a technologically democratic platform, but it's still being used by society, which is unfortunately anything, but we still bring our own biases and our own flaws onto these wonderful platforms. Right. And so as we talk about the merits and the values of this great technology, we have to remember to be good stewards of it. We have to remember the fact that internet access is still not a universal right or even really far from it, certainly in my home country. Millions of Americans literally can't even get internet access because companies won't provide it to them and then also won't let them build it themselves. And so there are literally kids going to McDonald's to use the Wi-Fi to do their homework. Then you've got the simple fact that, yes, we bring with us as a society all the other ills that a free and wonderful communication platform can let anyone share. And we have to find great ways to take advantage of that. And we have to make sure, and we heard from so many people the last two days, that we are not being silent and that we're using opportunities to, through more free speech, shout and show what is actually right and what we actually want to be the way the world is. Now, none of this is guaranteed. And that's the frustrating thing because there's so much promise, right? There's so much potential when you can tell anyone with an internet connection and the skills to make the most out of it, that they can be awesome on it. They can create things on it. They can do whatever they want. They can spread their awesome. But again, none of it is guaranteed. What is interesting though is that this has already started changing slowly, but surely this has started changing. And I want to be clear here, these platforms themselves do not bring about the change. It would be just as silly, saying something like Twitter created the Arab Spring is just as silly as saying that television media helped win the civil rights movement in the United States. They certainly helped, but they did not do it. People do it. And the fact that we have more of these platforms doesn't necessarily mean that they get into everyone's hands. And that is the challenge. And I've met so many people across the country and across the world who have been able to take stabs at this and start whittling away at the power structures that exist. Remember this talk, or this conference I should say, is about lies, power, and disruption. So the reality that we live in is one where the people who have traditionally had the authority, have had the power, are now seeing it whittled away by people who want to simply have their voice be heard. And a very, very specific example is actually from a friend of mine named Latoya Peterson, who's the editor of a fabulous blog called Racialicious, which essentially discusses the intersection of race and popular culture in America. And now here to me is a perfect example of something that clearly, and it has been and continues to be quite successful, that clearly always had an audience. There were always people who were interested in this content. And yet, for some reason, the marketplace was not creating it for them. And you know what? It's getting a little bit more efficient. It's now an opportunity for her to create something that actually produces a voice, produces content that people want, that want to share and talk about. And what's so wonderful, what gives me so much hope is she tells me some of her most avid readers. She gets emails from 14-year-old boys and girls who probably, may or may not be reading the site with their parents' permission, who are getting a perspective on the world that simply was not available. This is, again, this is the internet at its best. We can actually start to provide those resources and see them thrive and actually see supply meet demand, which in some cases is actually a really inspiring thing to watch. Now, there are instances time and time again where I am seeing the old standby media have to deal with the new changing social media world we live in. I can't wait until I get rid of the whole social thing in front of it. It just sounds silly. But the fact is, the impact is already being made. There was a case in the United States a few years ago that was absolutely brought to light thanks to social media, but really because of a bunch of people, remember, who actually pushed an issue forward. It did not bring us justice, but it actually brought attention and it brought a little closer, brought us a little bit closer to it. And that was, of course, the Trayvon Martin case. And I know from friends of mine who are broadcast journalists, who have been a part of traditional media, sorry, for a very long time, and who would have been the first ones to hear about that story, they all, they conceded to me, not on the air, but they conceded to me that the way they heard about this was through their Twitter account. It was actually by reading random tweets from a bunch of random people who just had random Internet connections that this was made into a big enough deal that enough light could be focused on it, that at least some steps could be taken. Now, again, this is, again, it's not a cure-all. This is a process. But what's so heartening is that it is one that so far we seem to be winning, but it is one that is absolutely not guaranteed. And so when I hear stories like that, and I know people like Latoya, I get really hopeful and I get really excited because at the end of the day, I just want better stuff in the world. And to me, the prospect of more people getting more access, spreading more of their ideas is going to mean better stuff. It's going to mean better art. It will hopefully mean better journalism. It could hopefully even mean better politics. And that to me, that gets me really excited. That's the kind of world that I want to live in. And I always have to remind, if I'm talking about this sort of thing back in the States, I have to just take a moment and just send a message out there to all of my fellow straight white dudes, listen, it's going to be okay. It's going to really, it's going to be fine. I know it seems a little scary, a little troubling. I know this power structure has worked out pretty well for us for a very long time. I know that. But really, it's going to be okay. And this is something that, this is something that we are in such a unique position to take advantage of. When I say we, I mean, all of you in the room, right, we are lucky enough to be here at a conference like this talking about making websites and changing media using technology. This is already putting us in a pretty damn good position, right? We're in a pretty good place. And so like Uncle Ben, if you're a fan of Spider-Man or I guess Voltaire probably said it first, with great power comes great responsibility. And so I would hope, I would hope that we see this as a tremendous advantage that we have and a responsibility, frankly, that we have to make the most out of. Because I don't want to imagine the alternatives. I really don't. Because we see every day what it has gotten us. We see every day what it has put us into. And particularly for this generation of the millennials who are there, that's another phrase. I don't know why it didn't, there was no one consulted on this brand stuff. We have this amazing opportunity. We have this amazing chance because all of the status quo, all of the conventions that we were told actually didn't turn out to be that way, right? It was go to college, go for four years, you'll get a job when you're done. Don't worry about the student loan debt. It's going to be fine, you'll have a job. Not so much the case. We have lost a tremendous amount of faith in our governments. We have lost a tremendous amount of faith in our media. We've lost a lot of faith in stuff, all right? But there is one thing that seems to keep coming back, which is this relentless optimism that I can't help but feel when I'm talking to people all across the country and all across the world who are doing this amazing stuff that they wouldn't have before, thanks to that internet connection and thanks to the people who are helping build this wonderful worldwide web. Because one of the advantages we have over telephone and radio and film is that this really is a two-way medium at scale. And it really does, you know, there was a Supreme Court justice like two decades ago that talked about the internet as being a soap box for anyone. And it's still not the most efficient world of soap boxes, but it is an opportunity to have a global soap box and it is also an opportunity to have a global library, right? Like we live at a time when the world's knowledge is more accessible than ever, still not where it needs to be, but more accessible than ever. And we have a generation of people from the internet who are coming into this without any real expectations, without any real biases about how the world ought to work, because by and large those models have all not worked out for them, right? We come into this with a great asset because of that ignorance. I'm not advocating ignorance. What I'm advocating is accepting the fact that we still don't know where this is all headed and we are pretty much convinced that the internet is going to be around. I think we'll agree, it'll still be around. If we can keep it open, if we can keep fighting for it and keep building things on it, there is no limit to how many industries will be affected by it, right? Now disruption, that's the other big part of this conference. Everyone wanted to disrupt all the things. And I get really excited talking about, yeah, disrupt everything. But the reality is we don't know. We really don't know what's coming. And the incumbents, all the people who have so much to lose, are even more clueless and the least ready to adapt. And so in the meantime, we can be drinking all of that milkshake, right? We can be using this opportunity, because as is certainly the case in startups and thus far what I've seen in the worlds of activism and even philanthropy, there is a reticence. There is a definite, hesitation to embrace so much of this new model, so much of how to really bring about something really with the internet. And that doesn't mean that we're totally guaranteed to succeed, not at all. But it means we have an amazing advantage over those incumbents. And that is our great strength. It is actually that fact that we don't really know what we're doing. That is the power. We're doing things that have not been able to scale this far. And there's something kind of magical about the fact that it works in this decentralized manner. Right now, Kenyatta, I'm going to have to take an issue. I do now call it, I do now call it GIF, which is frustrating to me because I always called it GIF. But what we saw there in that talk was a glimpse of this through wonderful animated GIF. We saw a glimpse of what these ideas can do when they spread. And how yet again, the most efficient model, the model that thrives online is not the hierarchical top down one. It is the organic bottom up, whatever you want to call it, democratic one. But like I said, none of this is guaranteed. Neither the structure and openness of the internet is guaranteed, nor the fact that we can shed, hopefully, or at least most of, so much of the things that have hampered us as a society this far. Just because it's on the internet does not mean inequality magically goes away. But it does provide an opportunity. There is a way to get us there and for traditionally marginalized voices to actually be heard, to actually coordinate. And that is exciting. That is the hope. That means we get the better things. That means we get, like I said, the better news, the better art, the better businesses, the better nonprofits, and even yes, maybe the better politicians. But I don't know. I really, I get to speak at a ton of conferences and I always get so inspired because the audiences seem to get a little bit bigger. There always seems to be, especially here, by the way, rock on with the 50-50, maybe I think 52 women was it. That's exciting. But we are still so far from where we need to be. And I'm thinking specifically to the United States, because unfortunately as much as I love Sweden, I don't know Sweden as well as I know the States. But on a global level, I think we can all certainly agree we're not nearly where we need to be. But we're on that path. And what I hope is that as more people realize how much opportunity there is here, we'll get more people taking those chances and not being halted by the fact that maybe it's a little embarrassing, maybe no one's going to see it. Maybe I, who cares? Just create. Please, please, please, please be pushing someone to be creating, to be starting that blog, to be making that silly animated GIF, even to be making that advice animal. I think there's absolutely value to this knowledge and this kind of hunger for creation. Because the internet is that amazing platform for both creation and sharing as well as learning. And once someone has that, once someone has those skills and that access, it's like kind of like superpowers. And in mass, it can do really, really amazing things. And I obviously I get really excited on the startup side. I get really excited about the future of where so many industries that have traditionally been pretty broken are going to be solved through technology. Media is is perhaps the most challenging and arguably most important, right? Because in a democratic society I'd wager, it's probably it's right up there with education in terms of being extremely important. And yet we still don't have a business model that totally works for media production. The good news is the cost falls every day, right? The cost of producing and scaling ideas falls every day. But we still don't have sustainable models for it. Maybe we don't need it, but maybe we do. I would wager that until we figure that out we'll still be searching, but it is a process. And I know we are going in the right direction. And I know that just from hearing the talks today and yesterday and from talking all these people here. I know we're going the right direction. But at the end of the day, like I started this talk, I still don't know what I'm doing. What makes me hopeful, though, is that there's a whole lot of you who have spent the last two and a half, three days thinking about this stuff, meeting people, coming up with new ideas. Some of you planning to quit your jobs, which is great. I mean, you know, maybe you have a great job, but still. And wanting to take that initiative, because that's what it's going to take. And it's going to take more people spreading those ideas for the good ideas to eventually win. And I really, really, really do believe that they can. So at this point, all I have to ask is what are you guys waiting for? All right, do not wait for anyone's permission to be awesome. Just go forth and do it. And then tweet me about it so that I may take all the credit for you being awesome. Thank you. And if it's not implied by the image, you have my axe. Thank you. I have some excellent news. This time, we really do have time for questions and conversation. You warned me. Yeah, yeah, no, I was very strict about that. Yeah, so let's let's see if we can get some house lights, perhaps. And the microphone people are at the ready. And and do we have a question already? Indeed? Yes, we do. Yes, ma. Hi, my name is Emily Best. I'm the founder and CEO of Seed and Spark. We're using the internet to disrupt Hollywood. Yes. Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. You have this I'm gonna take your axe. I'm really curious to hear you talk about the openness of the internet and the dangers as you were quick to point out of mapping our own social biases right on top of the beautiful open platform. What are successful techniques and and opportunities to make sure we don't just bring all of our existing hierarchies right on to the internet? Yeah, OK, I'm going to presume everyone heard that. So I don't need to. OK, well, it is something we are still figuring out. Technologically speaking, I don't know if there is an answer from a simple technological standpoint. I think the answer is technology empowered humans. Let me let me get I'm not talking about cyborgs. But maybe let me be specific. You know, the fact that we have OK, the gifts in the curse of an open communication platform, whether it's Twitter, Reddit or Facebook, is that anyone has their soap box. Now it could be the Westboro Baptist Church. And they've got lots of Twitter accounts and their assholes. Or it could be some not assholeish person could just be a normal person. And in most cases, I would argue it's just sort of benign. It's just normal people tweeting about their cat or posting a link to a photo of their cat on Reddit or what have you. And so I personally don't think the answer is curbing those accounts. I don't think it's necessarily that. I think it's winning with the right kind of speech because more I really do believe that most people are reasonable. And so the way to win is with an overwhelming amount of reasonableness of awesomeness of good stuff. And I'll give you a specific example. And you know, actually, I mean, this is something that we heard all weekend. But it's just simply the fact that we do have our little soap boxes and you know, depending on our Twitter followers or Reddit followers or whatever, it may be a little bigger here and there. But the fact is we all have an opportunity to say something. And there was there was an incident that made basically everyone look bad called like donglegate involving one woman named Adrian Richards. You can Google it. But anyway, it was it was an example of the the sort of worst case scenario of discussion on the internet that devolved really quickly. And like I said, it just it just it got it went bad real fast. And a lot of it stemmed from it was a sort of it started out as a tech community thing. And as a member of the tech community, I wrote a blog post about it. And you can read all that. But then the meat of it was basically like, don't be fucking ridiculous. Like come on, we can we can talk about this in a civil way. We can have strong feelings without resorting to the really, really awful kind of language and threats and stuff that people are willing to do when they're behind a keyboard. You know, when I heard Cindy talk about how she responded to those YouTube commenters in her keynote yesterday, I wanted to cheer. It would have been rude if I had stood up and cheered. But like that is exact like that that is that is awesomeness. And so the best thing I can do is say that was awesome. But like try to help when it involves me or something that I am a part of in terms of an online community. So so it's it's using the status that whatever we may have, whether our following is two people or two hundred to actually say what we feel about issues like this. But I know it's not an easy solution. And I'm just the startup guy like I'm not. I'm not trying to fight the social justice fight as a leader. I am just trying to help, you know, lend my axe where I can. But then the question is shouldn't you on some way? I mean, not maybe necessarily like carry the flag in the whole social justice justice fight. But but in some way, the whole problem is that everybody should and all the nice average people posting the problem with structural injustices, right, is that all the average nice people posting pictures of their cats may be at the same time unwillingly sexist and racist, for instance, and all kinds of other ableists and so on. So so while I applaud this, I also feel that there is that you're that the optimism, your optimism, I love it. But maybe it's a little impractical. All of my social justice friends who are doing this for a living and changing the world are much less optimistic. Yes, I think I think I think the optimism is a symptom of just me being who I am. But also the fact that OK, well, let me give you let me give you a specific example that that actually happened on Reddit that I thought was a net positive thing, even though it was an awful situation. I think that normal normal people, the sort of average person who is sort of inadvertently, let's say, racist or whatever is do you want to use? They are on the whole still good people, if perhaps misinformed and wrong. And it's only in public that these kind of conversations can happen where, you know, if I am I'm just going to stereotype. But like, OK, if I have a cloistered group of friends who are all just like me, I won't have the awkward conversation where I say something and be corrected for it. When I do that, when I make that same statement on social media and I can be corrected for it, whether it's Cindy Gallup sending me a message or whether it's a bunch of people telling me I'm an idiot, but hopefully being more productive, that's an opportunity to learn and I hope that's where change comes from. And the specific example that I'm thinking of happened when oh, man, this is like a year ago and a Sikh woman was photographed with just sort of standing in line in public and it was posted the photo, a link to the photo was posted on our funny. It's a subreddit for funny photos. And the reason it was funny or at least the reason the poster thought it was funny was because she had a lot of facial hair and he had not seen this before. He thought it was amusing. He takes a photo and he posts it. If you haven't seen it, it's the lady who has a beard. And yeah, I'm just let's follow the story and see where it goes. Yes. Yes. And what happened in the discussion around that was absolutely amazing because the so again, this photo was submitted, I think it was to Imager. I got linked to on Reddit and the woman who had this photo taken of her actually came on to the discussion and said, let me explain. And she writes this amazing couple of paragraphs, just like straight badass where she's like, I'm Sikh. This is why we don't shave. This is why would I do what I do. If you want next time, just take a photo with me like I'm proud of this. And just like hundreds of thousands of people who are reading that comment thread, if they have any ounce of humanity in them were like, damn, like she at that point she could have dropped her mic and everyone just would have like it just would have been a roaring applause, but it got even better because the original poster came back on and said, I am a total asshole. I am so, so, so, so, so sorry. I've learned something. I will never do this again. Thank you for teaching me about Sikh culture. And I'm a total douchebag. I'm sorry I did that. And I this is one data point, but, you know, hearing stuff like what Cindy is done, what so many people have done that to me feels like a bit of progress. And because it could happen and I know it sucks that it happened publicly, it is awful for her. I mean, I she she clearly doesn't need my sympathy because she's just a baller. But like that that was able to be a really, I think a learning moment. I know that sounds really cliche, but it was a learning moment for hundreds of thousands of people who I hope the next time they see a woman with a beard will obviously not, obviously not photograph that consent, but also not post it and think it's funny or even just chuckle to their friends. And here's the thing, for hundreds of years, thousands of years, there were undoubtedly people who walked around, saw a woman with a beard and had a laugh with their friends. And that was these were obviously moments that perpetuated for that history that never got to be corrected. And I would hope that seeing something like that, seeing a correction, especially such a public one like that can actually start winning people over. And that can make the learnable moment. And another, I love this American expression, a teachable moment. That's the cliche. No, but because you can actually because you can take this. I mean, I felt when I read articles about this, it's incredibly moving and you should all look this up. It's easy to response. It's amazing. But also that you can show that, you know, post that link and say, oh, my God, this can also happen on the internet. And you can show and at the same time, of course, teach people about Sikh culture. So we have questions in the audience. Let's have some more or, you know, statements. If they're really brief, like no longer than one sentence. There you go. Hello. Hi, my name is Laurie Penny. I'm a journalist and a writer. Hey, we met yesterday. I I'm really interested by what you're saying and you're flagging up of the awesome moments of the responses to online abuse and to and racism. But the thing is I don't mean to be a downer here, but for every Cindy Gallup and for every I read that discussion as well with the Sikh woman who came back to the Reddit poster. It was really it was really, really amazing. But for every one of those, there are people out there who don't come back, who just disappear offline. There's a massive chilling of speech going on when it comes to women and people of color and queer people, trans people who are being attacked more and more right now as that's getting easier. And you talk about being awesome. I mean, personally, me, I I started out creating stuff online and trying to change culture in my own little way. I guess around five or six years ago and and currently something's happening in the UK where women who use the internet to talk and to make political statements are being targeted. I mean, a couple of weeks ago, I I received a bomb threat. I received a great deal. I mean, every day I log on to the internet. People are calling me a stupid girl and I can't and a whore and actually looking through all of this stuff after a day of that, I don't feel like I have the energy to be awesome anymore. I feel like it's it's a massive deal to just to stay there. And that's I feel like that's a that's a big problem right now. So I guess I guess if there's a question, it's how do we how do we make that better? How do we enable people to be awesome? I mean, I know you mentioned Latoya Peterson as well. She I know she deals with this as well. And I'd like to take that and just like even be more specific. Do you think do you think could you imagine ways of taking like your energy and optimism and and transferring some of that to Laurie on a day when she needs it? Well, what she may not realize is and I can more specifically answer your optimism question. Part of the reason I have this optimism is because I saw your talk yesterday and you and your fellow like like women were were were discussing just how much how much it means to you to do what you do and how it sound. I mean, it really sounded to me like, yes, I mean, you talked about the bomb there and this is awful stuff that no human deserves to have. But that it was such an inspiration and such an inspiration for the young women who you said email you and say, why should I get into this? I you know, a bunch of us actually were remarking after that talk that we wished it had been broadcasted like on CNN at primetime. No offense. I know it was live streams, but that it could have had a larger discussion. So I don't want to I hope this isn't a cop out, but I would broadcast things like the discussions that were had yesterday and and and to see enough support rally around that, you know, that I I know. I know a happy face alone is not going to solve problems that are systemic and have been around for thousands of years. I know that. But I don't know. I draw most of my optimism from the men, women, others who are using the Internet to to be awesome and in the face of so much of this adversity. Then one answer to this, of course, is that you do have a ginormous platform and so do very many of you in the audience. And this talk is available and you can find the link and you can spread it. And it's not going to be a CNN, but you have a lot of friends who have a lot of friends and and we can make it reach quite a lot of people should you decide to do that. And there are a lot of talks from this conference, I think that deserve to deserve that. And so that that would be a micro action. I guess we could that we can take with us that is constructive. But I'm going to follow up a little bit on what Lori says. And also, I could remove the microphone to the next question while I'm doing that, which is down here. There is a there seems to be a development where we're moving more again, indicated communities for reasons to having to do with safety. And so it's been very important all the time with the Internet to be able to find your tribes, the tribes that are not that you're where you're not tied to your geographical location. And that's need and that fantastic quality of the Internet is the very opposite in somewhere of this sort of town square being called out mechanism that you're talking about. And I think many of the platforms that start open end up being being gated communities or at least posses and friends very fast. So where can we where can we can we can be designed for for this kind of interaction with strangers with people who are less like us. So, so Eli preser Paris, I was going to pronounce your last name Eli, I'm sorry, who started up worthy before that move on wrote a great book called the filter bubble and talks about how so much technology is sort of so many whether it's your Google search results or what have you is actually better because it connects you to more like minded people. And look, if I put on my technologist hat, I'm like, yeah, that makes sense. My search results are probably going to be more useful for me if I'm searching for an MP3 player, because it knows what I might be like that that to me is safe and good. But when I run a search for Syria, and my results are very different from my neighbors, that's a bigger problem. And, you know, the best the best thing in so the challenge is, OK, can you make a product that is both popular enough to scale as well as able to show sort of viewpoints who may not necessarily like it ostensibly, it seems like those are counterintuitive, it seems like one can't necessarily do that. But I it must be possible. And and there's the there's the sort of injection of serendipity, which you can imagine, which would be, you know, you've got your Twitter followers, but let's say, you know, if if everyone you're following is on the left, it just you get injected with tweets from the right or vice versa, or you could algorithmically experiment with ways to start showing people different viewpoints. But the problem is, as soon as as soon as you dictate, as soon as you start editorializing, you're going to fall back into the same problem where, you know, it's only going to attract a certain type of user. It's only going to attract people because, you know, whether it's bowling, where people form bowling leagues with people they get on with most humans. And I get, you know, okay, at the end of the day, the problem is humans. I'm sorry, we are. I have. Yeah, sorry. We we we seek out. We tend to this is a big generalization, but I think we tend to seek out things that we are comfortable with. We tend to seek out like things. And so much of the software we create reflects that. And and I, I don't know. I, I, I'm having a temporary little slight blackout. What is this service called where you call a random stranger? Chat roulette? Well, let's say that's really all of these kinds of things. Wouldn't it be lovely if for every search you did, you would have like where it says on Google, I'm feeling lucky. Yeah, it could be I'm a stranger or like you could have you could just have somebody completely they could randomly give you somebody else's search results for the same thing. If you want to look at that, that would be fun to do at least for a day, Google. It's a good hack. You could you could put that someone you could put that to get a quick little hack on a weekend project for that one. I mean, it's just that is that is the challenge, right? Because you have to if you want a product to change the world, it has to be used by millions of millions of people in order for a product to be used by millions of millions of people. It seems to have to. It seems to have to require some amount of decision making where I'm choosing what subreddits to subscribe to I'm choosing what Twitter followers to follow. I'm choosing what Facebook friends to friend. I'm choosing what Pinterest sports that like I I I don't know whoever does it is obviously going to probably get a Nobel Prize. Yeah. Question right here. Alexis, Tom chaired our venture. Oh, hey, venture be some man. Um, I want to know why you haven't run for Congressional Office or because I'm unelectable. Or is it is it that or is it because you wouldn't be Alexis Sohanian after Congress? Okay, one, my girlfriend advised me strongly against it. And I that's there was a conversation. There was a conversation for a minute for like actually was about five minutes. Um, and let's be clear, you know, who runs that relationship. And so I asked her, I was just like, look, I'm a smart guy, right? And and there was no way I was going to put her through that one. But to the thing again, relentless optimist, the thing that I'm hopeful for is that we can see a new type of political actor who is not or actress who is not connected through politics, who's not actually a politician, but who can have a political impact. And, and obviously history is full of these people. And I talked to the civil rights movement earlier, like, but, but now we're, we hopefully have technology that a lot on the scale that influence more. And then they won't have to take the bribes. I mean, lobbying dollars in order to get into office. So to in a roundabout way, answer your question. Yeah, I think if I did it, unless I was like Bloomberg rich, I would have to count out to whomever paid the bills. So we need to make you Bloomberg rich. I, yeah, they, they are Bloomberg one. He wants to give you money. Just say yes. If we have a question, last question right here. Yes. Actually, I vote you give it to her too. Yeah, you give it to her. So everybody who needs to be Bloomberg rich, just put your hand up. And this guy's going to help sort you out. All right, we have we don't have time for one more question. Do we have time for one more? Yes, we have time for one more question right there. There was an emergency hand and I felt that might be important. Justin Stahl from Zerpley. And my question is seems like you sort of subscribe to the ethos of you know, Oscar Wilde, you know, I might not agree with you, but I'll defend the death. You're right to make an answer yourself. And I really like that thinking, but I must say I'm a little bit conflicted in that I feel like there has to be a line at some point. And, you know, just reflecting on this lady's comments, you know, you hear so much hatred and being spewed out on the internet. And you do you do have this kind of natural inclination that, you know, it should be a line. There should be some kind of action taken on people that are just coming out with just absolute nonsense. And it seems to be a lot of young people as well that just feel like there's no accountability on the internet. So I'm just interested from someone like, you know, it runs a community. If you feel there is a line or there is some kind of action that can be taken, or should they be allowed to express freely on the internet? Yes. OK. Thank you. Briefly. So if things one, I mean, I'm Reddit is Reddit is a platform in the sense that like Twitter or WordPress are. There is not. I mean, there are subreddits just like there are Twitter accounts from everything like people who are probably Westboro Baptist church supporters to a bunch of reasonable people, people who like cat photos. There is a very important line that is the rule of law. And I don't know it obviously varies country by country. Obviously, certain countries have very strong anti-Nazi regulations with good reason that that restrict speech on, you know, neo-Nazi stuff. The United States has very clear laws, you know, threats against one's life are inexcusable and illegal regardless. I think the most frustrating thing is, and this came up yesterday as well, and the research shows even if you give someone their real identity, even if they're using Facebook and it's their name and their photo and their parents can see it, they'll still do awful things. There was that young teenager in Canada who committed suicide and her memorial page was being was being vandalized by her own student, her fellow students using their Facebook accounts. And yes, when you see things like that, it's unconscionable and how you wonder where the, you know, obviously where the parents, what happened to those kids that they would be able to do that. I just don't know I don't know how we can, I don't have a good answer. There's no technological answer for me to curb that kind of behavior. Unless it's, I mean, the easiest solution would be to ask someone if they really, really want to post what they're about to say or like read it to them. You can actually do that with software. It would be a robot. But I like at the end of the day, it's still, again, it comes back to humans. And it's a bigger change that it'll have to require in order to stop the stuff that is legal but offensive. I think that's a very good way to end this conversation and also in this conference because it seems that this is a thing that we touched upon again and again. And I think it shows a maturity in the conversation about the culture of the internet saying, well, here it is. Now this is what we have built. And we have to go out and fix the problems in the real world. Ladies and gentlemen, do you have a final word? I just hope all of you will continue to infect me with the sort of really positive and motivational talk that I've heard the last couple of days because I'll be around until tomorrow. So let's have some nice conversations. And thank you for hosting. Alexis O'Hanion. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.