Title:Alumnus, founding donor of McCourt on how to ‘fix the internet’

In Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age, Frank H. McCourt Jr. (C’75) discusses how the internet can be transformed from an instrument of harm to a powerful tool for good.

After the book’s launch in early March, McCourt spoke with CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell (C’95, G’03) in Riggs Library about the internet’s capabilities.

“[Social media] is designed to polarize us, to keep us in a constant state of argument, to be triggered,” McCourt said during the talk, citing research.

The book, co-written with Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal editor Michael J. Casey, brings up the values of Rights, Rules, Responsibilities, and Rewards to make a better internet.

Both the book and conversation discuss the origins and intentions of the internet, but lament that it has become a platform for harvesting personal data points that companies can analyze and emotionally manipulate.

In order to protect users’ personal data, McCourt and Casey suggest a decentralized social networking protocol (DSNP) in which users can control and manage the flow of their data.

This “NewNet” would allow people to choose who has access to their personal data, pioneering a new model of individualized control.

“It won’t be easy, but it can be done, and it needs to be done,” McCourt said. “We have the power [to fix the problem] if we have enough of us.”

McCourt is the founding donor of the McCourt School of Public Policy and founder of Project Liberty Institute, which works in partnership with the McCourt School’s Tech & Public Policy program and supports multidisciplinary research led by Georgetown faculty.