[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 157 (Wednesday, September 28, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H8127]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  REDESIGNING THE MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Rhode Island (Mr. Langevin) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LANGEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because Americans are 
divided. Our public discourse is broken. Instead of fostering open and 
honest political debate, our flawed information environment creates 
echo chambers and partisan silos.
  At times, it feels like the very fabric of our Nation is being torn 
at the seams. This toxic polarization has infected the Capitol, too, 
where it is becoming increasingly difficult to get things done in a 
bipartisan manner.
  The nonstop outrage and anger must end.
  To begin solving some of these issues, I propose an idea, which I 
developed in partnership with my former science and technology policy 
adviser, Eric Saund, a phenomenal cognitive science and artificial 
intelligence researcher. Together, we call for redesigning what is 
popularly described as the ``marketplace of ideas.''
  As economists point out, markets are information systems. The 
invisible hand of supply and demand discovers the value of goods and 
services, and the equal access to information in a market yields 
collective efficiency.
  Now, imagine a market where suppliers or, in this case, speakers of 
ideas hawk their wares in a public square, while consumers, or 
listeners, sample and choose the news, stories, and opinions they 
prefer. The best ideas would win by virtue of the audience's 
discernment and collective wisdom, right?
  But what if the market's information architecture, the modes and 
pathways of information exchange and processing, is fundamentally 
broken? Just like a market wouldn't function properly if the vendors' 
loudspeakers and telephones were damaged, the algorithms, programmatic 
methods, and platform designs that govern our marketplace of ideas are 
clearly not working. When a market is broken, it is the responsibility 
of government to act.
  How do we fix it? We start by leveling the playing field and 
modifying the shape, not the content, of our ideas marketplace to 
facilitate healthy exposure and competition among all ideas within our 
political discourse.
  As it currently stands, our marketplace has been distorted to 
resemble a dome-like shape in which discourse is driven to the extremes 
of each side. Instead, we propose bending the dome shape of 
our marketplace into a bowl shape, encouraging people to seek common 
ground and creating space for productive conversation among ideological 
foes and compatriots alike.

  By leveling the playing field through tweaks to both the supply and 
demand side, we can create a marketplace of ideas where fairness and 
civility are rewarded and extremism is discouraged.
  On the demand side, we can invest in civics education initiatives 
that teach children critical reading, listening, and thinking skills, 
like how to spot disinformation on social media. Adults, too, can lose 
awareness of how their buttons are being pushed by sophisticated 
propagandists.
  As our Founders recognized, our democracy requires an educated 
citizenry. However, the demands of our modern media environment require 
our education system to grow and adapt accordingly.
  We could borrow from the playbooks of other countries, like Finland 
and the Baltic states, which have developed robust civil defenses 
against insidious disinformation campaigns emanating from neighboring 
Russia. We can even motivate public awareness and engagement through 
playful, competitive, and financial incentives to reward people for 
knowing basic civics and following factual, unbiased news and 
information sources. We should encourage participation in nonpolitical 
areas of life, such as sports, hobbies, recreation, civics projects, 
and family activities, to reinforce the common bonds between us.
  Solutions arise on the supply side, as well. In a traditional public 
square, each speaker's identity is known and thereby can be held 
accountable for their speech. But on social media, phony accounts and 
troll farms can spread lies, disinformation, and distorted narratives 
without consequence. A solution may be found in modern technologies for 
digital identity tools, which can ensure that every social media 
account is held by a unique, real human being.
  Congressman Bill Foster's Improving Digital Identity Act of 2021, of 
which I am a proud cosponsor, advances associated frameworks and 
standards and promotes the adoption of privacy-preserving digital 
identity technologies.
  This is a complicated issue, but I think it is worth giving thought 
to.

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