Big Tech Won't Save Us

Societal problems only seem to get worse when Silicon Valley puts its mind to fixing them. But there is a glimmer of hope.

- By Pavithra Mohan

Last year, one of the major browser companies launched a new incubator whose stated mission was to invest in startups that aspire to “fix the internet.” For Tracy Chou, who had founded a company, Block Party, which makes anti-harassment tools that aim to do exactly that, applying seemed like a natural fit—but for one thing. Earlier in her career, she’d had several uncomfortable encounters with one of the program’s architects— the sort of unwanted attention that was practically a rite of passage for Silicon Valley women.

The opportunity seemed too good to pass up, but Chou’s skepticism proved to be well founded. When she joined the incubator, last summer, a mentor she found “condescending and aggressive” pushed her to scrap her deliberate, gated approach to bringing in new users. At Block Party, it was paradoxical to compromise on safety and security for the sake of growth. But she felt pressured to take the advice, so she hosted a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session. It was promptly overrun with trolls, sparking an onslaught of abuse across Twitter and email, and polluting the Block Party waitlist.

An Asian American engineer, Chou has spent the past decade cofounding startups as well as the diversity-focused Project Include, in 2015—calling out the gender inequities and racism embedded in Silicon Valley. Whatever progress she’s made has come at personal cost. “In doing this diversity and inclusion activism work,” she says, “I built a profile that then exposed me to more harassment.”