Better web. Better world.
We fight giants.
Project Liberty is a movement confronting the mounting dangers and present harms of Big Tech, social media, and emerging AI technology. Frank McCourt is the founder and executive chairman of the global non-profit organization. The movement’s mission is to ensure that technology empowers people over platforms and optimizes for democracy and the public good.
The context
As a society, we’re facing a critical moment. How we live, learn, work, and connect with each other is controlled by huge international technology corporations. Social media’s grasp on our youth – and adults – is growing more harmful each day, while AI continues to work its way into our lives, unchecked and seemingly without any consideration for its long-term impact. At the heart of it all is one of the most profitable business models the world has seen.
The conflict
The business model behind social media, in addition to minting billionaires, is tearing society apart and undermining democracy. Worst of all, it is depressing, alienating, and killing an entire generation of kids. Politicians and other leaders, fearing the awesome power of Big Tech and social media, have done nothing. It’s been more than 25 years since meaningful legislation protecting kids from technology has been passed. The Surgeon General’s report, personal stories of social media harms, and our own experiences briefly put the problem on the radar, only to be drowned out by the next five-minute big thing.
The idea
Boathouse created a full-spectrum marketing campaign charged with starting a movement by bringing the damage social media inflicts on people and society into much sharper relief. We shared the real experiences of people, like the mothers of kids who died because of social media. In paid and owned media we placed a steady stream of stories and facts that, once seen, could not be unseen. We worked strategically with press and opinion leaders to establish Project Liberty as the leader in the fight, and the movement’s founder as a leading thinker on the subject. Broadcast, digital, and social work drove constituents to contact their senators and legislators to demand action.