When I wrote this https://www.doteveryone.org.uk/2019/11/better-than-ethics/ last year I hadn’t yet read @schock’s Design Justice or @laurenfklein @kanarinka’s Data Feminism, which have me reframe more succinctly: tech ethics should represent the floor not the ceiling - the aspiration should be for justice

I’m mentioning this now because this is no time to minimise the significance of social science in data handling and analysis (as Gove does in his Ditchley speech). If the aim is levelling up, to represent the unrepresented, then data justice won’t be found through deregulation.

Just to finish this thought: social science is an essential input for scrutiny, designing just systems, holding regulators to account, defining public goods as well as harms. It is ofc not regulatory in its own right. Plus good regulatory culture is also good for just innovation.

Obviously bypassing both of those things make it easier to do things with Palantir. Remember Peter Thiel said, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible”. If the commitment is to trust, rebuilding faith in politics, levelling up, then safeguards are essential