The Integrity Institute is a think tank devoted to designing regulations for speech on the internet. The Institute has members over 450 members who worked on content moderation at Facebook, Google, X/Twitter, TikTok, Discord, Twitch, WhatsApp, Airbnb, YouTube, PayPal, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Stripe, and Venmo. ^{1 2 3}

Wired has described the Institute’s work as “required reading inside tech companies.” ⁴

History

The Integrity Institute originated in February 2021 from an online meeting of nine individuals who discussed ethics in technological development. Jeff Allen and Sahar Massachi had both worked on “integrity teams” at Facebook and were disturbed by the “hate speech, bullying, hoaxes” and “mass online propaganda” they witnessed, particularly during the 2016 election. ^{5 6} Both resigned around the same time in 2019. They did not know each other at Facebook. ⁷

Later in the year, Allen and Massachi co-founded the Institute. They consider online platform “integrity workers” like themselves to be the equivalent of “city planners” for online platforms. The Institute is intended to be a centralized space for integrity workers to develop guidelines for social media companies and online spaces to build a better internet. ^{8 9}

Prior to establishing the Institute, Allen was a data scientist with the Democratic National Committee, and had worked for Facebook for three and half years and at About.com for over two years. Massachi was working at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. He had also previously worked at Facebook and was a data scientist at the Wikimedia Foundation. ^{10 11 12 13}

As of June 2024, Allen is chief research officer and a board member of the Institute. Massachi worked as executive director until his resignation in May 2024. ^{14 15}

In February 2024, Rachel Townsend became the executive director of the Institute after leaving her position as director of advocacy at left-of-center philanthropic consultancy Arabella Advisors. ¹⁶

Activities

Though the Integrity Institute is a nonprofit, it offers consulting services to policymakers, academics, for-profit companies, and individuals. ¹⁷

In October 2022, the Institute announced it attained a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to launch its “Elections Integrity Program.” ¹⁸ In February 2024, the Institute worked with the Bipartisan Policy Center and the States United Democracy Center to produce a research report on the most trusted sources of American electoral news. The research indicated that most Americans get their political news from social media platforms and that they support social media and government regulation of online news. ¹⁹

In December 2022, the Institute joined the European Digital Media Observatory consortium to monitor alleged disinformation online. ²⁰

In October 2022, the Institute published research claiming that content containing misinformation tends to get more online engagement than true content. The Institute Found that among major social media platforms, Twitter (now known as X) amplified the spread of misinformation, followed by TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. The Institute alleged that Facebook had the highest number of posts containing misinformation, followed by Twitter. ²¹

Controversies

In May 2024, Wired released a report on the Integrity Institute detailing troubles involving the organization’s two founders, its employees, and internal content moderation. ²²

In 2023, co-founder Sahar Massachi published an internal memo banning the use of terminology that he deemed partisan or indicating an “activist space.” The terms included “solidarity,” “radical,” “free market,” and “BIPOC.” The memo prompted a backlash from numerous employees, many of whom had previous qualms about Massachi’s leadership style. Institute funders also commented that Massachi tended to pose too many ideas to them. ²³

In October, after the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel, Massachi, who was born in Israel, posted about the grief he felt due to the attack. This prompted discussions that turned into debates on the company Slack, to which Massachi refused to respond, which allegedly further alienated some staff members. Later, a dispute on the company Slack erupted over how to talk about the Israeli invasion of Gaza, with some members opposing the use of the word “genocide,” and others accusing posters of antisemitism. According to Wired, a “fiery post went on to question the misinformation-spotting skills of fellow members.” ²⁴

In March 2024, “people with ties” to the Institute accused Massachi of being “blunt and rude toward women, especially those of color,” , according to Wired. Allegedly, some female staff members had quit the Institute because of Massachi. After an internal investigation, Massachi was pressured to resign, which he did in May without mentioning the allegations. ²⁵

Funding

The Integrity Institute was initially funded by co-founder Jeff Allen. ²⁶

The Institute’s largest funder has been the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, which has contributed over $1 million, followed by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, both of which have contributed between $500,000 and $1 million. Other contributors listed on the Institute’s website include Craig Newmark Philanthropies, the Hessing-Simons Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Network, the Public Interest Technology Infrastructure Fund, the Skoll Foundation, Stiftung Mercator, and the Avaaz Foundation. ²⁷

1. “Our Mission.” Integrity Institute. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://integrityinstitute.org/our-mission.
2. “How to Save the Internet.” Integrity Institute. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1St4F03JshjMNqO0ou0TFFZqRmanGQRyO/view.
3. “A Nonprofit Tried to Fix Tech Culture—but Lost Control of Its Own.” Wired. May 29, 2024. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://www.wired.com/story/integrity-institute-nonprofit-tried-to-fix-tech-culture-lost-control/.
4. “A Nonprofit Tried to Fix Tech Culture—but Lost Control of Its Own.” Wired. May 29, 2024. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://www.wired.com/story/integrity-institute-nonprofit-tried-to-fix-tech-culture-lost-control/.
5. “A note from our Founders:” Integrity Institute. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://integrityinstitute.org/founders-letter.
6. “Launching: Founding Fellows. Plus: peek inside our day-to-day and DC visit.” Integrity Institute. April 4, 2023. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://integrityinstitute.org/news/institute-news/launching-founding-fellows-plus-peek-inside-our-day-to-day-and-dc-visit
7. “A Nonprofit Tried to Fix Tech Culture—but Lost Control of Its Own.” Wired. May 29, 2024. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://www.wired.com/story/integrity-institute-nonprofit-tried-to-fix-tech-culture-lost-control/.
8. “A note from our Founders:” Integrity Institute. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://integrityinstitute.org/founders-letter.
9. “Launching: Founding Fellows. Plus: peek inside our day-to-day and DC visit.” Integrity Institute. April 4, 2023. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://integrityinstitute.org/news/institute-news/launching-founding-fellows-plus-peek-inside-our-day-to-day-and-dc-visit.
10. “A note from our Founders:” Integrity Institute. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://integrityinstitute.org/founders-letter.
11. “Launching: Founding Fellows. Plus: peek inside our day-to-day and DC visit.” Integrity Institute. April 4, 2023. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://integrityinstitute.org/news/institute-news/launching-founding-fellows-plus-peek-inside-our-day-to-day-and-dc-visit.
12. “Jeff Allen.” LinkedIn. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-allen-scientist/.
13. “Sahar Massachi.” LinkedIn. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/saharmassachi/.
14. “Meet Our Team.” Integrity Institute. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://integrityinstitute.org/staff-board.
15. “A big announcement.” Integrity Institute. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://integrityinstitute.org/news/institute-news/a-big-announcement.
16. “Rachel Townsend.” LinkedIn. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-townsend-ar/.
17. “Services We Provide.” Integrity Institute. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://integrityinstitute.org/services-we-provide.
18. “Elections Integrity Program.” Integrity Institute. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://integrityinstitute.org/elections-integrity-program.
19.  Allen, Jeff; Harbath, Katie; Orey, Rachel; Sanchez, Thania. “Who Voters Trust for Election Information in 2024.” Bipartisan Policy Center. February 26, 2024. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/who-voters-trust-election-information-2024/.
20. “Integrity Institute Joins European Digital Media Observatory Consortium to Monitor Disinformation in Europe.” Integrity Institute. December 19, 2022. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://integrityinstitute.org/news/institute-news/integrity-institute-joins-european-digital-media-observatory-consortium-to-monitor-disinformation-in-europe.
21. Myers, Steven Lee. “How Social Media Amplifies Misinformation More Than Information.” New York Times. October 13, 2022. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/technology/misinformation-integrity-institute-report.html.
22. “A Nonprofit Tried to Fix Tech Culture—but Lost Control of Its Own.” Wired. May 29, 2024. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://www.wired.com/story/integrity-institute-nonprofit-tried-to-fix-tech-culture-lost-control/.
23. “A Nonprofit Tried to Fix Tech Culture—but Lost Control of Its Own.” Wired. May 29, 2024. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://www.wired.com/story/integrity-institute-nonprofit-tried-to-fix-tech-culture-lost-control/.
24. “A Nonprofit Tried to Fix Tech Culture—but Lost Control of Its Own.” Wired. May 29, 2024. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://www.wired.com/story/integrity-institute-nonprofit-tried-to-fix-tech-culture-lost-control/.
25. “A Nonprofit Tried to Fix Tech Culture—but Lost Control of Its Own.” Wired. May 29, 2024. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://www.wired.com/story/integrity-institute-nonprofit-tried-to-fix-tech-culture-lost-control/.
26. “A Nonprofit Tried to Fix Tech Culture—but Lost Control of Its Own.” Wired. May 29, 2024. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://www.wired.com/story/integrity-institute-nonprofit-tried-to-fix-tech-culture-lost-control/.
27. “Our Supporters.” Integrity Institute. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://integrityinstitute.org/our-supporters.