After Three Years Fighting Big Tech, Sustainable Media Center Expands to GenZ, Media and Democracy

SMC announces a two-year initiative focused on technology and political accountability ahead of the 2028 election, welcomes six Board and NextGen advisors.

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, October 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- After three years challenging social media companies over the harm their products cause young people and society, the Sustainable Media Center (SMC) is expanding its mission. The nonprofit announced today that it will put Digital Democracy at the center of its work for 2027 and 2028, turning more of its attention to the political institutions, public policies, and systems of accountability that determine how technology operates in American life.

SMC is also welcoming six new members to its leadership and advisory community, including two trustees and four NextGen advisors, and launching a redesigned website at sustainablemedia.center. The organization will continue its work on social media harms and youth safety, but will increasingly focus on the political decisions that allow harmful practices to continue, the growing influence of artificial intelligence, and the role younger generations must play in shaping democracy.

"We've spent three years exposing the damage social media platforms have done to young people and public trust," said Steven Rosenbaum, Executive Director of the Sustainable Media Center. "But we've learned something important. Until our elected officials are prepared to act, until the rules of the road change, and until companies face real consequences for harming young users and undermining democracy, the underlying problems won't change."

SMC Welcomes Six New Trustees and NextGen Advisors

As part of its expanded mission, SMC is adding two new members to its Board of Trustees and four new members to its NextGen Advisory Board.

New Trustees

• Karim Shariff, founder of Majlis Investment Management, global investor and philanthropist.
• Doug Heske, founder and CEO of Newday Financial Technologies, and an advocate for impact investing and socially responsible finance.

New NextGen Advisors

• Caitlyn Vergara, Trust & Safety researcher focused on child online safety and the impact of digital technology on young people.
• Rebecca Jolius, Rutgers University graduate with experience in finance, civic engagement, and leadership initiatives at • JPMorganChase.
• Calla Brot, public advocate working to bring young voices into conversations about technology and civic life.
• Kayleigh Robertson, Founder, Digital Recovery & Mental Health Centre.

The appointments reflect SMC's intergenerational approach, connecting experienced leaders in technology, business, media, and public policy with young advocates demanding a voice in decisions about their digital future.

Social Media Was the Warning. AI Is Raising the Stakes.

SMC argues that the larger problem extends beyond individual technology companies. The rules governing technology, the political decisions that shape those rules, and the public's ability to influence them are now central questions for American democracy.

Artificial intelligence is making those questions more urgent. As AI changes how information is created, distributed, and understood, the challenges facing journalism, elections, public trust, and civic participation are becoming increasingly connected.

Who decides what information we see? Who is accountable when technology causes harm? Who writes the rules? And how do citizens gain a meaningful voice in decisions that shape their lives?

These are no longer simply technology questions. They are democracy questions.

Three Fights for Digital Democracy

SMC's 2027–2028 initiative is organized around three priorities that connect the organization's work on social media, artificial intelligence, and democratic accountability.

• Democracy Needs the Truth. Democracy depends on shared facts, trusted elections, and institutions accountable to the public. SMC will focus on the ways AI, algorithms, and digital platforms are changing the information systems that democracy depends on.

• Products Have Consequences. Social media and AI systems are products, and the companies that build them must be accountable for the harm they cause. SMC will continue documenting that harm, challenging corporate power, and amplifying those demanding accountability.

• The Future Gets a Vote. GenZ has grown up inside digital systems it had little power to design. SMC will put young voices at the center of its work, bringing generations together to challenge existing power structures and give young people a meaningful role in shaping the future.

"GenZ shouldn't have to inherit a digital world designed without them," Rosenbaum said. "They should have the power to help build what comes next. And that means bringing generations together, combining experience with new ideas, and giving young people a meaningful role in shaping the decisions that will govern their future."

As a nonpartisan educational organization, SMC will pursue this work through journalism, research, public education, and conversations that bring different perspectives into the debate.

The 2028 presidential election provides an important backdrop. Decisions about artificial intelligence, platform accountability, access to reliable information, and civic participation will help shape the environment in which Americans make political choices.

A New Home for Media, Technology, and Democracy

Alongside its expanded mission and new appointments, SMC is launching a redesigned website that brings together its journalism, public events, NextGen leadership, and community conversations.

The site features Signals: Media. Technology. Democracy., SMC's newsletter examining the forces reshaping the information environment and their consequences for public life.

SMC also hosts weekly SMC Live conversations with researchers, journalists, advocates, policymakers, and young leaders, creating a public forum for examining the relationship between technology and democratic institutions.

The new website reflects an organization broadening its work from documenting the harms of digital platforms to examining the larger systems that allow those harms to persist.

For SMC, the next two years are about connecting what it has learned from the fight over social media to a much bigger question: whether democratic institutions can keep pace with the technologies transforming society.

About the Sustainable Media Center

The Sustainable Media Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working at the intersection of media, technology, and democracy. Through journalism, public conversations, and intergenerational engagement, SMC brings together voices across generations to examine how digital technology is changing civic life, challenge systems that cause harm, and work toward a future in which technology strengthens democracy and serves the public interest.

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