Now that Kevin Systrom is free, he's talking freely about what's wrong with social media and Facebook – Quartz

Companies are trying to throw algorithms at one of the world's most intractable problems: the viciousness of online life. If only our technology was good enough, the thinking goes on, we could expunge the worst elements of online discourse.

That misses the point, says Kevin Systrom, the 34-year-old co-founder of Instagram who left his company in September, eight years after its acquisition by Facebook. Systrom said at the Wired Conference today (Oct. 15) that the tech industry is focusing on technology when it should be focusing on people's control over their content. "That [control] has nothing to do with robots, AI and image detection. It's just control, "he said. "It's a philosophical switch saying you're in control of your content, not us. And that felt to me like a big shift. "

Companies like Facebook are investing heavily in artificial intelligence for moderation. The company has a 10,000-person strong content safety team, there are just 60 people on staff to craft policies for its content moderators. That's the wrong way to prioritize Facebook's efforts right now, according to Systrom: Before looking for technical fixes, they need to have their real ones, he argued.

As a start, Instagram rolled out controls in the last year giving users the ability to shut down comments on their photos, selectively block words and groups, and other granular adjustments. While AI filters cut down on harassment, Systrom said, the biggest changes in their lives. "What do you think about making things happen, they make the right decisions," he said. "And you have to trust you are doing the right thing for them … .We have learned over and over again."

Instagram is hardly free from harassment, however. It shares the same problems with death threats, bullying, neo-Nazis and other abuse. In some cases, it's worse. Brandon Farbstein, who has dwarfism, said Instagram was his "No. 1 platform "for receiving hateful messages, in an in-depth report on harassment on Instagram in The Atlantic today. After trolls posted pictures of him in his school halls, and Instagram failed to quickly respond to the company's reporting tool, he no longer felt safe and left to finish his education online.

Systrom's newfound philosophy may stem from regret over what Instagram has grown to more than 1 billion users. He hinted Facebook's CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg. While he hoped Facebook would continue to grow, Systrom said, "There are obviously reasons for leaving. No one ever leaves a job because everything's awesome, right? "

"Harassment, bullying, and freedom of speech are the problems of social media today," he said. As Instagram Begins to eclipse Facebook (it's nowadays the fastest growing social media network, it's not clear if Systrom's philosophy will survive its departure.