Time - USA (2021-03-01)

98 Time March 1/March 8, 2021

RENEE

MONTGOMERY

34 • Making her

voice heard

BY KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS

Alex Stamos

42 • Truth teller

The year 2020 was a busy
one for the world of cyber­
security—and also for one of
its pre­eminent experts, Alex
Stamos. A former chief security
officer for Facebook who left in
2018 after disagreements with
top executives over how much
Russian election interference
the company should publicize (he
argued for more transparency),
Stamos has become a vocal
and fair critic of the company
and the wider tech industry, as
director of Stanford’s Internet
Observatory. After the pandemic
hit, he helped secure Zoom’s
architecture as millions of new
users piled on. And as the 2020
election approached, he helped
lead the Election Integrity
Partnership, a coalition of
research groups that studied
and reported on disinformation
in real time in an effort to stop
it. A key finding: unlike in 2016,
when Russians were largely
to blame, in 2020, the most
influential disinformation came
from prominent Americans with
large social media followings.
Even if the big tech companies
were to enforce their policies
consistently (and they don’t), the
problem, Stamos’ work tells us,
has become a bigger one than
they can ever solve alone.
—Billy Perrigo

Conventional wisdom would lead

most all-star athletes to capitalize on

their success at the pinnacle of their

career. However, 2020 was an uncon-

ventional year, and Renee Montgom-

ery is an unconventional woman.

Last summer, as Renee, a sports

analyst who was at the time a guard

for the Atlanta Dream, saw demon-

strators fill the streets of Atlanta de-

manding justice, she felt compelled

to act upon her conscience and called

her mother for advice. As only a

mother can, Bertlela Montgomery

told her daughter, “If you can’t make

your voice heard, you’re gonna make

it felt.”

Renee met the moment and an-

nounced that she was opting out of

the WNBA’s 2020 season to work for

social- justice reform. Less than a year

later, through a series of initiatives fo-

cused on education and political en-

gagement, Renee has cemented her

place in Atlanta’s long history of lead-

ership on civil rights.

A month after her announcement,

Atlanta wept as we lost our hero, Con-

gressman John Lewis. As Psalms re-

minds us, weeping may endure for a

night, but joy comes in the morning.

In the spirit of all that Congressman

Lewis left with us, Renee is an inspi-

rational leader, part of a new genera-

tion embodying the conscience of our

communities.

Bottoms, a Democrat, is the mayor of

Atlanta

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