by Southwest Festival in Austin, TX; Al Gore and Votizen investor Sean Parker spoke about the internet's effect on politics and Votizen's potential role in politics with Gore saying "democracy has been hacked" by money and special interests, and tools such as Votizen can provide the fix. On January 10, 2013, Votizen was acquired by Causes, an online civic engagement platform founded by Sean Parker. Leveraging Social Media Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster and Facebook's founding president, is an investor in Votizen and a director on the board of the company. Parker, talking during the 2011 Techonomy conference said, "Politics for me is the most obvious area [to be disrupted by the Web]". Parker, who said he's “not a huge believer in direct democracy,” is exploring ways to leverage social media to influence politics with investments such as Votizen. His prediction is that "taking money out of politics with campaigns is possible through social media." with services like Votizen. References External links Companies based in Mountain View, California American social networking websites Internet properties established in 2010