I’ve been thinking about this a lot. We went largely unconcerned when that data was only being used for more specific advertising. But in the wrong hands it can be used for far more nefarious purposes. All the way to surveillance and control.
The owners of those platforms are realizing this, slowly taking advantage and, I would argue, are even becoming radicalized by their own platforms. At what point do we decide that much power shouldn’t be in the hands of private individuals? And certainly not in the hands of governments? Whose hands should they be in to ensure their use for the good?
This is an interesting point 'being radicalized by their own platforms'. Most people are easily swayed by the opinions of others. I'm not afraid of surveillance and control but I'm concerned about the idea of criminalizing online activity, like opinions about CEOs/the rich or the healthcare system. Cybercrime is real but suppressing a social class' right to free speech is not cool.
Of course, governments are not idea for taking over these platforms but for the beginning it would better than having them in the hands of a single individual (plus his shareholders, of course!). I think this is what the US wants to do with TikTok.
Don't you think this happens already for the purposes of maintaining nation state integrity? I'd be amazed if alliances like Five Eyes didn't continously tap Internet traffic for intelligence signals.
They do and this is a good thing! But after the Luigi Mangione case they seem to want to surveil and criminalize opinions about CEOs and the rich... this is not cool!
Great commentary here, Claudia. It's so hard to make sense of the power and influence of these networks, you do a good job of putting it into perspective.
Thanks Shoni. I’ve been having the same thoughts for a while as I’ve watched how Elon Musk uses Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg‘s change of heart and new the fight to grab TikTok. But the reactions to the public response to Luigi Mangione are the most striking. Instead of looking at the deeper issues, the first impulse is to control and oppress, despise the fact that the US healthcare system is horrible. Since most of these platforms come from the US, whatever they decide to do with social media data in this case, will have a ripple effect around the world.
What a story and what insightful analysis! For someone who doesn't "specialize in journalistic social media coverage", this is very powerful and convincing, and your own story about growing up in Romania adds such a fascinating personal touch to it. So, so much to think about, and it does trouble me...a lot.
Thanks, Daniel. I used to contribute articles to the largest newspaper in my hometown during high school (one about illegal teenage abortion) which was a long time ago. Perhaps the bit of journalism I learned there helped. Thanks for reading. It is concerning, especially the bit about criminalizing our online presence. Free speech is only for the rich…
A timely and very good read, Claudia, thanks. Once again I am happy that I don't use social media other than my time here on Substack, if it counts as such.
I read just this morning that Instagram is hiding searches for "Democrats", amongst other terms (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g32yxpdz0o). I find it hard to believe that this is a technical glitch.
Meanwhile, the ban on TikTok was reversed (temporarily, at least) by Trump.
These are interesting times. I watch in horror at the changes Trump is already making.
Thanks for the BBC link, Nathan! That’s terrible! Such platforms should not be owned by private citizens. Perhaps everyone will follow the US TikTok model and nationalize the local entities of the social media platforms. We’re all using platforms from a country that has its own interests and issues to battle. It’s not good.
Thank you, Claudia. Perfect timing. As an early adopter (and early abandoner) of many social media, I once ignored concerns about who might collect my data: "Who'd want to listen in on my boring life?" In the "We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks," documentary, we were shocked to learn how our phones - even turned off and unplugged - could send our conversations to data collection farms. Now if we speak about running shoes in our living room, we find Google ads for shoes in our feeds.
If we believe in free speech or democracy existing, it's smart to be alarmed and take steps.
I'd love a resource on how best to scrub social media exposure to minimize government access moving forward. And best practices for any semblance of privacy.
I used to think the same and I’m probably still not very concerned. But recent developments made me think of how this data could be used for much more than placing ads and it‘s not a good direction. I hope we’ll never go there. With the way our world functions it will be very difficult to avoid having our data collected by devices. I hope someone has a good vision for how we can use this for good.
I hope we don't go that far, too! I've seen disturbing digital practices in activism (at the Paris Climate talks, our arts group all lost phone battery power simultaneously while walking past a Gendarmerie station.) Holding the vision that free speech is preserved.
Thank you for reading and for the feedback, really appreciate it. It took some effort but it was satisfying to see my thoughts written down. I read a lot of news during autumn and had lots of thoughts. I’d like to see more explorations of social media technology in sci-fi.
Singularity-oriented thinking on social media leads to a convergence between AI+agents, brain interfacing and advertising. Smartphones as devices will disappear. On the other hand, apocalyptic 'great resets' will lead to a complete absence of such social platforms. As always, one person's dystopia is another's utopia...
I think that having access to these online spaces where we can basically hang out with the whole world is great. I hope this can be used for good. I'm thinking about a future with more community based socio-political organization who can align with each other via such platforms. Something like tech-tribal... or tribal-tech. I don't know...
I’ve been thinking about this a lot. We went largely unconcerned when that data was only being used for more specific advertising. But in the wrong hands it can be used for far more nefarious purposes. All the way to surveillance and control.
The owners of those platforms are realizing this, slowly taking advantage and, I would argue, are even becoming radicalized by their own platforms. At what point do we decide that much power shouldn’t be in the hands of private individuals? And certainly not in the hands of governments? Whose hands should they be in to ensure their use for the good?
Also this was a really good essay Claudia. You voiced a lot of things I’ve been thinking about.
This is an interesting point 'being radicalized by their own platforms'. Most people are easily swayed by the opinions of others. I'm not afraid of surveillance and control but I'm concerned about the idea of criminalizing online activity, like opinions about CEOs/the rich or the healthcare system. Cybercrime is real but suppressing a social class' right to free speech is not cool.
Of course, governments are not idea for taking over these platforms but for the beginning it would better than having them in the hands of a single individual (plus his shareholders, of course!). I think this is what the US wants to do with TikTok.
Don't you think this happens already for the purposes of maintaining nation state integrity? I'd be amazed if alliances like Five Eyes didn't continously tap Internet traffic for intelligence signals.
They do and this is a good thing! But after the Luigi Mangione case they seem to want to surveil and criminalize opinions about CEOs and the rich... this is not cool!
But don't forget some politicians can also give the impression they're decriminalising online activities: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz7e0jve875o
😂
Great commentary here, Claudia. It's so hard to make sense of the power and influence of these networks, you do a good job of putting it into perspective.
Thanks Shoni. I’ve been having the same thoughts for a while as I’ve watched how Elon Musk uses Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg‘s change of heart and new the fight to grab TikTok. But the reactions to the public response to Luigi Mangione are the most striking. Instead of looking at the deeper issues, the first impulse is to control and oppress, despise the fact that the US healthcare system is horrible. Since most of these platforms come from the US, whatever they decide to do with social media data in this case, will have a ripple effect around the world.
What a story and what insightful analysis! For someone who doesn't "specialize in journalistic social media coverage", this is very powerful and convincing, and your own story about growing up in Romania adds such a fascinating personal touch to it. So, so much to think about, and it does trouble me...a lot.
Thanks, Daniel. I used to contribute articles to the largest newspaper in my hometown during high school (one about illegal teenage abortion) which was a long time ago. Perhaps the bit of journalism I learned there helped. Thanks for reading. It is concerning, especially the bit about criminalizing our online presence. Free speech is only for the rich…
A timely and very good read, Claudia, thanks. Once again I am happy that I don't use social media other than my time here on Substack, if it counts as such.
I read just this morning that Instagram is hiding searches for "Democrats", amongst other terms (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g32yxpdz0o). I find it hard to believe that this is a technical glitch.
Meanwhile, the ban on TikTok was reversed (temporarily, at least) by Trump.
These are interesting times. I watch in horror at the changes Trump is already making.
Thanks for the BBC link, Nathan! That’s terrible! Such platforms should not be owned by private citizens. Perhaps everyone will follow the US TikTok model and nationalize the local entities of the social media platforms. We’re all using platforms from a country that has its own interests and issues to battle. It’s not good.
Yeah, that or decentralise completely like (I think) BlueSky.
How are they organized? I don’t know much about the platform…
Me neither, haha. I'm not sure, to be honest. Some info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluesky#Research_initiative
Thank you, Claudia. Perfect timing. As an early adopter (and early abandoner) of many social media, I once ignored concerns about who might collect my data: "Who'd want to listen in on my boring life?" In the "We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks," documentary, we were shocked to learn how our phones - even turned off and unplugged - could send our conversations to data collection farms. Now if we speak about running shoes in our living room, we find Google ads for shoes in our feeds.
If we believe in free speech or democracy existing, it's smart to be alarmed and take steps.
I'd love a resource on how best to scrub social media exposure to minimize government access moving forward. And best practices for any semblance of privacy.
I used to think the same and I’m probably still not very concerned. But recent developments made me think of how this data could be used for much more than placing ads and it‘s not a good direction. I hope we’ll never go there. With the way our world functions it will be very difficult to avoid having our data collected by devices. I hope someone has a good vision for how we can use this for good.
I hope we don't go that far, too! I've seen disturbing digital practices in activism (at the Paris Climate talks, our arts group all lost phone battery power simultaneously while walking past a Gendarmerie station.) Holding the vision that free speech is preserved.
Oh, I read that governments keep tabs on climate activists. This should be another interesting article to research and write…
Robustly reasoned and elegantly expressed. And also poignant. Thank you for sharing
Thank you for reading and for the feedback, really appreciate it. It took some effort but it was satisfying to see my thoughts written down. I read a lot of news during autumn and had lots of thoughts. I’d like to see more explorations of social media technology in sci-fi.
Singularity-oriented thinking on social media leads to a convergence between AI+agents, brain interfacing and advertising. Smartphones as devices will disappear. On the other hand, apocalyptic 'great resets' will lead to a complete absence of such social platforms. As always, one person's dystopia is another's utopia...
I think that having access to these online spaces where we can basically hang out with the whole world is great. I hope this can be used for good. I'm thinking about a future with more community based socio-political organization who can align with each other via such platforms. Something like tech-tribal... or tribal-tech. I don't know...