Episode 39: Do You Want To Become A Vampire?
October 16, 2021 8:56 PM Subscribe
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Ep. 39 features philosopher L.A. Paul on social media technology as transformative. (pdf).
Ep. 40 asks "What is the goal of our digital information environment? Is it simply to inform, or also to empower us to act?" (pdf).
Ep. 24 features Julie Owono of Internet Without Borders on Facebook’s “2Africa” subsea cable project and the risks of “digital colonialism.” (pdf).
As co-host Aza Raskin points out in Ep. 39: "In academia, if you want to run a psych study asking questionnaires of 20 undergrads, you have to go through a pretty rigorous process in IRB review board. But if you want to, as a Facebook engineer or a Twitter engineer or TikTok engineer, completely change the kinds of people we interact with –– which posts from which friends, what emotional valence, which news we read, there is no process that you have to go through."
Ep. 39 features philosopher L.A. Paul on social media technology as transformative. (pdf).
Ep. 40 asks "What is the goal of our digital information environment? Is it simply to inform, or also to empower us to act?" (pdf).
Ep. 24 features Julie Owono of Internet Without Borders on Facebook’s “2Africa” subsea cable project and the risks of “digital colonialism.” (pdf).
As co-host Aza Raskin points out in Ep. 39: "In academia, if you want to run a psych study asking questionnaires of 20 undergrads, you have to go through a pretty rigorous process in IRB review board. But if you want to, as a Facebook engineer or a Twitter engineer or TikTok engineer, completely change the kinds of people we interact with –– which posts from which friends, what emotional valence, which news we read, there is no process that you have to go through."
I forgot to link episode 9 "The Dictator's Playbook" with Nobel Prize winner and awesome sauce journalist Maria Ressa (transcript).
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:33 AM on October 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:33 AM on October 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
Maria Ressa: Let me first pull out macro and then go to micro. We've now elected leaders, who in many different parts of the world, if you go by Oxford University's computational propaganda research project, just a few weeks ago, they said that there are now 70 countries around the world where cheap armies on social media push back democracy. So we have elected populace style leaders who are using the democratic processes and again, using that to turn it upside down.
... I'm just a reporter. I lead teams in war zones, and I know how to protect my teams, when the gunfire is coming from this side and it's coming from this side. I know how to protect it. But in this world today... it's psychological warfare, it's asymmetrical warfare, a person cannot stand up against an onslaught of information operations. Real World impact on me is this kind of ... This bottom up social media astroturfing that is meant to tear down the reputation, the credibility that I had built up as a journalist over the last 30 years, the messages that are seeded there are now mimicked by the government president Duterte top down a year later.
Aza Raskin: Actually it would to be helpful for you to describe quickly astroturfing and cheap armies.
Maria Ressa: Sure, astroturfing means you take the idea that Rappler is CIA... [a woman in the Duterte administration] headed social media for the presidential palace. She writes in her Facebook page which has 5 million followers, Rappler is CIA? It's seeded, it's the very first time that idea it's like fertilizer, right? And then repeated over time, a lie said a million times becomes fact in social media.
A year later, the same message comes out of president Duterte's mouth and he doesn't just say it to random, not even to a press conference. It is his second State of the Nation Address in July of 2017, where he accused Rappler of being owned by Americans. And I was covering the event and I immediately tweeted, Mr. President, you're wrong. But about a week later, we got the first subpoena for the lawsuits and then this is where the real world kicks in. Because the weaponization of social media was followed a year later by the weaponization of the law.
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:43 AM on October 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
... I'm just a reporter. I lead teams in war zones, and I know how to protect my teams, when the gunfire is coming from this side and it's coming from this side. I know how to protect it. But in this world today... it's psychological warfare, it's asymmetrical warfare, a person cannot stand up against an onslaught of information operations. Real World impact on me is this kind of ... This bottom up social media astroturfing that is meant to tear down the reputation, the credibility that I had built up as a journalist over the last 30 years, the messages that are seeded there are now mimicked by the government president Duterte top down a year later.
Aza Raskin: Actually it would to be helpful for you to describe quickly astroturfing and cheap armies.
Maria Ressa: Sure, astroturfing means you take the idea that Rappler is CIA... [a woman in the Duterte administration] headed social media for the presidential palace. She writes in her Facebook page which has 5 million followers, Rappler is CIA? It's seeded, it's the very first time that idea it's like fertilizer, right? And then repeated over time, a lie said a million times becomes fact in social media.
A year later, the same message comes out of president Duterte's mouth and he doesn't just say it to random, not even to a press conference. It is his second State of the Nation Address in July of 2017, where he accused Rappler of being owned by Americans. And I was covering the event and I immediately tweeted, Mr. President, you're wrong. But about a week later, we got the first subpoena for the lawsuits and then this is where the real world kicks in. Because the weaponization of social media was followed a year later by the weaponization of the law.
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:43 AM on October 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
great stuff, thanks for posting! I'm sorry I don't have anything else meaningful to contribute on the subject just now.
posted by some loser at 3:36 PM on October 17, 2021
posted by some loser at 3:36 PM on October 17, 2021
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This feature song was cut from the movie because didn't test well with Disney audiences.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:49 PM on October 16, 2021