Gregory's ServerI honestly find it baffling. And disturbing.
|
24 comments
 Anyway, I’m saying that we need a political economic analysis here. And to turn an historical lens back on the nature of the early social internet. It’s like backtracking on a trail and taking the other path at the fork. The analysis has to be different from “what looks interesting” or “what features does it have.” The questions to ask are who controls the rules of engagement? Do I have any agency as a user? Are my data safe? Are people like me safe here? People different? Can what happened on Bird happen here? You’ll find the answers are the same in almost all the cases save for this one (and other federated, user-built and admined options). There are problems. But they are of a different and solvable nature. Let’s take a look at Sadsack. The company is privately held and backed by venture capital, which is the same financial structure. They have repeatedly claimed to not have a political agenda. This is always a good indication that their political agenda, which they assuredly have, is not particularly pro-social or people-focused. Indeed, they had up until October an incredibly antagonistic VP of Comms, Lulu Cheng Meservey, who recently said, “If you’re a Twitter employee who’s considering resigning because you’re worried about Elon Musk pushing for less regulated speech… please do not come work here.” Where else can we find evidence of their politics? Consider their stable of…whatevers they brought in to seed the platform, to the tune of $250k (and up) advances. Glen Greenwald. Matt Taibbi. Matty Yglesias. Bari Weiss. Andrew “been dealing with him for 30+ years” Sullivan. Among other shared political orientations, there is an undercurrent among them of neoreactionary stances. You also might recognize them for other activities of late (e.g., the comically devoid of substance “Twitter Files”). Sadsack is not just a publisher. It’s a platform. And, as some will be right and quick to point out, platforms have politics. None of these suggested alternatives passes the smell test. I just don’t know what more to do to try to make this case. But I’m begging folks to listen to me and think this through along the lines I’ve recommended. Talk to your friends and peers. Maybe I’ll put a billboard on the 10. Skywrite it. What irony that these people run off at the goddamned mouth about “free speech” in the “town square,” all the while ensuring that they alone hold the keys to that square and they alone make the rules. And the money. Ever get the feeling you’ve been had? Here’s another big secret: it’s not about feature set, or technological affordances, or interfaces anymore. Almost anything one for-profit company is doing with their products can be adequately mimicked in a non-corporatized release. Or — here’s a thought — something novel could be born without having to be incubated and promoted by VC-funded or Wall Street-controlled firms. Decolonize your minds. We’ve been brainwashed into believing that we don’t have the means or knowledge. Baloney. I will allow that is probably outside the purview of the part-time coder giving voluntarily to projects to build and then run an instance of anything to the tune of two billion users worldwide. But let me ask you this: does that model seem healthy for all of us, the people? There is NOTHING NATURAL about two billion people being subjugated by billionaires profiteering off their human desire for connection. Fundamentally, there are better, more human-focused ways. And those ways are likely, just by their nature, going to offer more sustainable, eco-friendly options (if we want them and demand them and make them), not a desert in a Utah drought zone (h/t: @mel_hogan). They can also allow people to foster community and connection on a manageable scale (whatever that means to each individual or a person’s community-as-she-defines-it). Personally, I’m exhausted by the cynicism of the Andreessens and Theils and Zuckerburgs and Dorseys of the world. Haven’t you had enough? I’ve been online since 1993, then a low-paid, low-status tech worker for 15 years, and I’ve been researching, for 13 years as an academic, the trauma and human cost of commercial content moderation — content moderation at scale — a practice and an industry that ONLY exists because commercial, corporate social media exists. I am fucking exhausted. The way is fraught with a need for a lot of people to: 1. Get uncomfortable with their own positionality and privilege 2. Get comfortable with the discomfort 3. Use it to learn and unlearn 4. Listen and hear, then 5. architect and build, collectively. That’s not the way most folks in tech have operated…like, ever. But it could be a new way to operate, in coalition, and solidarity and with collectivity and empowerment as the watchwords. Not share price and earnings calls. Maybe I’m naive. But I don’t think I am. I actually think I have a lot more faith in my brethren than any tech CEO ever has or ever could. Let me be clear, too: white people need to stay in the discomfort. Cis people need to. Straight people need to. Financially secure people. People of the global minority need to. Able-bodied people need to. This is praxis. It’s a political act. Cede space and power. Empower others. Hear others. Be silent sometimes. Pass the mic. Let others make decisions. Build for others, not just for you. Let others build and create and decide. This is why I fell in love with the internet in the first place. And I just can’t quit it. Because these things are possible. I will never be able to start a broadcasting corporation. But I can run a small server. I can ask for and get help to do it. I can also figure it out. I can make mistakes and course-correct. I can’t get NBC to do that. I think often lately of how my mom, single and young and trying to finish a college degree, used to put me in summer camps on the same university campus where she worked and went to school. Round about 1980 or so, she put me in summer day camp run by/in conjunction with the Computer Science department. Let’s pause for a moment and marvel at that, first of all. Obviously it was inexpensive or possibly free, or I wouldn’t have gone. We learned logo on the Apple ][s, and messed around with electronic vehicles whose movements could be programmed using arrows, moving them through obstacle courses. But the thing that stands out to me most of all is the guy who would come visit and tell us about his small company and what he was using computers to do. He was a blind guy, and his company was called, quite simply and to the point, Computers to Help People. Computers to _help_ people. That’s it. That was the agenda. Not just blind people. All people. Whatever their need or ability or skill or status. That is some of what was, and could have been more of, and maybe still can be. Funny, because I usually consider myself to be fairly maudlin about the state of the world, fascism, the destruction of our environment, the abysmal treatment that humans mete out upon other humans that scare them. But maybe I’m still operating from some kind of place of optimism, or hope, or will to fight for better ways. I’m surprised and glad to find that I can still hold some space inside for that. Anyway. I hope to work with all of you who can hear things in this diatribe that resonate. One follow-up: I did a podcast with my colleague @mel_hogan and she has released it two weeks early due to timeliness. She’s doing an entire series, to launch in earnest in January, but you can preview it with my ep now. It’s called The Data Fix, and you can find it on all apps via syndication. Here’s a link to the episode featuring me. Consider subscribing so you’re alerted when it launches and new episodes drop. |
I’m calling banned journalists, for instance, to never ever go back. You do not need to be on Twitter to cover it. I’m frankly agnostic about holding onto an account. Right now I’m doing that, but use it to criticize Melon until I’m somehow banned at some point. I deleted my DMs and almost all my posts and don’t communicate via DM anymore. I post a fraction of the volume I once did. At some point I’m sure that will end, too. There’s no utility to it.