^CategorySocial Media

young cute girl hipster, sitting at a cafe holding a smart phone, answering texts, phone calls, letters, posts photos in instagram, outdoor portrait, close up, elaborated and bracelets on the hands

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Author
Caitlin Bassett

Date
November 19, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Social Media

Tagged
Andrew Klavan, Facebook, Frances Haugen, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta (Facebook), The Social Dilemma, Wall Street Journal (on Facebook/Meta)}

I’ve Been on Facebook for 13 Years. Here’s Why I’m Leaving Now.

_{Has Facebook actually improved the ways we connect with each other? And does Meta have a chance to improve upon that?} _{Caitlin Bassett

November 19, 2021

Arts & Culture, Social Media}

When I first joined Facebook in 2008, it was primarily a way to remain in contact with my dad while he was deployed overseas for a year. As I went through school, and then graduated and moved across the country for college, it became a way for me to connect with new and old friends. Now, thirteen years later, I am looking at deleting my Facebook. Here’s why: Last month, Facebook creator and CEO Mark Zuckerberg made waves when he announced the creation of a parent company over Facebook called “Meta.” The basic idea is what Zuckerberg calls “the next frontier” of the internet – a virtual reality in which people can engage in connection and creativity with one another.…

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Author
Denyse O'Leary

Date
November 18, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Chris Pavlovski, Ghost (subscription service), Locals.com, Narya Capital, Peter Thiel, Rumble, Steven Malanga, Substack, YouTube (and Rumble)}

Indie Social Medium Now Shows Big Gain Due to Big Tech Censorship

_{Rumble recently received backing from venture capitalist Peter Thiel, PayPal and Facebook co-founder} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 18, 2021

Censorship, Social Media}

In the current issue of City Journal, Steven Malanga looks at the traffic Silicon Valley is losing. Not much was expected of Rumble, an alternative YouTube founded in 2013 by Canadian entrepreneur Chris Pavlovski. But it hung on until 2020, when YouTube stepped up its efforts to remove content inconsistent with its public-spirited values or with its parent company Google’s political alliances — depending on who you talk to. At any rate, high-profile commentators were looking fora new home. And they found one: In just ten months, Rumble’s online viewership has increased 25-fold. The company has attracted funding from prominent venture capitalists and recently completed a series of deals to bring such outspoken voices as Greenwald, Gabbard, and Joe Rogan…

Couple in bed on mobile phones ignoring each other in relationship problems and technology addiction

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Author
Andrew McDiarmid

Date
November 18, 2021

Categorized
Relationships, Social Media

Tagged
Board games (social value), Books (reading aloud), Digital Assistants (and surveillance), Loneliness (social media's role), Retro artifacts (their value), Robert A. Bjork, Thomas Lipton, Unplug box concept}

5 Ways to Keep the Digital Marketplace Out of Your Home

_{Today, people who share living quarters interact much less, due to the constant presence of social media and other digital alternatives} _{Andrew McDiarmid

November 18, 2021

Relationships, Social Media}

After a busy day in the public sphere, it’s a beautiful thing to come home. Our house is a sanctuary, a safe place to relax and regroup. And it’s where we cultivate some of our most intimate relationships. Up until the early decades of the 20th century, the family home was viewed as a private domain that should not be intruded upon by the marketplace. But the development of new technologies like the telephone, radio, and television blurred the line between our public and private spheres. Today, we give a host of companies and organizations intimate access to our family through our screens, subscriptions, digital assistants, and smart appliances. This erosion of our private time and our place of refuge…

Machine learning systems and accurate facial recognition concept , smart phone with blue screen and blur human faces background

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Author
News

Date
November 4, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance

Tagged
DeepFace (Meta), Facebook (DeepFace), Facebook (facial recognition), Facebook (Meta), Jerome Pesenti, Meta (DeepFace), Meta (Facebook name change and sci fi), Meta (Facebook), Meta (facial recognition)}

Facebook (Meta) is strengthening, not dumping facial recognition

_{They’re getting rid of the annoying parts but read the fine print} _{News

November 4, 2021

Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance}

Jerome Pesenti, Facebook’s VP of Artificial Intelligence, explains the changes to the face recognition system that have accompanied the very recent brand name change from Facebook to Meta: In the coming weeks, Meta will shut down the Face Recognition system on Facebook as part of a company-wide move to limit the use of facial recognition in our products. As part of this change, people who have opted in to our Face Recognition setting will no longer be automatically recognized in photos and videos, and we will delete the facial recognition template used to identify them. This change will represent one of the largest shifts in facial recognition usage in the technology’s history. Jerome Pesenti, “An Update On Our Use of…

Old-fashioned Telephones Mounted On Wall

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Author
News

Date
October 22, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Events, Global Technology, Social Media

Tagged
Cell phone (vs telephone), Connectivity (vs territory), COSM 2021, Daniel Berninger, Featured, Telephone (vs cell phone), Territory (vs connectivity)}

COSM: The Trek From Phone to Smart Phone: What Have We Learned?

_{Daniel Berninger, a pioneer and activist in VOIP communications, shares his insights about keeping the internet free and accessible} _{News

October 22, 2021

Business and Finance, Events, Global Technology, Social Media}

Daniel Berninger, an activist in the transition from plain old telephone service (POTS) to the online world of the cell phone (“disruptive communications”), will be speaking at COSM 2021. He has been involved in VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) since 1995, starting with the original assessment of VoIP at Bell Laboratories and was a founder of the VON Coalition, “keeping IP communications free from government regulation.” He is a frequently cited resource on regulatory, antitrust, and VoIP issues (for example, in Business Week, WSJ, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg, Forbes, Associated Press, Dow Jones, Info World and the trade press). He is also a founder of VCXC (Voice Communication Exchange Committee). His interests and approach: ➤ the decline of the…

Cute white English Bulldog puppy in a graduation cap

^{Type
post

Author
News

Date
October 21, 2021

Categorized
Mathematics, Relationships, Social Media

Tagged
Ability (Dunning-Kruger effect), Alexander Danvers, David Dunning, Dunning-Kruger effect, Jonathan Jarry, Patrick McKnight, Psychology, Social psychology}

Tested!: Are the Least Expert People the Most Confident? No.

_{The claimed Dunning–Kruger effect in psychology is a very shakeable truth frequently exploited by online social bullies} _{News

October 21, 2021

Mathematics, Relationships, Social Media}

Have you ever been in an online discussion where a vocal proponent confidently claimed that his opponent was the victim of the dreaded “Dunning–Kruger” effect? At Vox, Brian Resnick explains, “That’s where people of low ability — let’s say, those who fail to answer logic puzzles correctly — tend to unduly overestimate their abilities”: An obvious example people have been using lately to describe the Dunning-Kruger effect is President Donald Trump, whose confidence and bluster never wavers, despite his weak interest in and understanding of policy matters. But you don’t need to look to Trump to find an example of the Dunning-Kruger effect. You don’t even need to look at cable news. Brian Resnick, “An expert on human blind spots…

Group young people using mobile smartphone outdoor - Millennial generation having fun with new trends social media apps - Youth technology addicted - Red background

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Author
Andrew McDiarmid

Date
October 19, 2021

Categorized
Data Privacy, Social Media

Tagged
Eric Hobsbawm, Featured, Frances Haugen, Katherine Dee, Luddites, Technology (taking control)}

Are We Really Luddites Just for Logging Off?

_{We can be wiser about boundaries for technology} _{Andrew McDiarmid

October 19, 2021

Data Privacy, Social Media}

(This piece is reprinted with permission from the Houston Chronicle, October 7, 2021.) Have you ever been called a Luddite? If so, you were probably not being credited with fueling a skilled labor movement in 19th century England. You were being jabbed for your relationship to technology. Today, the term is largely pejorative and can be directed at anyone who questions, rejects or even fumbles with technology. If you resist a new technology in favor of an old one, you’re a Luddite. If the recent testimony from Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen persuaded you to quit social media, you’re a Luddite. If you don’t know how to use a newer technology efficiently, you’re a Luddite. You’re swimming upstream down the river…

Group of demonstrators on road, young people from different culture and race fight for climate change - Global warming and enviroment concept - Focus on banners

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Author
Caitlin Bassett

Date
October 14, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Environment, Social Media

Tagged
Climate change, demonetization, Dr. Richard Lindzen, Google, Joe Biden, Mark Zuckerberg, Section 230, YouTube}

Google and YouTube Demonetize Climate Change Skeptics

_{But how did Google acquire the authority to declare what is "misinformation" or "scientific consensus"?} _{Caitlin Bassett

October 14, 2021

Censorship, Environment, Social Media}

The Google Ads team announced a new policy last week banning the monetization of content critical of a current consensus around climate change. Beginning in November, both Google and YouTube will: …prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change. This includes content referring to climate change as a hoax or a scam, claims denying that long-term trends show the global climate is warming, and claims denying that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to climate change. Google Ads team, “Updating our ads and monetization policies on climate change,” posted October 7, 2021 This does not mean that Google and YouTube will block any and all content that denies…

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Author
Denyse O'Leary

Date
October 6, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Data Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance

Tagged
Facebook (as near monopoly), Facebook (October 2021 outage), Signal (social media app), Telegram (social media app)}

Facebook Outage: Not a Hack But Shows Dire Need for Competition

_{Monday’s Facebook outage was a sobering lesson on the power (and, ironically, helplessness) of monopoly Big Social Media} _{Denyse O'Leary

October 6, 2021

Censorship, Data Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance}

As the New York Times put it, “When apps used by billions of people worldwide blinked out, lives were disrupted, businesses were cut off from customers — and some Facebook employees were locked out of their offices.” (October 4, 2021) A less sympathetic source writes, As of publishing time, Facebook has been down for several hours, along with WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Oculus VR. But that’s just the beginning. The social media behemoth’s stock prices also crashed on Monday, making the company’s already bad day even worse. The plummet in stock prices came as a Facebook executive was on CNBC defending the company against claims by a whistleblower that the company prioritized profit over the safety of young Facebook users.…

Hand adding a new team member to a group. Business management concept

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Author
News

Date
October 4, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Big Tech, Briscoe Cain, Fantasia (Disney film), Greg Abbott, HB20 (Texas anti-censorship bill), Karl D. Stephan, Ryan Moore, Section 230, Texas (social media censorship issue)}

Can Texas Win Its Fight With Big Social Media Censorship?

_{Engineering prof Karl D. Stephan notes that, currently, if a user is de-platformed from a large site such as Facebook, there are, famously, not a lot of alternatives} _{News

October 4, 2021

Censorship, Social Media}

(This article by Karl D. Stephan originally appeared at Engineering Ethics Blog September 27, 2021, and is reprinted with permission.) On September 9, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 20, a law designed to keep social media companies with more than 50 million subscribers from blocking users whose viewpoints the company disapproves of. Scheduled to take effect in December, the law has already attracted controversy and threats of lawsuits to keep it from going into effect. Currently, if a user is de-platformed from a large site such as Facebook, there are not a lot of alternatives. The overarching law in the US pertaining to such situations is Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which prevails if there is a conflict between…

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Author
Denyse O'Leary

Date
September 29, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Education, Social Media

Tagged
Abigail Shrier, Cancel Culture (database), College Fix (Cancel Culture database), First Amendment rights (and Cancel Culture), Friedrich March, Harriet Hall, Irreversible Damage (book), Jerry Coyne, Science-Based Medicine, Wokeness (Cancel Culture Database)}

Database! One Stop Shop for Tracking Attacks by Cancel Culture

_{Looking at a number of entries at once helps us grasp the extent of the takeover of our culture, especially at universities, by grievance mobs} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 29, 2021

Arts & Culture, Education, Social Media}

One used to hear many people say “Cancel Culture is so ridiculous, it will go away soon.” Well, that’s not happening. Evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne, who usually writes about other matters, discusses two representative incidents: The removal of a book review at Science-Based Medicine written by one of its own editors because it was deemed too friendly to Abigail Shrier’s book, Irreversible Damage (2021), on the 4,400% rise from from 2008 to 2018 of teenage females seeking to transition to males — and the curious absence of rigorous studies that might account for the astounding increase. Coyne notes I read Shrier’s book and thought it was fair, empathic, and certainly not transphobic. But because Shrier was unfairly accused of transphobia…

children's sorter with geometric shapes on a white background selective focus

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Author
Caitlin Bassett

Date
September 21, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media, Technocracy

Tagged
Baidu, Bing, Brave Search, Google, Josh Hawley, Monopoly, Nathan Jacobson, Robert Epstein, search engines, Search engines and bias, The Tyranny of Big Tech (book), Yandex}

If Google Thinks For You, Use THEIR Search Engine. Otherwise…

_{Google’s monopoly affects the free exchange of ideas in the public square and our electoral process} _{Caitlin Bassett

September 21, 2021

Censorship, Social Media, Technocracy}

For years, the internet has been dominated by the all-seeing Google. Google has been so successful in its execution and protection of its brand that we culturally understand that to “Google” something is to conduct an internet search, despite the existence of alternative search engines. Google holds a massive advantage over all other search engines. More than 88% of all web searches are conducted through Google while the second-largest web browser, Bing, claims not quite 6% of all web searches. While alternative search services have existed for years (such as DuckDuckGo, Ask, and Startpage), only two English language indexes exist – Google’s and Bing’s. Most of the familiar search “alternatives” pull from those two datasets. Alternative search engines, then, aren’t all that…

Holograms of masks, Hackers hiding behind digital anonymous masks, fake accounts. Concept for internet crime, fraud, cyber attack, spam, electronic theft. 3D illustration, 3D render

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Author
Heather Zeiger

Date
September 20, 2021

Categorized
Social Media

Tagged
Bob Fu, ChinaAid, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Chinese Communist Party (social media campaigns), COVID-19 (origin disputes), Featured, FireEye Threat Research Blog, Fort Detrick, Google Threat Analysis, Guo Wengui, Hong Kong democracy movement, Li-Meng Yan, Shane Huntly, Steve Bannon}

China Manipulates Social Media to Spark Protests in the U.S.

_{Cybersecurity firm FireEye and Google Threat Analysis have fingered a campaign against the Hong Kong democracy movement, as well as claims that COVID started in the U.S.} _{Heather Zeiger

September 20, 2021

Social Media}

Both a September report by cybersecurity firm FireEye and a threat assessment post by Google highlight the scope of China’s current global propaganda campaign. According to FireEye’s Threat Research Blog, thousands of “inauthentic accounts” — across dozens of social media platforms and websites around the world — amplify the Chinese government’s messaging. While several non-government organizations, cybersecurity firms, and media outlets have reported on the way China’s Twitter network manipulates social medial platforms, FireEye and Alphabet say the breadth and scope of the propaganda campaign is much greater than previously thought: Most reporting has highlighted English and Chinese-language activity occurring on the social media giants Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. However, we have now observed this pro-PRC activity taking place on…

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Author
Caitlin Bassett

Date
September 15, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Law, Social Media

Tagged
Big Tech, Clarence Thomas, First Amendment, Florida, Free speech, Greg Abbott, House Bill 20, NetChoice, Ron DeSantis, Senate Bill 7072, Texas}

Texas Governor Signs Law Curbing Big Tech Censorship

_{A similar law in Florida was halted by a federal judge. Will Texas's law face the same legal battle?} _{Caitlin Bassett

September 15, 2021

Censorship, Law, Social Media}

Last Thursday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 20 into law, legislation that would prohibit social media companies from banning users for their political beliefs and provide users with a legal remedy for unfair discriminatory behavior. The law is very similar to legislation passed earlier this year in Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 7072 into law at the end of May. Within days, technology trade groups had filed a lawsuit, and on June 30, a federal judge stopped the bill in its tracks with a preliminary injunction. For the bill’s proponents, the law’s intention is to protect the free speech rights of state citizens when using social media. “Freedom of speech is under attack in Texas,” said…

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Author
Caitlin Bassett

Date
August 24, 2021

Categorized
Law, Social Media

Tagged
antitrust, Facebook, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Josh Hawley, Lina Khan, U.S. Department of Justice}

Federal Trade Commission Takes Facebook to Court… Again

_{The FTC hopes to prove in an 80-page complaint that Facebook holds damaging monopoly power over competitors} _{Caitlin Bassett

August 24, 2021

Law, Social Media}

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed an amended complaint against Facebook, trying again for an antitrust lawsuit after a federal judge dismissed their original complaint earlier this summer. The updated complaint alleges that Facebook has violated antitrust laws and garnered monopoly power, namely by buying up rival companies and imposing unfair policies that “neutralize perceived competitive threats.” Facebook is the world’s dominant online social network, with a purported three billion-plus regular users. Facebook has maintained its monopoly position in significant part by pursuing Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) Mark Zuckerberg’s strategy, expressed in 2008: “it is better to buy than compete.” True to that maxim, Facebook has systematically tracked potential rivals and acquired companies that it viewed as serious competitive…

Justice and law concept. Gavel on sounding block in hand's Male judge at a courtroom, working with document law books, report the case on table in modern office.

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Author
Caitlin Bassett

Date
August 8, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Law, Social Media

Tagged
Big Tech, Big Tech censorship, censorship, Chris Cox, Clare Morell, Communications Decency Act, First Amendment, Free speech, Josh Hawley, Philip Hamburger, Ron DeSantis, Ron Wyden, Section 230, The Tyranny of Big Tech (book)}

Section 230: What Is It and Why the Controversy?

_{Does Section 230 provide Big Tech too much power, or is it necessary for the moderation of misinformation and inappropriate content?} _{Caitlin Bassett

August 8, 2021

Censorship, Law, Social Media}

At the center of the controversy between free speech and the rights of private companies lies Section 230, the controversial U.S. code dating back to 1996. Toward the end of his term in 2020, former President Donald Trump famously tweeted that Section 230 should be “completely terminated.” Sen. Josh Hawley, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard voiced their support, but by and large, the sentiment was met with fierce resistance. Advocates for the reform (or complete repeal) of Section 230 argue that it shields Big Tech companies from accountability when they engage in politically-motivated censorship and content moderation. Supporters of Section 230 argue that it is essential to keep the internet free of misinformation and vile or obscene material. Section 230…