Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #ACCESSAct
Most recents (19)
The classic #trilemma goes: "Fast, cheap or good, pick any two." The #ModeratorsTrilemma goes, "Large, diverse userbase; centralized platforms; don't anger users - pick any two." 1/ 
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/03/04/pic… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/03/04/pic… 2/
The Moderator's Trilemma is introduced in "Moderating the Fediverse: Content Moderation on Distributed Social Media," a superb paper from @ARozenshtein of @UofMNLawSchool, forthcoming in the journal @JournalSpeech, available as a prepub on @SSRN:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… 3/
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… 3/
#ContentModeration is fundamentally about making social media work better, but there are two other considerations that determine how social media *fails*: #EndToEnd (#E2E), and #FreedomOfExit. 1/
These are much neglected, and that's a pity, because how a system fails is every bit as important as how it works. 2/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/12/19/bet… 3/
pluralistic.net/2022/12/19/bet… 3/
Facebook users claim to hate the service, but they keep using it, leading many to describe Facebook as "addictive." But there's a simpler explanation: people keep using Facebook though they hate it because they don't want to lose their connections to the *people* they love. 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/09/19/int… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/09/19/int… 2/
Calling Facebook "addictive" plays into the company's own mythology, the sales-pitch they make to advertisers, in which they claim to be neuro-sorcerers whose mastery of "big data" and "dopamine loops" can sell anything to anyone, which is why you should buy ads on Facebook 3/
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).
Inside: Daycare apps are insecure surveillance dumpster-fires; and more!
Archived at: pluralistic.net/2022/06/23/pee…
#Pluralistic 1/
Inside: Daycare apps are insecure surveillance dumpster-fires; and more!
Archived at: pluralistic.net/2022/06/23/pee…
#Pluralistic 1/
Sponsor me for the @ClarionUCSD Write-A-Thon! I'm writing 10,000 words on my prison-tech thriller "Some Men Rob You With a Fountain Pen" and raising scholarship money for the Clarion SF/F workshop, which I graduated from in 1992.
clarionwriteathon.com/members/profil… 2/
clarionwriteathon.com/members/profil… 2/
Daycare apps are insecure surveillance dumpster-fires: Apps are like software, only worse.
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A historical accident made Massachusetts a lab for studying how tech can serve monopolies, and the moves, countermoves and counter-countermoves show how businesses, tinkerers, governments and the public can liberate themselves from seemingly all-powerful monopolists. 1/
If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/02/05/tim… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/02/05/tim… 2/
It all starts with #RightToRepair. Companies love to monopolize the repair of their products. If the only place to get your broken stuff fixed is at its manufacturer's authorized depots, the manufacturer can move all kinds of value from your side of the deal to their own. 3/
This week on my podcast, I read my @Medium column "Jam To-Day," a look at how slow antitrust enforcement can be, and what regulators can do to offer relief to the hostages in Big Tech's walled gardens right from day one: through #interoperability.
doctorow.medium.com/jam-to-day-46b… 1/
doctorow.medium.com/jam-to-day-46b… 1/
If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2021/11/22/amr… 2/
pluralistic.net/2021/11/22/amr… 2/
Antitrust is a very slow-moving process. The AT&T breakup in 1982 was the culmination of *69 years'* worth of enforcement action.
1982 was also the year that IBM's 12-year antitrust sojourn ended, without the breakup the DoJ had been seeking. 3/
1982 was also the year that IBM's 12-year antitrust sojourn ended, without the breakup the DoJ had been seeking. 3/
The @CACMmag has just published my editorial, "Competitive Compatibility: Let's Fix the Internet, Not the Tech Giants," explaining how interoperability was once an engine for competition and user empowerment - and how that ended.
cacm.acm.org/magazines/2021…
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cacm.acm.org/magazines/2021…
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As the title suggests, regulators are fed up with Big Tech's abuses, but they're not sure what to do about it. One approach is to "fix the companies" - like forcing Facebook to fight "disinformation" or making Google filter all user content for suspected copyright violations.
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The problem with this approach is that it's not clear whether the tech companies CAN solve these problems (for example, no copyright filter can distinguish between permitted uses like parody or commentary and infringing ones).
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In "The New Antitrust/Data Privacy Law Interface," @TempleLaw's Erika M Douglas presents a fascinating look at the tensions between privacy and competition.
yalelawjournal.org/forum/the-new-…
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yalelawjournal.org/forum/the-new-…
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If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2021/08/24/ill…
pluralistic.net/2021/08/24/ill…
It's only fitting that Douglas published her paper in the @YaleJREG, as that's the same journal that kickstarted the modern antitrust revolution when it published @linakhanFTC's "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox," while she was a law student.
yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-a…
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The Big Tech platforms can be horrible places. Harassers, abusers and griefers have figured out how to use them to meet one another, form vicious assault squads, and drive their targets off the service and make life miserable for those who stay.
themarysue.com/phd-in-gamerga…
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themarysue.com/phd-in-gamerga…
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What's more, the platforms have so little competition - and are so siloed from one another - that leaving a platform comes with a heavy price, separating those who depart from their families, communities and customers.
eff.org/deeplinks/2021…
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eff.org/deeplinks/2021…
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With such high stakes and so many terrible actors, it's natural that the platforms all have account suspension and account termination policies so they can kick the worst offenders off their services.
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Tech companies' "mission statements" are easy to dismiss as BS, but they're deadly serious and surprisingly successful in their aspirations to dominate the digital world.
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That's how we've ended up in a situation where a single company might control your email archives, family photos, business's cloud drives, home security system, mobile devices and media collections.
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But these companies don't act like they've deliberately coiled their tendrils around every aspect of your digital life; they act like you're just a customer whom they can kick off the platform the way a bartender would 86 you after last call.
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In @sheeraf and @ceciliakang's "An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination," the authors recount the company's long history of insider threats in which employees (mostly men) used the company's tools to stalk people (mostly women).
harpercollins.com/products/an-ug…
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If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2021/07/14/who…
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pluralistic.net/2021/07/14/who…
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The stalking targets included both strangers and intimate partners - for example, an engineer used FB's tools to locate his partner after she fled their shared vacation hotel room in order to "confront her."
businessinsider.com/facebook-fired…
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businessinsider.com/facebook-fired…
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This week on my podcast, I read my latest @locusmag column, "Tech Monopolies and the Insufficient Necessity of Interoperability." It presents a theory of change to get us to a world of aggressive, trans-industry, global trustbusting.
locusmag.com/2021/07/cory-d…
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locusmag.com/2021/07/cory-d…
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Most industries are monopolized. Whether we're talking about athletic shoes or pharmacy benefit managers, the path to monopolization is the same: companies buy up small competitors, merge with major ones, and use their investors' cash to subsidize anticompetitive attacks.
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The reason they're able to get away with it is that for 40 years, the world's been in the grip of a dangerous economic delusion: that the only basis for fighting monopolies is "consumer welfare." That is, monopolies should only be considered harmful if they make prices go up.
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My latest @locusmag column is "Tech Monopolies and the Insufficient Necessity of Interoperability," an essay about the goal of competition and its handmaiden, interoperability, namely, "technological self-determination."
locusmag.com/2021/07/cory-d…
locusmag.com/2021/07/cory-d…
I don't fight monopolies because they're "inefficient." I fight them because they deprive everyone - workers, users, suppliers - of the right to decide how to live our lives, both by eliminating competitors who might offer superior choices and by locking us into their silos.
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A monopolized world is one in which a tiny number of people get the final say over every aspect of your life: where and how you live, work, socialize, shop, politick, love, convalesce - even how you die.
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I've been paying close attention to @RepThomasMassie during the #ACCESSAct markup and I can't figure out his point. He correctly observes that proprietary standards are anticompetitive, but opposes the gold standard for open standards, namely, an IPR policy requiring licensing
@RepThomasMassie has described himself as a software developer, but it really feels like he is way, way out of his depth on standardization. Has he ever participated in an SDO. Not being able to distinguish between "interop" and "common vuln" is a pretty tyro error.
It's stuff like this that makes people assume that lawmakers are incapable of understanding - and thus regulating - technology. @RepThomasMassie really needs to get up to speed on how standards work.
In the #ACCESSAct hearing, @RepThomasMassie called the shared vulnerabilities in large-scale hacks as stemming from "interoperability." That's factually wrong. They have "shared dependencies" (use the same code/modules). This isn't the same thing as "interoperability."
Then @RepThomasMassie correctly warned that when firms get to define standards to their proprietary advantage, it produces monopoly power. However, #ACCESSAct provides for OPEN standards, developed independently of large firms.
The problem of proprietary advantage through capture of standards is well-understood and the #ACCESSAct takes account of it.
Last week, Congress introduced the #ACCESSAct, one of the most significant, pro-competitive, pro-user tech laws in American legislative history.
eff.org/deeplinks/2021…
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eff.org/deeplinks/2021…
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It will require large tech platforms to open up to interoperability, so you can leave the platform for a rival without losing contact with your friends, communities, audiences and customers.
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By lowering the switching cost of walking away from Big Tech, Congress could create space for co-ops, tinkerers, nonprofits, startups and public services to create small, user-centered communities built on giving people technological self-determination.
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Today on my podcast, I read "Inside the Clock Tower," a short science fiction story for @consumerreports that depicts a future of interoperable social media (as contemplated by the recently introduced #ACCESSAct).
digital-lab.consumerreports.org/2021/06/15/ins…
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digital-lab.consumerreports.org/2021/06/15/ins…
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(If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:)
pluralistic.net/2021/06/21/int…
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The ACCESS Act would require large social media platforms to create gateways (APIs) that new services could plug into, so that users who quit the monopoly services would still be able to talk to the friends, customers and communities they left behind
eff.org/deeplinks/2021…
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The most anti-science-fiction political leader of all time was Margaret Thatcher. Her motto - "There is no alternative" - was a demand masquerading as an observation, and what she really meant was "Stop trying to imagine an alternative."
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This idea - that our world is inevitable, not the result of human choices, and it cannot be altered through human action - is well-put in the quote attributed to Frederic Jameson "it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism."
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In that light, science fiction can be a radical literature indeed. Depicting a future where our bedrock assumptions of our interpersonal, political and commercial relations are different implicitly denies that our present is inevitable or immutable.
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Five Big Tech antitrust bills were introduced in the House Judiciary Committee today; they're the most significant antitrust effort in more than half a century, and they cover a lot of ground.
cicilline.house.gov/press-release/…
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cicilline.house.gov/press-release/…
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There's a bill to ban "self-preferencing" (when a company-run marketplace pushes its inferior products over its rivals' superior ones); another to block anticompetitive acquisitions; a bill to block "walled garden"; and a bill to fund the FTC to police all this stuff.
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But I'm most excited about is the #ACCESSAct, a bill to force interoperability on the biggest tech platforms, the kinds of services people use because they have to, because their friends or communities or customers (or media) are locked into them.
eff.org/deeplinks/2021…
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