Cowardly techbros with more money than God won’t defend truth. But they’ll collect data all day long.
Our new debate over free speech in the digital age seems to hinge on whether you believe attempts should even be made to arbitrate truth. By contrast, the analog Western world was constructed upon Classical Enlightenment ideals of truth-seeking, the pillars of science, law, arts.
Big Tech, profit-seeking all aspects of life, has constructed an increasingly prevailing infrastructure for digital societies, consequently displacing the Enlightenment architectures of the analog world, and along with it, democratic governances that had developed over centuries.
Revisiting Facebook’s meagre attempt at experimenting with democratic policy governance emblematizes Big Tech’s contempt of Enlightenment infrastructures in their digital realms. FB quickly dropped shared governance like an underperforming product feature.
Big Tech would be wise to yield to the necessities of shared governance with its users. It is the alternative to government imposed limits and infringements. New attitudes about transparency are a baseline upon which shared governance with users could be built. #platformcoop
Maybe users run for local seats on Facebook policy councils? Maybe they propose and ratify policy? Maybe they appoint regional policy enforcement leaders? If you don’t want the government running Facebook then try to run Facebook more like a government. (Data is the tax!)
The mere threat of regulation can radically shift Facebook’s business practices. It says its political ad business will be money-losing this year, investing so much in new transparency and business integrity infrastructure. recode.net/2018/5/1/17309…
We’re not customers of platforms. We’re monetized audiences. We pay for infrastructure with privacy erosion, a data tax. There is a consent of the governed (but who reads the founding documents, the privacy policy, rights and privileges). There is no Republic for which it stands.
