1/ I believe I am in total alignment with @EthanZ on this issue. As I've discussed in most detail with @emilybell, many of us working on tech and media issues, especially disinfo, spend our time looking at the workings of.... tech and media. This obscures the real problem...
https://twitter.com/mmesquitaleal/status/1351542907992498179
2/ It is not so much that there is disinformation layered on top of the information ecosystem that is perverting democratic systems and hurting society. There is disinformation UNDER the information ecosystem itself. Many of our core ideas are in fact... disinformation.
3/ These include ideas about how our economy works, how power works, what democratic societies (here and now) are for and about, and of course issues of race, gender, sexuality. Disinformation is the medium- it is not a virus in the petri dish, it is the dish.
4/ So those of us who work on tech and media, and disinformation, will go on doing so (and we must), but we will make only marginal progress (though even marginal progress saves lives and is worth pursuing). But we can't lie to ourselves that the solution lies in these domains.
5/ @heatherchaplin and @irwin identify a 'culture of exploitation' as the central issue that animates the broader problems in tech and media. It's fundamentally a problem in the political economy. We have to address it f we really want to fix anything, fix trust, fix disinfo.
6/ And so it will take enormous political will. Maybe revolution (peaceful, I pray!). Because the real probolem is "basic and fundamental political problems that we are a long way from solving," as @EthanZ put it.
6/ My thinking on this is also influenced by @echeyfitz.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
