Twitter is NO LONGER SAFE OR RELIABLE. Here are the risks & what I've done:

Risks: account compromise, impersonation, phone security risk

Don't delete your account, or someone else could impersonate you. That's why I'm locking down the account & posting a final tweet. 1/ Instead of deleting my Twitter, account, here's what I have done:
- downloaded my archive
- confirmed Twitter has a unique password
- deleted my DMs
- created a page for people to find me elsewhere, sharing your email address if you want future updates

natematias.com/updates/

By gutting Twitter, Elon Musk is following the pattern of failing 1990s auto-makers that abandoned towns like Flint MI.
How can we avoid social media blight? Writing for @knightcolumbia, I argue how Twitter's failure could lead to something better

knightcolumbia.org/blog/how-to-av… When GM left Flint in 1997, they posted signs reading "Demolition Means Progress."

Let's not fall for it. In this history, Highsmith argues that blight was a failure of democracy as much as a case of corporate abandonment.

So what kinds of institutions does the social web need?

Also: be *very worried* about the safety and security of Twitter— Elon's tinkering has broken key parts of user account authentication.

Making plans to put this account on ice.

wired.com/story/twitter-… The main risks are account compromise, impersonation, & access to info available in DMs. Planning to:
- delete my archive of DMs
- create a statement on my website about whether I'm currently using my Twitter account, so you can verify
- locking down all connected services

Last month, @edyong209 asked why American society & gov could not or would not acknowledge the magnitude & urgency of nearly a million lives lost to COVID.

How many parents, siblings, children, are no longer with us? On Friday, I got a box of chalk & made marks every 12 inches @edyong209 Feeling the chalk crumble against an unmoving road, I was reminded of how powerless I felt in the early stages of COVID, and how intractable preventable deaths have come to feel.

With a mark for each death every 12 inches, how far would the chalk marks go? 189.4 miles.

Road safety is one of the highest-stakes, most successful areas of community-led algorithm governance this decade.

The problem? Traffic-beating algorithms like Google Waze, which sends waves of traffic through once-walkable neighborhoods worldwide.

nytimes.com/2017/12/24/nyr… UK councils have been dealing with the problem of Waze by altering road infrastructure.

This is a modal filter, a moveable barrier that allows emergency services & residents in cars, bikes, wheelchairs to enter / exit but prevents through-traffic. camcycle.org.uk/blog/2020/07/m…

What do we lose by describing tech governance as a "public-interest" endeavor? And how else might we describe it?

Blown away by David Carpenter's account of different ways to imagine & explain the power of regulation Carpenter says scholars of regulation use public-interest ideas as a "punching bag" to explain why other views are more accurate. These straw men include:

- regulation serves the interests of society/consumers
- regulation corrects market failures
- regulations implement the law

"Universities can tell... diversity stories, but as James Baldwin noted years ago, unless they make meaningful changes to their processes, we will not be able to believe what they say, because we see what they do"

@NeilLewisJr on the psychology of diversity initiatives

https://twitter.com/NatureHumBehav/status/1508477828433645572

Neil shares how many people were shocked at the low representation of Black & Brown faculty on the US tenure-track (data below).

Why might so many people be so shocked? Universities could well be believing their own PR, Neil argues.

fivethirtyeight.com/features/unive…

Why are we talking about the Everforward when grounded container ships weren't previously newsworthy?

And what might this question help us understand about activism & social change? Time for some Media/Comm theory 🧵

https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1503516528058195974

Why should the media pay more attention to grounded ships when they get grounded all the time?

In the 1970s, Mark Fishman asked a similar question: how do we get "crime waves" in news reports when crime rates aren't changing?

academic.oup.com/socpro/article…

Journo folks: How does journalism as a field fight for freedom of information if journalism ethics codes discourage lobbying? From my view as an outside observer, there are a few ways to advocate for journalism rights:

1) Some newsrooms explicitly take on narrow causes focused on press freedom which include freedom of information, journalist safety, and intellectual property:

ap.org/about/our-caus…

A de-centralized web will only be safer, more understanding, & more equitable if we invest in those things—including the needed labor, representation, ethics, & social science.

Without that, decentralization will be more dangerous, increase misunderstanding, & amplify inequality If you have watched the internet at all for the last 30yrs, it will not surprise you that many pioneers of non-centralized systems resist the idea of the common good.

That's why it's dangerous to create protocols w/out investing in people & institutions to manage risk up front

Paul Farmer's book "Pathologies of Power" opened my eyes to so many life-changing ideas, including:
- a path for theology to inspire research & social action
- a way to focus on research & action while re-imagining hierarchies of power
- the value of institution-building

https://twitter.com/Jacquiecharles/status/1495812896026157063

Come to think of it, Paul Farmer was the first White American academic / nonprofit leader I encountered as a student who could actually name ideas from Latino scholars that shaped his thinking about research & action — even among people who did work in Latin America!

Happy New Year!

As you look back on 2021, if you are thinking about taking charge of your tech use as a reaction to Big Tech stealing your attention & addicting/controlling your mind, here are some things you can do to make a difference. First, it's good that you're taking the time to question the role of tech in your life. It's worth continuing to question things—including the idea of tech addiction itself.

See this report by @amanda_lenhart and @_kellie_owens_ datasociety.net/library/good-i…

Algorithms that monitor/influence human behavior are everywhere & we still lack reliable science / policy to govern them.

This spring, I'm teaching a hands-on Cornell grad/undergrad course (soc sci & tech students) on human-algorithm behavior. Syllabus:

github.com/natematias/gov… The course will wrestle with human-algorithm feedback, where humans adapt to algorithms that are adapting to our behavior too.

As @jbakcoleman & co argue, we don't have a body of knowledge to reliably predict & intervene when things go wrong

pnas.org/content/118/27…

It's clearer & clearer that colonialism is the right analogy for how tech firms operate globally.

If Western societies were actually willing to face their histories of colonialism, we might have more of a toolbox for avoiding and managing these problems. But sigh.

https://twitter.com/kreissdaniel/status/1452097440128118792

I should explain how I see the analogy of colonialism applying to tech.

Governance: Like the British East India Company, the biz model of tech firms is not governance. But having built global infrastructures for profit, they now govern locally to maintain/protect their business

According to this story:
1) If you're targeted for abuse, you can report it, which with consent grants WhatsApp ability to review it
2) They also analyze info other than encrypted messages to identify fraud/abuse

We need to move beyond privacy vs safety

propublica.org/article/how-fa… Although this is a remarkable endeavor of reporting, presenting Facebook/WhatsApp as liars actually makes it harder to have the important conversations about how to achieve both meaningful privacy and safety.

Excited to speak this Friday at @BUQuestrom on "Governing Feedback in Human-Algorithm Behavior"

I'll be there virtually and am missing my chance to be back in Boston, since I used to live on the same block!

If you're at BU, send me a note and I'll see if you can get an invite! @BUQuestrom People are paying more attention to the challenge of explaining & intervening on mutual influence by humans and algorithms, especially during the pandemic.

This paper by a group of social and computer scientists outlines the stakes.

pnas.org/content/118/27…

This paper is a helpful corrective for the impression that movements like #metoo constitute some kind of extra-legal mob justice.

When norms are out of step with law (as they are around sexual assault) movements that change norms can strengthen law enforcement, due process etc

https://twitter.com/ylelkes/status/1432729694932242434

I've been thinking about Applebaum's new article on this topic

The piece struggles with the difficulty of writing about systemic failures & social movements through the lens of individual stories. The individual, systemic, & institutional blur together

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

Letter: We stand in solidarity with @LauraEdelson2 & @cyber4democracy, who were punished by Facebook for studying the company's impact on democracy

We call for changes by Facebook, tech firms, & regulators in support of accountability research. Pls sign!

edelson-solidarity.neocities.org @LauraEdelson2 @cyber4democracy We see Facebook’s actions against NYU as part of a long-standing pattern among large technology firms, all of whom have systematically undermined accountability and independent, public-interest research. Here are some of those stories:

So you want to be an activist/citizen/engaged scholar working on pressing societal questions:
- what does that actually look like?
- what challenges will you face?
- how do people overcome them?

Beaulieu, @BretonMylaine, Brousselle have a *great* summary: journals.plos.org/plosone/articl… 1st: what do scholars actually do? Faculty have 3 jobs:
- research
- teaching
- service (often imagined as service to the university and to their field)

Problem: a public mission isn't part of the job, as Boyer points out in this inspiring essay: eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1097206

What can we learn from social/computational science about policies to govern coordinated actors in a world of overlapping platforms and media?

Yesterday, I summarized a few points on how to understand those actors. Tonight, let's take a closer look at the ecosystem. Most content/behavior policy debates focus on individual platforms, because that's where governance happens. But we live in a *transmedia* world, where civic life spans many media forms

This term comes from @henryjenkins. You can read the history here: tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

How can social / computational science help make sense of content moderation & platform policies? People shared ~30 questions over the last day. Over the next few days, I'll summarize scholarship & point to others doing important ongoing work

https://twitter.com/natematias/status/1347968149468172288

What should society do about organized, dedicated actors whose purpose is to undermine a free society?

Debates on this question can start by thinking of groups as movements with leaders, resources, and organizing structures, as McCarthy & Zald describe

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_…