Tech Will Not Save Us: The Subjugation of Politics and Democracy to Big Tech

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International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies

Volume 3, Issue 2

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Tech Will Not Save Us: The Subjugation of Politics and Democracy to Big Tech

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Author(s): Julia R. DeCook

Publication date (Print): 1 December 2020

Journal: International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies

Publisher: Pluto Journals

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Julia R. DeCook

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50020082

Journal ID (jcode): intecritdivestud

Title: International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN: 2516-550X

ISSN: 2516-5518

Publication date (Print): 1 December 2020

Volume: 3

Issue: 2 ( doiID: 10.13169/intecritdivestud.3.issue-2 )

Pages: 73-79

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School of Communication, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, USA

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Publisher ID: intecritdivestud.3.2.0073

DOI: 10.13169/intecritdivestud.3.2.0073

SO-VID: 044629ab-aaa8-4e35-a030-a60756c1c661

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References

Angwin, J., & Grassegger, H. (2017). Facebook's secret censorship rules protect white men from hate speech but not black children [Text/html]. ProPublica, June 28. https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-hate-speech-censorship-internal-documents-algorithms
Ball, P., & Maxmen, A. (2020). The epic battle against coronavirus misinformation and conspiracy theories. Nature, 581(7809), 371–374. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01452-z
Benjamin, R. (2019). Race after technology: Abolitionist tools for the new Jim Code (1st ed.). Cambridge: Polity.
Berry, M. (2020). 49% Facebook employees don't believe it had positive impact on world. Fossbytes, November 4. https://fossbytes.com/49-facebook-employees-disagree-that-it-has-positive-impact-on-world/
Boggs, G. L. (1974). Revolution and evolution in the twentieth century. London: Monthly Review Press.
Boggs, G. L. (2013). Opinion: In Detroit, we have just begun to fight. Common Dreams. https://www.commondreams.org/views/2013/08/18/detroit-we-have-just-begun-fight
Cooper, M. (2021). The alt-right: Neoliberalism, libertarianism and the fascist temptation. Theory, Culture and Society, 0263276421999446. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276421999446
Daniels, J. (2009). Cyber racism: White supremacy online and the new attack on civil rights. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Daniels, J. (2018). The algorithmic rise of the “alt-right”. Contexts, 17(1), 60–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536504218766547
Dewey, C. (2015). Amazon, PayPal and Spotify inadvertently fund white supremacists. Here's how. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/03/17/amazon-paypal-and-spotify-inadvertently-fund-white-supremacists-heres-how/
Dixit, P. (2021). I thought my job was to report on technology in India. Instead, I got a front-row seat to the decline of my democracy. BuzzFeed News. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranav-dixit/indian-government-using-tech-destroy-democracy
Donovan, J. (2020). Why social media can't keep moderating content in the shadows. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/11/06/1011769/social-media-moderation-trans-parency-censorship/
Donovan, J. (2021). How social media's obsession with scale supercharged disinformation. Harvard Business Review, January 13. https://hbr.org/2021/01/how-social-medias-obsession-with-scale-supercharged-disinformation
Donovan, J., Lewis, B., & Friedberg, B. (2019). Parallel ports: Sociotechnical change from the alt-right to alt-tech. In M. Fielitz & N. Thurston (Eds.), Post-digital cultures of the far right: Online actions and offline consequences in Europe and the US (pp. 50–67). London: transcript.
Duguay, S. (2016). Trending this moment: Examining social media platforms as information gatekeepers through Facebook's Trending topics and Twitter's Moments. 66th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association: Communicating with Power, 9–13 September.
Fink, C. (2018). Dangerous speech, anti-Muslim violence, and Facebook in Myanmar. Journal of International Affairs, 71(1.5), 43–52.
Ganesh, B., & Bright, J. (2020). Countering extremists on social media: Challenges for strategic communication and content moderation. Policy and Internet, 12(1), 6–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.236
Gillespie, T. (2017). Governance of and by platforms. In J. Burgess, T. Poell, & A. Marwick (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Social Media (pp. 254–278). London: SAGE.
Gillespie, T. (2020). Content moderation, AI, and the question of scale. Big Data and Society, 7(2), 2053951720943234. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951720943234
Hannah, M. (2021). QAnon and the information dark age. First Monday, 26(2). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v26i2.10868
Leidig, E. (2020). Hindutva as a variant of right-wing extremism. Patterns of Prejudice, 54(3), 215–237.
Lewis, B. (2020). White supremacy in Silicon Valley. TWC Newsletter, 12. https://news.techworkerscoalition.org/2020/10/16/issue-12/
Maddox, J., & Malson, J. (2020). Guidelines without lines, communities without borders: The marketplace of ideas and digital manifest destiny in social media platform policies. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120926622
Mak, A. (2020). How “Stop the Steal” exploded on Facebook and Twitter. Slate Magazine, November 5. https://slate.com/technology/2020/11/how-stop-the-steal-exploded-on-facebook-and-twitter.html
Marantz, A. (2018). Reddit and the struggle to detoxify the internet. New Yorker, March 12. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/19/reddit-and-the-struggle-to-detoxify-the-internet
Marwick, A. E., & Lewis, R. (2017). Media manipulation and disinformation online (pp. 1–106). Data & Society. http://centerformediajustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/DataAndSociety_MediaManipulationAndDisinformationOnline.pdf
Mbembé, J.-A., & Meintjes, L. (2003). Necropolitics. Public Culture, 15(1), 11–40.
Mills, C. W. (2014). The racial contract. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Molyneux, L., & McGregor, S. (2021). When journalists put tweets in news stories, do they transfer too much power to Twitter? Nieman Lab. https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/03/when-journalists-put-tweets-in-news-stories-do-they-transfer-too-much-power-to-twitter/
Nemes, I. (2002). Regulating hate speech in cyberspace: Issues of desirability and efficacy. Information and Communications Technology Law, 11(3), 193–220. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360083022000031902
Nicas, J. (2020). YouTube cut down misinformation. Then it boosted Fox News. New York Times, November 5. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/technology/youtube-misinformation-fox-news.html
Perez, S. (2019). Twitter claims increased enforcement of hate speech and abuse policies in last half of 2019. TechCrunch. https://social.techcrunch.com/2020/08/19/twitter-claims-increased-enforcement-of-hate-speech-and-abuse-policies-in-last-half-of-2019/
Stokel-Walker, C. (2019). YouTube's plan to fix hate speech failed before it even started. Wired UK, June 6. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/youtube-steven-crowder-ban-hate-speech
Stop AAPI Hate. (2020). Stop AAPI Hate National Report (pp. 1–15). https://stopaapihate.org/reports/
Wong, J. C. (2020). “They don't think it's important”: Ellen Pao on why Facebook can't beat hate. The Guardian, July 21. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jul/21/ellen-pao-facebook-free-speech-hate-social-media
Wong, J. C. (2021). Revealed: The Facebook loophole that lets world leaders deceive and harass their citizens. The Guardian, April 12. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/12/facebook-loophole-state-backed-manipulation
Wong, J. C., & Ernst, J. (2021). Facebook knew of Honduran president's manipulation campaign – and let it continue for 11 months. The Guardian, April 13. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/13/facebook-honduras-juan-orlando-hernandez-fake-engagement
Yin, L., & Sankin, A. (2021). Google has a secret blocklist that hides YouTube hate videos from advertisers – but it's full of holes. The Markup. https://themarkup.org/google-the-giant/2021/04/08/google-youtube-hate-videos-ad-keywords-blocklist-failures

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Angwin, J., & Grassegger, H. (2017). Facebook's secret censorship rules protect white men from hate speech but not black children [Text/html]. ProPublica, June 28. https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-hate-speech-censorship-internal-documents-algorithms

[2] Ball, P., & Maxmen, A. (2020). The epic battle against coronavirus misinformation and conspiracy theories. Nature, 581(7809), 371–374. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01452-z

[3] Benjamin, R. (2019). Race after technology: Abolitionist tools for the new Jim Code (1st ed.). Cambridge: Polity.

[4] Berry, M. (2020). 49% Facebook employees don't believe it had positive impact on world. Fossbytes, November 4. https://fossbytes.com/49-facebook-employees-disagree-that-it-has-positive-impact-on-world/

[5] Boggs, G. L. (1974). Revolution and evolution in the twentieth century. London: Monthly Review Press.

[6] Boggs, G. L. (2013). Opinion: In Detroit, we have just begun to fight. Common Dreams. https://www.commondreams.org/views/2013/08/18/detroit-we-have-just-begun-fight

[7] Cooper, M. (2021). The alt-right: Neoliberalism, libertarianism and the fascist temptation. Theory, Culture and Society, 0263276421999446. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276421999446

[8] Daniels, J. (2009). Cyber racism: White supremacy online and the new attack on civil rights. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

[9] Daniels, J. (2018). The algorithmic rise of the “alt-right”. Contexts, 17(1), 60–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536504218766547

[10] Dewey, C. (2015). Amazon, PayPal and Spotify inadvertently fund white supremacists. Here's how. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/03/17/amazon-paypal-and-spotify-inadvertently-fund-white-supremacists-heres-how/

[11] Dixit, P. (2021). I thought my job was to report on technology in India. Instead, I got a front-row seat to the decline of my democracy. BuzzFeed News. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranav-dixit/indian-government-using-tech-destroy-democracy

[12] Donovan, J. (2020). Why social media can't keep moderating content in the shadows. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/11/06/1011769/social-media-moderation-trans-parency-censorship/

[13] Donovan, J. (2021). How social media's obsession with scale supercharged disinformation. Harvard Business Review, January 13. https://hbr.org/2021/01/how-social-medias-obsession-with-scale-supercharged-disinformation

[14] Donovan, J., Lewis, B., & Friedberg, B. (2019). Parallel ports: Sociotechnical change from the alt-right to alt-tech. In M. Fielitz & N. Thurston (Eds.), Post-digital cultures of the far right: Online actions and offline consequences in Europe and the US (pp. 50–67). London: transcript.

[15] Duguay, S. (2016). Trending this moment: Examining social media platforms as information gatekeepers through Facebook's Trending topics and Twitter's Moments. 66th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association: Communicating with Power, 9–13 September.

[16] Fink, C. (2018). Dangerous speech, anti-Muslim violence, and Facebook in Myanmar. Journal of International Affairs, 71(1.5), 43–52.

[17] Ganesh, B., & Bright, J. (2020). Countering extremists on social media: Challenges for strategic communication and content moderation. Policy and Internet, 12(1), 6–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.236

[18] Gillespie, T. (2017). Governance of and by platforms. In J. Burgess, T. Poell, & A. Marwick (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Social Media (pp. 254–278). London: SAGE.

[19] Gillespie, T. (2020). Content moderation, AI, and the question of scale. Big Data and Society, 7(2), 2053951720943234. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951720943234

[20] Hannah, M. (2021). QAnon and the information dark age. First Monday, 26(2). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v26i2.10868

[21] Leidig, E. (2020). Hindutva as a variant of right-wing extremism. Patterns of Prejudice, 54(3), 215–237.

[22] Lewis, B. (2020). White supremacy in Silicon Valley. TWC Newsletter, 12. https://news.techworkerscoalition.org/2020/10/16/issue-12/

[23] Maddox, J., & Malson, J. (2020). Guidelines without lines, communities without borders: The marketplace of ideas and digital manifest destiny in social media platform policies. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120926622

[24] Mak, A. (2020). How “Stop the Steal” exploded on Facebook and Twitter. Slate Magazine, November 5. https://slate.com/technology/2020/11/how-stop-the-steal-exploded-on-facebook-and-twitter.html

[25] Marantz, A. (2018). Reddit and the struggle to detoxify the internet. New Yorker, March 12. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/19/reddit-and-the-struggle-to-detoxify-the-internet

[26] Marwick, A. E., & Lewis, R. (2017). Media manipulation and disinformation online (pp. 1–106). Data & Society. http://centerformediajustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/DataAndSociety_MediaManipulationAndDisinformationOnline.pdf

[27] Mbembé, J.-A., & Meintjes, L. (2003). Necropolitics. Public Culture, 15(1), 11–40.

[28] Mills, C. W. (2014). The racial contract. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

[29] Molyneux, L., & McGregor, S. (2021). When journalists put tweets in news stories, do they transfer too much power to Twitter? Nieman Lab. https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/03/when-journalists-put-tweets-in-news-stories-do-they-transfer-too-much-power-to-twitter/

[30] Nemes, I. (2002). Regulating hate speech in cyberspace: Issues of desirability and efficacy. Information and Communications Technology Law, 11(3), 193–220. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360083022000031902

[31] Nicas, J. (2020). YouTube cut down misinformation. Then it boosted Fox News. New York Times, November 5. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/technology/youtube-misinformation-fox-news.html

[32] Perez, S. (2019). Twitter claims increased enforcement of hate speech and abuse policies in last half of 2019. TechCrunch. https://social.techcrunch.com/2020/08/19/twitter-claims-increased-enforcement-of-hate-speech-and-abuse-policies-in-last-half-of-2019/

[33] Stokel-Walker, C. (2019). YouTube's plan to fix hate speech failed before it even started. Wired UK, June 6. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/youtube-steven-crowder-ban-hate-speech

[34] Stop AAPI Hate. (2020). Stop AAPI Hate National Report (pp. 1–15). https://stopaapihate.org/reports/

[35] Wong, J. C. (2020). “They don't think it's important”: Ellen Pao on why Facebook can't beat hate. The Guardian, July 21. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jul/21/ellen-pao-facebook-free-speech-hate-social-media

[36] Wong, J. C. (2021). Revealed: The Facebook loophole that lets world leaders deceive and harass their citizens. The Guardian, April 12. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/12/facebook-loophole-state-backed-manipulation

[37] Wong, J. C., & Ernst, J. (2021). Facebook knew of Honduran president's manipulation campaign – and let it continue for 11 months. The Guardian, April 13. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/13/facebook-honduras-juan-orlando-hernandez-fake-engagement

[38] Yin, L., & Sankin, A. (2021). Google has a secret blocklist that hides YouTube hate videos from advertisers – but it's full of holes. The Markup. https://themarkup.org/google-the-giant/2021/04/08/google-youtube-hate-videos-ad-keywords-blocklist-failures