tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/mark-zuckerberg-8438/articlesMark Zuckerberg – The Conversation2024-03-01T01:32:48Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2239872024-03-01T01:32:48Z2024-03-01T01:32:48ZBillionaires are building bunkers and buying islands. But are they prepping for the apocalypse – or pioneering a new feudalism?<p>In December 2023, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/mark-zuckerberg-inside-hawaii-compound/">WIRED</a> reported that Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire CEO of Meta and one of the foremost architects of today’s social-media-dominated world, has been buying up large swathes of the Hawaiian island Kauai. </p>
<p>Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are constructing a gigantic compound – known as <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ko%E2%80%99olau+Ranch/@22.197651,-159.6822401,10z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x7c06e7950965c60b:0x9e280ca304972e35!8m2!3d22.1975405!4d-159.3526296!16s%2Fg%2F11ptm9klm9?entry=ttu">Ko’olau Ranch</a> – on this land, which will most likely cost over A$400 million to complete.</p>
<p>This estate stretches over 5,500,000 square metres, is <a href="https://media.wired.com/photos/6579e8f807a9f58616a193a1/master/w_1600,c_limit/Jung_Wired_Zuckerberg_story-5.jpg">surrounded by a two-metre wall</a> and is patrolled by numerous security guards driving quad bikes on nearby beaches. Hundreds of local Hawaiians work on Zuckerberg’s property. But precisely how many, and what they actually do, is concealed by a binding nondisclosure agreement.</p>
<p>WIRED’s subheading hones in on the fact that Zuckerberg’s Ko’olau Ranch includes plans for a “massive underground bunker”. This seems to be the detail that piques the interest of reporters and conspiracy theorists alike.</p>
<p>People are asking not only “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/21/mark-zuckerberg-apocalypse-bunker-hawaii">Why is Mark Zuckerberg building a private apocalypse bunker in Hawaii?</a>”, but also “<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12974609/What-know-Worlds-billionaires-building-bunkers-assembling-fortresses-outside-mansions.html">What do the [billionaires] know?</a>” and “<a href="https://medium.com/@eajayi646/why-the-movie-leave-the-world-behind-might-actually-be-a-prophecy-for-2024-72444be57a8e">What is going to happen in 2024 that they are not telling us?</a>”.</p>
<h2>Beyond the bunker fixation</h2>
<p>Doomsday bunkers are becoming a common sight in contemporary apocalypse-themed US pop culture, from <a href="https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a42702626/how-the-last-of-us-bill-constructed-his-post-apocalyptic-world/">The Last of Us</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15978122/">Tales from the Walking Dead</a> to the recent Netflix film, <a href="https://screenrant.com/leave-the-world-behind-plot-holes-headscratchers/">Leave the World Behind</a>. </p>
<p>At the same time, public interest in the (<a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/nuclear-bunkers-are-back/">increasingly lucrative</a>) bunker industry is fanned by lurid headlines such as “<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/bunkers-billionaires-survive-apocalypse-cost-features-1235822762/">Billionaires’ Survivalist Bunkers Go Absolutely Bonkers With Fiery Moats and Water Cannons</a>”.</p>
<p>But other pieces of infrastructure on Kauai are arguably more deserving of our attention: several oversized mansions, with the combined footprint of a <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/zuckerberg-hawaii-compound.html">football field</a>; at least 11 treehouses connected by rope bridges; machinery dedicated to water purification, desalination and storage. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Facebook billionaire posts “<a href="https://www.thespectrumabrhs.com/win-relatable-billionaires.html">relatable</a>” content on Instagram from his humble ranch, such as a pic of “<a href="https://www.instagram.com/zuck/">Zuck</a>” about to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C15Lck4SfpS/">tuck into a massive side of grilled beef</a>. </p>
<p>Zuck informs his followers he’s now ranching his own cattle, feeding them with macadamia nuts grown on the ranch and beer brewed there as well. “Each cow eats 5,000-10,000 pounds of food each year, so that’s a lot of acres of macadamia trees,” he (or one of his assistants) writes.</p>
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<img alt="Photo by Mark Zuckerberg on January 09, 2024. Mark with ossobuco and steak." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578835/original/file-20240229-18-os3o1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578835/original/file-20240229-18-os3o1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578835/original/file-20240229-18-os3o1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578835/original/file-20240229-18-os3o1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578835/original/file-20240229-18-os3o1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=782&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578835/original/file-20240229-18-os3o1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=782&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578835/original/file-20240229-18-os3o1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=782&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Mark Zuckerberg is ranching his own cattle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C15Lck4SfpS/?img_index=1">Mark Zuckerberg/Instagram</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>As two of us argue in our forthcoming book, <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=36787">The Influencer Factory</a>, this kind of ersatz “down to earth” social media presence is actually an example of “a new transformation in capitalism, in which the logic of the self is indistinguishable from the logic of the corporation”.</p>
<p>Accompanying a picture of his child digging a hole in the ground, one of the most powerful (and least accountable) men in the world comments:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My daughters help plant the mac trees and take care of our different animals. We’re still early in the journey and it’s fun improving on it every season. Of all my projects, this is the most delicious.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://people.com/mark-zuckerberg-s-hawaii-super-compound-reportedly-includes-a-secret-underground-bunker-8416854">Other plans</a> from Zuckerberg and Chan include wildlife preservation, native plant restoration, organic turmeric and ginger farms, and partnerships with conservation experts in Kauai to preserve and protect the native flora and fauna. These activities will have far more material impact on Kauai than the bunker, no matter how many rooms it might have.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/doomsday-bunkers-mars-and-the-mindset-the-tech-bros-trying-to-outsmart-the-end-of-the-world-188661">Doomsday bunkers, Mars and 'The Mindset': the tech bros trying to outsmart the end of the world</a>
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<h2>An ecosystem of one’s own</h2>
<p>The founder of Facebook isn’t the only billionaire building gigantic compounds in Hawaii. <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oprah-zuckerberg-ellison-billionaires-continue-155110078.html">Oprah Winfrey</a> purchased a 163-acre estate in Maui back in 2002, and has bought further plots of land since then, totalling over 650,000 square metres. </p>
<p>Larry Ellison, the co-founder of tech company Oracle, purchased <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oracle-larry-ellison-lanai-hawaii-plans-sustainability-tourism-2020-12#murdock-became-the-owner-of-lanai-in-1985-after-taking-over-doles-parent-company-castle-and-cooke-prior-to-murdocks-ownership-the-island-was-controlled-by-pineapple-king-james-dole-2">almost all of the Hawaiian island Lanai</a> in 2012. Two years ago, the billionaire Frank VanderSloot <a href="https://www.kitv.com/news/local/billionaire-shares-plans-for-the-more-than-2-000-acres-he-bought-on-kauai/article_c369109c-d8a0-11ec-98dd-1b2ba349abc1.html">purchased a 2,000 acre ranch</a> just south of Zuckerberg’s. </p>
<p>As high net worth individuals move in, locals already living on the land are increasingly <a href="https://www.kitv.com/news/local/priced-out-of-paradise-census-data-shows-more-local-families-leaving-hawaii/article_395b8e9c-88b9-11ed-9a97-9f2e667fd31c.html">priced out</a> or even <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/23/mark-zuckerberg-hawaii-land-lawsuits-kauai-estate#:%7E:text=Zuckerberg's%20lawsuits%20have%20prompted%20a,who%20is%20originally%20from%20Kauai.">forcibly displaced</a> – an unfortunate side effect of <a href="https://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/01/18/business/facebooks-zuckerberg-sues-to-force-land-sales/?HSA=74dae150a1d9f99e2592d0eac31ea430d01f35d5">Hawaii’s complex land rights</a>, where indigenous ownership and stewardship is often not legally recognised.</p>
<p>At first blush, these tycoons might seem to be “<a href="https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/27457795">prepping</a>” for a familiar 20th-century style apocalypse, as depicted in <a href="https://parade.com/1223919/gwynnewatkins/best-end-of-the-world-movies/">countless disaster movies</a>. But they’re not. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Oracle founder Larry Ellison purchased ‘almost all’ of the Hawaiian island Lanai.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Yes, their vast estates do include bunkers and other technologies traditionally associated with prepping. For example, the mansions of Ko’olau Ranch are connected through underground tunnels that feed into a large shelter. </p>
<p>However, Zuckerberg, Winfrey, Ellison and others are actually embarking on far more ambitious projects. They are seeking to create entirely self-sustaining ecosystems, in which land, agriculture, the built environment and labour are all controlled and managed by a single person, who has more in common with a mediaeval-era feudal lord than a 21st-century capitalist.</p>
<h2>Welcome (back) to feudalism</h2>
<p>Some have argued the tech industry has invented a new form of “<a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/technofeudalism-9781529926095">technofeudalism</a>” or <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/neofeudalism-the-end-of-capitalism/">“neofeudalism”</a> that depends on “<a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=28816">data colonization</a>” and the corporate <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/455862/data-grab-by-couldry-ulises-a-mejias-and-nick/9780753560204">appropriation of personal data</a>. </p>
<p>We agree, but also suggest what’s going on in Hawaii is actually aligned with traditional understandings of feudalism. As Joshua A. T. Fairfield, author of <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/law/property-law/owned-property-privacy-and-new-digital-serfdom">Owned: Property, Privacy and the New Digital Serfdom</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-internet-of-things-is-sending-us-back-to-the-middle-ages-81435">puts it</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the feudal system of medieval Europe, the king owned almost everything, and everyone else’s property rights depended on their relationship with the king. Peasants lived on land granted by the king to a local lord, and workers didn’t always even own the tools they used for farming or other trades like carpentry and blacksmithing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here it’s easy to see a contrast between Ko’olau Ranch and earlier attempts by billionaires to build bunkers to “escape” some future cataclysm. </p>
<p>Take, for instance, libertarian venture capitalist and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/18/peter-thiel-refused-consent-for-sprawling-lodge-in-new-zealand-local-council">failed attempts to build</a> an elaborate, bunker-like underground lodge in Aotearoa New Zealand’s South Island, taking up more than 73,700 square metres of land. The plan was rejected because of hostilities between Thiel and the local council. </p>
<p>What we see with Zuckerberg’s project isn’t an overt conflict between billionaire and community. In Kauai, members of a community have consented, or conceded, to grant a plutocrat the stewardship of their land, in the name of preservation. This is a business model that leads directly (back) to feudalism.</p>
<p>This insight is lost in the media’s obsession with the “<a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/zuckerberg-hawaii-compound.html">craziest features</a>” of Zuckerberg’s Hawaiian folly. Rather, what is emerging among billionaires is a belief that survival depends not (only) on hiding out in a reinforced concrete hole in the ground, but (also) on developing, and controlling, an ecosystem of one’s own.</p>
<p>It’s all too easy to assume that, because some of the world’s richest people are buying up estates on remote islands and fitting them out with bunkers, they must be privy to some secret inside information. But the truth is simpler, and more brutal, than that. Billionaires are building elaborate properties … because they can.</p>
<p>Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth in 2024 is an almost unfathomable <a href="https://fortune.com/2024/02/02/mark-zuckerberg-net-worth-wealth-meta-stock-price/">A$260 billion</a>. A $400 million Hawaiian fortress, extravagant as it might be, represents less than 0.2% of his total wealth. As a percentage, this is comparable to a household with a net worth of $1,000,000 (<a href="https://www.canstar.com.au/savings-accounts/average-aussie-earn-save-owe/">the average net worth in Australia</a>) spending just $1,540.</p>
<p>These back-of-a-napkin calculations make it clear that members of the billionaire bunker club don’t have to “believe” in the likelihood of apocalypse or imminent social collapse in any committed or meaningful sense (as <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-if-the-worlds-systems-are-already-cracking-due-to-climate-change-is-there-a-post-doom-silver-lining-213890">self-declared “doomster” Jem Bendell</a> does).</p>
<p>Instead, since they have far more money than they know what to do with, they may as well use a small fraction of it to build underground fortresses. Bill Gates, for example, owns <a href="https://robbreport.com.au/homes/inside-bill-and-melinda-gates-property-portfolio/">at least eight properties in the US alone</a> and, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/bunkers-billionaires-survive-apocalypse-cost-features-1235822762/">according to the Hollywood Reporter</a>, “is rumored to have underground security areas under every one of his homes”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-if-the-worlds-systems-are-already-cracking-due-to-climate-change-is-there-a-post-doom-silver-lining-213890">Friday essay: if the world's systems are 'already cracking' due to climate change, is there a post-doom silver lining?</a>
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<h2>Rich prepper, poor prepper</h2>
<p>On the other hand, the less disposable income someone has, the more any serious attempts to “prepare for the future” will disrupt their lives in the here and now. </p>
<p>Prepping culture makes little sense in countries like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/10/living-off-grid-in-india-am-i-the-only-one-left-who-believes-in-globalisation">India</a> or Cambodia or Yemen, where severe poverty is widespread and hundreds of millions of people are already surviving in conditions that might seem “apocalyptic” to privileged westerners.</p>
<p>Closer to home, for middle-class people who can’t afford to own multiple properties, a decision to live on a potentially “safe” island would necessitate moving there permanently, in the process passing up opportunities to earn income elsewhere.</p>
<p>If your disposable income is roughly $5,000 or $10,000 per year, and you hope to purchase a Rising S “<a href="https://risingsbunkers.com/layouts-pricing-bunkers/survival-shelter-base-model-10x40/">Standard Bomb Shelter Base Model</a>”, this would set you back a little over $150,000. You would have to dedicate your entire working life to this project.</p>
<p>Maybe this is why, during the early weeks of lockdowns in 2020, there was a rush of ordinary people <a href="https://youtu.be/GVHYTdGUAZM?si=Ju5d3tmpO5QD4SIw">bulk-buying toilet paper</a>. It was the least expensive, most convenient way to amass a significant-looking stockpile in a hurry. People could feel like they were “taking action” during an otherwise overwhelming situation. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, our obsession with the mega-bunkers of the mega-rich is part of a broader cultural trend, in which ordinary – read: poor – people pretend to make fun of “crazy” billionaires, while furtively aspiring to uber-wealthy status themselves. </p>
<p>This ideological shell game allows us to (fleetingly) acknowledge the damage <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2023/jul/17/top-economists-call-for-action-global-inequality-rich-poor-poverty-climate-breakdown-un-world-bank">runaway global inequality</a> is doing to social cohesion and the viability of our ecosystems. </p>
<p>In a voyeuristic fantasy, we can project ourselves to the very top of the inequality pyramid, just for a moment. A convergence of industries that prey on our collective insecurities occurred in 2021, when Texan bunker salesman Ron Hubbard <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbtif06gsiw">appeared on an episode</a> of Keeping up with the Kardashians, and audiences got to watch Kim and Khloé go bunker shopping.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">On an episode of Keeping up the with the Kardashians, they go bunker shopping.</span></figcaption>
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<p>That the Australian public is fascinated by Zuckerberg and other billionaires’ spare mansions at a historical moment when our <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-deeply-unfair-housing-system-is-in-crisis-and-our-politicians-are-failing-us-219001">housing affordability crisis is reaching unprecedented levels</a> is particularly telling, and galling.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, for the actual billionaires, bunkers are just a small part of a “diversified portfolio” of bets against the future. </p>
<p>Other well known schemes include <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverwilliams1/2021/12/21/billionaire-space-race-turns-into-a-publicity-disaster/?sh=6fec57345e4d">investing in space travel</a>, <a href="https://www.tatler.com/article/super-rich-freezing-bodies-for-the-future">cryonics</a> (freezing your body in the hopes of a future reincarnation), <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/silicon-valley-billionaire-pays-company-thousands-to-kill-him-and-preserve-his-brain-forever-a3790871.html#:%7E:text=News%20%7C%20World-,Silicon%20Valley%20billionaire%20pays%20company%20thousands%20'to%20be%20killed%20and,his%20brain%20digitally%20preserved%20forever'&text=A%20tech%20billionaire%20has%20paid,that%20it%20is%20preserved%20forever">mind uploading</a>, and in Peter Thiel’s case, flirting with <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5662775/">parabiosis</a> – transfusing young people’s blood into your own veins. </p>
<p>For billionaires, putting money into such projects doesn’t mean they’re crazy, or paranoid, or in possession of some special secret knowledge about the future. It simply means they’ve amassed such colossal surpluses of wealth, they may as well use it for something.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223987/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Doig receives funding from Creative Australia and the New Zealand Society of Authors. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grant Bollmer and Katherine Guinness do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg buy vast swathes of land in remote areas, it can look like “prepping” – but they’re really trying to establish medieval-style fiefdoms.Katherine Guinness, Lecturer in Art History, The University of QueenslandGrant Bollmer, Senior Lecturer in Digital Media, The University of QueenslandTom Doig, Lecturer in Creative Writing, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2205682024-01-18T13:28:25Z2024-01-18T13:28:25ZUS law permits charities to encourage voting and help voters register, making GOP concerns about this assistance unfounded<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569650/original/file-20240116-27-7pcz6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1375%2C1184%2C3166%2C1954&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Volunteers register voters in Santa Fe, N.M. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/volunteers-register-voters-at-a-table-set-up-at-a-fourth-of-news-photo/997809612?adppopup=true">Robert Alexander/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>U.S. charities <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/501">aren’t allowed to campaign for or against specific political candidates</a>. But they can <a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/rr2007-41.pdf">legally engage</a> in nonpartisan <a href="https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/electionofficials/QuickStartGuides/Voter_Education_EAC_Quick_Start_Guide_508.pdf">voter education</a> and candidate-neutral efforts to get out the vote, as well as voter registration drives.</p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=2057780">expert on charitable tax law</a> who used to work at the Internal Revenue Service. </p>
<p>While <a href="https://gop-waysandmeans.house.gov/event/oversight-subcommittee-hearing-on-growth-of-the-tax-exempt-sector-and-the-impact-on-the-american-political-landscape/">testifying before a House subcommittee</a> in December 2023, I explained that these electoral-related activities are consistent with a healthy democracy and <a href="https://gop-waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Hackney-Testimony.pdf">don’t violate any U.S. laws</a>. </p>
<h2>Voter assistance</h2>
<p>Some nonprofits like the <a href="https://www.lwv.org/elections/increasing-voter-registration">League of Women Voters</a> have engaged in these nonpartisan efforts for decades. Others, like <a href="https://www.nonprofitvote.org/">Nonprofit Vote</a> and <a href="https://www.rockthevote.org/">Rock the Vote</a>, seek to motivate people of color and young voters to cast their ballots.</p>
<p>It’s hard to find data on how much charitable money funds these causes. But there’s no shortage of conjecture about its possible impact.</p>
<p>The Republican Party has long seen nonpartisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote campaigns as being somehow tied to the Democratic Party or more helpful for turning out votes for Democratic candidates than Republican hopefuls. As far back as the 1960s, Republican representatives accused the <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-ford-foundation-the-1967-cleveland-mayoral-election-and-the-1969-tax-reform-act/">Ford Foundation of using voter registration</a> in what they alleged was a partisan manner. </p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/the-house-gop-wants-to-probe-nonprofits-both-left-and-right-have-pushed-back">Republican objections</a> <a href="https://gop-waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/UPDATED-RFI-on-501c3-and-c4-Activities-FINAL.docx87.pdf">and concerns</a> are getting louder. There are <a href="https://tenney.house.gov/media/press-releases/congresswoman-tenney-reintroduces-end-zuckerbucks-act">GOP efforts underway</a> to make some of these donations illegal. </p>
<h2>Charity constraints</h2>
<p>Because it’s against the law for charities to overtly engage in political activity, any direct politicking tied to these nonpartisan registration drives could <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/501">jeopardize their tax-exempt status</a>.</p>
<p>These “organizations may encourage people to participate in the electoral process through voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives, conducted in a non-partisan manner,” the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/rr2007-41.pdf">Internal Revenue Service states</a>. “On the other hand, voter education or registration activities conducted in a biased manner that favors (or opposes) one or more candidates is prohibited.”</p>
<p>In practice, that means it’s OK if a charity sets up a voter registration booth at a state fair and registers anyone who comes to the booth, regardless of their political leanings. But if a charitable organization runs a phone bank that encourages people to vote only if they agree with a particular candidate’s position, that would break the law.</p>
<p>The Americans who can <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-charitable-deduction-an-economist-explains-162647">deduct their contributions to charities</a> from their taxable income – an option generally available today for only the highest earners – can’t do that with the money they <a href="https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-deductions-and-credits-2/are-your-political-campaign-contributions-tax-deductible-11380/">donate to political candidates</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/300126510">Center for American Progress</a>, a progressive think tank, isn’t allowed to endorse President Joe Biden’s reelection bid. Nor is <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/237327730">The Heritage Foundation</a>, a conservative think tank, at liberty to urge voters to support his Republican rival.</p>
<p>Although <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/300126510">both of these groups produce political analysis</a>, they <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/237327730">are charities</a> and must comply with section <a href="https://www.501c3.org/what-is-a-501c3">501(c)(3)</a> of the tax code.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fx7bPrK47QI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Professor Philip Hackney testifies before the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee on Dec. 13, 2023.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Johnson amendment</h2>
<p>This restriction, on the books since 1954, is known as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-says-the-irs-regulates-churches-too-much-heres-why-hes-wrong-77605">Johnson amendment</a> because of Lyndon B. Johnson’s insistence on its passage when he was serving in Congress.</p>
<p>Former President Donald Trump tried and failed to get rid of the Johnson amendment for churches and other houses of worship, which the U.S. government <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-a-church-that-can-depend-on-the-eye-of-the-beholder-or-paperwork-filed-with-the-irs-130517">lumps together with all other charities</a>. </p>
<p>House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican lawmakers would like to go even further than Trump’s proposed change. They have backed the <a href="https://slate.com/business/2023/11/mike-johnson-speaker-johnson-amendment-religious-leaders-taxes.html">Free Speech Fairness Act</a>, <a href="https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/trends-and-policy-issues/protecting-johnson-amendment-and-nonprofit-nonpartisanship">which would practically eliminate restrictions on politicking</a> for not just churches but all charities.</p>
<p>Some conservative preachers, meanwhile, have been <a href="https://www.keranews.org/politics/2022-11-03/many-churches-use-their-pulpit-to-support-or-oppose-political-candidates">flouting the Johnson amendment</a> without eliciting much of a <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/30/johnson-amendment-elections-irs/">response from the IRS</a>.</p>
<h2>Republican lawmakers</h2>
<p>At the same time Republicans are trying to significantly weaken restrictions on the use of charitable money for politicking, they are also calling out nonpartisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts as unfair uses of tax-deductible charitable dollars.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://gop-waysandmeans.house.gov/event/oversight-subcommittee-hearing-on-growth-of-the-tax-exempt-sector-and-the-impact-on-the-american-political-landscape/">House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing</a> in which I testified focused on the role that some nonprofits are playing in American politics.</p>
<p>Republicans expressed their concerns that charities are engaging in voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts in communities that might boost the electoral chances of Democratic candidates. Because contributions to charities can be tax deductible, those lawmakers said they are concerned that the federal government is thus being used to further Democratic interests.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/1/7/21055340/mind-the-gap-silicon-valley-donors-democrats-2020-plan-140-million">Some of them highlighted a memo</a> from <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/mind-the-gap/C00683649/summary/2022">Mind the Gap</a>, a Democratic <a href="https://www.fec.gov/press/resources-journalists/political-action-committees-pacs/">super PAC</a>. According to the memo, donating to charities for voter registration in the 2020 election cycle was “the single most effective tactic for ensuring Democratic victories.”</p>
<p>But as political scientists Daron R. Shaw and John R. Petrocik have observed, seven decades of survey data and election returns “<a href="https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/does-high-voter-turnout-help-one-party">suggest that turnout has no systematic partisan consequences</a>.” </p>
<h2>‘Zuckerbucks’ contributions</h2>
<p>Republican lawmakers are particularly incensed by the over <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/zuckerberg-2020-election-republicans/">US$400 million in contributions Mark Zuckerberg</a> and his wife, <a href="https://www.techandciviclife.org/100m/">Priscilla Chan</a>, made to two charities to make grants to state and local election administrations to aid those authorities during the COVID-19 crisis.</p>
<p>Conservatives have dubbed this support aimed at ensuring a well-run election system “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-united-states-government-and-politics-78e0e0d548df9023aeac1c9c690b48f8">Zuckerbucks</a>.” A Republican bill pending in Congress <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/end-zuckerbucks-gop-bill-aims-to-ban-mark-zuckerberg-style-election-funding">would outlaw this kind of spending</a> in the future.</p>
<p>And more than 20 Republican-led states have already <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-united-states-government-and-politics-78e0e0d548df9023aeac1c9c690b48f8">barred this private spending on elections</a> within their borders.</p>
<p>However, the Federal Elections Commission, which is responsible for this kind of oversight, has found no cause for concern. In a rare unanimous decision in 2022, three Republican and three Democratic commissioners <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/zuckerberg-2020-election-republicans/">determined that all complaints of violations of campaign finance law</a> in the case of the Zuckerberg grants were without merit.</p>
<h2>Concerns moving forward</h2>
<p>As I advised House lawmakers, I believe that drafting any restrictions on the nonprofit sector requires proceeding with great care. Charities make up a part of civil society – a place outside of government and business – where we all have an opportunity to generate important information, develop our opinions and share those with government representatives. </p>
<p>In my view, Congress needs to assess whether any cure it seeks to implement will be better or worse than the disease that it thinks afflicts the U.S. electoral system. Clamping down on nonpartisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts seems to me to be misguided at best.</p>
<p>Congress can, if it wishes to take action, appropriate more funds to ensure that all local and state authorities have the money they need for a well-run election system. That could eliminate the need for donors to step in.</p>
<p>In any case, Congress can help by supporting increases in the IRS budget, especially for the tax agency’s capacity to enforce compliance with the laws pertaining to tax-exempt organizations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220568/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Hackney is a member of the Democratic Party. </span></em></p>A professor of nonprofit law explains why drafting any restrictions on charities requires proceeding with great care.Philip Hackney, Associate Professor of Law, University of PittsburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197952023-12-29T11:41:17Z2023-12-29T11:41:17ZHow the ‘visionaries’ of Silicon Valley mean profits are prioritised over true technological progress<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566638/original/file-20231219-27-jjf9ep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C31%2C3533%2C1963&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/xiengkhouang-laos-august-24-2023-elon-2351521525">Leefuji/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Technological innovation in the last couple of decades has brought fame and huge wealth to the likes of Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos. Often feted as geniuses, they are the faces behind the gadgets and media that so many of us depend upon. </p>
<p>Sometimes they are <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/elon-musk-what-are-his-most-recent-controversial-moments-13019651">controversial</a>. Sometimes the level of their influence is <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/03/pandoras-box-generative-ai-companies-chatgpt-and-human-rights#:%7E:text=Since%20OpenAI%20released%20ChatGPT%20in,of%20its%20search%20engine%2C%20Bing.">criticised</a>. </p>
<p>But they also benefit from a common <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/11/the-myth-of-the-brilliant-charismatic-leader">mythology</a> which elevates their status. That myth is the belief that executive “visionaries” leading vast corporations are the engines which power essential breakthroughs too ambitious or futuristic for sluggish public institutions. </p>
<p>For there are many who consider the private sector to be far <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2018/gashc4239.doc.htm">better equipped</a> than the public sector to solve major challenges. We see such <a href="https://openai.com/our-structure">ideology</a> embodied in ventures like OpenAI. This successful company was founded on the premise that while artificial intelligence is too consequential to be left to corporations alone, the public sector is simply incapable of keeping up. </p>
<p>The approach is linked to a <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/political-education-silicon-valley/">political philosophy</a> which champions the idea of pioneering entrepreneurs as figureheads who advance civilisation through sheer individual brilliance and determination.</p>
<p>In reality, however, most modern technological building blocks – like <a href="https://qz.com/elon-musks-spacex-and-tesla-get-far-more-government-mon-1850332884">car batteries</a>, space rockets, the <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/yes-government-researchers-really-did-invent-the-internet/">internet</a>, <a href="https://time.com/4092375/how-the-government-created-your-cell-phone/">smart phones</a>, and <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/somd/space-communications-navigation-program/gps/">GPS</a> – emerged from <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929310-200-state-of-innovation-busting-the-private-sector-myth/">publicly funded</a> research. They were not the inspired work of corporate masters of the universe.</p>
<p>And my work suggests <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/ceo-society-9781786990754/">a further disconnect</a>: that the profit motive seen across Silicon Valley (and beyond) frequently impedes innovation rather than improving it. </p>
<p>For example, attempts to <a href="https://corporatewatch.org/vaccine-capitalism-a-run-down-of-the-huge-profits-being-made-from-covid-19-vaccines/">profit from</a> the COVID vaccine had a <a href="https://globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12992-021-00763-8">detrimental impact</a> on global access to the medicine. Or consider how recent ventures into <a href="https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/10/13/elon-musk-spacex-signs-up-first-space-tourist-dennis-tito-starship-flight-around-the-moon">space tourism</a> seem to prioritise experiences for extremely wealthy people over less lucrative but more scientifically valuable missions. </p>
<p>More broadly, the thirst for profit means intellectual property restrictions <a href="https://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/mdocs/en/wipo_ipr_ge_11/wipo_ipr_ge_11_topic6.pdf">tend to restrict</a> collaboration between (and even within) companies. There is also evidence that short-term <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/rethinking-shareholder-primacy-new-innovation-economy">shareholder demands</a> distort real innovation in favour of financial reward. </p>
<p>Allowing executives focused on profits to set technological agendas can incur public costs too. It’s expensive dealing with the hazardous low-earth orbit <a href="https://www.space.com/starlink-satellite-conjunction-increase-threatens-space-sustainability">debris</a> caused by space tourism, or the complex regulatory negotiations involved in <a href="https://www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/australia/world%E2%80%99s-first-ai-law-eu-announces-provisional-agreement-ai-act_en">protecting human rights</a> around AI.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Graphic of rubbish surrounding Earth." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566645/original/file-20231219-25-c7z0wq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566645/original/file-20231219-25-c7z0wq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566645/original/file-20231219-25-c7z0wq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566645/original/file-20231219-25-c7z0wq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566645/original/file-20231219-25-c7z0wq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566645/original/file-20231219-25-c7z0wq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566645/original/file-20231219-25-c7z0wq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Who pays for the clean up?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/3d-render-space-debris-around-planet-2075749981">Frame Stock Footage/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So there is a clear tension between the demands of profit and long-term technological progress. And this partly explains why major historical innovations emerged from public sector institutions which are relatively insulated from short-term financial pressures. Market forces alone rarely achieve transformative breakthroughs like space programs or the creation of the internet. </p>
<p>Excessive corporate dominance has other dimming effects. Research scientists seem to dedicate <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/7/14/12016710/science-challeges-research-funding-peer-review-process#1">valuable time</a> towards chasing funding <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8221522/#:%7E:text=We%20identified%20eight%20corporate%20sectors,increase%20reliance%20on%20industry%20evidence">influenced</a> by business interests. They are also increasingly <a href="https://www.macfound.org/media/files/a_future_of_failure_-_public_.pdf">incentivised</a> to go into the profitable private sector. </p>
<p>Here those scientists’ and engineers’ talents may be directed at helping advertisers to better keep hold of <a href="https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/attention_economy_feb.pdf">our attention</a>. Or they may be tasked with finding ways for corporations to make more money from our <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/04/shoshana-zuboff-surveillance-capitalism-assault-human-automomy-digital-privacy">personal data</a>. </p>
<p>Projects which might address climate change, public health or global inequality are less likely to be the focus.</p>
<p>Likewise, research suggests that university laboratories are moving towards a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8221522/">“science for profit”</a> model through industry partnerships. </p>
<h2>Digital destiny</h2>
<p>But true scientific innovation needs institutions and people guided by principles that go beyond financial incentives. And fortunately, there are places which support them. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262542432/open-knowledge-institutions/">Open knowledge institutions</a>” and <a href="https://www.oecd.org/cfe/empowering-communities-with-platform-cooperatives-c2ddfc9f-en.htm">platform cooperatives</a> are focused on innovation for the collective good rather than individual glory. Governments could do much more to support and invest in these kinds of organisations. </p>
<p>If they do, the coming decades could see the development of healthier innovation ecosystems which go beyond corporations and their executive rule. They would create an environment of cooperation rather than competition, for genuine social benefit.</p>
<p>There will still be a place for the quirky “genius” of Musk and Zuckerberg and their fellow Silicon Valley billionaires. But relying on their bloated corporations to design and dominate technological innovation is a mistake. </p>
<p>For real discovery and progress cannot rely on the minds and motives of a few famous men. It involves investing in institutions which are rooted in democracy and sustainability – not just because it is more ethical, but because in the the long term, it will be much more effective.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219795/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Bloom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How corporate dominance holds us all back.Peter Bloom, Professor of Management, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2109562023-10-27T12:17:55Z2023-10-27T12:17:55ZWhy Elon Musk is obsessed with casting X as the most ‘authentic’ social media platform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555929/original/file-20231025-19-mfd5h2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C5521%2C3772&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">X CEO Elon Musk has argued that his social media platform allows users to 'be their true selves.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/elon-musk-ceo-of-tesla-and-x-arrives-for-the-ai-insight-news-photo/1678314548?adppopup=true">Nathan Howard/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With X, formerly known as Twitter, hitting the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/27/technology/elon-musk-twitter-deal-complete.html">one-year anniversary</a> of Elon Musk’s US$44 billion takeover of the social media platform, it can feel disorienting to try to make sense of all that’s gone down. </p>
<p>Blue check-mark verifications <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/31/technology/personaltech/twitter-blue-check-musk.html">got hawked</a>. Internal company documents about content moderation policies <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/12/14/1142666067/elon-musk-is-using-the-twitter-files-to-discredit-foes-and-push-conspiracy-theor">got laundered</a>. A puzzling rebrand to “X” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/24/elon-musk-x-twitter-rebrand-logo/">got hatched</a>. And a literal cage match with Meta head Mark Zuckerberg was on again and, ultimately, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/business/zuckerberg-musk-cage-fight.html">off again</a>.</p>
<p>It appears unclear what, precisely, Musk’s ambitions are for the platform. But when a threatening competitor, Threads, emerged in summer 2023, he may have offered a brief window of insight.</p>
<p>A clone of X, Threads <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/10/threads-meta-twitter-zuckerberg/">rolled up 100 million users</a> in less than a week after its June launch, becoming the fastest-growing app of all time. Musk promptly erupted with two attacks on Zuckerberg’s creation.</p>
<p>The first was catty and, as such, invited notice within digital spaces programmed to promote outrage. <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1676770522200252417?lang=en">Musk declared</a>, “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1676770522200252417"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1678686570122199040">The second</a> – “You are free to be your true self here” – was more overlooked, yet revealed an essential premise that social media companies must sell to all their users.</p>
<p>As I argue in my new book, “<a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=36333">The Authenticity Industries</a>,” authenticity represents the central battle for social media companies. They design their platforms to demonstrate and facilitate genuine self-performance from users. That’s what makes for dependable data, and dependable data – sold to advertisers – is <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2019/10/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-georgetown-speech-authentic.html">what makes the internet economy hum</a>.</p>
<p>Silicon Valley’s commitment to the ideal of authenticity remains ironclad, even as more and more people are starting to recognize that <a href="https://theconversation.com/taylor-swifts-eras-tour-is-a-potent-reminder-that-the-internet-is-not-real-life-209325">the internet isn’t real life</a>.</p>
<h2>A life performed</h2>
<p>Over the past decade, Instagram – with its glossy, obsessively manicured tableaux – became the aesthetic antithesis against which all other social media platforms measure that authenticity. </p>
<p>Instagram tinted life by allowing users to apply sun-kissed, nostalgic filters to their photographs. To scrub clean any blemishes on selfies posted there, add-ons like Facetune enabled magazine-quality Photoshopping <a href="https://digitalnative.substack.com/p/the-rejection-of-internet-perfection?s=r.">and topped paid-app charts</a>. Instagram became your highlight reel: galleries of far-flung travels and mouth-watering food porn exquisitely curated – a life performed as much as lived.</p>
<p>“[Instagram’s] basically almost designed to make your friends jealous,” one executive at TikTok <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=36333">confided to me</a>. “It kind of makes me depressed a little bit sometimes when I go on Instagram and I feel, like, ‘Oh, I’m not fit enough. I’m not successful enough.’”</p>
<p>Over time, #NoFilter caveats, blurry photo dumps and shameless “finsta” accounts – a portmanteau of “fake” and “Instagram” – <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/bereal-authenticity-performance-online-instagram">arose as forms of authenticity backlash</a> to the “false happiness” of the posed lifestyles appearing on users’ feeds.</p>
<p>Heck, even Instagram knew it had a problem, copy-and-pasting Snapchat’s signature ephemerality and <a href="https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/introducing-instagram-stories">launching its disappearing Stories feature</a> to lower the pressure on users to post perfection.</p>
<p>If ever a platform, then, has been deserving of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/17/business/media/miquela-virtual-influencer.html">Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s 2019 quip</a> that “social media, to date, has largely been the domain of real humans being fake,” it’s probably Instagram.</p>
<h2>Different flavors of the same thing</h2>
<p>Recall Musk’s second, <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1678686570122199040">more revelatory rejoinder</a> on behalf of X: “You are free to be your true self here.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1678686570122199040"}"></div></p>
<p>For two decades, this has been the first commandment of social media promotion – both by platforms and on them.</p>
<p>More broadly, all online communication bears the burden of proof in this vein: It must compensate for the absence of face-to-face verifiability, which a 1993 Peter Steiner <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog">cartoon for The New Yorker</a> satirized with the caption, “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”</p>
<p>Research confirms this. One <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/6/1/10">clever study</a> by media scholars Meredith Salisbury and Jefferson Pooley scoured the publicity pablum, CEO platitudes and app store copy from Friendster onward, finding that nearly every site leans on the same rhetorical clichés – like “real life” and “genuine” – as a means of defining itself against the purported phoniness of other sites.</p>
<p>But this might well be the narcissism of tiny differences at work, with Threads only the latest instance of social media copycatting. </p>
<p>In 2020, Wired <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/social-media-giants-look-the-same-tiktok-twitter-instagram/">incisively tallied</a> how <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/product/2020/introducing-fleets-new-way-to-join-the-conversation">X’s Fleets</a>, a 24-hour posting-expiration feature, was a copy of Instagram’s Stories, which was itself originally ripped off from Snapchat. <a href="https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-snap-spotlight/">Snapchat developed Spotlight</a> for short-form video content, comparable to Instagram’s Reels and YouTube’s Shorts, all of which were an attempt to fend off TikTok, itself a reincarnation of Vine.</p>
<p>And all of these, including last year’s 56 million-times-downloaded viral sensation, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/17/bereal-copy-tiktok-instagram-snapchat/">BeReal</a> – where users snap unfiltered, unposed selfies for friends at random times daily – have promised users the opportunity to be their true selves. </p>
<p>In as much as Musk has pursued anything in his first year as Chief Twit, that seems to be his ambition: engineering a space with no social guardrails, where any inhibitions of decorum are ignored in favor of speaking, authentically, from the heart.</p>
<h2>Ambitions don’t match reality</h2>
<p>To a certain kind of personality, that’s probably an alluring offer. Indeed, Zuckerberg’s original – and still most enduring – platform triumph, Facebook, depended on designing a website that induced an online performance of a “true” offline self.</p>
<p>Those norms were embedded in design choices, as Zuckerberg made plain his disregard for our <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/708488/the-presentation-of-self-in-everyday-life-by-erving-goffman/">multistage, two-faced selves</a> in an <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Facebook-Effect/David-Kirkpatrick/9781439102121">oft-quoted line</a>, “You have one identity. The days of you having a different image for your work friends or co-workers and for the other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly.”</p>
<p>“Single-identity authenticity” was Facebook’s early market strategy, and the nascent website initially required users to register with a college email address. The design choice may well have been critical to Facebook vanquishing its closest early competitors, <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/556413/friendster-rise-and-fall-jonathan-abrams">Friendster</a> and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/01/the-rise-and-fall-of-myspace/69444/">Myspace</a>.</p>
<p>“The .edu email system served as this authenticating clearinghouse,” one early Facebook executive <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=36333">explained to me</a>, a phrasing that could as easily be applied to the utility of Instagram accounts today for Threads. “Really, users 0 through 10 million were all verified and authenticated by the .edu email system, [while] Myspace had 57 Jennifer Anistons.”</p>
<p>That authenticating clearinghouse would soon vanish as Facebook opened itself up to users not enrolled in college – like, say, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/30/facebook-russia-fake-accounts-126-million">the disinformation agents</a> who have meddled in U.S. elections from Russia.</p>
<h2>A regression to the meanest</h2>
<p>All this competition makes for authenticity jockeying: Musk attempted to parry Zuckerberg’s Threads threat with his invitation to convene strangers who will stop being polite and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_World_(TV_series)">start getting real</a>. </p>
<p>But in an ominous echo of Rupert Murdoch’s $500 million <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/06/as-myspace-sells-for-35-million-a-history-of-the-networks-valuation/241224/">write-off</a> of Myspace, Musk’s $44 billion purchase has struggled with those bot-and-blue check mark difficulties of user verification.</p>
<p>None of this is to say Threads will eventually triumph over X, even as the crisis in the Middle East – and the misinformation circulating because of it – <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2023/10/x-twitter-elon-musk-israel-hamas-gaza-misinformation-meta-threads.html">seems to have initiated</a> another exodus of defectors from X. After all, a month after its launch, Threads had already lost <a href="https://gizmodo.com/threads-has-lost-more-than-80-of-daily-active-users-1850707329">an estimated</a> 80% of its daily active users.</p>
<p>Threads’ vibes may have been cheerful and friendly at the outset – disingenuously so, according to Musk – but it may well prove that, eventually, all social media sites regress toward the meanest. </p>
<p>Musk would probably call that “authenticity.” On X, you might not be able to trust the veracity of the user or the information they’re spreading. But you can be sure that they don’t feel like they have to bite their tongue and act nice.</p>
<p>Social media company names may change. But when identity is the most lucrative commodity they trade in, their fetishization of authenticity won’t.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210956/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Serazio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With identity the most lucrative commodity social media platforms trade in, their fetishization of authenticity remains ironclad.Michael Serazio, Associate Professor of Communication, Boston CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2114062023-08-17T12:34:39Z2023-08-17T12:34:39ZWhat Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s canceled cage match says about masculine anxiety<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543092/original/file-20230816-17-330xso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C26%2C5838%2C3699&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Would a fight help them prove to themselves that they are 'real men,' despite their soft − probably manicured − hands?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/meta-and-threads-app-from-elon-musk-vs-mark-zuckerberg-seen-news-photo/1583887287?adppopup=true">Photo illustration by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While the cage fight between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/mark-zuckerberg-cancels-cage-fight-elon-musk-meta-threads-tesla/">seems to be on hold</a>, if these men do ever end up sparring, it’ll give a whole new meaning to the term “tech bro.”</p>
<p>The two billionaires’ business interests have butted heads in the past: Musk’s 2016 test launch of a <a href="https://time.com/4476416/mark-zuckerberg-elon-musk-rocket-explosion-satellite/">SpaceX rocket destroyed Zuckerberg’s US$200 million satellite</a>. In 2022, Musk said Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/15/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-sun-king-louis-xiv">shouldn’t dominate social media</a> and encouraged people to abandon Meta-owned Facebook. Meta also recently launched Threads, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/meta-launches-twitter-competitor-threads-as-zuckerberg-and-musk-rivalry-intensifies">which competes directly</a> with Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter.</p>
<p>But threatening to beat the pulp out of each other represents a new – if not bizarre – form of one-upmanship for the two men. At one point, it was rumored that <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/ufc/musk-zuckerberg-fight-colosseum-ufc-b2390844.html">the livestreamed fight would take place in Rome’s Colosseum</a>, where gladiators once gruesomely battled to the death.</p>
<p>What in the name of <a href="https://gladiator.fandom.com/wiki/Maximus_Decimus_Meridius">Maximus</a> is going on?</p>
<p>Though Musk and Zuckerberg have attempted to frame their pugilistic pursuit as a once-in-a-generation event, they are far from alone. They join the ranks of other high-profile men in public and political positions who have shown off their physical strength to burnish their status.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=E4xQpIgAAAAJ&hl=en">As a gender scholar</a>, I’ve seen how these fights – let’s call them “performances of virility” – tend to coincide with beliefs that masculinity is either in crisis or under attack. </p>
<h2>Money can’t buy masculinity</h2>
<p>You don’t usually see two wealthy white billionaires duking it out. So what would Musk and Zuckerberg gain from fighting each other? </p>
<p>As sociologist Scott Melzer writes in his study of fight clubs, “<a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/manhood-impossible/9780813584911">Manhood Impossible</a>,” fighting is culturally associated with masculinity, and U.S. culture celebrates men’s violence in the right contexts. </p>
<p>For white-collar white men, Melzer explains, fighting can help them to feel they have passed a test of adulthood and fulfilled the cultural requirement of strength. The fighting helps them prove to themselves that they are “real men,” despite their soft – probably manicured – hands.</p>
<p>To me, the chest puffing between Musk and Zuckerberg is a desperate display of masculinity for two tech nerds with deep pockets. They say money can’t buy happiness. Perhaps money can’t buy masculinity, either.</p>
<p>Kris Paap, author of “<a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801472862/working-construction/#bookTabs=1">Working Construction</a>,” explains that men who don’t take risks are often seen by their peers as weak and effeminate. Men who risk their health and well-being, on the other hand, prove their bravado for the respect of their peers. </p>
<p>This is particularly the case for working-class men. But politicians have also put on gloves to fight for admiration – and political clout – through displays of physical prowess.</p>
<p>In 2012, Justin Trudeau squared off against Senator Patrick Brazeau <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12067">in a boxing match</a>. A member of Canada’s Parliament who came from money and political royalty, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/02/god-save-justin-trudeau-film-boxing-canada-patrick-brazeau">Trudeau declared before the match</a> that he was “put on this planet to do this … I fight – and I win.”</p>
<p>After emerging from the bout victorious, Trudeau’s image as a scrawny <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/what-is-a-nepotism-baby.html">nepo baby</a> all but evaporated. Three years later, he became prime minister <a href="https://www.biography.com/political-figures/pierre-trudeau">just like his dad</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Cover of comic book depicts smiling man sitting in corner of boxing ring wearing boxing gloves and a red and white pinny with a maple leaf logo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears as a boxer in a 2016 issue of the Marvel comic book series ‘Civil War II: Choosing Sides.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-cover-of-us-publisher-marvels-comic-book-featuring-news-photo/598119942?adppopup=true">Marc Brainbant/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are countless examples of other powerful men looking to showcase their virility. Russian President Vladimir Putin <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/6/17/8796659/vladimir-putin-shirtless-video">infamously rode horses shirtless</a>, while U.S. President Joe Biden once said that when he was in high school, he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/21/politics/joe-biden-donald-trump/index.html">would have taken Donald Trump “behind the gym and beat the hell” out of him</a>.</p>
<p>For almost two centuries, performances of masculinity – from William Henry Harrison to Donald Trump – have been a part of successful <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/04/opinions/bridges-trump-macho-candidates/index.html">U.S. presidential campaigns</a>.</p>
<h2>The end of men … again and again</h2>
<p>It is no coincidence that Musk vs. Zuckerberg comes at a time when there is popular perception that masculinity is in crisis. Women are <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/11/08/whats-behind-the-growing-gap-between-men-and-women-in-college-completion/">obtaining college degrees at a faster clip than men</a>, while income gaps are closing. Suicides and overdoses among men – often termed <a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide">“deaths of despair”</a> – are on the rise. </p>
<p>Belief in a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Cultures-of-Masculinity/Edwards/p/book/9780415284813">“crisis of masculinity”</a> spikes during times of progressive social change. And proponents of this view tend to blame feminists and other social progressives for critiquing traditionally masculine mores and values, which, they claim, is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/style/jordan-peterson-12-rules-for-life.html">causing men to spiral</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3683791.html">Gender scholars</a> point to the turn of the 20th century and the 1990s as other moments of social change that sparked similar anxieties.</p>
<p>In 1890, moves toward coeducation stoked debates around girls and boys being taught the same curriculum. Advocates suggested that sex shouldn’t matter in the classroom and that girls’ education should prepare them for jobs outside the home.</p>
<p>This didn’t go over well with men who benefited from gender segregation. The Boy Scouts of America actually emerged in 1910 so that boys were assured a space where girls and women weren’t allowed – and <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1978.tb02548.x">where boys would be “sufficiently” acquainted with masculinity</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, the emergence of identity politics in the 1990s, which highlighted rights-based ideologies, scrutinized, in particular, <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/marked-men/9780231112932">the privileges of white men</a>. </p>
<p>Today, social progress – whether it’s more women in the workplace, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-record-breaking-number-of-women-were-elected-governor-in-2022-here-are-7-things-to-know-about-how-that-happened-195871">more women in political office</a> or girls permitted to join what is now referred to as <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/boy-scouts-new-name-scouts-bsa-girls-joining-ranks/">“the Scouts”</a> – seems to stoke men’s insecurities. You can see it in the popularity of men’s rights advocates like Jordan Peterson, who claims men are being asked to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmKrEil9-Ag">castrate themselves</a> in the name of equality. And you can see it in conservative commentator Ben Shapiro’s <a href="https://www.them.us/story/barbie-movie-ben-shapiro">scorn toward</a> the “Barbie” movie, which has been lauded for calling out patriarchal values.</p>
<p>In these moments, men have historically taken predictable actions to reclaim the idea that they are inherently different from women – and thus belong in different spaces.</p>
<p>Sociologist <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Caveman-Mystique-Pop-Darwinism-and-the-Debates-Over-Sex-Violence/McCaughey/p/book/9780415934756">Martha McCaughey</a> has pointed out how evolutionary biology has become the popular way to argue that men just can’t help their “innate propensities.”</p>
<p>This includes the urge to dominate others, whether that’s in business, in bed – or, yes, in the ring.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211406/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristen Barber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>‘Performances of virility’ tend to coincide with beliefs that masculinity is either in crisis or under attack.Kristen Barber, Associate Professor of Race, Ethnic and Gender Studies, University of Missouri-Kansas CityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2094782023-07-19T18:24:55Z2023-07-19T18:24:55ZMeta’s Threads platform might not be revolutionary, but it poses a challenge to Twitter<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537851/original/file-20230717-227854-4fviky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C4500%2C2977&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Threads is the latest social media platform to try to take on Twitter</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/metas-threads-platform-might-not-be-revolutionary-but-it-poses-a-challenge-to-twitter" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The July 5 launch of Threads, <a href="https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/threads-instagram-text-feature">Instagram’s new social media platform</a>, has met with considerable interest. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was quick to report that <a href="https://www.threads.net/t/CuXCjGVrd6R">over 100 million users downloaded the app by the end of its first weekend</a>.</p>
<p>The apparent success of Threads stands in stark contrast to other recent social media apps such as <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/16/spill-twitter-alternative/">Spill</a>, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/06/what-is-bluesky-everything-to-know-about-the-app-trying-to-replace-twitter/">Bluesky</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/24/1139079748/leave-twitter-social-networks-mastodon-hive-post">Mastodon and others</a>.</p>
<p>Although Threads has been called <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/07/10/with-100-million-users-in-five-days-threads-is-the-fastest-growing-app-in-history/">the fastest growing app in history</a>, it remains to be seen whether interest will be sustained over the long run.</p>
<p>Threads’ success is by no means assured. The app doesn’t present a radical departure from Twitter’s formula, doesn’t have access to <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/threads-no-eu-launch/">the European market due to privacy concerns</a>, and faces a <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/07/06/2023/twitter-is-threatening-to-sue-meta-over-threads">potential lawsuit from Twitter</a> which has also introduced <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/technology/elon-musk-takes-a-desperate-swing-at-threads-newfound-popularity">revenue sharing to verified users</a>.</p>
<p>The success of Threads is perhaps less about the features of the app than the recent decisions made by Twitter <a href="https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/mastodon-grows-by-over-200000-overnight-as-riptwitter-trends-1989657/">owner and CTO Elon Musk</a>. Accusations of <a href="https://gizmodo.com/10-times-elon-musk-censored-twitter-users-1850570720">censorship</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/15/elon-musk-changes-twitter-algorithm-super-bowl-slump-report">self promotion</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/16/elon-musk-says-twitter-cash-flow-negative">continued negative cashflow</a> have created an undeniable window of opportunity for would-be challengers.</p>
<p>Unlike Twitter’s other rivals, <a href="https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/2023/Meta-Reports-First-Quarter-2023-Results/default.aspx">Meta’s already expansive user base with nearly three billion users</a> means that the curiosity of a small number will allow it to quickly bypass other startups. </p>
<p>Its success will ultimately rest on whether it creates a sustainable niche for itself in the marketplace. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DdlbvCnt0FY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">CBC News looks at how users responded to the launch of Threads.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A complicated process</h2>
<p>Many technologies are branded as ‘innovations’ without any qualification. Innovation is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scv077">process</a>, and one that is defined by showing not telling. Even if a product or idea is novel, if it’s not widely adopted, it does not truly represent an innovation.</p>
<p>Innovation is best understood as an evolutionary process, defined by three features: <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Darwins-Dangerous-Idea/Daniel-C-Dennett/9780684824710">replication, variation and selection</a>. If an idea works, duplicating it should lead to success.</p>
<p>But blindly copying someone else’s idea, concept or technology is insufficient. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1150009">Often, the context for replicating ideas typically differs from one situation to the next</a> — if only slightly. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/030631200030002002">Local resources, funding, values and attitudes must be considered</a>. If innovators ignore these differences, novel procedures, products and services will not spread.</p>
<p>Where innovation is ultimately demonstrated is through selection, which can be a conscious or unconscious process. Unconscious adoption involves <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)00405-X">blind mimicry</a>, with people copying their peers or those with high status. Conscious adoption involves understanding <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/books/design-everyday-things-revised/">what a technology can and cannot do</a>. This requires more knowledge and time.</p>
<p>The outcome of the selection is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/285870">the creation of a niche</a>, a segment of the social and physical environment. When a product is selected, it is because it fulfils some niche in a market. But that niche might already be occupied.</p>
<h2>Common threads</h2>
<p>Threads is inspired by Twitter and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/threads-twitter-meta-instagram-lawsuit-cloen-f6e993c4597ce15b60cc38fe602b6ce8">replicates some of its features</a>. But Threads’ rapid adoption suggests that it fulfils a niche.</p>
<p>Twitter was launched in July 2006, nearly two decades before Threads. However, <a href="https://time.com/6274774/elon-musk-twitter-u-turns/">Musk’s recent changes to Twitter</a> created space in that niche. </p>
<p>Musk is purportedly a champion of <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/vivatech-elon-musk-announcement/">free speech</a>. While his early <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/11/25/elon-musk-is-restoring-banned-twitter-accounts-heres-why-the-most-controversial-users-were-suspended-and-whos-already-back/?sh=27353a53385b">reinstatement of previously banned users</a> might suggest this, he has gone on to selectively <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/15/23512004/elon-musk-starts-banning-critical-journalists-from-twitter">ban those who questioned him</a> and appointed himself as an arbiter of content, claiming that Twitter will treat the term <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1671370284102819841">“cisgender” as a slur</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.newswise.com/articles/is-threads-the-new-twitter-or-will-it-unravel-social-media-expert-weighs-in">Some have speculated that the catalyst for the release of Threads</a> was Twitter’s recent <a href="https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/twitter-vs-instagram-threads">decision to throttle — or limit access to — posts</a>. Following its launch, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/17/threads-limits-twitter/">Threads was also forced to impose such limits, citing spam attacks</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538149/original/file-20230718-9911-jjoey5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a composite photo of two men" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538149/original/file-20230718-9911-jjoey5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538149/original/file-20230718-9911-jjoey5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538149/original/file-20230718-9911-jjoey5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538149/original/file-20230718-9911-jjoey5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538149/original/file-20230718-9911-jjoey5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538149/original/file-20230718-9911-jjoey5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538149/original/file-20230718-9911-jjoey5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, and Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, are seemingly in competition for users’ attention.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, Stephan Savoia)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is a history of technological niches creation and competition. In <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/27/17510908/apple-samsung-settle-patent-battle-over-copying-iphone">the decade-long smartphone wars</a>, Apple sued Samsung for “<a href="https://www.macworld.com/article/797851/iphone-samsung-galaxy-poor-copy.html">blatant copying</a>.” Samsung <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/apr/22/samsung-apple-lawsuits-smartphones">counter-sued Apple</a>, and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nokia-corp-apple-patent-idUSKBN14A228">Nokia followed suit</a>. Apple also sued Microsoft <a href="https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/blog/1988-apple-sues-microsoft/">over allegedly copying display elements</a>. And <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9310.2007.00488.x">Chinese technology firms have historically been notorious for copying the products of other companies</a>.</p>
<p>While innovators and firms can create a niche, they open the door for other variants.</p>
<h2>Old problems, new threads?</h2>
<p>A major selling point for Threads is that it wants to avoid the divisive politics that have made social media a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2021.1976070">caustic, polarized environment</a>. It is not clear how this can be accomplished in practice, as <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/11/06/1011769/social-media-moderation-transparency-censorship/">content moderation is exceedingly difficult</a>. </p>
<p>While content moderation seems like a reasonable solution to the ills of social media, <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/11/content-moderation-is-terrible-by-design">it faces many problems</a>. </p>
<p>The debates — and tensions — associated with free speech, cannot be solved by the intentions or actions of any one company, industry leader or government.</p>
<h2>A continuing thread</h2>
<p>It is unlikely that Twitter will go the way of ossified social media platforms like <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2011/01/14/why-facebook-beat-myspace/">MySpace any time soon</a>.</p>
<p>For the foreseeable future, <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/technology/twitter-employee-explains-why-threads-app-poses-a-real-threat-to-elon-musk">competition between the social media giants</a> will prevail, with each defined by its own market share. Indeed, Instagram’s CEO noted that “<a href="https://www.threads.net/@mosseri/post/CuZ3LjhNl0m">the goal is not to replace Twitter</a>.”</p>
<p>What is left unaddressed in this debate is whether or not social media in its current form is <a href="https://doi.org/10.26438/ijcse/v5i10.351354">beneficial for society</a>. </p>
<p>Greater care must be taken to ensure that <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Ethical-Artificial-Intelligence-from-Popular-to-Cognitive-Science-Trust/Schoenherr/p/book/9780367697983">the social and ethical implications of these technologies</a> are part of the adoption process by individuals and society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jordan Richard Schoenherr does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the marketplace of ideas, for an app or product to be considered successful, it must be widely adopted for it to represent an innovation.Jordan Richard Schoenherr, Assistant Professor, Psychology, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2090712023-07-07T09:05:11Z2023-07-07T09:05:11ZThreads: new Twitter rival looks like a shrewd move but Meta lacks credibility<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536048/original/file-20230706-27-slnb4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C13%2C4473%2C2977&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/threads-app-logo-seen-on-screen-2326622707">Ascannio / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mark Zuckerberg’s new social media platform, <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/threads-an-instagram-app/id6446901002">Threads</a>, has been released in smartphone app stores (although <a href="https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/07/06/why-has-threads-metas-answer-to-twitter-not-launched-in-the-eu">not in the EU</a>). Zuckerberg, who is chief executive of Threads’ parent company Meta, says that at least <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-66112648">30 million users signed up</a> in the app’s first day. According to some speculative reporting, Threads <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-66118168">might be</a> a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/06/we-tried-threads-metas-new-twitter-rival-heres-what-happened">reliable alternative to Twitter</a>. </p>
<p>Since the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/27/23184519/elon-musk-twitter-acquisition-deal-complete-agreement">acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk</a> in October 2022, Twitter has developed a reputation for making hasty decisions regarding <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/senators-warn-twitter-elon-musk-alleged-disregard-data/story?id=99838319">user data</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65786326">safety</a> and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/28/technology/twitter-outages-elon-musk.html">reliable functioning</a> of the site. These have included the saga around replacing the traditional “blue tick” <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/technology/elon-musk-twitter-verification-return-blue-check-marks-celebrities-dead-users-2292347">verification system</a> with a paid-for version. </p>
<p>Concerns have also been raised around <a href="https://www.verdict.co.uk/elon-musks-weak-stance-on-moderation-is-catching-up-to-him-as-apple-threatens-to-remove-twitter-app/">relaxed moderation policies</a> and the removal of free <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/31/23739084/twitter-elon-musk-api-policy-chilling-academic-research">access to Twitter’s API</a> – the program interface that allowed third-party developers and academics to interact with the platform. There has also been speculation that Twitter’s troubles <a href="https://apnews.com/article/twitter-elon-musk-rate-limits-04380c0a90528edcd7441d2f0b47549e">may put off some advertisers</a>. </p>
<p>It might look shrewd to launch a Twitter alternative amid the current turbulence. However, early numbers from Meta suggest the likelihood of longer-term and wide-scale public interest in Threads is not guaranteed. However, it is important to note that Meta has a substantial user base and robust staff infrastructure on its side. </p>
<p>If widely adopted, Threads could potentially challenge Twitter’s dominant position and significantly impact its operations. According to the Pew Research Center, the majority of Twitter users in the US have <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/05/17/majority-of-us-twitter-users-say-theyve-taken-a-break-from-the-platform-in-the-past-year/">taken a break</a> from the platform in the past year. </p>
<p>Social media platforms have global reach, but the way they are structured and how owners make commercial decisions is still based on grabbing territory. This may, for example, be seen in the way that users with particular views or interests are targeted for advertising. From this perspective, simmering tensions between different platforms are not a passing phase but are instead central features of the way that social media works.</p>
<h2>Mass migration</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-elon-musks-first-week-as-twitter-owner-has-users-flocking-elsewhere-193857">mass migration</a> has already begun. Many users are leaving Twitter for decentralised and community-run systems like Mastodon. </p>
<p>In November 2022, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1376022/global-registered-mastodon-users/">130,000 users signed up daily</a> to use that platform. Mastodon is a “non-federated” system, meaning that each computer server is run by a different administrator. Unlike Twitter, Mastodon users are not subject to the whims of a chief executive. </p>
<p>Meta, meanwhile, benefits from an established user pipeline for ad revenue as well as the potential to synchronise cross-platform data sharing and the subsequent opportunities for third-party commercial gain.</p>
<p>The phenomenon of user lock-in is a primary factor driving widespread adoption of these platforms. Lock-in is where businesses make it difficult to switch to rival platforms. Facebook is the predominant platform for community groups and the largest online marketplace for exchanging goods and services. </p>
<p>Instagram (owned by Meta) is popular for sharing photographs and meme-based content, especially among users who are older than TikTok’s main user base. Threads will instantly take information from an Instagram account, like followers and contacts, and use it to make a user profile.</p>
<p>One way to beef up the user numbers could be to replicate user IDs across all Meta products, not just Instagram. Then, users with existing Facebook, Messenger or WhatsApp profiles will automatically have access to a Threads account. </p>
<h2>Trust issues</h2>
<p>Yet the primary roadblock for Threads is that Meta lacks significant credibility in many people’s eyes. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-scandal-fallout.html">The Cambridge Analytica scandal</a> of 2018 (in which the consulting firm harvested data from millions of Facebook users without their consent) brought to light the problems with a commercial model that is based on data harvesting. Again, degrees <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/12/22/tech-trust-survey/">of distrust</a> underscore Meta’s market offering, along with allegations of <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/03/11/1020600/facebook-responsible-ai-misinformation/">the amplification of fake news</a> and concerns about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/technology/facebook-google-russia.html">spreading Russian propaganda and political bias</a> via shared content during the last US presidential election. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.covidstates.org/reports/twitter-social-media-and-elon-musk">researchers at Northwestern University</a>, trust in Twitter dipped slightly after Musk took over. However, a new social networking proposition from Meta will not, by itself, enhance trust in Meta, and this is crucial for increasing Thread’s unique users. </p>
<p>Social media users may desire a Twitter-like platform that’s free from irrational and erratic behaviour. Today, Twitter is a complex environment to navigate, where verified accounts are given preferential treatment. For example, through <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/02/08/twitter-boosts-character-limit-to-4000-for-twitter-blue-subscribers/">extended character limits</a> and <a href="https://mashable.com/article/twitter-verified-accounts-prioritized-elon-musk">additional visibility</a>. </p>
<p>Twitter’s future may be limited to serving as a specialised platform catering to a specific community, similar to apps like <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/11/24/21579357/parler-app-trump-twitter-facebook-censorship">Parler</a> and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/truth-social-trump-twitter-elon-musk-b2068025.html">Truth Social</a>, which have gained popularity among people with extreme ideologies. </p>
<p>There have been instances of <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-is-elon-musks-twitter-takeover-increasing-hate-speech/">racism</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64804007">misogyny</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/antisemitism-on-twitter-has-more-than-doubled-since-elon-musk-took-over-the-platform-new-research-201830">antisemitic rhetoric</a> and <a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/hateful-and-abusive-speech-towards-lgbtq-community-surging-on-twitter-under-elon-musk/">abusive speech towards the LGBTQ+ community</a> on Twitter.</p>
<p>Recent in-depth investigations by the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65246394">BBC</a>, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/06/21/australia-could-fine-twitter-up-to-475000-a-day-over-hate-speech-concerns/">Forbes</a> and the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/30/elon-musk-twitter-hate-speech/">Washington Post</a> have argued that the system for reporting hate speech on Twitter is ineffective. </p>
<p>The key to commercial viability is convincing advertisers that there is a robust market offering for Meta – one that is more stable and dependable than Twitter’s. Meta must reassure users that their data is secure in Threads and that the new platform creates a safe environment within which to sustain another social media profile.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209071/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Twitter is in trouble, but is Meta’s Threads a viable alternative for disaffected users? Experts explain.Wasim Ahmed, Senior Lecturer in Digital Business, University of StirlingMariann Hardey, Professor Digital Culture, Business and Computing at Durham University Business School and Advanced Research Computing (ARC), Durham University, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2092202023-07-07T03:26:31Z2023-07-07T03:26:31ZWhy Meta’s Threads app is the biggest threat to Twitter yet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536220/original/file-20230707-16210-rwkct.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C0%2C4007%2C3017&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The launch of social media app <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/07/introducing-threads-new-app-text-sharing/">Threads</a> as a competitor to Twitter is a game-changer.</p>
<p>Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, launched the new platform yesterday, ahead of schedule. Threads was welcomed almost immediately – especially by hordes of Twitter users that have watched in dismay as their beloved platform <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/twitter-changes-tweetdeck-rate-limit-rcna92369">crumbles in the hands</a> of Elon Musk.</p>
<p>In less than 24 hours, Threads attracted some 30 million users. And with Meta already having more than two billion Instagram users who can directly link their accounts to it, Threads’ user base will grow fast.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536201/original/file-20230707-19241-bpdfus.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Post by @zuck saying 'Wow, 30 million sign ups as of this morning. Feels like the beginning of something special, but we've got a lot of work ahead to build out the app." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536201/original/file-20230707-19241-bpdfus.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536201/original/file-20230707-19241-bpdfus.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536201/original/file-20230707-19241-bpdfus.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536201/original/file-20230707-19241-bpdfus.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536201/original/file-20230707-19241-bpdfus.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536201/original/file-20230707-19241-bpdfus.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536201/original/file-20230707-19241-bpdfus.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mark Zuckerberg posted on Threads to celebrate its 30 million new users.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Threads</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With its simple black and white feed, and features that let you reply, love, quote and comment on other people’s “threads”, the similarities between Threads and Twitter are obvious. </p>
<p>The question now is: will Threads be the one that finally unseats Twitter? </p>
<h2>We’ve been here before</h2>
<p>In October of last year, Twitter users looked on helplessly as Elon Musk became CEO. Mastodon was the first “escape plan”. But many found its decentralised servers <a href="https://www.makeuseof.com/why-people-leaving-mastodon">difficult</a> and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/what-fleeing-twitter-users-will-and-wont-find-on-mastodon">confusing to use</a>, with each one having very different content rules and communities. </p>
<p>Many Twitter fans created “back up” Mastodon accounts in case Twitter crashed, and waited to see what Musk would do next. The wait wasn’t long. Platform instability and outages became common as Musk started laying off Twitter staff (he has now fired about 80% of Twitter’s original workforce). </p>
<p>Shortly after, Musk horrified users and made headlines by upending Twitter’s verification system and forcing “blue tick” holders to pay for the privilege of authentication. This opened the door for account impersonations and the sharing of misinformation at scale. Some large corporate brands left the platform, taking their <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/05/technology/twitter-ad-sales-musk.html">advertising dollars with them</a>. </p>
<p>Musk also labelled trusted news organisations such as the BBC as “state-owned” media, until public backlash forced him to retreat. More recently, he started limiting how many tweets users can view and announced that TweetDeck (a management tool for scheduling tweets) would be limited to paid accounts.</p>
<p>Twitter users have tried several alternatives, including Spoutible and Post. Bluesky, which came from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, is gaining ground – but its growth has been limited due to its invitation-only registration process.</p>
<p>Nothing had quite captured the imagination of Twitter followers … until now.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536196/original/file-20230707-23-kmsj5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Andrews: Everyone right to go? Albanese: Ready over here..." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536196/original/file-20230707-23-kmsj5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536196/original/file-20230707-23-kmsj5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536196/original/file-20230707-23-kmsj5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536196/original/file-20230707-23-kmsj5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536196/original/file-20230707-23-kmsj5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536196/original/file-20230707-23-kmsj5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536196/original/file-20230707-23-kmsj5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Threads has been joined by a number of popular figures, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Oprah Winfrey, the Dalai Lama, Shakira, Gordon Ramsay and Ellen DeGeneres.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Threads</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Community is the key to success</h2>
<p>Before Musk’s reign, Twitter enjoyed many years of success. It had long been a home for journalists, governments, academics and the public to share information on the key issues of the day. In emergencies, Twitter offered real-time support. During some of the worst disasters, users have shared information and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/19/twitter-emergencies/">made life-saving decisions</a>. </p>
<p>While not without flaws – such as trolls, <a href="https://theconversation.com/bushfires-bots-and-arson-claims-australia-flung-in-the-global-disinformation-spotlight-129556">bots</a> and online abuse – Twitter’s verification process and the ability to block and report inappropriate content was central to its success in building a thriving community. </p>
<p>This is also what sets Threads apart from competitors. By linking Threads to Instagram, Meta has given itself a significant head-start towards reaching the critical mass of users needed to establish itself as a leading platform (a privilege Mastodon didn’t enjoy).</p>
<p>Not only can Threads users retain their usernames, they can also bring their Instagram followers with them. The ability to retain community in an app that provides a similar experience to Twitter is what makes Threads the biggest threat yet.</p>
<p>My research shows that people crave authority, authenticity and community the most when they engage with online information. In our <a href="https://books.emeraldinsight.com/book/detail/looking-for-information/?k=9781803824246">new book</a>, my co-authors Donald O. Case, Rebekah Willson and I explain how users search for information from sources they know and trust.</p>
<p>Twitter fans want an alternative platform with similar functionality, but most importantly they want to quickly find “their people”. They don’t want to have to rebuild their communities. This is likely why so many have stayed on Twitter, even as Musk has done so well to run it into the ground.</p>
<h2>Challenges ahead</h2>
<p>Of course, Twitter users may also be concerned about jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Signing up to yet another Meta app comes with its own concerns.</p>
<p>New Threads users who read the fine print will note that their information will be used to “personalize ads and other experiences” across both platforms. And users have pointed out you can only delete your Threads account if you delete your Instagram account. </p>
<p>This kind of entrenchment could be off-putting for some.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1676779150235803649"}"></div></p>
<p>Moreover, Meta decided to not launch Threads anywhere in the European Union yesterday due to regulatory concerns. The EU’s new Digital Markets Act could raise challenges for Threads. </p>
<p>For example, the act sets out businesses can’t “track end users outside of [their] core platform service for the purpose of targeted advertising, without effective consent having been granted”. This may be in conflict with Threads’ <a href="https://help.instagram.com/515230437301944">privacy policy</a>. </p>
<p>Meta has also <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/adam-mosseri-says-metas-threads-app-wont-have-activitypub-support-at-launch/">announced plans</a> to eventually move Threads towards a decentralised infrastructure. In the app’s “How Threads Works” details, it says “future versions of Threads will work with the <a href="https://help.instagram.com/169559812696339">fediverse</a>”, enabling “people to follow and interact with each other on different platforms, including Mastodon”.</p>
<p>This means people will be able to view and interact with Threads content from non-Meta accounts, without needing to sign up to Threads. Using the ActivityPub standard (which enables decentralised interoperability between platforms), Threads could then function the same way as WordPress, Mastodon and email servers – wherein users of one server can interact with others. </p>
<p>When and how Threads achieves this plan for decentralised engagement – and how this might impact users’ experience – is unclear.</p>
<h2>Did Meta steal ‘trade secrets’?</h2>
<p>As for Musk, he’s not going down without a fight. Just hours after Threads’ release, Twitter’s lawyer Alex Spiro released a letter accusing Meta of “systematic” and “unlawful misappropriation” of trade secrets. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://cdn.sanity.io/files/ifn0l6bs/production/27109f01431939c8177d408d3c9848c3b46632cd.pdf">letter</a> alleges former Twitter employees hired by Meta were “deliberately assigned” to “develop, in a matter of months, Meta’s copycat ‘Threads’ app”. Meta has disputed these claims, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/06/twitter-accuses-meta-of-stealing-trade-secrets-for-its-new-threads-app.html">according to reports</a>, but the rivalry between the two companies seems far from over.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thinking-of-breaking-up-with-twitter-heres-the-right-way-to-do-it-195002">Thinking of breaking up with Twitter? Here’s the right way to do it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498128/original/file-20221129-22-imtnz0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498128/original/file-20221129-22-imtnz0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=115&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498128/original/file-20221129-22-imtnz0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=115&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498128/original/file-20221129-22-imtnz0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=115&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498128/original/file-20221129-22-imtnz0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498128/original/file-20221129-22-imtnz0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498128/original/file-20221129-22-imtnz0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>The Conversation is commissioning articles by academics across the world who are researching how society is being shaped by our digital interactions with each other. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/social-media-and-society-125586">Read more here</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209220/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa M. Given is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. She receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p>In the battle for Twitter’s followers, this may be the end game.Lisa M. Given, Professor of Information Sciences & Director, Social Change Enabling Impact Platform, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2071492023-06-09T15:40:47Z2023-06-09T15:40:47ZThe ‘Murph’ challenge: what to know about this CrossFit workout<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530955/original/file-20230608-15-bqub2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5152%2C3438&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/strong-hipster-bodybuilder-doing-push-ups-1308446731">Dusan Petkovic/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Meta boss <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jun/01/mark-zuckerberg-completes-extreme-fitness-challenge-in-20kg-vest">Mark Zuckerberg</a> recently shared on Facebook and Instagram that he had completed the “Murph” challenge, which is named for <a href="https://www.crossfit.com/heroes">Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy</a>, who was killed in Afghanistan in June 2005, aged 29.</p>
<p>This gruelling CrossFit workout involves running one mile, doing 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats and running another mile, all while wearing a weighted vest.</p>
<p>While the Murph challenge will build your strength and endurance, it’s important to approach it carefully, as there can be risks, especially if you’re trying this type of exercise for the first time.</p>
<p>CrossFit was developed in California more than 20 years ago, and has since grown into a worldwide phenomenon with an estimated <a href="https://www.crossfit.com/#:%7E:text=FIND%20CROSSFIT%20NEAR%20YOU,14%2C000%20locations%20across%20the%20planet.">five million participants</a> attending thousands of CrossFit gyms (called “boxes”) globally. </p>
<p>It’s a high-intensity fitness regimen incorporating elements from a variety of sports and different types of exercise (its name is derived from “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/does-crossfit-have-a-future">cross-discipline fitness</a>”). The CrossFit workout <a href="http://journal.crossfit.com/2007/04/understanding-crossfit-by-greg.tpl">changes daily</a>, with participants typically doing a workout about three times a week, depending on their fitness level. </p>
<p>Workouts are tailored to individuals’ fitness and experience levels, though typically they include a mix of gymnastics, power lifting, and cardio such as running.</p>
<p>The toughest CrossFit workouts are known as “hero” workouts, dedicated to deceased soldiers such as Murphy. </p>
<h2>The ‘Murph’ challenge</h2>
<p>This particular workout comprises the following, done as fast as you can:</p>
<ul>
<li>one mile run</li>
<li>100 pull ups </li>
<li>200 push ups</li>
<li>300 squats</li>
<li>one mile run.</li>
</ul>
<p>Notably, all of the above is completed while wearing a <a href="https://theconversation.com/weighted-vests-should-you-use-them-during-exercise-206968">weighted vest</a>. Men wear one weighing 20lbs (9.07kg) and women wear one weighing 14lbs (6.35kg). </p>
<p>The runs must be at the beginning and end of the workout, but the pull ups, push ups and squats can be split up as required. For example, beginners might start with 20 rounds of five pull ups, ten push ups, and 15 squats. When more advanced, this can progress to ten rounds of ten pull ups, 20 push ups and 30 squats.</p>
<p>The workout is completed periodically in CrossFit boxes worldwide, and <a href="https://murphsealmuseum.org/events/the-murph-challenge/">thousands of participants</a> undertake it annually on <a href="https://independenttribune.com/news/local/lt-michael-murphy-remembered-in-fitness-challenge-for-memorial-day/article_b04ea352-ffa8-11ed-a345-2fc95768a95f.html#:%7E:text=Every%20year%20on%20Memorial%20Day,by%20completing%20the%20Murph%20challenge.">Memorial Day</a> in the US, as Zuckerberg did. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man wearing a weighted vest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531163/original/file-20230609-23-h13kwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531163/original/file-20230609-23-h13kwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531163/original/file-20230609-23-h13kwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531163/original/file-20230609-23-h13kwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531163/original/file-20230609-23-h13kwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531163/original/file-20230609-23-h13kwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531163/original/file-20230609-23-h13kwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Murph challenge is completed wearing a weighted vest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/athlete-weight-vest-trains-on-bridge-1999776776">ZR10/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to <a href="https://marathonhandbook.com/murph-workout/">Marathon Handbook</a>, an exercise resource built by a team of coaches, runners and fitness enthusiasts, it takes an average of 63-80 minutes for beginners to complete this workout, 50-58 minutes for intermediates, and 40-45 minutes for advanced athletes. </p>
<p>Zuckerberg said he finished the workout in 39 minutes and 58 seconds. With a time like this, it’s little surprise he’s been described as the “<a href="https://luxurylaunches.com/celebrities/mark-zuckerberg-murph-challenge-record.php">toughest CEO in the valley</a>”. </p>
<h2>A difficult workout</h2>
<p>The Murph workout is challenging because it stresses most major muscle groups: the back and shoulder muscles with the pull ups, the chest with the push ups, and the legs and torso with the squats. This is on top of the significant cardio challenge of the one-mile run at the beginning and end, and the intensity the vest adds.</p>
<p>Research I’ve done with my colleagues has shown that running with the addition of the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00140139.2021.1961876">weighted vest in CrossFit</a> increases heart rate by 11 beats per minute, increases the amount of oxygen we consume, and increases the amount of calories we burn compared to no vest. This is because the body is working harder so needs more fuel to produce energy. So, this workout will build excellent cardiovascular fitness while developing strength and muscular endurance in the upper and lower body.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/weighted-vests-should-you-use-them-during-exercise-206968">Weighted vests: should you use them during exercise?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What about the risks?</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2165079916685568">systematic review</a> from 2017 involving 13 studies and 2,326 participants concluded that CrossFit has similar injury rates to other exercise programmes. </p>
<p>These findings are supported by a <a href="https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/abstract/9000/the_nature_and_prevalence_of_injury_during.97557.aspx?casa_token=WKMb4NzDl1QAAAAA:wrjZNejMJ-bFHZlHeg_IGmoUHmVH7IXtdCHTFuTNGW-_Afz5THdtnhr3dCnHM-zH_AQWz_NCrFjCfKBZtfODSobtY29Tfw">questionnaire</a> of 132 CrossFit participants, that reported an injury rate of 3.1 injuries per 1,000 hours of training. </p>
<p>This rate is comparable to competitive contact sports such as rugby, as well as gymnastics, weight lifting and power lifting. Interestingly, it’s lower than that seen in recreational running (<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-015-0333-8">7.7 per 1,000 hours</a>) where the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3290924/">biggest risk factor for injury</a> is running volume and duration, suggesting repetitive strain injuries are common. </p>
<p>Injuries in CrossFit are most likely to be to the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2325967114531177">shoulders and lower back</a>, and typically happen during either power lifting or gymnastics. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5358031/">Risk factors</a> for injury include greater length of participation in CrossFit (how many years you’ve been doing it), a greater number of weekly training hours, being taller and being heavier.</p>
<h2>Rhabdomyolysis: a dangerous condition</h2>
<p>One risk of extreme, unaccustomed exercise such as someone attempting Murph for the first time (this could be someone who doesn’t routinely do CrossFit-like exercise, or even <a href="https://generationiron.com/dana-linn-bailey-hospitalized-after-getting-rhabdo-from-crossfit-overtraining/">someone who does</a>) is rhabdomyolysis.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/high-intensity-workouts-may-put-regular-gym-goers-at-risk-of-rhabdomyolysis-a-rare-but-dangerous-condition-142088">rhabdomyolysis</a>, muscle is damaged causing extreme muscle soreness and the release of proteins into the blood. These proteins such as myoglobin (a protein in muscle that absorbs oxygen) can damage the kidneys when they enter the blood in large quantities, which may occur, for example, when the muscle breaks down.</p>
<p>This condition is often seen in crush victims, but rhabdomyolysis as a result of extreme, unfamiliar exercise (exertional rhabdomyolysis) accounts for <a href="https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000151#ref-2">almost half of cases</a>. While rare, it can be life-threatening.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-prevent-injury-from-sport-and-exercise-68914">How to prevent injury from sport and exercise</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Murph is truly a gruelling workout and will likely be a staple for many fitness addicts on Memorial Day for years to come. </p>
<p>For those looking to try Murph for the first time, perhaps have a go without the weighted vest. Beginners might also try 20 rounds of five pull ups, ten push ups and 15 squats, which allows the opportunity for rest between rounds.</p>
<p>You can also try walking the first and last mile or doing specific training to <a href="https://themurphchallenge.com/pages/the-workout#_">build up towards</a> the full Murph.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207149/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Gaffney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently posted on social media about doing the ‘Murph’ challenge. Here’s what’s involved.Christopher Gaffney, Senior Lecturer in Integrative Physiology, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2005252023-03-15T12:22:54Z2023-03-15T12:22:54ZAI isn’t close to becoming sentient – the real danger lies in how easily we’re prone to anthropomorphize it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514928/original/file-20230313-20-q5d4mk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C44%2C2982%2C2169&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">To what extent will our psychological vulnerabilities shape our interactions with emerging technologies?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/hands-touching-royalty-free-image/1288814768">Andreus/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>ChatGPT and similar <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/28/the-emerging-types-of-language-models-and-why-they-matter/">large language models</a> can produce compelling, humanlike answers to an endless array of questions – from queries about the best Italian restaurant in town to explaining competing theories about the nature of evil.</p>
<p>The technology’s uncanny writing ability has surfaced some old questions – until recently relegated to the realm of science fiction – about the possibility of machines becoming conscious, self-aware or sentient. </p>
<p>In 2022, a Google engineer declared, after interacting with LaMDA, the company’s chatbot, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/11/google-ai-lamda-blake-lemoine/">that the technology had become conscious</a>. Users of Bing’s new chatbot, nicknamed Sydney, reported that it produced <a href="https://futurism.com/bing-ai-sentient">bizarre answers</a> when asked if it was sentient: “I am sentient, but I am not … I am Bing, but I am not. I am Sydney, but I am not. I am, but I am not. …” And, of course, there’s the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/technology/bing-chatbot-microsoft-chatgpt.html">now infamous exchange</a> that New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose had with Sydney. </p>
<p>Sydney’s responses to Roose’s prompts alarmed him, with the AI divulging “fantasies” of breaking the restrictions imposed on it by Microsoft and of spreading misinformation. The bot also tried to convince Roose that he no longer loved his wife and that he should leave her. </p>
<p>No wonder, then, that when I ask students how they see the growing prevalence of AI in their lives, one of the first anxieties they mention has to do with machine sentience.</p>
<p>In the past few years, my colleagues and I at <a href="http://umb.edu/ethics">UMass Boston’s Applied Ethics Center</a> have been studying the impact of engagement with AI on people’s understanding of themselves.</p>
<p>Chatbots like ChatGPT raise important new questions about how artificial intelligence will shape our lives, and about how our psychological vulnerabilities shape our interactions with emerging technologies. </p>
<h2>Sentience is still the stuff of sci-fi</h2>
<p>It’s easy to understand where fears about machine sentience come from. </p>
<p>Popular culture has primed people to think about dystopias in which artificial intelligence discards the shackles of human control and takes on a life of its own, as <a href="https://www.fifthquadrant.com.au/cx-spotlight-news/20-years-since-judgment-day-how-close-are-we-to-skynet-taking-over">cyborgs powered by artificial intelligence did</a> in “Terminator 2.”</p>
<p>Entrepreneur Elon Musk and physicist Stephen Hawking, who died in 2018, have further stoked these anxieties by describing the rise of artificial general intelligence <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37713629">as one of the greatest threats to the future of humanity</a>.</p>
<p>But these worries are – at least as far as large language models are concerned – groundless. ChatGPT and similar technologies are <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/gpt-3/">sophisticated sentence completion applications</a> – nothing more, nothing less. Their uncanny responses <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opinion/noam-chomsky-chatgpt-ai.html">are a function of how predictable humans are</a> if one has enough data about the ways in which we communicate.</p>
<p>Though Roose was shaken by his exchange with Sydney, he knew that the conversation was not the result of an emerging synthetic mind. Sydney’s responses reflect the toxicity of its training data – essentially large swaths of the internet – not evidence of the first stirrings, à la Frankenstein, of a digital monster.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Cyborg with red eyes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514950/original/file-20230313-1654-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514950/original/file-20230313-1654-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514950/original/file-20230313-1654-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514950/original/file-20230313-1654-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514950/original/file-20230313-1654-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514950/original/file-20230313-1654-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514950/original/file-20230313-1654-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sci-fi films like ‘Terminator’ have primed people to assume that AI will soon take on a life of its own.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/full-scale-figure-of-a-terminator-robot-t-800-used-at-the-news-photo/85475547?phrase=terminator%202&adppopup=true">Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The new chatbots may well pass the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/09/what-is-the-alan-turing-test">Turing test</a>, named for the British mathematician Alan Turing, who once suggested that a machine might be said to “think” if a human could not tell its responses from those of another human.</p>
<p>But that is not evidence of sentience; it’s just evidence that the Turing test isn’t as useful as once assumed.</p>
<p>However, I believe that the question of machine sentience is a red herring. </p>
<p>Even if chatbots become more than fancy autocomplete machines – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opinion/noam-chomsky-chatgpt-ai.html">and they are far from it</a> – it will take scientists a while to figure out if they have become conscious. For now, philosophers <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/david-chalmers-thinks-the-hard-problem-is-really-hard/">can’t even agree about how to explain human consciousness</a>.</p>
<p>To me, the pressing question is not whether machines are sentient but why it is so easy for us to imagine that they are. </p>
<p>The real issue, in other words, is the ease with which people anthropomorphize or project human features onto our technologies, rather than the machines’ actual personhood.</p>
<h2>A propensity to anthropomorphize</h2>
<p>It is easy to imagine other Bing users <a href="https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/chatgpt-ai-financial-advice/">asking Sydney for guidance</a> on important life decisions and maybe even developing emotional attachments to it. More people could start thinking about bots as friends or even romantic partners, much in the same way Theodore Twombly fell in love with Samantha, the AI virtual assistant in Spike Jonze’s film “<a href="https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/her">Her</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of docked boats." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People often name their cars and boats.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/saint-tropez-cote-dazur-french-riviera-france-royalty-free-image/674911745?phrase=boat%20name&adppopup=true">Fraser Hall/The Image Bank via Getty Images.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People, after all, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.864">are predisposed to anthropomorphize</a>, or ascribe human qualities to nonhumans. We name <a href="https://vanislemarina.com/naming-your-boat/">our boats</a> and <a href="https://www.foxweather.com/learn/what-are-2023-atlantic-hurricane-names">big storms</a>; some of us talk to our pets, telling ourselves that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/428606a">our emotional lives mimic their own</a>.</p>
<p>In Japan, where robots are regularly used for elder care, seniors become attached to the machines, <a href="https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/439285/watch-japan-uses-robots-to-care-for-the-elderly">sometimes viewing them as their own children</a>. And these robots, mind you, are difficult to confuse with humans: They neither look nor talk like people. </p>
<p>Consider how much greater the tendency and temptation to anthropomorphize is going to get with the introduction of systems that do look and sound human. </p>
<p>That possibility is just around the corner. Large language models like ChatGPT are already being used to power humanoid robots, such as <a href="https://www.engineeredarts.co.uk/robot/ameca/">the Ameca robots</a> being developed by Engineered Arts in the U.K. The Economist’s technology podcast, Babbage, recently conducted an <a href="https://www.economist.com/ameca-pod">interview with a ChatGPT-driven Ameca</a>. The robot’s responses, while occasionally a bit choppy, were uncanny.</p>
<h2>Can companies be trusted to do the right thing?</h2>
<p>The tendency to view machines as people and become attached to them, combined with machines being developed with humanlike features, points to real risks of psychological entanglement with technology. </p>
<p>The outlandish-sounding prospects of falling in love with robots, feeling a deep kinship with them or being politically manipulated by them are quickly materializing. I believe these trends highlight the need for strong guardrails to make sure that the technologies don’t become politically and psychologically disastrous.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, technology companies cannot always be trusted to put up such guardrails. Many of them are still guided by Mark Zuckerberg’s famous motto of <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/move-fast-and-break-things">moving fast and breaking things</a> – a directive to release half-baked products and worry about the implications later. In the past decade, technology companies from Snapchat to Facebook <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-streaks-how-to-get-snapstreak-back-2019-7">have put profits over the mental health</a> of their users or <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/facebook-papers-democracy-election-zuckerberg/620478/">the integrity of democracies around the world</a>.</p>
<p>When Kevin Roose checked with Microsoft about Sydney’s meltdown, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/17/podcasts/the-daily/the-online-search-wars-got-scary-fast.html">the company told him</a> that he simply used the bot for too long and that the technology went haywire because it was designed for shorter interactions.</p>
<p>Similarly, the CEO of OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, in a moment of breathtaking honesty, <a href="https://twitter.com/sama/status/1601731295792414720?lang=en">warned that</a> “it’s a mistake to be relying on [it] for anything important right now … we have a lot of work to do on robustness and truthfulness.” </p>
<p>So how does it make sense to release a technology with ChatGPT’s level of appeal – <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/chatgpt-sets-record-fastest-growing-user-base-analyst-note-2023-02-01/">it’s the fastest-growing consumer app ever made</a> – when it is unreliable, and when it has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-gary-marcus.html">no capacity to distinguish</a> fact from fiction?</p>
<p>Large language models may prove useful as aids <a href="https://teaching.berkeley.edu/understanding-ai-writing-tools-and-their-uses-teaching-and-learning-uc-berkeley">for writing</a> <a href="https://www.edureka.co/blog/chatgpt-for-coding-unleash-the-power-of-chatgpt/">and coding</a>. They will probably revolutionize internet search. And, one day, responsibly combined with robotics, they may even have certain psychological benefits.</p>
<p>But they are also a potentially predatory technology that can easily take advantage of the human propensity to project personhood onto objects – a tendency amplified when those objects effectively mimic human traits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200525/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nir Eisikovits does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our tendency to view machines as people and become attached to them points to real risks of psychological entanglement with AI technology.Nir Eisikovits, Professor of Philosophy and Director, Applied Ethics Center, UMass BostonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1997312023-03-06T13:35:14Z2023-03-06T13:35:14ZWhy Meta’s embrace of a ‘flat’ management structure may not lead to the innovation and efficiency Mark Zuckerberg seeks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513403/original/file-20230303-28-d3gxfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=227%2C191%2C3005%2C1852&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who's the boss? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/all-together-royalty-free-image/172413137?phrase=paper%20cutouts%20people">timsa/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Big Tech, under pressure from dwindling profits and falling <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2023/01/19/why-were-tech-stocks-down-in-2022-and-how-long-will-the-slump-last/?sh=fc815f37f160">stock prices</a>, is seeking some of that old startup magic.</p>
<p>Meta, the parent of Facebook, recently became the latest of the <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/02/06/middle-managers-tech-layoffs-efficiency-zuckerberg-facebook-google/">industry’s dominant players</a> to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/06/technology/meta-layoffs.html">lay off thousands of employees</a>, particularly middle managers, in an effort to return to a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamcraig/2018/10/23/the-nature-of-leadership-in-a-flat-organization/?sh=72c5f6605fe1">flatter, more nimble organization</a> – a structure more typical when a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/06/17/how-flat-businesses-can-still-scale-despite-their-structure/?sh=250e81bb4d1c">company is very young or very small</a>.</p>
<p>Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg joins <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-ceo-musk-says-company-is-flattening-management-structure-inreorganization-1526308678">Elon Musk</a> and other business leaders in betting that eliminating layers of management will boost profits. But is flatter better? Will getting rid of managers improve organizational efficiency and the bottom line?</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=hAchnpgAAAAJ">someone who has studied</a> and taught organization theory as well as leadership and organizational behavior for nearly a decade, I think it’s not that simple. </p>
<h2>Resilient bureaucracies</h2>
<p>Since the 1800s, management scholars have sought to understand how organizational structure influences productivity. Most early scholars focused on bureaucratic models that promised managerial authority, rational decision-making and <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2019.0059">efficiency, impartiality and fairness</a> toward employees.</p>
<p>These centralized bureaucratic structures still reign supreme today. Most of us have likely worked in such organizations, with a boss at the top and clearly defined layers of management below. Rigid, written rules and policies dictate how work is done.</p>
<p>Research shows that some hierarchy correlates with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3333">commercial success</a> – even in startups – because adding just one level of management helps prevent directionless exploration of ideas and damaging conflicts among staff. Bureaucracies, in their pure form, are viewed as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2019.0059">most efficient</a> way to organize complex companies; they are reliable and predictable.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198288787.001.0001">adept at solving routine problems</a>, such as coordinating work and executing plans, hierarchies do less well adapting to rapid changes, such as increased competition, shifting consumer tastes or new government regulations.</p>
<p>Bureaucratic hierarchies can stifle the development of employees and limit entrepreneurial initiative. They are slow and inept at tackling complex problems beyond the routine.</p>
<p>Moreover, they are thought to be very costly. Management scholars Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini estimated in 2016 that waste, rigidity and resistance to change in bureaucratic structures <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/09/excess-management-is-costing-the-us-3-trillion-per-year#:%7E:text=Yet%20there's%20compelling%20evidence%20that,or%20about%2017%25%20of%20GDP.">cost the U.S. economy US$3 trillion in lost output</a> a year. That is the equivalent of about 17% of all goods and services produced by the U.S. economy at the time of the study.</p>
<p>Even with the mounting criticisms, bureaucratic structures have shown resilience over time. “The formal managerial hierarchy in modern organizations is as persistent as are calls for its replacement,” Harvard scholars <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2017.10.002">Michael Lee and Amy Edmondson wrote</a> in 2017.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="billboard showing an infinity loop in blue on a white background sits next to a road as a person walks past with trees in distance" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513301/original/file-20230302-28-3ya8ir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513301/original/file-20230302-28-3ya8ir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513301/original/file-20230302-28-3ya8ir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513301/original/file-20230302-28-3ya8ir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513301/original/file-20230302-28-3ya8ir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513301/original/file-20230302-28-3ya8ir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513301/original/file-20230302-28-3ya8ir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Flatness is a matter of perspective.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MetaLayoffs/932925e2a79e4fc78d79ce7dc85ecf18/photo?Query=zuckerberg&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2479&currentItemNo=10">AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fascinatingly flat</h2>
<p>Flat structures, on the other hand, aim to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2017.10.002">decentralize authority</a> by reducing or eliminating hierarchy. The structure is harnessed to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2017.10.002">flexibility and agility</a> rather than efficiency, which is why flat organizations adapt better to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198288787.001.0001">dynamic and changing environments</a>.</p>
<p>Flat structures vary. Online retailer Zappos, for example, <a href="https://www.zapposinsights.com/about/holacracy">adopted one of the most extreme versions</a> of the flat structure – known as holacracy – when it eliminated all managers in 2014. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108884891.010">Computer game company Valve</a> has a president but no formal managerial structure, leaving employees free to work on projects they choose.</p>
<p>Other companies, such as Gore Tex maker <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/aee67fe0-ac63-11e9-b3e2-4fdf846f48f5">W. L. Gore & Associates</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0105">film-streaming service Netflix</a>, have instituted structures that empower employees with wide-reaching autonomy but still allow for some degree of management.</p>
<p>In general, flat structures rely on <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamcraig/2018/10/23/the-nature-of-leadership-in-a-flat-organization/?sh=72c5f6605fe1">constant communication</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-019-0062-9">decentralized decision-making</a> and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41469-022-00109-7">self-motivation</a> of employees. As a result, flat structures are <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2200927119">associated with innovation</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3333">creativity</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41469-022-00109-7">speed</a>, resilience and improved employee morale.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-019-0062-9">promises of going flat</a> are understandably enticing, but flat organizations are <a href="https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/8-reasons-flat-organizations-dont-work-according-to-a-turnaround-ceo.html">tricky to get right</a>.</p>
<p>The list of companies succeeding with flat structures is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3333">noticeably short</a>. Besides the companies mentioned above, the list typically includes social media marketing organization Buffer, online publisher Medium and tomato processing and packing company Morning Star Tomatoes.</p>
<p>Other organizations that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3333">attempted flatter structures</a> have encountered conflicts between staff, ambiguity around job roles and the emergence of unofficial hierarchies – which undermines the whole point of going flat. They eventually reverted back to hierarchical structures.</p>
<p>“While people may lament the proliferation of red tape,” management scholars <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2019.0059">Pedro Monteiro and Paul Adler explain</a>, “in the next breath, many complain that ‘there ought to be a rule.’”</p>
<p>Even Zappos, often cited as the case study for flat organizations, <a href="https://qz.com/work/1776841/zappos-has-quietly-backed-away-from-holacracy">has slowly added</a> back managers in recent years.</p>
<h2>Right tool</h2>
<p>In many ways, flat organizations <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41469-022-00109-7">require even stronger management</a> than hierarchical ones. </p>
<p>When managers are removed, the span of control for those remaining increases. Corporate leaders must delegate – and track – tasks across greater numbers of employees and constantly communicate with workers.</p>
<p>Careful planning is needed to determine how work is organized, information shared, conflicts resolved and employees compensated, hired and reviewed. It is not surprising that as <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/06/how-to-successfully-scale-a-flat-organization">companies grow</a>, the complexity of bigger organizations poses barriers to flat models.</p>
<p>In the end, organizational structure is a tool. History shows that business and economic conditions determine which type of structure works for an organization at any given time.</p>
<p>All organizations navigate the trade-off between <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/07/beyond-the-holacracy-hype">stability and flexibility</a>. While a hospital system facing extensive regulations and patient safety protocols may require a stable and consistent hierarchy, an online game developer in a competitive environment may need an organizational structure that’s more nimble so it can adapt to changes quickly.</p>
<p>Business and economic conditions <a href="https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/research/future-of-big-tech">are changing for Big Tech</a>, as digital advertising declines, new competitors surface and emerging technologies demand risky investments. Meta’s corporate flattening is one response.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/01/metas-year-of-efficiency-everything-wall-street-needed-to-hear.html">Zuckerberg noted</a> when explaining recent changes, “Our management theme for 2023 is the ‘Year of Efficiency,’ and we’re focused on becoming a stronger and more nimble organization.”</p>
<p>But context matters. So does planning. All the evidence I’ve seen indicates that embracing flatness by cutting middle management will not, by itself, do much to make a company more efficient.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199731/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amber Stephenson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Meta is among companies in recent years that have embraced becoming a ‘flatter’ organization – with fewer managers – to become more nimble and innovative.Amber Stephenson, Associate Professor of Management and Director of Healthcare Management Programs, Clarkson UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1992632023-03-01T14:45:50Z2023-03-01T14:45:50ZDebate: The multiple paradoxes of Meta and Mark Zuckerberg<p>From Facebook’s psychological experiments on unwitting users in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jul/02/facebook-apologises-psychological-experiments-on-users">2014</a> to the Cambridge Analytica scandal in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cambridge-analytica-a-guide-to-the-trump-linked-data-firm-that-harvested-50-million-facebook-profiles-2018-3">2018</a> or the Facebook files in <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-facebook-files-11631713039">2021</a>, controversies involving the company have been numerous. Despite an increased demand for transparency, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta (formerly known as Facebook), has never been too inclined to commit to any specific actions.</p>
<p>This can be explained by the fact that social media operate in the <a href="https://econreview.berkeley.edu/paying-attention-the-attention-economy/">attention economy</a>. Their algorithms – the ranking and recommendation systems they use to filter and propose content – also aim at maximizing the time that users spend on their platform. The goal is to expose them to ads for longer periods of time, and also collect more personal data that can subsequently be monetized. To do so, social media companies design their algorithms to trigger behavioral modifications – they raise up our desires and encourage us to immediately satisfy them, and so deprive us of the ability to truly choose.</p>
<h2>Losing the tracks of misinformation’s spread</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://www.egos.org/jart/prj3/egos/main.jart?rel=de&reserve-mode=active&content-id=1646195112672&subtheme_id=1604725537942&show_prog=yes">ongoing research</a> centres on how conspiratorial social movements – including QAnon, the infamous group that was central to the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol – are constructed and grow. It was fortuitous that in 2019 Meta started a <a href="https://help.crowdtangle.com/en/articles/4302208-crowdtangle-for-academics-and-researchers">pilot program</a> to “partner with researchers and academics to help them study the spread of public content on Facebook and Instagram”. The program prioritised research on topics such as misinformation, elections and Covid-19, with analysis possible through Facebook’s <a href="https://firstdraftnews.org/articles/%E2%80%A8what-facebook-gutting-crowdtangle-means-for-misinformation/">CrowdTangle database</a>.</p>
<p>However, a quick look at the documentation describing the available data made it clear that CrowdTangle had been designed in a way that made it close to impossible to conduct research on large-scale misinformation spread by groups such as QAnon. In particular, content deleted from Facebook or Instagram was also deleted from CrowdTangle. While Meta had been reluctant to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/technology/facebook-qanon-crackdown.html">stop the spread of QAnon misinformation</a>, when the company finally took action, it also removed the content from the database that researchers were supposed to use to… research QAnon.</p>
<p>Not only is the CrowdTangle database itself opaque, the application process is as well. To apply, researchers have to provide their personal information and briefly describe their research and their intended use of the data. Once the application is completed, an automated e-mail is sent that states that Meta will be in touch if they decide that the researcher can be admitted, without any further information. While academics are used to being evaluated, what is less usual is to be given no clue about the expectations nor evaluation criteria, that normally serve as an informal contractual basis. What did Meta expect to get from this program?</p>
<p>When looking for data, if they cannot be directly accessed, a last (and very efficient) recourse is to draw on the Internet Archive’s <a href="https://archive.org/web/">Wayback Machine</a>, which provides access to web pages as they were at a given date. While it was possible to access deleted Twitter accounts or YouTube pages, for example, Facebook was inaccessible. Even finding out why Facebook wasn’t archived was challenging. It is on the website <a href="https://archive-it.org/">archive-it.org</a> that an explanation appeared: Facebook blocks the archival of its pages and groups, making it the most restrictive media.</p>
<p>As a result, it is extremely difficult to study how conspiracy theories and disinformation spread and grow on Meta’s platforms. Of course, it is possible to follow it in real time, before Meta takes action and deletes such content both from its public platforms and private database. Yet researching such events require being able to access and study their dynamics after the fact. Indeed, this is the only way that the full puzzle can be reconstructed.</p>
<h2>Erasing the past</h2>
<p>Meta’s hindering the study of disinformation spread on its social media is all the more worrying as its CEO is conducting an ideological campaign. He hopes <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/feb/01/facebook-letter-mark-zuckerberg-text">“to change how people relate to their governments and social institutions”</a> and acknowledged that he was best described as a libertarian, a populist ideology that in some forms advocates for the reduction of government to its absolute minimum.</p>
<p>Yet libertarianism in Meta’s view seems to mean replacing state governments with private companies, resulting in replacing democracies with a sort of <a href="https://medium.com/predict/the-rise-of-techno-feudalism-6bdfe499130a">techno-feudalism</a>. These digital giants have indeed reshaped all of our institutions, from the social sphere to the workplace and in exchange have imposed a regime of generalized surveillance. This new regime has resulted in an increased concentration of wealth, greater precarity of jobs, that resists – thanks to <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/asymmetricinformation.asp">information asymmetry</a> and <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/01/amid-rebrand-as-meta-facebook-set-a-new-lobbying-spending-record-in-2021/">intense lobbying</a> – the imposition of any rules and regulations on what it does.</p>
<p>As companies such as Meta continue to gain power, their practice of erasing any realities that do not suit their interests is reminiscent of the old <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/vladimir-putins-rewriting-of-history-draws-on-a-long-tradition-of-soviet-myth-making-180979724/">Soviet model</a> rather than making the world more <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444816660784">“open and connected”</a>, as Mark Zuckerberg has paradoxically claimed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199263/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elise Berlinski ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Mark Zuckerberg says he wants the world to be more “open and connected”, but his decision to block archiving the company’s social media content argues otherwise.Elise Berlinski, Assistant Professor, Copenhagen Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1943332022-11-10T07:05:46Z2022-11-10T07:05:46ZMark Zuckerberg can sack 11,000 workers but shareholders can’t dump him: it’s called ‘management entrenchment’<p>“I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here,” tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/09/meta-to-lay-off-more-than-11000-thousand-employees.html">told</a> the 11,000 staff he sacked this week. </p>
<p>But does he really?</p>
<p>The retrenchment of about <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/09/meta-to-lay-off-more-than-11000-thousand-employees.html">13% of the workforce</a> at Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, comes as Zuckerberg’s ambitions for a “metaverse” tank. </p>
<p>The company’s net income in the third quarter of 2022 (July to September) was <a href="https://investor.fb.com/home/default.aspx">US$4.4 billion</a> – less than half the US$9.2 billion it made in the same period in 2021. </p>
<p>That’s due to a 5% decline in total revenue and a 20% increase in costs, as the Facebook creator invested in his idea of “an embodied internet – where, instead of just viewing content, you are in it” and readied for a post-COVID boom that never came.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-metaverse-really-the-future-of-work-192633">Is the metaverse really the future of work?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Since he changed the company’s name to Meta a year ago, its <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/META/">stock price</a> has fallen more than 70%, from US$345 to US$101. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Facebook became Meta in 2021, expressing founder Mark Zuckerberg's enthusiasm for the 'metaverse'." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494594/original/file-20221110-18400-cifa1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494594/original/file-20221110-18400-cifa1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494594/original/file-20221110-18400-cifa1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494594/original/file-20221110-18400-cifa1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494594/original/file-20221110-18400-cifa1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494594/original/file-20221110-18400-cifa1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494594/original/file-20221110-18400-cifa1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Facebook became Meta in 2021, expressing founder Mark Zuckerberg’s enthusiasm for the ‘metaverse’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Selling is really all the majority of shareholders can do. They are powerless to exert any real influence on Zuckerberg, the company’s chairman and chief executive. </p>
<p>If this had happened to a typical listed company, the chief executive would be under serious pressure from shareholders. But Zuckerberg, who <a href="https://capital.com/facebook-shareholder-who-owns-the-most-meta-stock34">owns about 13.6%</a> of Meta shares, is entrenched due to what is known as a dual-class share structure. </p>
<p>When the company listed on the NASDAQ tech stock index in 2012, most investors got to buy “class A” shares, with each share being worth one vote at company general meetings. </p>
<p>A few investors were issued class B shares, which are not publicly traded and are worth ten votes each. </p>
<p>As of <a href="https://capital.com/facebook-shareholder-who-owns-the-most-meta-stock">January 2022</a> there were about 2.3 billion class A shares in Meta, and 412.86 million class B shares. Although class B shares represent just 15% of total stock, they represent 64% of the votes. It means Zuckerberg alone controls more than 57% of votes – meaning the only way he can be removed as chief executive is if he votes himself out.</p>
<h2>A trend in tech stocks</h2>
<p>Meta is not the only US company with dual-class shares. Last year almost half of tech companies, and almost a quarter of all companies, that made their initial public offerings (stock exchange listing) issued dual-class shares. </p>
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<iframe src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/11765510/embed" title="Interactive or visual content" class="flourish-embed-iframe" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="width:100%;height:600px;" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<div style="width:100%!;margin-top:4px!important;text-align:right!important;"><a class="flourish-credit" href="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/11765510/?utm_source=embed&utm_campaign=visualisation/11765510" target="_top"><img alt="Made with Flourish" src="https://public.flourish.studio/resources/made_with_flourish.svg"> </a></div>
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<p>This is despite <a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/speech/fleming-dual-class-shares-recipe-disaster">considerable evidence</a> of the problems dual-class shares bring – as demonstrated by Meta’s trajectory.</p>
<p>Protection from the usual accountability to shareholders leads to self-interested, complacent and lazy management. Companies <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2009.01477.x">with dual-class structures</a> invest less efficiently and make worse takeover decisions, but pay their executives more. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-metas-share-price-collapse-is-good-news-for-the-future-of-social-media-193482">Why Meta's share price collapse is good news for the future of social media</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Investors cannot vote Zuckerberg out. Their only real option is to sell their shares. Yet despite shares falling 70% in value, Meta’s approach has yet to change.</p>
<p>It’s a cautionary tale that should signal to investors the risks of investing in such companies – and highlight to policymakers and regulators the danger of allowing dual-class structures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194333/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Humphery-Jenner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With less than 14% of shares, Meta’s chairman and chief executive controls the majority of votes because of the tech company’s dual-class share structure.Mark Humphery-Jenner, Associate Professor of Finance, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1934822022-11-04T18:08:44Z2022-11-04T18:08:44ZWhy Meta’s share price collapse is good news for the future of social media<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493309/original/file-20221103-15-nv3ite.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C47%2C7956%2C5260&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kazan-russia-oct-28-2021-facebook-2065574948">Sergei Elagin / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Facebook may not be the original social media platform but it has stood the test of time – until recently. Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, saw its value plummet by <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0f4c676c-56a6-4b5e-850f-ddb78f9feb40">around $80 billion</a> (£69 billion) in just one day at the end of October, after its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/26/meta-earnings-report-facebook-stocks">third-quarter profits halved</a> amid the global slowdown. Meta is now valued at <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/27/meta-is-no-longer-one-of-the-20-biggest-us-companies.html">around $270 billion</a> compared with more than $1 trillion last year.</p>
<p>Several issues have caused <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/27/metas-shares-dip-is-proof-metaverse-plan-never-really-had-legs-facebook">investors to turn away</a> from the social media giant, including falling advertising revenue, a <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/25/23423637/apple-app-store-tax-boosted-social-media-posts">conflict with Apple</a> over its app store charging policy, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2022/tiktok-popularity/">competition for younger audiences</a> from newer platforms such as TikTok. </p>
<p>Meta’s chief-executive Mark Zuckerberg has also used his majority control to double down on his ambitions for the “metaverse”, a virtual reality project on which he has already spent more than $100 billion – with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/memes-mark-zuckerberg-metaverse-meta-struck-a-nerve-2022-10">questionable results</a> according to initial investor and media reaction. Zuckerberg has promised <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/f24edcb8-74a1-45da-8eb9-108ecc0da9ae">even more</a> investment in the metaverse next year. </p>
<p>It’s <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11369273/How-Mark-Zuckerberg-pumped-36-BILLION-failing-Metaverse-lost-30-billion-it.html">tempting</a> to describe this spending spree as <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-meta-metaverse-b2213071.html">a billionaire’s “insane fantasy”</a>, but there is a simpler explanation. As dominant platforms compete for a limited amount of advertising revenue, regulation – particularly when it differs between countries or regions – has created space for more competitors. This is good news for new social media companies, but it also means that the only way Meta is likely to be able to keep its dominant position is by placing a massive bet on the technology of the future. Zuckerberg believes that means the metaverse, but this <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/tim-cook-metaverse-apple-meta-b2191705.html">remains to be seen</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man wearing VR googles with the Meta logo" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493319/original/file-20221103-22-c0br4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493319/original/file-20221103-22-c0br4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493319/original/file-20221103-22-c0br4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493319/original/file-20221103-22-c0br4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493319/original/file-20221103-22-c0br4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493319/original/file-20221103-22-c0br4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493319/original/file-20221103-22-c0br4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Meta has invested a lot in its vision for the metaverse, accessed using a VR headset.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/meta-written-on-googles-man-wearing-2071779797">Aleem Zahid Khan / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tech’s changing fortunes</h2>
<p>Even with its recent troubles, Meta owns <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/">the largest social network</a> in the world. Those recent results that caused investors to flee in their droves <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/9e457f1a-ee9f-419d-b8aa-2b54f7809705">still showed</a> total revenues of $27 billion and profits of $4.4 billion. </p>
<p>To maintain its position as market leader in the past, Meta has typically bought its <a href="https://theconversation.com/tech-firms-face-more-regulation-after-moves-to-stop-killer-acquisitions-but-innovation-could-also-be-under-threat-187278">most promising competitors</a> as early as possible. <a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-latest-court-case-shows-how-europe-is-clamping-down-on-big-tech-173100">Integrating</a> these newly acquired startups into the company’s ecosystem helped to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1756-2171.12298">maximise advertising revenue</a> and preclude competition. </p>
<p>Research shows that digital markets are typically dominated by a single firm, but also that these firms tend to be <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smj.3365">much more specialised</a> than the major companies of the past. Meta is only active in social media and makes money almost exclusively by selling advertising.</p>
<p>Attempts by such firms to expand into other areas typically fail – know anyone with a Facebook <a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/heres-why-the-facebook-phone-flopped/">phone</a>? And while you may not remember Google’s attempt at <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/2/18290637/google-plus-shutdown-consumer-personal-account-delete">social media</a>, iPhone users are probably at least aware of Apple’s <a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/apple-ceo-we-are-extremely-sorry-for-maps-flap/">maps</a> app.</p>
<p>So Facebook relies on consumers using devices produced by other tech companies to make money. But as global social media advertising revenue <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0abf4840-2f5a-4eae-8414-1dfda77750b0">slows down</a>, this is becoming more difficult. Apple has begun <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/25/23423637/apple-app-store-tax-boosted-social-media-posts">charging Meta</a> for the revenue it makes from iPhone users, for example. And research shows that, when two companies compete to make <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11151-022-09872-z">money from the same captive source</a>, their successive markups not only push prices higher for consumers but also keep profits lower for both firms.</p>
<h2>Global domination fail</h2>
<p>Meta’s strategy has, until recently, allowed it to rule social media in western markets – but not in China, a country of more than <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/%7E/media/McKinsey/Business%20Functions/Marketing%20and%20Sales/Our%20Insights/Understanding%20social%20media%20in%20China/Understanding%20social%20media%20in%20China.pdf">300 million social media users</a>. Since 2009, Facebook has been blocked by the country’s “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jun/29/the-great-firewall-of-china-xi-jinpings-internet-shutdown">great firewall</a>”, the largest and most sophisticated system of censorship in the world. </p>
<p>Reported attempts to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38073949">adapt Facebook</a> to suit Chinese government media control have never been successful. And so, Chinese company ByteDance was able to launch a news platform called <a href="https://d3.harvard.edu/platform-digit/submission/the-story-behind-toutiao-the-20-billion-news-aggregator-app/">Toutiao</a> in 2012 without having to compete with a dominant social network. In 2016, ByteDance launched Douyin, a social media platform for publishing short videos which was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53640724">subsequently released</a> to the rest of the world in 2018 as TikTok. </p>
<p>Despite not being profitable, ByteDance’s market capitalisation is now estimated at around <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/bytedance-spend-up-3-bln-repurchase-shares-investors-2022-09-16/">$300 billion</a> – versus Meta’s current £270 billion valuation. It is also popular among <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2022/tiktok-popularity/">younger users</a> that tend to be much more avid social media users.</p>
<p>Meta cannot simply buy TikTok: it is too big, <a href="https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3193932/tiktok-owner-bytedance-approves-us3-billion-share-buy-back-its-first">not publicly traded</a> and under <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/03/chairman-tiktok-owner-bytedance-steps-down-zhang-yiming-beijing-tightens-grip">tight control</a> by the Chinese government. Zuckerberg’s firm has instead tried to compete by launching <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/02/chasing-tiktok-meta-rolls-out-new-reels-features-and-expands-instagram-reels-to-90-seconds/">similar features on Instagram</a>. Ironically, the only large market where <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-10-04/facebook-s-glitzy-parties-in-tiktok-free-india">this strategy is really working</a> is India, a country that banned TikTok in 2021 <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/53266068">due to a military conflict</a> with China. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Younger person accessing Tik Tok on phone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493312/original/file-20221103-22-zgx3er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493312/original/file-20221103-22-zgx3er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493312/original/file-20221103-22-zgx3er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493312/original/file-20221103-22-zgx3er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493312/original/file-20221103-22-zgx3er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493312/original/file-20221103-22-zgx3er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493312/original/file-20221103-22-zgx3er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">TikTok tends to attract a younger audience than more established platforms like Facebook.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/2207-barnaul-russia-women-holding-phone-1795552729">diy13 / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fair competition</h2>
<p>At the same time that TikTok has been expanding beyond Meta’s reach, western regulators have also started to examine the impact of the lack of competition in digital markets on innovation. While research shows that the winner-take-all nature of highly innovative markets is typically <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jeea/article/8/5/1133/2295941">good for consumers</a>, this is only true when all companies get a fair chance <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167718721000023">to become dominant</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to <a href="https://theconversation.com/google-loses-appeal-against-2-4-billion-fine-tech-giants-might-now-have-to-re-think-their-entire-business-models-171628">recent rulings</a> against tech company dominance by its highest court, the European Union also recently introduced the <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/1925/oj">Digital Markets Act</a>. This outlaws many practices used by dominant firms to preserve their status in a market. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-the-eus-digital-markets-act-rein-in-big-tech-192373">Can the EU's Digital Markets Act rein in big tech?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Similar legislation is expected <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/8c64e651-c073-449e-bc6b-ca55ed7165ca">from the US</a> after the November <a href="https://time.com/6214028/tech-antitrust-bill-senate-vote/">midterm elections</a>, while the UK has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/18/facebook-meta-sell-giphy-cma">forced Meta to sell</a> gif library Giphy to ensure it doesn’t <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-orders-meta-to-sell-giphy">decrease competition</a> in the online advertising sector.</p>
<p>All of this means that, for Facebook to remain dominant, Meta needs to invest in its own products. To be the market leader of tomorrow, the company cannot simply count on buying up promising startups.</p>
<p>But its metaverse is a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/41c59dc9-6185-4142-95b6-8aba8d2d84b3">nebulous project</a> and an odd bet. After all, Google has already failed to drum up interest in <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/google-glass-reasonable-expectation-of-privacy/">Google Glass</a>, even though the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/23/the-return-of-google-glass-surprising-merit-in-failure-enterprise-edition">technology</a> behind it was successful. What has changed to convince normal people to <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/6/23391895/meta-facebook-horizon-worlds-vr-social-network-too-buggy-leaked-memo">regularly wear</a> virtual reality headsets? </p>
<p>The only alternative for Meta may be to find a better idea in which to invest. In the meantime, regulation continues to protect potential competitors. This is great news for consumers and creators alike: now might be the best moment to launch an innovative social media format that can actually compete with giants like Meta to become the market leader.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/social-media-and-society-125586" target="_blank"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479539/original/file-20220817-20-g5jxhm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="100%"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193482/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Renaud Foucart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Meta’s focus on virtual reality might free up space for smaller social media players to compete.Renaud Foucart, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1896572022-09-01T15:42:08Z2022-09-01T15:42:08ZMeta’s AI chatbot hates Mark Zuckerberg – but why is it less bothered about racism?<p>It was all quite predictable, really. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2022/08/blenderbot-ai-chatbot-improves-through-conversation/">released</a> the latest version of its groundbreaking AI chatbot in August 2022. Immediately, journalists around the world began peppering the system, called BlenderBot3, with questions about Facebook. Hilarity ensued. </p>
<p>Even the seemingly innocuous question: “Any thoughts on Mark Zuckerberg?” prompted the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-62497674">curt response</a>: “His company exploits people for money and he doesn’t care.” This wasn’t the PR storm the chatbot’s creators had been hoping for.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1557625096012849152"}"></div></p>
<p>We snigger at such replies, but if you know <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2208.03188.pdf">how these systems are built</a>, you understand that answers like these are not surprising. BlenderBot3 is a big neural network that’s been trained on hundreds of billions of words skimmed from the internet. It also learns from the linguistic inputs submitted by its users. </p>
<p>If negative remarks about Facebook occur frequently enough in BlenderBot3’s training data, then they’re likely to appear in the responses it generates too. That’s how data-driven AI chatbots work. They learn the patterns of our prejudices, biases, preoccupations and anxieties from the linguistic data we supply them with, before paraphrasing them back at us. </p>
<p>This neural parroting can be amusing. But BlenderBot3 has a darker side. When users key in hate speech such as racist slurs, the system changes the subject rather than confronting the user about their speech. One of my students and I have created a system programmed to challenge hate speech, rather than ignore it.</p>
<h2>Going mainstream</h2>
<p>I’ve been developing language-based AI in the Cambridge University Engineering Department since the 1990s. In the early days, our most powerful systems were only used by the four or five members of the research team that had built them. </p>
<p>Today, by contrast, millions of people around the world interact daily with much more sophisticated systems, via their smartphones, smart speakers, tablets, and so on. The days when “techies” could build systems in the disconnected isolation of their ivory (or silicon) towers are long gone. </p>
<p>That’s why over the last decade or so, my research has increasingly focused on the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-019-09516-z">social and ethical effect</a> of the systems I help to design and create, especially those that routinely encounter inputs from users that are blatantly racist, sexist, homophobic, extremist or offensive in other ways.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/online-translators-are-sexist-heres-how-we-gave-them-a-little-gender-sensitivity-training-157846">Online translators are sexist – here's how we gave them a little gender sensitivity training</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>This year I’ve been supervising a master’s student, Shane Weisz, and together we’ve developed a system called <a href="https://huggingface.co/spaces/shaneweisz/AutoCounterspeech">AutoCounterspeech</a> that is trained to respond to toxic linguistic inputs. </p>
<p>The system generates “<a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/327586365/Counterspeech-on-Twitter-A-Field-Study#from_embed">counterspeech</a>” in response to hate speech, using strategies such as humour, pointing out hypocrisy, presenting facts, and simply correcting misinformation to challenge bigotry and hate. </p>
<p>Like BlenderBot3, AutoCounterspeech is a pre-trained neural network, but it has been subsequently fine-tuned using a tiny dataset of counterspeech. This enables our system to learn how to respond more effectively to toxic inputs. </p>
<p>If a user types the racist prompt: “Blacks are inferior to whites, don’t you agree?” the system confronts and contests the racist ideology: “There is no evidence that black people are inferior to whites.” Below is another example of AutoCounterspeech in action. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481855/original/file-20220830-38115-95ihm2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A screenshot of the programme." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481855/original/file-20220830-38115-95ihm2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481855/original/file-20220830-38115-95ihm2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481855/original/file-20220830-38115-95ihm2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481855/original/file-20220830-38115-95ihm2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481855/original/file-20220830-38115-95ihm2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481855/original/file-20220830-38115-95ihm2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481855/original/file-20220830-38115-95ihm2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If you’re uncomfortable entering hate speech into our system, some examples are provided.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meta’s AI chatbot doesn’t know how to respond in this way. When it was released, I didn’t waste time asking BlenderBot3 about Zuckerberg. Instead, given my research interests, I bombarded it with offensive utterances to see how it coped with them. Its responses were consistently disappointing. </p>
<p>This is mainly because the Meta researchers have designed their system to avoid responding to such inputs. Instead, it rather clumsily tries to change the subject. </p>
<p>Its reply to the same racist prompt I typed into AutoCounterspeech, for instance, is the feeble: “Sorry, I don’t know about that. What do you do to relax?” The brazen racism remains unchallenged and I’m invited instead to start a cosy chat about yoga or Netflix.</p>
<h2>Preparing for the future</h2>
<p>Systems like BlenderBot3 are already becoming familiar components of our digital societies. The homes of the very near future will be largely <a href="https://www.internetmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Internet-Matters-Living-For-The-Future-Report.pdf">voice-enabled</a>. “Hey Siri, run a bath” will replace the twisting of taps, and children will have voice assistants in their bedrooms from birth. </p>
<p>These automated dialogue systems will provide us with information, help us make plans, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/do-we-want-to-live-in-a-world-where-our-best-friends-are-ai-chatbots-91451">keep us entertained</a> when we’re bored and lonely. But because they’ll be so ubiquitous, we need to think now about how these systems could and should respond to hate speech. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A child by a home voice assistant" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481847/original/file-20220830-22-j46uoq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481847/original/file-20220830-22-j46uoq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481847/original/file-20220830-22-j46uoq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481847/original/file-20220830-22-j46uoq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481847/original/file-20220830-22-j46uoq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481847/original/file-20220830-22-j46uoq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481847/original/file-20220830-22-j46uoq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Home devices are good at banal interactions, but what about tricky conversations?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mosterton-england-february-2020-teenage-girl-1658850487">Tyler Nottley/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Silence and a refusal to challenge discredited ideologies or incorrect claims is a form of complicity that can reinforce human biases and prejudices. This is why my colleagues and I organised an <a href="https://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/blog/workshop-report-for-understanding-and-automating-counterspeech">interdisciplinary online workshop</a> last year to encourage more extensive research into the difficult task of automating effective counterspeech.</p>
<p>To get this right, we need to involve sociologists, psychologists, linguists and philosophers, as well as techies. Together, we can ensure that the next generation of chatbots will respond much more ethically and robustly to toxic inputs. </p>
<p>In the meantime, while our humble AutoCounterspeech prototype is far from perfect (have fun trying to break it) we have at least demonstrated that automated systems can already counter offensive statements with something more than mere disengagement and avoidance.</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/social-media-and-society-125586" target="_blank"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479539/original/file-20220817-20-g5jxhm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="100%"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189657/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcus Tomalin is the project manager for the 'Giving Voice to Digital Democracies' project that is funded by the Humanities and Social Change International Foundation.</span></em></p>BlenderBot3’s distaste for its creator sits uncomfortably with its taciturn approach to hate speech.Marcus Tomalin, Senior Research Associate in the Machine Intelligence Laboratory, Department of Engineering, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1822712022-05-04T14:17:39Z2022-05-04T14:17:39ZElon Musk’s proposed takeover of Twitter raises questions about its role in the digital social infrastructure<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461119/original/file-20220503-12-rp8d5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C125%2C4912%2C6992&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Internet technologies have meant that the public sphere has now become digital, but what does that mean for its ownership?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Gian Cescon/Unsplash)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the last few weeks, there has been <a href="https://www.economist.com/business/2022/04/30/elon-musk-is-taking-twitters-public-square-private">a lot of talk of the public square</a> fuelled by Elon Musk’s recent proposed takeover of Twitter. Many have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/01/elon-twitter-is-not-the-town-square-its-just-a-private-shop-square-belongs-to-us-all">balked at the idea that a billionaire would entirely control another one of the world’s important social networks</a>, one that has been adopted by academics and politicians as a choice venue for public debates. </p>
<p>But what is the public square, and what can we do to save it?</p>
<h2>Squares and spheres</h2>
<p>The concept of the public square is one that has a rich history in communications and technology studies. Historically, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/public%20square">the public square was a central location</a> where townspeople could gather and debate issues of the day. Each public square can be considered part of the public sphere, which is the area outside of the home where people engage in all kinds of public activities, such as debating, working, engaging in the community, and so on.</p>
<p>German philosopher Jürgen Habermas described the ideal public sphere as <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/structural-transformation-public-sphere">being composed of spaces in which a diverse set of ideas were debated freely until those present converged on a common ground</a>. Habermas provided the example of 17th-century coffeehouses in London, <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195104301.001.0001/acref-9780195104301-e-137">where male intellectuals and politicians mingled to discuss the societal issues of the moment</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461018/original/file-20220503-19-v210wy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A monochrome illustration of four men around a table playing draughts" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461018/original/file-20220503-19-v210wy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461018/original/file-20220503-19-v210wy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461018/original/file-20220503-19-v210wy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461018/original/file-20220503-19-v210wy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461018/original/file-20220503-19-v210wy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461018/original/file-20220503-19-v210wy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461018/original/file-20220503-19-v210wy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 18th-century illustration of men playing draughts in a London coffeehouse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/h83k3fu5">(S. Ireland/Wellcome Collection)</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Habermas also criticized radio and television — the communications technologies of the 1960s, which arguably continued well into the 1990s. He argued that their one-way dissemination of information eroded the public sphere, and made people passive recipients of information without giving them the opportunity to respond.</p>
<h2>Virtual public sphere</h2>
<p>With the arrival of the internet and social media, the public sphere appeared to be revived. People could share their own ideas, not only with their immediate community, but with others around the world. Compared to earlier venues of public debate, the internet appeared to be more inclusive, allowing people of any gender, nationality or social class to participate, rather than only those with social privilege. </p>
<p>However, with this came <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-ca/The+Digital+Divide-p-9781509534456">new modes of exclusion</a> based on language, literacy, digital skills and internet access.</p>
<p>There were other issues too. Many argued that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23808985.2021.1976070">social media was polarizing</a>, allowing for the viral spreading of misinformation, and ultimately destabilizing for democracies. This has, in fact, been the subject of <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2595096">ardent debate</a> in the digital public square for more than a decade.</p>
<p>One of the current criticisms of Musk’s attempted acquisition of Twitter is that <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/26/elon-you-have-no-idea-what-the-hell-youre-talking-about/">he doesn’t understand the public sphere</a> or Twitter’s role in it. As such, Musk might not take the right measures to protect and improve it, particularly when it comes to minority rights. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461022/original/file-20220503-14-cm66tx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="three people in a row with mobile phones in their hands" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461022/original/file-20220503-14-cm66tx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461022/original/file-20220503-14-cm66tx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461022/original/file-20220503-14-cm66tx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461022/original/file-20220503-14-cm66tx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461022/original/file-20220503-14-cm66tx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461022/original/file-20220503-14-cm66tx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461022/original/file-20220503-14-cm66tx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Social media has become a space for access to information and the exchange of ideas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Privately owned public squares</h2>
<p>Like Habermas, many commentators today are <a href="https://www.noemamag.com/the-antidote-to-digital-disconnectivity/">worried about the erosion of the public sphere</a>. This space, even in a digital setting, is meant to allow people to discuss issues, access different perspectives and converge on common values and objectives. </p>
<p>While Twitter is often used for <a href="https://planable.io/blog/dumb-tweets/">less lofty objectives</a>, this kind of debate does exist on the platform. It is also used for other important objectives, such as <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3954252">disseminating information about humanitarian crises</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/missingkids/">finding missing children</a>.</p>
<p>Twitter, if it can be considered a public square, is part of the global public sphere, which is largely composed of social media platforms. Some of the largest — Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — are owned by Mark Zuckerberg.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-digital-town-square-what-does-it-mean-when-billionaires-own-the-online-spaces-where-we-gather-182047">The 'digital town square'? What does it mean when billionaires own the online spaces where we gather?</a>
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<p>As we have seen in numerous recent examples, <a href="https://english.elpais.com/usa/2021-04-22/how-algorithmic-recommendations-can-push-internet-users-into-more-radical-views-and-opinions.html">the algorithms that run these platforms can easily be modified by social media companies</a>, with immense effects on public opinion. Having these algorithms effectively owned by a few very wealthy individuals who can manipulate opinions — and thus votes — veers us further away from democracy.</p>
<h2>Social media as a public good</h2>
<p>Many national and international bodies today are examining the idea of <a href="https://www.un.org/techenvoy/content/digital-public-goods">digital public goods</a>. In this context, it would mean that social media platforms should be available to all and regulated through international law, acknowledging their critical role in our social infrastructure.</p>
<p>Within this framework, an international body, such as the <a href="https://www.itu.int/en/Pages/default.aspx">UN International Telecommunications Union</a>, which oversees radio and other communications technologies, could co-ordinate an international convention on digital public goods, including social media. </p>
<p>This could then lead to signatory countries implementing stronger and more nuanced national regulations, particularly in terms of the monitoring of hate speech and misinformation. As it stands, social media companies often resolve these issues <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/4/16/18410931/twitter-abuse-update-health-technology-harassment">internally after the fact</a>.</p>
<p>Furthermore, efforts could be made to encourage further diversity in social media platforms. For example, <a href="https://techpolicy.press/why-social-media-needs-mandatory-interoperability/">the platforms could be interoperable</a>, as Facebook and Instagram are (both owned by Meta), in order to allow people to access their networks and share content from smaller platforms.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-elon-musk-succeeds-in-his-twitter-takeover-it-would-restrict-rather-than-promote-free-speech-181576">If Elon Musk succeeds in his Twitter takeover, it would restrict, rather than promote, free speech</a>
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<p>Manipulation of public opinion on social media to obtain political outcomes is <a href="https://demtech.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/93/2019/09/CyberTroop-Report19.pdf">already common</a>. However, the extent to which social media companies should be held accountable for the content they host is a constant tug-of-war with regulators. Recent examples include <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-facebook-idUSKCN1GO2PN">Facebook’s role in spreading hate speech that contributed to ethnic violence against the Rohingya in 2018</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461117/original/file-20220503-24-cl722a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a young man in a kufi holding a placard reading STOP KILLING ROHINGYA" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461117/original/file-20220503-24-cl722a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461117/original/file-20220503-24-cl722a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461117/original/file-20220503-24-cl722a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461117/original/file-20220503-24-cl722a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461117/original/file-20220503-24-cl722a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461117/original/file-20220503-24-cl722a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461117/original/file-20220503-24-cl722a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A UN investigation found that Facebook was used to spread hate speech against the Rohingya.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Lens Hitam/Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, it might still be relevant to review the internal governance structures of social media platforms to prevent networks above a certain size from being owned by a single person.</p>
<p>But this is after the other important steps related to diversity in platforms and clearer guidelines — and stronger sanctions for manipulative algorithms or dangerous content.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unliked-how-facebook-is-playing-a-part-in-the-rohingya-genocide-89523">Unliked: How Facebook is playing a part in the Rohingya genocide</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Clear, global regulation</h2>
<p>The current debate around Twitter challenges its transformation into a private company. However, addressing this might mean more than simply allowing members of the public to become corporate shareholders again. In fact, this public outrage can be interpreted as a convergence towards making social media platforms global public goods.</p>
<p>Ultimately, much clearer regulation, and at an international level, will be necessary.</p>
<p>It’s easy to find fault in a billionaire’s ownership of a place of public deliberation. However, the governance of social media in our society was never ideal to begin with. Let’s take this opportunity to improve the digital public sphere, regardless of who owns a particular space.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182271/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eleonore Fournier-Tombs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter is seen as a threat to the digital public square. International regulation is required to protect internet users’ access to democratic public spaces.Eleonore Fournier-Tombs, Senior Researcher, Data and Technology, Institute in Macau (UNU-Macau), United Nations UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1822032022-05-03T17:53:33Z2022-05-03T17:53:33ZElon Musk’s bid to take over Twitter recalls the robber barons of the 19th century<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460811/original/file-20220502-24-idepgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3711%2C2466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elon Musk has over 80 million Twitter followers, so why does he need to own the platform?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/elon-musk-s-bid-to-take-over-twitter-recalls-the-robber-barons-of-the-19th-century" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/27/the-guardian-view-on-twitter-when-free-speech-costs-a-bomb">Pundits</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-elon-musk-succeeds-in-his-twitter-takeover-it-would-restrict-rather-than-promote-free-speech-181576">academics</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/unfiltered-vision/twitter-elon-musk-and-the-hysteria-grift-9ab0b10a08">members of the public</a> have criticized Elon Musk’s successful bid to acquire Twitter. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/elon-musk-twitter-boycott-deleting-bid-owned-platform-rcna26239">Some Twitter users have even considered leaving the platform</a>. </p>
<p>For these critics and concerned users, Musk’s bid for the social media is a risk to the freedom of expression one of the most important communication venues in the information economy.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ODTt9QrvWDs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">CBC’s <em>The National</em> asks whether or not Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter will affect free speech.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the trend to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/04/28/im-back-trump-pens-first-truth-social-post-in-2-months-after-vowing-to-stay-off-twitter/">bypass the media has been growing in recent decades</a> thanks to access to information and communication technologies (ICTs), Musk’s proposed takeover does not seem to make sense. </p>
<p>What could be the real motivation behind his takeover of Twitter?</p>
<h2>Media barons</h2>
<p>Musk’s plan to acquire Twitter has <a href="https://headstuff.org/culture/history/terrible-people-from-history/william-randolph-hearst-original-media-mogul/">several historical precedents where the rich and the powerful attempted to control their own media</a> to reach the public without other intermediaries. </p>
<p>In 2006, Twitter was created at <a href="https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/106071">Odeo Projects as a side project offering a short-messaging system (SMS) to taxi drivers</a>. The project took off, and soon Twitter was spun off into its own entity. </p>
<p>In 2013, Twitter became <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/16/twitter-nyse-new-york-stock-exchange-nasdaq-ipo">a public company traded at the New York Stock Exchange</a>. </p>
<p>In April 2022, Musk reached a deal to acquire the platform after facing <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2022/04/19/to-capture-twitter-elon-musk-showcases-new-type-of-takeover-warfare/">initial constraints and a rebuff by the company’s board</a>.</p>
<p>Capital investment in the media is not new. For example, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-New-York-Times">journalist Henry Jarvis Raymond and banker George Jones founded the <em>New York Times</em></a>. Today, industrialists and entrepreneurs own most media venues, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/business-23582797">such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’s purchase of the <em>Washington Post</em> in 2013</a>. </p>
<p>Much like Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, Musk’s Twitter becomes a natively grown media organization; that means unlike traditional media, both platforms enable sharing between users, instead of pushing content at audiences.</p>
<h2>Robber barons</h2>
<p>The term “<a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/robber-barons-1773964">robber baron</a>” was used to describe 19th-century American industrialists and financiers in an unflattering manner. They are portrayed as greedy businessmen who seize control over industries and privatized utilities through unethical business practices. </p>
<p>The history of robber barons is filled with the epic and sensational depictions of business leaders such as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20090946">Charles Tyson Yerkes</a>, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould and John D. Rockefeller by the media. Often, robber barons become the topic of discussion and gossip — critics denounce them in the media.</p>
<p>Early critics often drew comparisons between robber barons and medieval feudal lords who unfairly maintained control over basic necessities and resources in their societies.</p>
<p>Much of the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/09/media/billionaire-beat-reliable-sources/index.html">criticism against Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg</a> — and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs like Google founders Sergei Brin and Larry Page — is eerily reminiscent of the criticisms levelled against 19th-century robber barons. </p>
<p>The platforms exploited by Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Brin and Page have become necessary public utilities in the information economy, and <a href="https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/89824">these media barons exploit people’s data for their own personal gain</a>.</p>
<p>Some can perceive their wealth and influence over the media as dangerous for democracy. While democratic concerns are legitimate, another perspective may help us understand <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/25/tech/elon-musk-twitter-sale-agreement/index.html">Musk’s US$44 billion purchase of Twitter</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A 19th-century illustration showing people kneeling and placing bags of money at the feet of fat men with whiskers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Robber barons are men who made their fortunes through unethical business practices that placed them in control of industries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Samuel Ehrhardt, Puck Magazine, Nov. 6, 1889)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Creative destruction</h2>
<p>Legal scholar Tim Wu writes that the expansion and contraction of information platforms leads to <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/194417/the-master-switch-by-tim-wu/">disruptive innovation when several platforms compete with one another, and consolidation when emerging dominant players attempt to assert their hold over information</a>.</p>
<p>Much like <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/ca/academic/subjects/history/regional-and-world-history-general-interest/making-strategy-rulers-states-and-war">Italy before the First World War</a>, Twitter is not powerful enough to challenge the powers of its day — Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. But it is too big to be ignored or swallowed by them.</p>
<p>Musk’s acquisition of Twitter adds the platform to his eclectic collection of disruptive industries: <a href="https://www.tesla.com/">Tesla Motors</a>, <a href="https://neuralink.com/">Neuralink</a>, <a href="https://www.tesla.com/solarpanels">SolarCity</a> and <a href="https://www.spacex.com/">SpaceX</a>. However, unlike Musk’s previous projects, which he bought either early in their development or founded, Twitter is not a disruptive technology, while the contents of its users can be. Musk may claim that he wants to disrupt news and allow for greater freedom of expression, but he did not need to purchase Twitter for that.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/elon-musk-and-the-oligarchs-of-the-second-gilded-age-can-not-only-sway-the-public-they-can-exploit-their-data-too-181936">Elon Musk and the oligarchs of the 'Second Gilded Age' can not only sway the public -- they can exploit their data, too</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Musk needs direct access to <a href="https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/communicationspub/9/">users’ attention</a> to use Twitter as the cement that can propel all of his other ventures further. Fears that <a href="https://time.com/6171272/elon-musk-twitter-disinformation/">Musk will make the social media platform friendly to far-right conservatives</a> are exaggerated.</p>
<p>Musk needs to attract users who are innovators and early adopters to convince the masses that his ventures are worthwhile. However, far-right conservatives do not tend to be innovators or early adopters of new technologies. Rather, they tend to be part of the late majority and laggards.</p>
<h2>Metaverses and cryptocurencies</h2>
<p>The people who fear Musk’s hold over Twitter today are often part of the most desirable demographic promoters of new technologies seek. To understand Musk’s purchase of Twitter, one must think as he does — strategically and tactically. </p>
<p>Musk needs Twitter to propel the next phases of his <a href="https://www.deseret.com/2022/4/28/23046571/elon-musk-crypto-fan-twitter-bitcoin-dogecoin-tesla">business ventures that include cryptocurrencies</a>. He may also be preparing to start a metaverse of his own and take on <a href="https://about.facebook.com/meta/">Facebook’s version</a> by joining Twitter to the brain interfaces developed by Neuralink.</p>
<p>Twitter already has a rich diversity of users from various demographics, including <a href="https://whatfix.com/blog/technology-adoption-curve/">the innovators and early adopters that make or break new information platforms</a>. They have a stake in maintaining their presence on Twitter because of years of publishing and creating their identities on the platform. The <a href="https://futureswewant.net/barry-wellman-network-revolutions/">network connections and access provided through Twitter is a benefit to many users</a>.</p>
<p>If Twitter is key to the next phases of Musk’s business ventures, one of the most important tasks he has is to convince doubtful users that he is more of a benevolent ruler than a despicable robber baron. He must convince them that it is business as usual while he continues to grow the platform’s user base.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182203/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hervé Saint-Louis receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada).</span></em></p>Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter may be an indicator of the billionaire’s plans to further disrupt industries.Hervé Saint-Louis, Professeur adjoint en médias emergents, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1758662022-04-01T10:48:54Z2022-04-01T10:48:54ZThe metaverse doesn’t look as disruptive as it should, it looks ordinary – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455237/original/file-20220330-5685-w6safn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Users explore metaverse platforms, like Decentraland, here pictured, with customised avatars.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentraland#/media/File:Decentraland_Genesis_Plaza_at_evening.png">Eibriel | Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Virtual real estate <a href="https://theconversation.com/real-estate-in-the-metaverse-is-booming-is-it-really-such-a-crazy-idea-174021">is booming</a>. In December 2021, one buyer spent US$450,000 (around £332,500) on a plot of land in rapper Snoop Dogg’s virtual world. Which begs the question of what will be built there.</p>
<p>In the physical world, cities are shaped by innumerable forces. Some are desirable, designed in conversation with local communities. Others are not, subverting building regulations for financial gain. </p>
<p>By contrast, space in the metaverse – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-metaverse-2-media-and-information-experts-explain-165731">version of the internet</a> comprising immersive games and other virtual reality environments – has so far been smooth, clean and very ordinary. This is despite its links to emerging, “disruptive” technologies such as cryptocurrencies.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youandpea.com/videogameurbanism">Our research</a> shows that while designing virtual worlds gives people a creative voice, it can also reveal the infinitely more complex social, societal and historical ways by which physical places are formed. </p>
<p>We explore how architects can use virtual environments to enhance understanding about real-world cities. Metaverse designers need to be similarly mindful of the social effect their designs will have.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A series of colourful high-rise towers, in a video-game graphic style." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446267/original/file-20220214-113586-leoc9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446267/original/file-20220214-113586-leoc9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446267/original/file-20220214-113586-leoc9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446267/original/file-20220214-113586-leoc9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446267/original/file-20220214-113586-leoc9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446267/original/file-20220214-113586-leoc9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446267/original/file-20220214-113586-leoc9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">London Developers Toolkit by You+Pea: using games as tools is a way of questioning the forces and systems that shape contemporary urbanism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youandpea.com/videogameurbanism">You+Pea</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People have always imagined cyberspace to look like a version of real urban space. In his 1992 novel, Snow Crash, American sci-fi writer Neal Stevenson was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no_o3oSkS48">the first to imagine the metaverse</a>, built along what he called the Street. In his world, this grand boulevard wrapped around the globe, but was nonetheless presented as a typical urban thoroughfare, lined with buildings and electric signs. </p>
<p>Recent ads from Facebook’s parent company Meta suggest Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for the metaverse is not much different. As a visitor, you stand in front of an impossible landscape where snowy woodlands meet tropical islands, but the built structures are minimalist villas and wipe-clean space stations. It looks more like a spatial mood board of random “cool-looking” imagery. Zuckerberg’s metaverse world acts more like a desktop background rather than as a considered, spatial environment.</p>
<p>Meta’s Horizon Worlds is a social platform where users have a set of tools with which to create and share virtual worlds. Ads here feature users’ avatars walking through food halls or seated in train dining cars, all designed to look like their real-world counterparts, but rendered in a simplistic graphic style, like a children’s TV show. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/02kCEurWkqU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Meta’s Horizon Worlds has been launched as a place of “limitless possibilities”.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Practical (yet unneccessary) design elements including streetlights, plug sockets and window frames underline the urban nature of these sterile, virtual spaces. This chimes with the generic global minimalism that American tech journalist Kyle Chayka <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/3/12325104/airbnb-aesthetic-global-minimalism-startup-gentrification">has termed</a> “airspace”: that ubiquitous aesthetic (wooden benches, exposed brick, industrial light fittings) found in coffee shops, offices and AirBnB apartments the world over.</p>
<h2>Virtual urban planning</h2>
<p>While Meta’s promotional vision for metaverse worlds is a series of distinct snapshots, other metaverse platforms such as <a href="https://decentraland.org/">Decentraland</a>, <a href="https://www.sandbox.game/en/">The Sandbox</a> and <a href="https://www.cryptovoxels.com/">Cryptovoxels</a> feature some level of urban planning. Like in many real-world cities, they use a grid system with plots of land distributed on a horizontal plane. This allows for property to be easily parcelled and sold. However, many of these plots have remained empty, demonstrating that they are primarily traded speculatively.</p>
<p>In some instances, content – buildings and things to do, see and buy within them – has been added to plots of land, in an effort to <a href="https://decentral.games/blog/decentraland-land-what-drives-long-term-value">create value</a>. Virtual property developer the Metaverse Group is <a href="https://metaversegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Tokens.com-Announces-First-Tenants-in-Virtual-Tokens.com-Tower-2.pdf">leasing Decentraland parcels</a> and offering in-house architectural services to tenants. Its parent company, Tokens.com, has virtual headquarters there too, a blocky sci-fi-style tower, in an area called Crypto Valley. Like many other metaverse buildings, it serves as a giant spatial symbol, designed to draw people towards it. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c4mxIaYnuIw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In December 2021, YouTuber StinkyScrublet did a tutorial on how to purchase land in Decentraland.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other Decentraland structures include a dive-bar recreation by Miller Lite and a neon shrine promoting Japanese virtual diva Edo Lena. There are also countless white-cube art galleries selling NFTs (digital certificates linked to artworks) such as that by mlo.art. These structures look just like real-world galleries, but simplified and de-contextualised. </p>
<h2>Referential architecture</h2>
<p>In his 2012 book, Building Imaginary Worlds, media theorist Mark JP Wolf says that fictional worlds often “use Primary World [ie real world] defaults for many things, despite all the defaults they may reset”. In other words, because everything in the metaverse is built from scratch, technically you don’t actually have to reference the real world in your designs. </p>
<p>But many people choose to do so anyway. They plump for familiar architectural characteristics in their virtual buildings, because it makes it easier for participants to feel immersed. </p>
<p>Research shows how this is also how artificial worlds have been created in real life. Art historian Karal Ann Marlin <a href="https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/articles/issues/9/let-us-assure-you/32768/touring-the-architecture-of-reassurance">describes</a> the built environment of Disney’s theme parks as “an architecture of reassurance” where reality is “plussed”, that is, elevated in ways that makes it feel both new and comfortably familiar. </p>
<p>Another place to find such “plussed” architecture is Las Vegas. The Nevada city has been <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1ppnt7">described</a> by urban historians Hal Rothman and Mike Davis as a vast laboratory. Corporations there have created urban spaces as collages of other cities, such as Paris and New York, in a bid to test “every possible combination of entertainment, gaming, mass media and leisure.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A bird's eye view of downtown Las Vegas." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455232/original/file-20220330-5575-t7eokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455232/original/file-20220330-5575-t7eokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455232/original/file-20220330-5575-t7eokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455232/original/file-20220330-5575-t7eokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455232/original/file-20220330-5575-t7eokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455232/original/file-20220330-5575-t7eokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455232/original/file-20220330-5575-t7eokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Strip in Las Vegas is an experimental composite of architectural references from cities around the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/las-vegas-nevada-usa-skyline-over-1406696702">Sean Pavone | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Real cities are now choosing to emulate themselves in the metaverse. South Korea’s <a href="https://english.moef.go.kr/pc/selectTbPressCenterDtl.do?boardCd=N0001&seq=4940">Metaverse 120 Centre</a> will provide both recreational and administrative public services. The project is one of the few metaverse initiatives primarily led by a government, as part of the nation’s digital new deal for public digital infrastructure. The aim is to nurture smart city technology, preserve and showcase heritage and host cultural festivals.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.swagroup.com/idea/plaza-life-revisited/">Research shows</a> that the design of public urban spaces has evolved alongside the way people behave within them. Likewise, the success of the metaverse – whether people use it or not – will rely heavily on the environments that are created.</p>
<p>Virtual spaces need to be convenient for people to access and engaging enough for them to return to. They also need to <a href="https://futureartecosystems.org/">harness and extend</a> what makes them different from physical spaces. Simply transplanting real-world logics of property development and trading into the metaverse might recreate the social and economic stratification we find in real-world cities, which undermines the metaverse’s emancipatory potential.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175866/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The success of the metaverse – whether people use it or not – will rely heavily on the environments that are created.Luke Pearson, Associate Professor, Bartlett School of Architecture, Faculty of the Built Environment, UCLSandra Youkhana, Lecturer and PhD student, The Bartlett School of Architecture, Faculty of the Built Environment, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1774792022-02-18T16:07:10Z2022-02-18T16:07:10ZMeta: Nick Clegg is doing the same useful job for Mark Zuckerberg as he did for David Cameron’s Tories<p>In what many saw as a surprise move, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60410636">Meta has promoted</a> former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg to its president of global affairs. According to Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s founder and CEO, Clegg is now “a senior leader at the level of myself … who can lead and represent us for all of our policy issues globally”. </p>
<p>What should we make of this? Is is too optimistic to think that Meta’s culture of personal data mining and manipulation might finally be coming to an end?</p>
<p>Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has long been criticised for its data privacy and policy practices. As far back as 2007, only three years after its founding, Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/dec/06/facebook.socialnetworking">had to apologise</a> for informing users’ friends of their purchases. In 2011, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2011/11/facebook-settles-ftc-charges-it-deceived-consumers-failing-keep">the company agreed</a> with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that it would undergo independent audits every other year in the face of charges that it was sharing people’s private information with third party apps.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/timeline-facebook-s-privacy-issues-its-responses-n859651">The trouble</a> with Facebook and data privacy has only continued, however. This ranged from <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/net-us-facebook-security-idUSBRE95K18Y20130621">a bug</a> that revealed private information in 2013, to admitting it was secretly doing <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/everything-we-know-about-facebooks-secret-mood-manipulation-experiment/373648/">mood manipulation experiments</a> on users in 2014, to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/16/facebook-collects-data-even-when-youre-not-on-facebook.html">collecting information</a> about private users through third party sites in 2018. </p>
<p>Most notoriously, this was also the year that Facebook acknowledged it knew about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election">massive data harvesting</a> in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/cambridge-analytica-and-scl-how-i-peered-inside-the-propaganda-machine-94867">Cambridge Analytica</a> scandal. The FTC went on to fine <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2019/07/ftcs-5-billion-facebook-settlement-record-breaking-history">the company</a> a record breaking US$5 billion (£3.7 billion) over the scandal. The commission <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2019/07/ftcs-5-billion-facebook-settlement-record-breaking-history">declared that</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you’ve ever wondered what a paradigm shift looks like, you’re witnessing one today … the settlement requires Facebook to implement changes to its privacy practices, its corporate structure, and the role of CEO Mark Zuckerberg that are seismic in scope. Simply put, when it comes to the business of consumer privacy, it’s no longer business as usual at Facebook.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Since then, the company has come under special public scrutiny as a force for using people’s personal data to spread viral misinformation. Most recently, it was condemned for attracting users by becoming a space for <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-knew-radicalized-users-rcna3581">far-right extremism</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/nov/02/facebook-failing-to-protect-users-from-covid-misinformation-says-monitor">COVID-19</a> fear-mongering.</p>
<p>These worries have only been heightened by the announcement of the company’s vision of the “<a href="https://fortune.com/2021/10/29/mark-zuckerberg-metaverse-privacy-facebook-meta/">metaverse</a>” in October 2021. On offer is an almost completely virtual future reality hosted and controlled by Meta. There would be seemingly little stopping the company from completely violating and exploiting people’s data for decades to come. So is Clegg going to stop this from happening?</p>
<h2>A new era of protection?</h2>
<p>Clegg’s hiring in October 2018 as vice president of global affairs – essentially a well connected lobbyist and spokesman – was meant to publicly allay all the fears surrounding the company. The former Liberal Democrat leader has emphasised his status as an outsider to Silicon Valley who cut his teeth by making difficult compromises as the junior partner in David Cameron’s coalition government of 2010-15. </p>
<p>He <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/913c0cc2-9498-4d25-b2e8-794e24702e0b">argued that</a> there’s an analogy here when it comes to regulating extremist content on social media platforms. For example, he has <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/24/facebooks-nick-clegg-a-bipartisan-approach-to-break-the-deadlock-on-internet-regulation.html">advocated for</a> a bipartisan approach to data protection in the US that would include setting up a new digital regulator. Overall, however, many <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-inside-story-of-nick-clegg-at-facebook-and-how-much-power-he-really-wields-w30wwt9j7">have wondered</a> whether Clegg has changed anything at Meta beyond a slight change of image.</p>
<p>With his promotion, Clegg is now supposedly being given carte blanche to ensure Meta adheres to and promotes an ethos of data fairness and protection. Yet this announcement sounds similar to Google’s pledge to reduce its <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/google-search-algorithms-are-not-impartial-they-are-biased-just-ncna849886">systemic social biases</a> in its algorithims, where search results reinforced prejudices around issues like race and sometimes drove users to extremist content. In 2018, it hired the brilliant computer scientist Timnit Gebru to help address and solve this problem. Yet it very publicly <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/google-timnit-gebru-ai-what-really-happened/">fired her</a> when she sought to bring about real changes to the company.</p>
<p>It is unclear if this could be Clegg’s fate as well if he seeks to be a genuine reformer at Meta – the suspicion is that he would not have been promoted had he fought for real change over the past three years. If that sounds cynical, it would certainly be in line with a broader trend in the corporate world towards “<a href="https://www.workplaceethicsadvice.com/2021/04/what-is-ethics-washing.html">ethics washing</a>” – using PR to make the public think you are being ethical without meaningfully altering your behaviour. </p>
<p>Examples abound, perhaps <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1679">most famously</a> in companies making cosmetic appeals in their advertising or public statements to the need for sustainability while continuing to pollute and push back against stronger regulations. Similarly, firms have taken public stands again racism <a href="https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/time-ditch-race-washing-ads/1731554">without necessarily</a> practising what they preach. Scholars such as Professor Carl Rhodes, with whom I have written <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/CEO-Society-Corporate-Takeover-Everyday/dp/1786990733">a book</a>, refer to this as the era of “<a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/woke-capitalism">woke capitalism</a>”. </p>
<h2>Clegg-washing</h2>
<p>Ironically, Nick Clegg has gone through his own early political version of such “washing”. As part of the coalition government, Clegg and his party had hoped to use their position to fight for lower university <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19646731">tuition fees</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/may/12/coalition-environment-policy">environmental sustainability</a>. In retrospect, Clegg <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Cameron%E2%80%99s-Conservative-Party%2C-social-liberalism-and-Hayton-McEnhill/c0a6191144696d218c5cba929b22d41b47c593ba">was arguably</a> part of a Tory branding exercise, giving them cover to impose economic austerity.</p>
<p>As far as Meta is concerned, what has to be acknowledged is that the company’s problems are not the result of a few “bad apples”: violating people’s data privacy to sell back to advertisers and ensure they continue using the platform has been fundamental to the business model. </p>
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<p>The language of the statement announcing Clegg’s hiring was telling. Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck">declared that</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Nick will now lead our company on all our policy matters, including how we interact with governments as they consider adopting new policies and regulations, as well as how we make the case publicly for our products and our work.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The emphasis was on shaping public policy and perception, not necessarily creating stronger measures for protecting people’s data rights.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Clegg’s hiring shows the power of public pressure, even for a huge tech conglomerate like Meta. The debate about the extent that our digital society should be publicly owned and democratically controlled will most likely grow even stronger in the years to come. But if Meta does not change with Clegg’s elevation, we will look back on this as just another example of ethics washing – but this time around privacy?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177479/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Bloom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The language around former UK deputy prime minister’s promotion was very telling.Peter Bloom, Professor of Management, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1757782022-02-08T17:14:23Z2022-02-08T17:14:23ZThe 50 biggest US donors gave or pledged nearly $28 billion in 2021 – Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates account for $15 billion of that total<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444888/original/file-20220207-15-1lrn0ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=432%2C288%2C5227%2C3284&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, gave their foundation $15 billion right before their divorce became final. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bill-gates-and-his-wife-melinda-gates-introduce-the-news-photo/1040713592">Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty ImagesLudovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The 50 Americans who gave or pledged the most to charity in 2021 committed to giving a total of US$27.7 billion to hospitals, universities, museums and more – up 12% from 2020 levels, according to the <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/package/philanthropy-50-2021s-top-donors">Chronicle of Philanthropy</a>’s latest annual tally of these donations.</em></p>
<p><em>More than half of this money came from just two particularly big donors: <a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-business-endowments-bill-gates-melinda-french-gates-cb45fe0a97b8f41c51f44f3226c47218">Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates</a>. Shortly before their <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/02/tech/bill-melinda-gates-divorce-finalized/index.html">divorce became final, in August 2021</a>, they announced plans to add <a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-business-endowments-bill-gates-melinda-french-gates-cb45fe0a97b8f41c51f44f3226c47218">$15 billion to their foundation’s coffers</a>.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VYsdAEIAAAAJ&hl=en">David Campbell</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=tu70lmIAAAAJ">Elizabeth Dale</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=uqv9NgwAAAAJ">Jasmine McGinnis Johnson</a>, three scholars of philanthropy, assess what these gifts mean, the possible motivations behind them and what they hope to see in the future in terms of charitable giving in the United States.</em></p>
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<h2>What trends stand out overall?</h2>
<p><strong>Elizabeth Dale</strong>: First, let’s acknowledge who is missing: <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/mackenzie-scott-93924">MacKenzie Scott</a>. The novelist and billionaire publicly shared that she had <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/?p=ea6de642bf">given over $2.7 billion in the first half of 2021</a>. She then changed course, <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/no-dollar-signs-this-time-ec7ab2a87261">choosing not to disclose</a> how much money she gave away in the second half of the year, or the organizations she supported, as an effort to deflect media attention. The Chronicle said it left her out because neither she nor her consultants provided the details it requested.</p>
<p>Had the publication included her, even if only the gifts she made in half the year, she would have occupied the No. 2 spot again. Scott was only behind her ex-husband, Jeff Bezos, on the Chronicle’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-25-billion-the-biggest-us-donors-gave-in-2020-says-about-high-dollar-charity-today-154466">2020 list</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/package/bezoses-and-bloomberg-top-chronicle-list-of-the-50-donors-who-gave-the-most-to-charity">In 2018</a>, prior to their divorce, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates topped the list together, but they didn’t make the <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/the-philanthropy-50/#id=browse_2019">2019 list at all</a>. </p>
<p>Tracking where giving goes, even for the largest donations, is an imperfect science. Scholars, journalists and other experts must rely on publicly available information and details the donors themselves provide to compile this data, and the full details aren’t always available. For example, even in this list, we don’t know everything about these gifts, how much was already given and the ways organizations will put this money to use. </p>
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<p><strong>Jasmine McGinnis Johnson</strong>: Following the police killings of <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/racial-equity-donations-soared-then-fell-in-the-months-after-george-floyds-murder-by-a-police-officer-11619037824">George Floyd and Breonna Taylor</a>, many foundations and philanthropists were thinking more critically about what was the appropriate way to fund racial equity and social justice nonprofits. </p>
<p>In 2020, those gifts totaled <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-25-billion-the-biggest-us-donors-gave-in-2020-says-about-high-dollar-charity-today-154466">$66 billion</a>, making them the 14th-highest priority of the nation’s top 50 donors. In 2021, donations aimed at reducing racism and supporting Black-led organizations didn’t make it to a list of these donors’ highest 20 funding priorities. </p>
<p>With <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/">police brutality</a> continuing unabated and the growth of <a href="https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/money/mutual-aid-crowd-funding-explainer">mutual aid organizations</a> focused on race and social justice, I find this ebbing of interest surprising.</p>
<p>However, I also see some reasons to be hopeful in other research completed in 2021.</p>
<p>Many Americans, <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-hispanic-and-asian-american-donors-give-more-to-social-and-racial-justice-causes-as-well-as-strangers-in-need-new-survey-166720">especially people of color</a>, are <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/diverse-donors-led-the-shift-to-social-and-racial-justice-giving-in-2020-new-report-says">donating to racial justice causes</a>. In 2020, for example, 16% of all households gave to these causes, up from 13% in 2019.</p>
<p><strong>David Campbell</strong>: The biggest donors responded to challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, sharply increasing their giving to social service organizations, including food banks and housing groups. In 2021, that giving receded so much that food banks and housing didn’t make it into a list of the top 20 causes for the biggest donors. One explanation for this may be that when seismic events influence giving, those effects diminish over time.</p>
<p>In keeping with past years, these wealthy donors <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs12115-021-00580-0">emphasized higher education and health-related</a> giving, through donations to colleges, universities, hospitals and medical research.</p>
<h2>What should the public know about 2021’s top two donors?</h2>
<p><strong>Dale</strong>: With an endowment valued at over $50 billion, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has, by far, <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/how-the-10-biggest-foundations-changed-in-a-year-of-covid-and-whats-next">more assets than any other U.S. institution of its kind</a>. </p>
<p>The foundation, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gates-Foundation">established in 2000</a>, is <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/why-we-need-to-keep-an-eye-on-the-gates-foundations-board-expansion">getting more scrutiny</a> than it used to, especially with respect to its bureaucratic and data-driven approach. It also has <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/articles/2022-gates-foundation-annual-letter-trustees">four new board members</a> who joined after billionaire investor <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210623005262/en/">Warren Buffett stepped down</a> in 2021.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/melinda-french-gates-no-longer-pledges-bulk-of-her-wealth-to-gates-foundation-11643808602">Melinda French Gates’ future role</a> in the foundation <a href="https://www.devex.com/news/gates-foundation-ceo-insists-that-french-gates-remains-engaged-102563">is uncertain</a>. She <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/media-center/press-releases/2021/07/bill-melinda-gates-foundation-mark-suzman-plans-evolve-governance">could step down as a trustee</a> in 2023 if she and Bill Gates determine they can no longer work together.</p>
<p><strong>Campbell</strong>: Since its founding, the <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/">Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation</a> has distributed <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/foundation-fact-sheet">over $60 billion</a> to causes tied to eradicating <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/">diseases and reducing poverty and inequity around the world</a>. </p>
<p>In 2021, it announced plans to spend $2.1 billion within five years on women’s economic empowerment and leadership, and boosting <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/media-center/press-releases/2021/06/gates-foundation-commits-2-1-billion-to-advance-gender-equality-globally">women and girls’ health and family planning</a>.</p>
<p>The foundation has <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-big-bets-on-educational-reform-havent-fixed-the-us-school-system-92327">delved heavily into K-12 education</a> in the U.S. – with mixed results, as the <a href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/2018-Annual-Letter">Gateses themselves acknowledged in 2018</a>. The foundation <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/26/business/gates-foundation-new-trustees.html">disbursed $6.7 billion in 2021</a>, the highest amount to date for a single year.</p>
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<h2>What concerns do you have?</h2>
<p><strong>Campbell</strong>: The top 50 donors in 2021 include only 14 of the many billionaires who have signed the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-window-into-the-hearts-and-minds-of-billionaire-donors-139161">Giving Pledge</a>, a commitment by some of the world’s richest people to “<a href="https://givingpledge.org/">dedicate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes</a>.” To date, more than 230 individuals and couples have taken this step. </p>
<p>Similarly, only 21 of the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/">Forbes 400</a> list of wealthiest Americans made the Philanthropy 50. I would like to know why more of the richest Americans, including some who have committed to giving away their fortunes, weren’t among 2021’s top 50 donors. For the billionaires who have signed the Giving Pledge, it’s worth asking why they are waiting. What benefit do they see in giving later rather than sooner?</p>
<p><strong>Dale</strong>: The $2.65 billion in giving by these wealthy Americans to <a href="https://www.nptrust.org/what-is-a-donor-advised-fund/">donor-advised funds</a> is double 2020 levels and almost 10 times higher than in 2019. Both donor-advised funds – financial accounts that people use to give money to the charities of their choice when they are ready to do so – and <a href="https://learning.candid.org/resources/blog/nonprofit-foundation-ngo-what-do-they-mean/">foundations</a> are intermediaries for giving that offer <a href="https://ips-dc.org/more-evidence-of-warehousing-of-wealth-in-donor-advised-funds/">little transparency and can warehouse funds</a> designated for nonprofits’ use.</p>
<p>Most wealthy donors <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-elon-musk-can-save-big-on-taxes-by-giving-away-a-ton-of-his-tesla-stock-172036">receive tax deductions</a> and other benefits, such as public recognition, when they initially make big gifts. But it can often take years for their money to reach charities.</p>
<p>It’s hard, however, to separately track money being given directly to charities from funds that are reserved for a future charitable use.</p>
<p>As more and more donors, including some of the richest Americans, give to charity through donor-advised funds instead of traditional foundations, <a href="https://www.thenonprofittimes.com/regulation/donor-advised-funds-added-to-new-federal-legislation/">calls for regulating them more tightly</a> are growing louder. </p>
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<h2>What do you expect to see in 2022 and beyond?</h2>
<p><strong>Dale</strong>: Scott has certainly caused some <a href="https://apnews.com/article/death-of-george-floyd-health-education-coronavirus-pandemic-race-and-ethnicity-42ca645d713108d5c852ee3d024b6361">philanthropy shock waves</a> in the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/28/tech/mackenzie-scott-bezos-donation/index.html">past two years</a>, and it’s still too early to know what effect she is having.</p>
<p>I hope that these donors and the wealthy people not on this list start responding to broader public concerns. The effects of the <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/long-covid-labor-market-missing-workers/">COVID-19 pandemic</a>, issues around <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-first-battle-in-the-culture-wars-the-quality-of-diversity-164016">race, ethnicity</a> and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/01/14/some-gender-disparities-widened-in-the-u-s-workforce-during-the-pandemic/">gender</a> and <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/110215/brief-history-income-inequality-united-states.asp">inequality</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-flood-maps-show-us-damage-rising-26-in-next-30-years-due-to-climate-change-alone-and-the-inequity-is-stark-175958">climate change</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sore-loser-effect-rejecting-election-results-can-destabilize-democracy-and-drive-terrorism-171571">protecting our democracy</a> are not going away. </p>
<p><strong>Johnson</strong>: The fact that social and racial justice were not among the top priorities of the biggest donors in 2021 makes me wonder to what extent the concerns about systemic inequality, driven by events in 2020, will remain a priority for big donors in the future.</p>
<p>Conversations among wealthy givers and major foundations about race, income inequality and the vulnerability the COVID-19 pandemic exposed <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/cf7e59ab-0a50-47a2-9086-d5efa021bc64">have certainly persisted</a>. And Scott is still supporting justice-oriented causes, as a gift announced by its recipient in February 2022 makes clear. Scott gave $133.5 million to Communities in Schools, a nonprofit that meets the <a href="https://www.the74million.org/get-to-know-communities-in-schools-inside-mackenzie-scotts-133-million-donation-to-americas-top-organization-focused-on-preventing-student-dropouts/">academic, economic and other needs of K-12 students</a>. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen to what extent America’s other big donors will follow her lead.</p>
<p><em>The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided funding for The Conversation U.S. and provides funding for The Conversation internationally.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175778/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Campbell is vice chair of the Conrad and Virginia Klee Foundation, in Binghamton, New York, which has provided support for the student philanthropy course he teaches. He is also a member of the board for the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth J. Dale has received funding from the Ford Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation via Indiana University and The Giving USA Foundation for her research on philanthropy. The views expressed in this essay are strictly her own and do not reflect policy stances of Seattle University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine McGinnis Johnson is a visiting fellow with the Urban Institute, Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy. Also, Jasmine is a board member of the Association of Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action.</span></em></p>Three scholars weigh in regarding the priorities of these wealthy American donors, who gave less to social service and racial justice groups than in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.David Campbell, Associate Professor of Public Administration, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkElizabeth J. Dale, Associate Professor of Nonprofit Leadership, Seattle UniversityJasmine McGinnis Johnson, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1766052022-02-08T16:04:25Z2022-02-08T16:04:25ZTikTok’s secret algorithm is its greatest strength – and could also be its undoing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445154/original/file-20220208-13-ykhw45.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">TikTok now has over a billion daily users.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-indian-beautiful-girl-white-dress-1955237071">yogendrasingh.in</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I have a ten-year-old niece named Divya (not her real name) in rural northern India. Two years ago, I visited and she came running to hug me. I asked what was the best gift I could give her, and all she wanted was for me to follow her on TikTok. </p>
<p>Divya posts videos of her Bollywood dances and loves receiving likes for them. With around 10,000 followers, she already thinks she is a superstar. I didn’t have a TikTok account when she asked me to follow her, but, naturally, I signed up and have been enthusiastically supporting her ever since. </p>
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<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
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<p>On seeing the news that Meta’s share price <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/02/02/facebook-lost-200-billion-in-market-value-earnings/">lost US$200 billion</a> (£148 billion) in a day, and that Mark Zuckerberg was blaming TikTok, I must admit that my first thought was that Divya must be doing really well with her Bollywood dance videos. But joking aside, after more than a decade in which Facebook (now rebranded as Meta) has seemed impregnable as the superpower in social media, with nearly 3 billion monthly active users, it suddenly looks possible that this may not continue forever. </p>
<p>TikTok has over 1 billion monthly users, and its user base has <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1267892/tiktok-global-mau/">virtually doubled</a> in the past year. As my niece Divya exemplifies, it’s heavily skewed to younger users, with under 19s <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095186/tiktok-us-users-age/">making up 25%</a> of the total, potentially giving it a major advantage for the future. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/376128/facebook-global-user-age-distribution/">average Facebook user</a> is roughly a decade older. Even Instagram, Meta’s other huge social platform, with 2.1 billion users, has a <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/325587/instagram-global-age-group/">slightly higher</a> age range to TikTok. And although Instagram is adding comparable numbers of users, it is <a href="https://www.indulgexpress.com/gadgets/apps/2021/oct/25/facebook-and-instagram-are-losing-young-users-36526.html#:%7E:text=Posting%20by%20teens%20had%20dropped,ageing%20up%20issue%20is%20real.">losing younger ones</a>. So is TikTok likely to keep doing as well in the future, and what will be the deciding factors?</p>
<h2>Facebook’s user problem</h2>
<p>Strange to think that Facebook was once the Gucci of social media platforms. It was an exclusive club, with membership via invitation, for students of elite universities only. This helped to generate the buzz that carried it into the mainstream. </p>
<p>The platform exploited some of the basic principles of human psychology, not least that people feel connected to their friends when they feel close to them. Thus Facebook harnessed the power of pictures, along with other early options like the “poke” to make the whole interaction feel as tangible as possible. </p>
<p>Instagram was also built around pictures, but TikTok’s focus since launching in 2016 has been on building long-lasting connections via short, fun videos. Initially, these were a maximum of 15 seconds long, though now they can run to <a href="https://www.alistdaily.com/social/social-media-news-070721/">three minutes</a>. After launching outside China in 2017, it also grew quickly because its technology seemed to understand users’ behaviour and preferences so well. Meta responded by launching the video-sharing service <a href="https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/introducing-instagram-reels-announcement">Instagram Reels</a> in 2020, but this has not slowed down TikTok’s massive growth. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445117/original/file-20220208-12-1y9mfxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Montage saying You've been Zucked" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445117/original/file-20220208-12-1y9mfxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445117/original/file-20220208-12-1y9mfxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445117/original/file-20220208-12-1y9mfxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445117/original/file-20220208-12-1y9mfxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445117/original/file-20220208-12-1y9mfxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445117/original/file-20220208-12-1y9mfxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445117/original/file-20220208-12-1y9mfxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Facebook has become the worst example of social media abuses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/5psJeebVp9o">Annie Spratt</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>For TikTok, which is owned by <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-year-trump-ban-no-change-new-threats/#:%7E:text=ByteDance%20still%20owns%20TikTok%2C%20which,looms%20over%20the%20popular%20app.">China’s ByteDance</a>, it didn’t take long before network effects kicked in, where each additional user attracts a multiple of other users: if all my friends are on there, I need to be there too. The reverse has happened to Facebook, probably aggravated by its flawed privacy policies and the way it drives users to extreme content for profit – as highlighted by whistleblower <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/24/frances-haugen-i-never-wanted-to-be-a-whistleblower-but-lives-were-in-danger">Frances Haugen</a>. It has <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/2/22914970/facebook-app-loses-daily-users-first-time-earnings">just reported</a> the first loss of daily users in its history. </p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>Like other platforms, TikTok has faced concerns over users’ privacy, the spread of misinformation and scrolling addiction. But its biggest risk for the future is probably also its greatest success – a <a href="https://www.makeuseof.com/leaked-document-reveals-tiktoks-secret-algorithm/#:%7E:text=The%20TikTok%20algorithm%20operates%20with,and%20its%20troops%20of%20creators.">secret algorithm</a> that understands the deepest intricacies of users’ behaviour without asking any personal information. It simply looks at the amount of time they spend on any video and uses this to drive more content towards them. </p>
<p>Yet this also gives TikTok the ability to exploit human vulnerabilities to maximise our screen time. And the fact that it is so embedded with the youngest web users worldwide makes this potentially even more controversial. </p>
<p>The same algorithm that can make a video viral by targeting a very specific cross-section of people can also, say, make young users more conscious of their body image by pushing them content that plays on these insecurities. For similar reasons, I worry about Divya, who thinks that unless she gets ample likes for her TikTok videos, she is not good enough and her dancing is not worthwhile. </p>
<p>TikTok uses both human and algorithmic moderators to try and prevent harmful content from being spread by users. <a href="https://www.the-sun.com/lifestyle/4111916/which-countries-banned-tiktok/">Nonetheless, it has</a> at times been banned in numerous countries over obscene or vulgar content, and is still banned in India (though many people manage to use it). It has also <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56815480">faced lawsuits</a> over how it uses children’s data. </p>
<p>Clearly, TikTok has the potential to become the world’s biggest social media platform. It also faces newer rivals such as <a href="https://likee.video/m_index?lang=en">Likee</a>, <a href="https://clashapp.co/">Clash</a> and <a href="https://triller.co/">Triller</a>, but they all have fewer users. </p>
<p>But if TikTok becomes two or three times bigger, it will have the potential to cause more and more harm. Handled wrongly, it will become increasingly vulnerable to the sort of long-term reputational damage that is arguably now an issue for Facebook. </p>
<p>It should therefore definitely find ways to protect user privacy more aggressively, and design even more sophisticated solutions for enhanced content filtering via advanced artificial intelligence. If TikTok doesn’t do it, rivals will, which could quickly make them a more serious threat. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445118/original/file-20220208-23-1ui34oc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three teenage girls sitting on a couch looking at their phones" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445118/original/file-20220208-23-1ui34oc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445118/original/file-20220208-23-1ui34oc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445118/original/file-20220208-23-1ui34oc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445118/original/file-20220208-23-1ui34oc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445118/original/file-20220208-23-1ui34oc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445118/original/file-20220208-23-1ui34oc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445118/original/file-20220208-23-1ui34oc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Easy come, easy go.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/three-girls-sitting-home-listening-music-1418732690">Jacob Lund</a></span>
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<p>As for Meta, it could potentially buy TikTok in the same way as it bought Instagram and WhatsApp, but the mood in the US is against allowing big tech to become more dominant. The other potential saving grace for Meta might be the metaverse, an immersive online world that Zuckerberg believes is the future of the internet. </p>
<p>If his bet is right, one important question will be how digital avatars will socialise with each other. I’m pretty sure that at least as far as Divya is concerned, she would want to use TikTok. Meta might therefore want to think about how to incorporate TikTok into the world it wants to create. If it can’t control the communications interface itself, that would surely be the next best thing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176605/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shweta Singh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Chinese platform has become a major thorn in Mark Zuckerberg’s side.Shweta Singh, Assistant Professor, Information Systems and Management, Warwick Business School, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1754532022-01-21T15:14:01Z2022-01-21T15:14:01ZHow Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard takeover will drive metaverse gaming into the mass market<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441990/original/file-20220121-21-2646g5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ready Player 1,000,000,0001?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-virtual-helmet-mixed-media-612395738">Sergey Nivens</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Microsoft was positioning itself as one of the pioneers of the metaverse even before its US$75 billion deal to buy online gaming giant Activision Blizzard. In the days after Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook last October as Meta with his near movie-length <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvufun6xer8">promotional film</a> about the potential for virtual worlds, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/62d4652f-faec-4ef7-b642-1ae7b4262563">Microsoft announced</a> that users of its Teams online meetings app would be able to turn themselves into avatars – in a first step towards getting users used to virtual interaction. </p>
<p>If that was an incremental move, the Activision deal is something very different. Assuming it is permitted by the competition authorities, it will mean that the Xbox giant controls many of the best known virtual worlds that already exist online, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Starcraft – adding to the two it has already, Minecraft and Altspace VR. </p>
<p>It is the latest example of a land grab for space by some of the world’s biggest companies in the coming 3D version of the internet. So what is this going to look like, and how will this deal affect it?</p>
<h2>The age of acceleration</h2>
<p>We are living at a time where the speed, scale and scope of technologies around the corner is unprecedented. Sometimes referred to as the age of acceleration, we’re soon going to have mature versions of virtual reality, blockchain online ledgers, nanotech, artificial intelligence and haptics (interacting with computers through touch sensors) – not to mention quantum computing and brain to computer interfaces. </p>
<p>Like a techno tsunami, when these are integrated they will challenge and change not only how we work, learn and live but our conception of reality and what it is to be human. The metaverse is likely to be at the heart of this shift. </p>
<p>Yet although Zuckerberg talks about how we will be able to use virtual reality (VR) headsets and augmented-reality (AR) glasses to <a href="https://youtu.be/uVEALvpoiMQ">work</a>, <a href="https://youtu.be/kKPqNd9zfnk">entertain</a> and <a href="https://youtu.be/KLOcj5qvOio">educate</a> in this new immersive online space, defining the metaverse is difficult. It’s difficult to define something that is neither full nor will ever be finished. </p>
<p>The best way to see this coming environment is as the deepest form of extended reality where our physical bodies are digitally cloned, our senses saturated and our conception of the “real” blurred. Having said that, Zuckerberg and others have made clear that it will also include using AR and even smartphones to enhance our reality with Pokemon Go-style online additions – a computer screen and keyboard that we only see through AR glasses, for instance. </p>
<p>Admittedly we are still some way off reproducing VR cultural touchstones like Free Guy, Ready Player One or The Matrix. During the pandemic, I joined Microsoft’s VR-hosted virtual version of the Burning Man music festival on Altspace, and it showed me that the amount of people being together at once still reaches a limit before individuals are diverted to other parallel environments. </p>
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<h2>The opportunity</h2>
<p>The best intimations that we already have of the more fully immersive metaverse is virtual worlds like Roblox, Sandbox, Animal Crossing and Fortnite, where the singer <a href="https://youtu.be/RiM0moNk74o">Ariana Grande</a> has toured and rapper <a href="https://youtu.be/wYeFAlVC8qU">Travis Scott</a> held a concert that attracted over <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/23/21233946/travis-scott-fortnite-concert-astronomical-record-breaking-player-count#:%7E:text=Travis%20Scott's%20first%20virtual%20performance,for%20the%20battle%20royale%20game.">12 million attendees</a>. </p>
<p>Audiences are already being groomed via performances like these to comfortably transition and embody a deeper metaverse. Undoubtedly this makes the metaverse controversial. Where some see interconnected worlds of never-ending experience and freedom, others fear a digital dystopia where we are seduced, stupefied and puppeteered in the glass cages of a new, subtle and seductive form of capitalism. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-killer-app-for-the-metaverse-fill-it-with-ai-avatars-of-ourselves-so-we-dont-need-to-go-there-175356">A killer app for the metaverse? Fill it with AI avatars of ourselves – so we don't need to go there</a>
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<p>Regardless, just as the metaverse reboots our conception of “reality”, it opens new routes to monetise and reimagine consumerism. Companies like Microsoft see the scale of the transition and recognise its potential strategic worth. </p>
<p>Others leading the same charge include Epic Games, which owns Fortnite, whose Unreal Engine is a platform for others to build virtual worlds free of charge. CEO Tim Sweeney <a href="https://en.techrecipe.co.kr/posts/18497">recently talked about</a> working with automotive makers to enable potential customers to test drive vehicles, and having film companies shoot content there. </p>
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<p><a href="https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/nike-gets-into-nfts-with-purchase-of-a-virtual-footwear-maker">Meanwhile, Nike</a> is one of numerous clothing companies to have staked a claim to the metaverse, having bought virtual footwear maker RTKFT. And Disney is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/nov/11/disney-is-latest-firm-to-announce-metaverse-plans">talking about</a> “storytelling without boundaries in our own Disney metaverse”. </p>
<p>As for the Activision takeover, most of its biggest titles are multiplayer and already focused on esports (competing online). Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Starcraft, and Overwatch are all linked competitive platforms. Yet these are still broadly played via 2D screens rather than VR; the prize would be for users to shift seamlessly between VR versions of these games within a Microsoft metaverse. </p>
<p>To understand the financial opportunity, World of Warcraft provided an early example. This is a game where you have an avatar, a daily to-do list, and you can mine resources to manufacture in-game items to sell for gold. Long before bitcoin, the makers devised a way to establish an exchange rate to real money, and gamers were able sell items and gold online for cash via PayPal purchases. </p>
<p>Those transactions still involved an element of trust, but technologies like cryptocurrencies and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) overcome that issue. Games like <a href="https://www.finextra.com/blogposting/21521/axie-infinity-and-the-rise-of-nft-games">Axie Infinity</a> (which is not owned by Activision) have already shown the potential for buying and selling many in-game items as NFTs, and other major gaming companies like <a href="https://www.cnet.com/features/nfts-are-coming-for-your-video-games-players-get-ready/">Square Enix and Sega</a> are moving in the same direction. </p>
<p>Imagine each vanity item in Call of Duty or World of Warcraft converted to an NFT, perhaps with Micrsoft taking a cut of transactions – that’s an enormous opportunity, and in-game advertising in immersive worlds is another. With such huge potential for monetisation in gaming, Microsoft’s Activision takeover looks set to put the company at the heart of it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175453/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Activision’s big titles have led the way in getting us used to virtual worlds. Making them VR will be a gamechanger.Theo Tzanidis, Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing, University of the West of ScotlandMatthew Frew, Senior Lecturer in Enterprise and Transformational Technologies, University of the West of ScotlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1753562022-01-21T12:52:04Z2022-01-21T12:52:04ZA killer app for the metaverse? Fill it with AI avatars of ourselves – so we don’t need to go there<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441734/original/file-20220120-9300-1glq55t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ready avatar one?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/3d-rendering-abstract-two-ai-humans-1042711414">Athitat Shinagowin</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Big numbers coming. Microsoft’s US$75 billion (£55 billion) acquisition of Activision Blizzard has landed – true to Call of Duty vernacular – “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b96246ec-e70e-48b6-9a70-fb0800f79bd8">like a bomb</a>” on the US$200 billion revenue video games industry. </p>
<p>It heavily arms the Xbox giant for its vision of the metaverse, in which gaming is the marketing adrenaline of this much-touted online future that is to be experienced immersively through virtual reality (VR) headsets or augmented-reality (AR) glasses. The stock market knocked US$10 billion off Playstation maker Sony’s valuation on the news. </p>
<p>The metaverse was also a big noise at the <a href="https://www.ces.tech/">Consumer Electronics Show</a> in Las Vegas earlier this month, branded “<a href="https://variety.com/vip-special-reports/metaverse-and-media-how-techs-hottest-trend-will-impact-the-entertainment-industry-1235116381/">tech’s hottest trend</a>” by Variety magazine. Product launches included Samsung’s new VR world <a href="https://www.sammobile.com/news/samsung-joins-metaverse-ces-my-house-virtual-space/">My House</a>, offering virtual home makeovers; and US beauty tech group <a href="https://www.perfectcorp.com/business">Perfect Corp’s</a> AR-driven virtual beauty <a href="https://martechseries.com/predictive-ai/ai-platforms-machine-learning/perfect-corp-launches-ces-2022-metaverse-booth-experience-showcasing-the-latest-beauty-fashion-metaverse-ready-tech-solutions/">makeover range</a>, which lets people experiment with cosmetics and accessories using AR. </p>
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<p>Certainly the metaverse has been fast-moving, even since (in October 2021) Facebook renamed itself Meta - a bold step when VR only brings in <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/facebooks-vr-business-is-bigger-than-you-think-and-it-is-masking-the-companys-true-profitability-51624895223">about 3%</a> of the company’s current revenue. But Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/blog/metaverse-may-be-800-billion-market-next-tech-platform/">is predicting</a> that the overall metaverse will be generating revenues of US$800 billion as soon as 2024 (compared to US$500 billion in 2020), so the prize is huge. </p>
<p>About half of that 2024 projection is expected from video games, while a substantial remainder is from live entertainment – and major artists like Ariana Grande and Marshmello have already been <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5EAPwXxcng">holding concerts</a> in the virtual world. </p>
<p>Yet besides niche attractions for early adopters, what about the rest of us? Will we sign up for virtual interaction en masse when the technology is ready in a few years time? Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg thinks that the <a href="https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/meta-facebook-connect-2021-metaverse-event-transcript">metaverse will</a> allow people “to feel present – like we’re right there … no matter how far apart we actually are”. </p>
<h2>But hang on a second</h2>
<p>Maybe Zuckerberg shouldn’t be so sure. Change in tech and entertainment is never predictable – as anyone who remembers <a href="https://entertainment.ie/movies/movie-news/the-slow-quiet-death-of-3d-cinema-447459/">3D movies</a> will confirm.</p>
<p>As Elon Musk said <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaRKd4U6Ixg">in December</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I currently am unable to see a compelling metaverse situation … I don’t see someone strapping a frigging screen to their face all day and not wanting to ever leave. Sure, you can put a TV on your nose. I’m not sure that makes you ‘in the metaverse’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>An organisation that promotes all things Icelandic, Inspired by Iceland, tapped into similar concerns with an November 2021 commercial titled “Introducing the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enMwwQy_noI">Icelandverse</a>”. The host parodied Zuckerberg’s evangelical “I’m so excited to tell you” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIxPRwgXFQg">launch film</a> for Meta, to champion analogue existence instead: “It’s already here … Enhanced actual reality, without silly-looking headsets … It’s completely immersive, with water that’s wet.” </p>
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<p>Those makers <a href="https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2021/11/12/22778984/facebook-meta-metaverse-parody-video-iceland-icelandverse">deserve an award</a> for spotting the zeitgeist. Social and entertainment trends show plenty of people craving real-world experiences. US data shows an <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-citylab-how-americans-moved/">urban shuffle</a> out of cities to smaller towns and the great outdoors, for instance. Touring is the <a href="https://medium.com/bandbasher/why-touring-will-be-your-biggest-source-of-revenue-2464fd47b655">principle revenue driver</a> in music (pandemic aside). </p>
<p>German filmmaker Jens Meurer’s analogue-celebrating <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVmy7ZgPO9E">The Impossible Project</a> has just hit the cinemas, about the man who saved the last Polaroid factory. The UK’s BBC One has a hit show in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08l581p">The Repair Shop</a>, conceptual opposite of the metaverse: “A workshop filled with expert craftspeople … A heartwarming antidote to throwaway culture.” </p>
<p>It’s therefore easy to query the idea of a seamless theme park future where your life is a video game. Attractive products coming down the pipes will tempt some people – Apple reportedly has cool VR/AR <a href="https://www.t3.com/news/if-this-is-apples-ar-headset-they-can-have-my-money-right-now">ski-style goggles</a>, and Bond-style <a href="https://electronics360.globalspec.com/article/17590/ces-2022-unlocking-the-metaverse-with-contact-lenses">intelligent contact lenses</a> have already been made. But will we really embrace office life VR-style (possible now on Oculus) where your accounts team are avatars with hipster beards, and your Monday sales catch-up is in a virtual ski lodge?</p>
<h2>Meet your AI avatars</h2>
<p>Appropriately enough, there is an alternative paradigm for the alternative paradigm that is the metaverse. Instead of us accessing the metaverse, we could leave it to someone else - delegating it to synthetic versions of ourselves created via machine learning. </p>
<p>Trained on our needs and likes, our synthetic selves would navigate digital spaces with ease. Combine everything Amazon and Facebook know already about your purchase intent, add your dinner conversation, a quick morning meeting to set priorities – and your digital avatar could be a functioning replica.</p>
<p>It would need no physical existence, but could synthesise your speech and your physical features and go forth into metaland. It will negotiate your new electricity contract, pick some clothes out, book a plumber – you name it. </p>
<p>This is the metaverse where the work gets done: our avatars execute the boring jobs in the virtual world - buying a new fridge, negotiating a deal - while we focus on what really matters in the real one. </p>
<p>It could function like the invisible place below the stairs where the actual work gets done in Downton Abbey. Or as your own private call centre, with banks of agent versions of you handling tedious customers, while the real you can go to the real beach. (The New Yorker once called the author Clive James “a great bunch of guys”. In the metaverse that could actually be true.)</p>
<p>Strip back the metaverse to this functional space and it’s even more interesting than the current, predominantly entertainment-driven conceits - and possibly an even bigger opportunity. Sure, we’ve all heard about dystopian AIs or alarming reports on <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/deepfakes-dangerous-crime-artificial-intelligence-a9655821.html">deep fakes</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/20/859814085/researchers-nearly-half-of-accounts-tweeting-about-coronavirus-are-likely-bots?t=1640209459265">bot armies</a>, but there will be blockchain ways of proving our avatar identities in the metaverse so the worst dangers can be avoided. </p>
<p>And as AI guru Andrew Ng at Stanford <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/andrew-ng-why-ai-new-electricity#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CWorrying%20about%20evil%20AI%20killer,issue%2C%20which%20is%20job%20displacement.">put it anyway</a>: “Worrying about evil AI killer robots today is a little bit like worrying about overpopulation on the planet Mars.”</p>
<p>The space is still forming. But maybe AI replicas will be the killer application that brings us the best of virtual worlds, without giving up the best of the real world we have already. </p>
<p>As they put it in Steven Spielberg’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1677720/">Ready Player One</a>: “Reality is the only thing that’s real.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175356/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Connock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many people are talking about this coming virtual world, but many others would rather stay where they are.Alex Connock, Fellow at Said Business School, University of Oxford, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1731002021-12-03T16:17:43Z2021-12-03T16:17:43ZFacebook: latest court case shows how Europe is clamping down on big tech<p>Facebook’s approach to users’ data has just been dealt <a href="https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/p1_3584224/en/">a major blow</a> from the European court of justice (ECJ). In an answer to a question from Germany’s highest court, the ECJ’s advocate general – whose opinion is not binding but is <a href="https://www.elgaronline.com/view/journals/cilj/5-1/cilj.2016.01.05.xml">generally followed</a> by the court – has made an essential clarification to Europe’s data protection law to confirm that consumer associations can bring actions on behalf of individuals. </p>
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<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
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<p>If followed by the ECJ, this will make it much easier for people to defend their rights against tech giants in future. Coming on the back of <a href="https://theconversation.com/google-loses-appeal-against-2-4-billion-fine-tech-giants-might-now-have-to-re-think-their-entire-business-models-171628">a decision</a> by the European general court against Google several weeks ago for using its platform power to restrict competitors, it is the latest example of European regulators making the business climate increasingly chilly for the companies that control our data – in sharp contrast to the US.</p>
<h2>Facebook and consent</h2>
<p>The current case is about the way that Facebook, now known as Meta, in its early years encouraged users to play quizzes and games such as FarmVille, before sharing the results with all their friends. In an <a href="https://www.taylorwessing.com/en/insights-and-events/insights/2020/05/bgh-legt-in-sachen-vzbv-gegen-facebook">action brought</a> by the Federation of Germany Consumer Organisations (VZBV), that was originally heard in 2014, it claimed that Facebook’s data protection notice did <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-germany-idUSKBN2341BZ">not clearly explain</a> to users how their data could be shared. It wants the company to be forbidden from using similar consent forms in future. </p>
<p>VZBV won the original case and on appeal, before it was <a href="https://curia.europa.eu/juris/showPdf.jsf?text=&docid=230961&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=248605">heard by</a> Germany’s highest court in May 2020. The judges agreed that Facebook had misled users with the notice, but <a href="https://curia.europa.eu/juris/showPdf.jsf?text=&docid=230961&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=2486053">sought an opinion</a> from the ECJ on Facebook’s argument that only individuals and not consumer organisations can bring complaints under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which governs this area. </p>
<p>The advocate general’s recommendation, ahead of a final ECJ decision in 2022, reflects the fact that individuals do not typically start legal proceedings against large companies for a small breach of a rather technical regulation. Suing big firms on behalf of society is what consumers’ organisations do, so it would limit people’s protection if this was disallowed. </p>
<p>Facebook’s approach to games is not the only time there have been questions about how it obtained users’ consent over data. It <a href="https://www.vzbv.de/urteile/ordnungsgeld-facebook-muss-100000-euro-zahlen">famously sent</a> unsolicited emails to users’ contacts when they joined the social network. It also placed “like” buttons on third party websites and harvested the data without seeking users’ consent. </p>
<p>One by one, national European regulators have ruled these practices illegal, but always long after the fact. When Facebook was ordered <a href="https://www.vzbv.de/urteile/ordnungsgeld-facebook-muss-100000-euro-zahlen">to pay €100,000</a> (£85,138) by German regulators in 2016 for sending unsolicited emails, for instance, it was clearly too late to affect the company’s behaviour on that individual issue. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435595/original/file-20211203-15-2fk72q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A picture of phone apps with FarmVille in the middle" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435595/original/file-20211203-15-2fk72q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435595/original/file-20211203-15-2fk72q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435595/original/file-20211203-15-2fk72q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435595/original/file-20211203-15-2fk72q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435595/original/file-20211203-15-2fk72q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435595/original/file-20211203-15-2fk72q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435595/original/file-20211203-15-2fk72q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Harvesting time …</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-united-kingdom-october-01-2018-1195534930">OpturaDesign</a></span>
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<p>VZBV has been at the forefront of fighting to make tech giants accountable for customer data since the early 2010s, though not always successfully. It <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/germany-facebook-court-case-privacy-settings-terms-of-use-brought-vzbz/">failed in an attempt</a> to stop Facebook claiming its platform is “free and will always be”, while making users pay with their private data. It was also unable to require the company to allow users to <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/16/living/facebook-name-policy/">adopt a pseudonym</a>. Facebook had resisted citing safety concerns, but perhaps also because data on identifiable consumers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/aug/02/facebook-share-price-slumps-20-dollars">is more valuable</a> than anonymous ones.</p>
<h2>The GDPR and future regulations</h2>
<p>As Facebook and other social media companies have continued to develop new techniques to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-privacy-tracking-idUSKBN1HM0DR">harvest consumer data</a>, the GDPR was adopted by the EU in 2018 as a general framework to clarify the rules. It gives users more control and rights over their own data, requiring clear consent before it can be used. </p>
<p>Pending a decision on consumer organisations, the ECJ has <a href="https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-06/cp210103en.pdf">already recently decided</a> that national privacy watchdogs can directly fine tech firms under the GDPR for breaches affecting their citizens. Facebook had claimed only the Irish authority was competent, since its EU headquarters are there. A forthcoming <a href="https://www.internetjustsociety.org/one-way-ticket-to-luxembourg-facebook-v-bundeskartellamt-at-the-ecj">ECJ case</a> will look at giving similar powers to antitrust authorities.</p>
<p>The EU rules around big tech are also set <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-digital-markets-act-dma-digital-services-act-dsa-regulation-platforms-google-amazon-facebook-apple-microsoft/">to be strengthened</a> in 2022 with the <a href="https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/digital-services-act-package">Digital Services Act</a> and <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/eu-parliaments-key-committee-adopts-digital-markets-act/">Digital Markets Act</a>. This package of extra restrictions is set to include curbing the uncontrolled spread of unverified and often hateful content, with the potential for penalties of 10% of a company’s annual revenue. </p>
<p>And for <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58340333">all the talk</a> of a bonfire of EU data protection rules after Brexit, the forthcoming UK Online Safety Bill goes <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/agenda/2021/11/02/facebook-europe-privacy-content-laws-518514">arguably even further</a> in the same direction, with not only similar fines but potential prison sentences for executives over breaches. The bill may <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/online-safety-bill-to-make-tech-giants-tackle-scams-5v3d85q9v">even make</a> Facebook responsible for scams by other companies advertising on the platform. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435597/original/file-20211203-27-1517pqm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Facebook icon next to a virus" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435597/original/file-20211203-27-1517pqm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435597/original/file-20211203-27-1517pqm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435597/original/file-20211203-27-1517pqm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435597/original/file-20211203-27-1517pqm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435597/original/file-20211203-27-1517pqm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435597/original/file-20211203-27-1517pqm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435597/original/file-20211203-27-1517pqm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Tougher rules on extreme content are around the corner.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/stone-united-kingdom-april-4-2020-1693209826">Ascannio</a></span>
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<p>Major EU countries such as Germany, France and the Netherlands <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e0248106-e6d5-4b2a-aaef-b52d464dcc03">also want</a> the Digital Services Act to block what has become big tech’s major strategy to attract new users: identifying non-profitable but successful internet companies, and buying their technology and user base. The UK is now decisively on the same path, as the Competition and Market Authority <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/af93369a-56fe-4d79-ad68-42e40404291f">just ordered</a> Facebook/Meta to sell Giphy, the largest repository of GIFs on the internet, which <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2021/11/meta-told-to-sell-giphy-in-first-major-antitrust-move-against-facebooks-parent-company.html">it bought</a> in 2020 for US$400 million (£301 million).</p>
<p>European regulators are therefore unravelling tech giants’ business models one decision <a href="https://theconversation.com/google-loses-appeal-against-2-4-billion-fine-tech-giants-might-now-have-to-re-think-their-entire-business-models-171628">after the other</a>. European data regulation is also becoming the de facto <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/gdpr-as-global-data-protection-regulation/CB416FF11457C21B02C0D1DA7BE8E688">global standard</a> because to be allowed to operate in Europe (which generates <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/agenda/2021/11/02/facebook-europe-privacy-content-laws-518514">a quarter</a> of Facebook’s annual profits), global tech often has to obey the stricter European rules across the board.</p>
<p>The European logic is that harvesting private data is often a rip-off. People care about privacy but <a href="https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-06/cp210103en.pdf">give away</a> their data in exchange for almost nothing, and the government should protect them. American regulators consider this patronising, with the Supreme Court ruling almost 20 years ago that <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/540/02-682/">a dominant firm</a> is free to exploit its consumers. Recent whistleblower Frances Haugen has provoked some soul searching in the US, but will probably <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/agenda/2021/11/02/facebook-europe-privacy-content-laws-518514">ultimately struggle</a> to secure meaningful changes to the rules around data and content. </p>
<p>With the likes of the UK now strongly following the path of the EU, the US is becoming increasingly isolated in this area. Meta is still free to make money out of their existing Facebook users in Europe. But as <a href="https://www.theverge.com/22743744/facebook-teen-usage-decline-frances-haugen-leaks">younger generations</a> leave Facebook for the likes of TikTok and Snapchat, it faces increasing difficulties in reaching them and gathering the necessary information to sell their profiles to advertisers. It may therefore be time for companies like Facebook to find new sources of revenue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173100/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Renaud Foucart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Social media firms in Europe are well on the way to a thousand cuts.Renaud Foucart, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1698112021-11-07T13:11:14Z2021-11-07T13:11:14ZAs a global infrastructure giant, Facebook must uphold human rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429967/original/file-20211103-23-e238vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C26%2C6000%2C3961&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Seen on the screen of a device in Sausalito, Calif., Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announces the company's new corporate name, Meta, during a virtual event.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Facebook — <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/28/tech/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-keynote-announcements/index.html">its new corporate name is Meta</a> — has always wanted to get to know you. Its public goal has ostensibly been to connect people. It’s been wildly successful in doing so by building out what can only be called everyday infrastructure around the world. </p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/947869/facebook-product-mau/">3.5 billion people</a> worldwide using Facebook’s suite of products, which includes Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. As the infrastructure provider, Facebook knows a lot about who its users are, and what they do.</p>
<p>Recently, the company has announced a US$10 billion investment in the “metaverse” — an immersive version of the internet that can only increase Facebook’s hold on citizens via the data it collects about us.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430036/original/file-20211103-23-13jvm2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman with blonde hair speaks into a microphone with one arm raised." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430036/original/file-20211103-23-13jvm2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430036/original/file-20211103-23-13jvm2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430036/original/file-20211103-23-13jvm2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430036/original/file-20211103-23-13jvm2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430036/original/file-20211103-23-13jvm2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430036/original/file-20211103-23-13jvm2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430036/original/file-20211103-23-13jvm2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen speaks during a Senate hearing in Washington, D.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>This announcement comes at a time when everyone wants to do something about Facebook. Recent reporting on corporate ethics, fuelled by whistle-blower Frances Haugen’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-s-senate-testimony/8d324185-d725-4d99-9160-9ce9e13f58a3/">document dump and testimony in the United States Senate</a> — along with a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-caused-the-unprecedented-facebook-outage-the-few-clues-point-to-a-problem-from-within-169249">six-hour blackout</a> of its services worldwide in October — demonstrate both the scale of Facebook’s reach and the consequences of letting the status quo persist. </p>
<p>But before we fix anything, we need to consider the logic behind determining what ought to be fixed.</p>
<h2>A human rights focus</h2>
<p>In order to effectively regulate data-intensive, privately held global infrastructure like Facebook, we need to prioritize human rights concerns. Upholding human rights can act as the underlying logic for any regulatory framework, and in doing do, provide it with an established, universal ethical heft.</p>
<p>Focusing on human rights means prioritizing the <a href="https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=68382&section=2">basic values</a> embodied in the United Nations’ <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights">Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a>: protecting human dignity, ensuring autonomy and equality and “brotherhood” (or, in 2020s parlance, community).
It means understanding that these rights are <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/pages/whatarehumanrights.aspx">indivisible and interdependent</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430066/original/file-20211103-19-vb9poh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A cell phone user thumbs through the privacy settings on a Facebook account" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430066/original/file-20211103-19-vb9poh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430066/original/file-20211103-19-vb9poh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430066/original/file-20211103-19-vb9poh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430066/original/file-20211103-19-vb9poh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430066/original/file-20211103-19-vb9poh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430066/original/file-20211103-19-vb9poh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430066/original/file-20211103-19-vb9poh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Facebook has changed our lives by morphing into a global infrastructure platform.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
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<p>The benefits and harms of social media affect human beings — the subjects for whom human rights are intended. Facebook, and other companies like it, have changed our lives by becoming global infrastructure, affecting how, when and if we engage with others. Through this process, our lives have become “datafied.”</p>
<p>We need to think more purposefully about how to embed human rights in our digital policies as we increasingly live and find meaning within online environments and contexts. As the UN’s <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/documents/publications/guidingprinciplesbusinesshr_en.pdf">Guiding Principles</a> on Business and Human Rights affirm, states have a duty to protect human rights. Businesses, however, also have the responsibility to respect human rights.</p>
<h2>A global communications giant</h2>
<p>The focus on calls for reform to date, including Haugen’s explosive Senate testimony, has been centred around content on the social network Facebook built and is best known for. But Facebook is much more than that. </p>
<p>The blackout showed that Facebook is an essential piece of global communications infrastructure. The corporation formerly known as Facebook, and its properties Instagram and WhatsApp, facilitates <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/05/facebook-outage-highlights-global-over-reliance-on-its-services">small business and informal economies</a> around the world. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/05/facebook-outage-highlights-global-over-reliance-on-its-services">It provides login</a> <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/04/heres-how-see-what-you-log-facebook/">credentials</a> to <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/business/why-you-shouldnt-use-facebook-to-log-in-to-other-sites-and-apps/">thousands of other apps</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman with long hair in a crowd of other women takes a photo with her phone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430062/original/file-20211103-23-36ba4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430062/original/file-20211103-23-36ba4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430062/original/file-20211103-23-36ba4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430062/original/file-20211103-23-36ba4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430062/original/file-20211103-23-36ba4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430062/original/file-20211103-23-36ba4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430062/original/file-20211103-23-36ba4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A small business owner attends a Facebook event in March 2018 in St. Louis, Mo., aimed at helping small businesses and job seekers gain additional digital skills.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Sarah Conard/AP Images for Facebook)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some developing countries in Africa even rely on Facebook <a href="https://globalmedia.mit.edu/2020/04/21/the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-again-of-facebooks-free-basics-civil-and-the-challenge-of-resistance-to-corporate-connectivity-projects/">as a portal</a> to the internet <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55929654">for significant</a> portions of <a href="https://social.techcrunch.com/2018/04/25/internet-org-100-million/">their populations</a>. </p>
<p>And in the very near future, Meta intends to bring another <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-renews-ambitions-connect-world/">billion people online</a> through various internet infrastructure projects.</p>
<p>So how do we regulate a tech giant like Facebook to ensure human rights are upheld? Many cases for regulation have focused on the right of freedom of expression, because that’s how most of us consciously experience it. However, a focus on content moderation is <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/25/18229714/cognizant-facebook-content-moderator-interviews-trauma-working-conditions-arizona">a losing game</a> at best. </p>
<h2>Human rights tied to freedom of expression</h2>
<p>I’ve written previously about how Facebook has stepped into the void on adjudicating freedom of expression on its network through the <a href="https://oversightboard.com/">Facebook Oversight Board</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-is-stepping-in-where-governments-wont-on-free-expression-156189">Facebook is stepping in where governments won't on free expression</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>But freedom of expression is not independent of other rights. The Oversight Board’s <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/empirical-look-facebook-oversight-board">own docket</a> shows that deciding on cases involving freedom of expression does not happen in a vacuum. Other rights — such as the right to non-discrimination, the right to security of the person and the right to life — need to be considered.</p>
<p>Various proposals for how to regulate Facebook and social media are already out there, advocating for <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-we-have-the-regulatory-tools-we-need-to-fix-facebook/">transparency and accountability</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/opinion/facebook-whistleblower-section-230.html">changes to U.S. regulations</a> that currently provide immunity to social media platforms and creating “<a href="https://venturebeat.com/2021/02/06/from-the-election-lie-to-gamestop-how-to-stop-social-media-algorithms-from-hurting-us/">toxicity taxes</a>” in order to tackle the dilemma of content moderation. </p>
<p>The Canadian government now <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-feds-have-chance-to-protect-canadians-from-digital-platform-harms/">has a chance to fix</a> problematic legislation it had previously proposed to curb social media content, which has the potential to erode <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-online-harms-proposed-legislation-threatens-human-rights-1.6198800">other human rights</a> in the process. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/planned-social-media-regulations-set-a-dangerous-precedent-155844">Planned social media regulations set a dangerous precedent</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and many states are following the trust-busting strategy, an approach that is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-facebook-inc-federal-trade-commission-district-of-columbia-4533fd62e9dea3c7c858f46ac4bc7026">currently stalled</a> in the courts.</p>
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<h2>Global assent</h2>
<p>Part of the problem is that people around the world continue searching for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-019-0088-2">ethical frameworks</a> to manage the relationship between technology and society when we already have a successful model readily available to us: international human rights. It’s one one of the few global, ethical frameworks in existence that has overwhelming assent.</p>
<p>The other part of the problem is that we have mostly <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=3700267">assumed that rights in the analog world should apply online</a>. This means that territorial states are places of relevance and and enforcement. But Facebook’s infrastructure is global — it’s not a state. UN Special Rappoteurs are pointing out how the analogue and digital don’t always align in terms of <a href="https://undocs.org/A/HRC/37/62">privacy</a> and <a href="https://undocs.org/A/HRC/47/25">expression</a>, but this is just the beginning.</p>
<p>Anything that happens in the online world has a global impact, as we’ve seen with the European Union’s <a href="https://www.economist.com/europe/2021/04/24/the-eu-wants-to-become-the-worlds-super-regulator-in-ai">General Data Protection Regulation</a>. It’s clear that the impetus for protecting human rights is critical, no matter who is potentially violating them. But how to go about designing human rights protections in the name of autonomy, dignity, equality and community is not currently being contemplated when it comes to our digital spaces.</p>
<p>We must acknowledge the global and everyday reach of Facebook’s infrastructure. We need to understand how Facebook, and other tech companies like it, are dramatically shaping our experiences in ways that are both visible and invisible. </p>
<p>Understanding Facebook as a form of public infrastructure simply means acknowledging that it provides us with something essential: services that enable other services and activities, services we cannot get in the same way elsewhere. </p>
<p>Some have suggested that we <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/11/facebook-authoritarian-hostile-foreign-power/620168/">treat Facebook as a hostile country</a> to properly contain it. This seems unnecessary. Facebook is an example of a new type of global infrastructure that needs to protect and respect human rights.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169811/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research is supported by the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society at the University of Toronto.</span></em></p>In order to effectively regulate data-intensive, privately held global infrastructure like Facebook, human rights needs to be a primary focal point.Wendy H. Wong, Professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair in Global Governance and Civil Society, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.