We hear a lot about Facebook as a platform for manipulation - using machine learning to bypass our critical faculties and trick us into believing things that are bad for us - but the real show is in Facebook's ability to target, not manipulate.

1/

People who hold disfavored views struggle to find one another and mobilize. To find other people that feel the same way as you and make common cause with them to effect political change, you have to reveal your views and suffer social sanction.

2/
Search allows people who hold these views to find one another. If you have a deep feeling about your gender being nonbinary but don't know the words for it, you can search for communities of people who have those words, join them, and discover who you've been all along.

3/
This is why, in this moment, so many ideas are migrating from the fringe to the center: ideas about racial justice, gender identity, alternatives to market systems, etc. People have harbored these views all along, but have held back on expressing them.

4/
Being able to express yourself in private, among people who share your views, is a prelude to going public and putting your case to the wider world in hopes of effecting change.

5/
This goes for ALL disfavored views: not just ones we laud, but also the ones we deplore. Many Americans have nursed secret white supremacism but only whispered about it, because saying it aloud would attract social sanction, with real consequences.

6/
Search let these people find each other. Having formed groups, they were able to brave social consequences and begin to shout about it. When they did, they converted people who were sort-of racist all along to their cause. "Radicalization" is closely related to "convincing."

7/
But search isn't the only way that groups with hard-to-find traits can be discovered: there's also targeting. Ad-tech companies spy on us, ascribe traits to us, then sell the right to target those traits to advertisers.

8/
"Show my ad to midwestern high school cheerleaders"

"To people shopping for a new fridge"

"To the owners of senior dogs"

"To people with diabetes"

"To readers of cyberpunk science fiction novels"

"To people skeptical of Big Tech"

"To Bernie Sanders supporters"

9/
"To violent, Trump-addled conspiracists plotting insurrection"

https://t.co/Q8lsg2yCXg

10/
To be fair, the Facebook ads "for body armor, gun holsters, and other military equipment next to content promoting election misinformation and news about the attempted coup at the US Capitol" were probably not necessarily targeted at "coup plotting" per se.

11/

More from Cory Doctorow #BLM

Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: ADT insider threat; Billionaires think VR stops guillotines; Privacy Without Monopoly; and more!

Archived at: https://t.co/nu1HbReiEX

#Pluralistic

1/


This Wednesday, I'm giving a talk called "Technology, Self-Determination, and the Future of the Future" for the Purdue University CERIAS Program:

https://t.co/po5IivZyr4

2/


ADT insider threat: If you build it they will spy.

https://t.co/kJrmtu8L3S

3/


Billionaires think VR stops guillotines: TARP with tasps.

https://t.co/MIKwvsICkr

4/


Privacy Without Monopoly: Podcasting a reading of the latest EFF whitepaper.

https://t.co/R2sl75y4rb

5/
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Mashing the Bernie meme; Know Nothings, conspiratorialism and Pastel Q; and more!

Archived at: https://t.co/cKWPSzuYHE

#Pluralistic

1/


Mashing the Bernie meme: What if every video game, except Bernie with mittens?

https://t.co/Zcs71oUras

2/
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Planet Money on HP's myriad ripoffs; Strength in numbers; and more!

Archived at: https://t.co/esjoT3u5Gr

#Pluralistic

1/


On Feb 22, I'm delivering a keynote address for the NISO Plus conference, "The day of the comet: what trustbusting means for digital manipulation."

https://t.co/Z84xicXhGg

2/


Planet Money on HP's myriad ripoffs: Ink-stained wretches of the world, unite!

https://t.co/k5ASdVUrC2

3/


Strength in numbers: The crisis in accounting.

https://t.co/DjfAfHWpNN

4/


#15yrsago Bad Samaritan family won’t return found expensive camera https://t.co/Rn9E5R1gtV

#10yrsago What does Libyan revolution mean for https://t.co/Jz28qHVhrV? https://t.co/dN1e4MxU4r

5/

More from Machine learning

Happy 2⃣0⃣2⃣1⃣ to all.🎇

For any Learning machines out there, here are a list of my fav online investing resources. Feel free to add yours.

Let's dive in.
⬇️⬇️⬇️

Investing Services

✔️ @themotleyfool - @TMFStockAdvisor & @TMFRuleBreakers services

✔️ @7investing

✔️ @investing_city
https://t.co/9aUK1Tclw4

✔️ @MorningstarInc Premium

✔️ @SeekingAlpha Marketplaces (Check your area of interest, Free trials, Quality, track record...)

General Finance/Investing

✔️ @morganhousel
https://t.co/f1joTRaG55

✔️ @dollarsanddata
https://t.co/Mj1owkzRc8

✔️ @awealthofcs
https://t.co/y81KHfh8cn

✔️ @iancassel
https://t.co/KEMTBHa8Qk

✔️ @InvestorAmnesia
https://t.co/zFL3H2dk6s

✔️

Tech focused

✔️ @stratechery
https://t.co/VsNwRStY9C

✔️ @bgurley
https://t.co/NKXGtaB6HQ

✔️ @CBinsights
https://t.co/H77hNp2X5R

✔️ @benedictevans
https://t.co/nyOlasCY1o

✔️

Tech Deep dives

✔️ @StackInvesting
https://t.co/WQ1yBYzT2m

✔️ @hhhypergrowth
https://t.co/kcLKITRLz1

✔️ @Beth_Kindig
https://t.co/CjhLRdP7Rh

✔️ @SeifelCapital
https://t.co/CXXG5PY0xX

✔️ @borrowed_ideas

You May Also Like