Fixing the Web Independence Day Edition
Happy 4th of July!
Holidays? More like ‘holi-daze’ in my world. I’m the guy who who needs a calendar notification to know it’s Thursday. My mornings start with a not-so-graceful tumble out of my fabulous and ridiculous zero-gravity memory foam sarcophagus (because why sleep on some passive flat thing that is in cahoots with gravity and social norms?), followed by grabbing my caffeine IV drip that would make even the most sleep-deprived barista weep.
Then, like a well-oiled machine running on pure oblivion, I zombie-walk another few steps to my desk, ready to save democracy and the social internet… or at least my inbox, R code, and Slack. It’s only when I start firing off responses to emails and Slack messages that I get the unexpected auto-responses -- ‘Out-of-office: It’s [insert holiday here].’
Cue the Homer Simpson ‘D’oh!’ -- my unofficial holiday morning anthem. My old managers got so attuned to my holiday-blindness that they started sending me vacation brochures on the eves of holidays. ‘Please, for the love of god, do not work tomorrow.’
Now, I’m my own boss. The good news: I have fewer emails to ignore. The bad news: My new manager has as bad work-life balance as I do. So,today, I zombie-walked to my kitchen for the caffeine IV and stumbled to my desk to work until a headline caught my eye:
Mark Zuckerberg dons tux in July 4 surfing video while holding beer and US flag
My first reaction was to drink more caffeine... but that didn’t change the headline. So, I clicked on it.
Yep, the owner and chief executive of a company being sued by 45 out of 50 US states and investigated by many other countries for failing to protect users from harms (among other things) is doing exactly what the headline says -- wearing a tux and his metaverse-enabled Ray-bans, chugging a beer, waving an American flag, and blasting Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA.’ It’s not quite as tone-deaf as when he livestreamed a metaverse tour of hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico as delivered such gems as “one of the things that’s really magical about VR is you can get the feeling you’re in a place,” while his grinning, leg-less avatar floated over a flooded neighborhood.
I digress. The article also reminded me that it was a holiday. Happy Independence Day, folks!
What’s in the pipeline?
I finished analyzing the Neely Social Media Index data from Poland and drafted a summary report. I’ll share that as soon as the powers that be at the Neely Center sign off on it. I’m also excited to share that we are in the process of collecting data from Kenya, and we are approved to collect data in Somalia. If you’re interested in partnering with the Neely Center and collecting data on social media experiences in another country, please do let me know.
I’m revising an op-ed on the harmlessness of GenAI… in a vacuum, and how fixing an old problem also mitigates the potential harm of GenAI creations. Bear with me. 🐻
I’ve been digging back into all of the research I can find on counterspeech to political toxicity online, and am putting together a summary report. I’ll share some form of it on this blog.
As part of the Platform Data handbook I’m building with some colleagues, we are including a databrary containing links to all of the publicly available social media data we can find. It’s a work in progress, but should give you a taste of what is to come in the following weeks. If you know of data that we haven’t yet included, please message or email me.
What I’m reading
ID verification service for TikTok, Uber, X [Twitter] Exposed Driver Licenses -- Joseph Cox, 404 Media
Pornhub’s age verification concerns, ‘standardise’ AI red teaming and Netchoice news -- Ben Whitelaw, Everything in Moderation
A Meta ‘error’ broke the political content filter on Threads and Instagram -- Karissa Bell, Engadget
Quiz: Most Americans are overconfident in their ability to spot fake news. Are you one of them? -- Katie Mather, Yahoo News
Labeling AI-generated media online: Promises, perils, and future directions -- Chloe Wittenberg, Ziv Epstein, Adam Berinsky, & David Rand,
Supreme Court rejects challenge to Biden administration’s contacts with social media companies -- Melissa Quinn, CBS News
The Supreme Court casts doubt on Florida and Texas laws to regulate social media platforms -- Mark Sherman, AP
What an actual expert thinks about kids & social media -- Candace Odgers on Mike Masnick’s Techdirt podcast
The global suppression of online LGBTQ+ speech continues -- Jillian York, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Social media age restrictions may push children online in secret, Australian eSafety commissioner says -- Josh Taylor, The Guardian
Considering New York’s Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation for Kids Act -- Tim Bernard, Tech Policy Press
How Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Failed Children on Safety, States Say -- Natasha Singer, NY Times
Has Facebook stopped trying? -- Jason Koebler, 404 Media
The Supreme Court gives a green light to jawboning -- Casey Newton, Platformer
Elon Musk’s X revenue as officially plummeted, new documents show -- Matt Binder, Mashable