I saw an older episode of the same talk format with the same moderator yesterday - which is now forever lost in the ether, because youtube search is bad and I didnt note down the title or age -- but what really, really is striking to me is the rapid degeneration of the quality of “experts on media”.
The older clip was maybe 10 or 15 years old - and the experts where those late nineties “the internet is our libertarian playground” vibe techies, that still were fun to listen to.
They tried their best. They were idealistic. They had ideas that were interesting to listen to. They knew, that they dont know it all.
And now - after an entire generation of puritanism and self imposed facebook reputation “angst”, followed by self censorship - you get
- the ideological preacher with the protestant vibes, and the goth alure to attract female students (perfect half shadow on his face on camera)
- the completely bland mother superior of the order “everything is right is what we decide”
- the usual metrosexual “future leader” that is on message like a drone, so yo know he got scholarships through his teeth and his first job from someone aging and wanting to promote half of the people from a younger generation he meets in the alps
and
- the bureaucrat european computer driving license trainee, that now scored a government job, is still unsure of himself, but probably knows the most about tech of everyone on the panel
and all of them now are --
-- The digital experts of France 24 --
and I still like France 24, and I like the moderator. But I would never, in my life get advice on anything of public interest, or even in digital matters, from any of the four.
They are much too buisy keeping up a self image, to know anything of value.
So, they do what media experts always do - and repeat stories, which they have read on non digital media, to show how experty, experts they are. And they get some parts right, but in the middle of the second sentence their puritanical reflexes kick in and they already want to forbid everything for everyone -- or they are waaaayyy to much into telling themself the story how Musk was never liked in school and is now overcompensating.
But also a Bond villain, because we just cant read his algorithm well enough - its probably the key to life, god and the universe.
But also probably self interested, so we dont know, how he will shape the world economy in his interest, with all his Bond villaines and his Hardcore gamer past!
And hes addicted to social media.
*He never stopped playing games, he is a man child* they wisper to each other on air. Yes - and I heard, he even wants to play connective tissue and enabler of a far right international!
Yes to all of this. To some extent. Also yes to the “he cant sleep”, and “lives within his bubble”, and the probably is a user, and cant control himself between the lines, and the “overcompensates” his percieved previous shortcomings. And plays political influencer that hands around 100s of millions to right wing policy groups.
But then to some extent he is also birthing a political movement of people on the outskirts of society. Which under the “woke” establisment censorship policy should never exist without being algorithmically downranked, silenced, forgotten and shunned.
So if you actually give credence to the notion, that this social media thing is something new, and societies have to learn how to deal with it. You dont entirely deal with it for them, much less in a way - where you only promote puritanical robots into expert positions, applauded to by the one future leader, that checks his makeup, while someone else is talking on the panel (not the moderator btw).
So here is the rough cut:
Racism, and far right populism (which is probably the most effective kind of populism - with a very high quality of memes produced) is its own accelerator on social media. It spreads like nothing else. Tadaaa. Thats the magic of the algo.
Musk, historically - when he took over Twitter saw what algorithmic censorship the “woke crowd” together with state department partners were engaged in. Found the poor rightwing trending coder soul and gamer within the company - and probably promoted them lead something of the future trajectory of the company.
And in the effort to counter the algorithmic censorship they saw and endured, they tried to hardball it, and to get rid of most of it - and now rightwing populism is way overrepresented there, because it is a natural accelerant.
At the same time, they are trying to innovate in the space - and actually created something with community notes - which are explainations on social media threads, that get pinned, when people who usually dont agree on political outlooks, suddenly heavily agree on something. Its not a perfect thing, its not a wonderful fix, but at least its interesting.
Yes Musk likely manipulates the reach of his own twitter feed, yes - there are ad hoc manipulations of the status quo, that likely he, or few people decide over, as were there in the past. Yes none of this is transparent. And no he doesnt allow government departments to do the same, like twitter did before.
Yes - he often is wrong, and into a pretty reactionary right wing bubble.
So attention to what he does is warranted.
But so far, he has “just” put on a platform a group within society that has self radicalized on the edges of society being marginalized algorithmically. With the new addition of also doing this in real political life with millions of dollars in funding.
I’d be far less sympathetic to it, if this were not the likely “antidote” to the self censoring, virtue signaling, woke puritanism of the age - that knows everything --- and still is wrong most of the time.
As long as he facilitates discussion/exchange of ideas and does not suppress or seek to sideline it. Or promote anti humanist, unethical, and so on ideas - I’m somewhat OK with that.
In fact, that we now have a debate where the German chancellor can react with “dont feed the troll” is indicative of a societal learning process in social media literacy.
Will he overdo it - yes, likely so. Simply because right wing populism (as a shorthand, just think of their memes), is a hyperscaler on its own, but please lets tackle it - when we get there.
The worries that he uses the “rapegangs” tropes as an artificial booster for rightwing groups in germany and england are totally legit.
But before your digital experts get into “James Bond villain” deliberation of how this is his masterplan to advance his corporate empire through a societal powershift -- also consider, that for advertisers it was the least sexy thing he could do - and in some sense hes also just Kekius Maximus, the guy that cant sleep - is triggered by perceived injustice to children, and identifies with the outcast self radicalized guy that was banned from twitter, because of something he found important to say -- to some extent.
Then add a bit of the circumstantialness of “free speech” having an entirely different significance within US society - and the US never having suffered from the same historical backstory, that europe has.
So keep watch - but stick your dreadful puritanism.
Spoken as someone, that to this day doesnt know why the heck “we should now rethink our migration policy” in europe over something that apparently changed in the mainstream over the last five years, that makes it impossible to integrate 200.000 people in germany a year. Yet, every CDU politician fakes knowing it by feel - because suddenly, social media was full of people telling them, that this is the next big issue they cared about. Why that exactly became “a mainstream, middle of society” opinion is still pretty murky to me. (And yes I know about migration risk issues under climate change. And the cost/insurance issues that go hand in hand with it. And yes, the last green party administration in germany I consider about the most tonedeath political “nudgers” ever in existence in a government, but at least the generation over 60 already has forgiven them, and already wants excactly that back for their grandchildren…)
So maybe its that, why I suggest to also let us have a little Elon Musk.
I agree on the “I dont see how this (his behavior) is sustainable” front, so I expect a crash and burn, but at least whats being created is not so effing puritanical all the time.
edit: A few moments later… (Earlier, but I didnt read it before.)
«Es ging zu weit»: Mark Zuckerberg gesteht ein Übermass an Zensur auf Instagram und Facebook ein und beendet die Zusammenarbeit mit Faktencheckern
Bisher arbeitete Meta mit externen Dienstleistern zusammen, um Falschinformationen als solche zu erkennen und einzuordnen. Nun sollen Facebook und Instagram stattdessen die Schwarmintelligenz im Netzwerk nutzen. Es ist ein Schritt zu einer Neuausrichtung des Konzerns.
src: click (NZZ)
