Archive

Hi friends –

The other day I said to my daughter that I needed to “toot, skeet, and tweet,” – referring to writing posts on the social networks Mastodon, Bluesky and Twitter – and she truly didn’t believe these were the real names of these activities. But, here we are, deep into the absurdities of this era of social media fragmentation, with new platforms popping up, and old ones falling apart, and all of them using different hokey names.

In the midst of all this upheaval, however, there is opportunity. And in this week’s article for New York Times Opinion (gift link), I make the case for a social media future where users have more choice in what they see in their algorithmic feeds. 

Here’s my argument in a nutshell:

Hi friends --

You may have noticed that some big tech platforms are getting less transparent and accountable to the public.

Both Facebook and Twitter have shut down tools they used to provide to allow researchers and journalists to examine their content. And both platforms are cracking down on what they call "unauthorized" access to data from their platforms.

In my latest New York Times Opinion piece, titled "The Gatekeepers of Knowledge Don't Want us to See What They Know," I argue that the public needs to pry open the gates and see the decisions the tech platforms are making.

Hi friends --

Amidst rampant surveillance capitalism, one bastion of digital privacy remains – end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp. But dangerous laws are being proposed in US, UK, EU & beyond to force those apps to scan your messages. 

My latest piece for New York Times Opinion (gift link) tells a story you may feel like you have read before: the threat to encryption. But last time you heard it, it was slightly different. As you may recall, in 2016 the FBI sought a "master key" to unlock encrypted content with a search warrant. But Apple refused to provide the master key and a luminary lineup of cryptographers and information security experts successfully argued that there was no way to safely provide a master key to unlock all encryption.

This time, law enforcement agencies worldwide are seeking something different and more dangerous: the ability to search everyone's messages without a warrant. They aim to do this by forcing encrypted messaging companies to be liable for content on their systems even if they cannot see it. That would inevitably require companies to scan users' content. In other words a suspicionless search conducted by corporations.

Hi friends --

There is so much debate about how the big tech platforms police hate speech, and whether they made the right call in kicking off Donald Trump for inciting violence.

But the interesting thing about violence is that we know a bit about what incites it, and it's not hate so much as fear. Fear is what leaders use to inspire violence. Fear that the election has been stolen. Fear that women are being erased by trans people. Fear that children are being groomed by pedophiles.

This is dangerous speech. Susan Benesch of the Dangerous Speech Project says the key feature of it is that it persuades “people to perceive other members of a group as a terrible threat. That makes violence seem acceptable, necessary or even virtuous.”

Hi friends --

You've probably heard that the creepy ads that follow you around the Internet are the price you have to pay for all the free services online.

But what if the price is too high and there is another way? In my latest New York Times opinion piece, I explore the costs and benefits of the commercial surveillance model.

On the costs side:

Hi friends --

You may have noticed that Washington D.C. is in a frenzy about TikTok -- proposing to ban it, force it to sell or submit to state control.

In my latest piece for New York Times Opinion, I argue that all the tech giants that prey on Americans’ data should get the same scrutiny and enforced accountability that is being proposed for TikTok. After all, Congress has failed to pass even the most basic comprehensive privacy legislation to protect our data from being misused by all the tech companies that collect and mine it.

And if you look at the evidence, it is clear that everything TikTok is being accused of is also true of other tech platforms.

Hello kind person on my email list -

Thank you for signing up to get updates from me. I am writing to let you know that the next stage of my adventures has begun.

My first piece as a New York Times Contributing Opinion Writer has just been published: “It’s Time to Tear up Big Tech’s Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card.” In it, I tell the tale of the discriminatory ads that I was able to buy on Facebook in 2016 and how even now years later, Facebook still hasn’t fully fixed its algorithms that enable discriminatory ads. Today the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case Gonzalez v. Google that may determine whether tech companies can continue to avoid legal liability for their algorithms.

In addition to writing for the Times, I also have just signed up to join Columbia Journalism School’s Brown Institute as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. I’ll be using my time there to cook up some cool new projects that I hope to be able to share with you soon.