Mark Johanson. Can your boss read your work messages? BBC, February 2022. URL: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210813-are-your-work-messages-as-private-as-you-think (visited on 2023-12-06).

9.1. Privacy# There are many reasons, both good and bad, that we might want to keep information private. There might be some things that we just feel like aren’t for public sharing (like how most people wear clothes in public, hiding portions of their bodies) We might want to discuss something privately, avoiding embarrassment that might happen if it were shared publicly We might want a conversation or action that happens in one context not to be shared in another (context collapse) We might want to avoid the consequences of something we’ve done (whether ethically good or bad), so we keep the action or our identity private We might have done or said something we want to be forgotten or make at least made less prominent We might want to prevent people from stealing our identities or accounts, so we keep information (like passwords) private We might want to avoid physical danger from a stalker, so we might keep our location private We might not want to be surveilled by a company or government that could use our actions or words against us (whether what we did was ethically good or bad) When we use social media platforms though, we at least partially give up some of our privacy. For example, a social media application might offer us a way of “Private Messaging” [i1] (also called Direct Messaging) with another user. But in most cases those “private” messages are stored in the computers at those companies, and the company might have computer programs that automatically search through the messages, and people with the right permissions might be able to view them directly. In some cases we might want a social media company to be able to see our “private” messages, such as if someone was sending us death threats. We might want to report that user to the social media company for a ban, or to law enforcement (though many people have found law enforcement to be not helpful), and we want to open access to those “private” messages to prove that they were sent.

Jordan Pearson. Your Friends’ Online Connections Can Reveal Your Sexual Orientation. Vice, September 2014. URL: https://www.vice.com/en/article/gvydky/your-friends-online-connections-can-reveal-your-sexual-orientation (visited on 2023-12-05).

8.4. How is this data used# Social Media platforms use the data they collect on users and infer about users to increase their power and increase their profits. One of the main goals of social media sites is to increase the time users are spending on their social media sites. The more time users spend, the more money the site can get from ads, and also the more power and influence those social media sites have over those users. So social media sites use the data they collect to try and figure out what keeps people using their site, and what can they do to convince those users they need to open it again later. Social media sites then make their money by selling targeted advertising, meaning selling ads to specific groups of people with specific interests. So, for example, if you are selling spider stuffed animal toys, most people might not be interested, but if you could find the people who want those toys and only show your ads to them, your advertising campaign might be successful, and those users might be happy to find out about your stuffed animal toys. But targeting advertising can be used in less ethical ways, such as targeting gambling ads at children, or at users who are addicted to gambling, or the 2016 Trump campaign ‘target[ing] 3.5m black Americans to deter them from voting’ [h18].

7.2.1. Pre-internet trolling# Before the internet, there were many activities that we would probably now call “trolling”, such as: Hazing: Causing difficulty or suffering for people who are new to a group Satire: (e.g., A Modest Proposal [g9]) which takes a known form, but does something unexpected or disruptive with it. Practical jokes / pranks The video above is a 1957 April Fool’s Day hoax video broadcast by the BBC claiming to show how spaghetti noodles are harvested from trees [g10]. Additionally, the enjoyment of causing others pain or distress (“lulz”) has also been part of the human experience for millennia: “Boys throw stones at frogs in fun, but the frogs do not die in fun, but in earnest.” Bion of Borysthenes [g11] (Greece ~300 BCE) Additionally, the inauthentic arguments have long been observed, and were memorably explored by Jean-Paul Sartre as “Bad Faith” [g12]. “Bad faith” here means pretending to hold views or feelings, while not actually holding them (this may be intentional, or it may be through self-deception). Sartre particularly observed this in arguments made by antisemites while he lived in Nazi-controlled Paris:

Film Crit Hulk. Don’t feed the trolls, and other hideous lies. The Verge, July 2018. URL: https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/12/17561768/dont-feed-the-trolls-online-harassment-abuse (visited on 2023-12-05).

Emily St James. Trans Twitter and the beauty of online anonymity. Vox, September 2020. URL: https://www.vox.com/culture/21432987/trans-twitter-reddit-online-anonymity (visited on 2023-11-24).

6.3.1. Inauthentic Behaviors# Inauthentic behavior is when the reality doesn’t match what is being presented. Inauthenticity has, of course, existed throughout human history, from Ea-nasir [f14] complaining in 1750 BCE that the copper he ordered was not the high quality he had been promised [f15], to 1917 CE in England when Arthur Conan Doyle [f16] (the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories) was fooled by photographs that appeared to be of a child next to fairies. Fig. 6.4 A 1917 photograph whose creators claimed was a photo of a child with fairies [f17], proving that fairies exist (the fairies were actually cardboard cut-outs).# There are many ways inauthnticity shows up on internet-based social media, such as: Catfishing: Create a fake profile that doesn’t match the actual user, usually in an attempt to trick or scam someone Sockpuppet (or a “burner” account): Creating a fake profile in order to argue a position (sometimes intentionally argued poorly to make the position look bad) Fig. 6.5 US Congressional candidate Dean Browning in 2020 posting what appears to be a post intended for a sockpuppet account where he was pretending to be a gay Black man [f18].# Astroturfing: An artificially created crowd to make something look like it has popular support Parody accounts: An account that is intentionally mimicking a person or position, but intended to be understood as fake. Schrodinger’s asshole: the guy who says awful shit, and decides if he was “only kidding” depending on your reaction. [f19] Various types of trolling, which we will cover in the next chapter

Federal Trade Commission. FTC Alleges Facebook Resorted to Illegal Buy-or-Bury Scheme to Crush Competition After String of Failed Attempts to Innovate. August 2021. URL: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2021/08/ftc-alleges-facebook-resorted-illegal-buy-or-bury-scheme-crush-competition-after-string-failed (visited on 2023-11-24).

5.6. Social Media Design# As we’ve looked through the history of social media platforms, we’ve seen different ways of making them work, such as: How you can send messages to other people? Will these messages be public or private? Does the user have to refresh the site to check for messages, or does the message automatically appear, or perhaps even make their phone buzz? What restrictions are there on the content of messages sent? What information can a user provide about themselves in a profile? etc. Let’s look at some of these design decisions more closely: 5.6.1. Social Media Connection Types# One difference you may notice with different social media sites is in how you form connections with others. Some social media sites don’t have any formal connections. Like two users who happen to be on the same bulletin board. Some social media sites only allow reciprocal connections, like being “friends” on Facebook Some social media sites offer one-way connections, like following someone on Twitter or subscribing to a YouTube channel. There are, of course, many variations and nuances besides what we mentioned above, but we wanted to get you started thinking about some different options.

Ted Chiang. Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey? The New Yorker, May 2023. URL: https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/will-ai-become-the-new-mckinsey (visited on 2023-12-10).

[u38] Ruha Benjamin. Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want. Princeton University Press, October 2022. ISBN 978-0-691-22288-2. URL: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691222882/viral-justice (visited on 2023-12-10).

The way we present ourselves to others around us (our behavior, social role, etc.) is called our public persona [f20]. We also may change how we behave and speak depending on the situation or who we are around, which is called code-switching [f21]. While modified behaviors to present a persona or code switch may at first look inauthentic, they can be a way of authentically expressing ourselves in each particular setting. For example: Speaking in a formal manner when giving a presentation or answering questions in a courtroom may be a way of authentically sharing your experiences and emotions, but tailored to the setting Sharing those same experiences and emotions with a close friend may look very different, but still can be authentic Different communities have different expectations and meanings around behavior and presentation. So what is appropriate authentic behavior depends on what group you are from and what group you are interacting with, like this gif of President Obama below:

In the 1976 book The Selfish Gene [l3], evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins[1] said rather than looking at the evolution of organisms, it made even more sense to look at the evolution of the genes of those organisms (sections of DNA that perform some functions and are inherited). For example, if a bee protects its nest by stinging an attacking animal and dying, then it can’t reproduce and it might look like a failure of evolution. But if the gene that told the bee to die protecting the nest was shared by the other bees in the nest, then that one bee dying allows the gene to keep being replicated, so the gene is successful evolutionarily. Since genes contained information about how organisms would grow and live, then biological evolution could be considered to be evolving information. Dawkins then took this idea of the evolution of information and applied it to culture, coining the term “meme” (intended to sound like “gene” [l4]). A meme is a piece of culture that might reproduce in an evolutionary fashion, like a hummable tune that someone hears and starts humming to themselves, perhaps changing it, and then others overhearing next. In this view, any piece of human culture can be considered a meme that is spreading (or failing to spread) according to evolutionary forces. So we can use an evolutionary perspective to consider the spread of: Technology (languages, weapons, medicine, writing, math, computers, etc.), religions philosophies political ideas (democracy, authoritarianism, etc.) art organizations etc.

20.2. Colonialism in Tech# The tech industry is full of colonialist thinking and practices, some more subtle than others. To begin with, much of the tech industry is centralized geographically, specifically in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, California. The leaders and decisions in how tech operates come out of this one wealthy location in a wealthy nation. Then, much of tech is dependent on exploiting cheap labor, often in dangerous conditions, in other countries (thus extracting the resource of cheap labor, from places with “inferior” governments and economies). This labor might be physical labor, or dealing with dangerous chemicals, or the content moderators who deal with viewing horrific online content. Tech industry leaders in Silicon Valley then take what they made with exploited labor, and sell it around the world, feeling good about themselves, believing they are benefitting the world with their “superior” products.

Act with unforced actions in harmony with the natural cycles of the universe. Trying to force something to happen will likely backfire. Rejects Confucian focus on ceremonies/rituals. Prefers spontaneity and play. Like how water (soft and yielding), can, over time, cut through rock.