Censorship: Custodians of knowledge
As knowledge has escaped our heads it has become less free. Knowledge deposited in a book, disseminated by a publishing company, or stored in a database has become captive to the custodian. When the platforms our oracles of knowledge stand upon are hijacked by advertisers seeking to absorb our attention for profit, the knowledge that would become wisdom in us spoils, yielding vice instead. The public square we left behind when we entered cyberspace is now empty. But the words we speak can be put back into our own mouths.
- We normally focus on how easy it is to replicate, but it can be lost just as easily if no copies are made
- Loss of authentication is often loss of authenticity, since most digital knowledge is stored by custodians
- Section 230 gives carriers liability immunity when moderating content, even if constitutionally protected (Superbloom, 42)
- There is a real dilemma here
- Backchannels existed, but Twitter's hand wasn't forced per Twitter Files
- Of course, state control of media is a commonplace method of control (Russia, China)
- Censoring the Hunter Biden Laptop story seems to have been politically motivated internally
- Twitter had talked itself into being arbiters of speech
- Trump deplatforming
- This is mostly evidence that tech is too powerful, and not accountable
- Cite Jack Dorsey (congress testimony? podcast?)
- He intended Twitter to be an open platform
- There was a pivot at some point which brought it under the control of advertisers
- https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/12/04/advertiser-influence-platform-accountability-x-twitter/
- Cite Social Dilemma
- Cite Superbloom 72-73
- Optimization for engagement
- Evolution of the google search page
- Perverts incentives, promoting addiction rather than edification
- "Ads are news. What is wrong with them is that they are always good news." (McLuhan 210)
- Advertising is automation toward collective consciousness. (McLuhan 227)
- Broken paradigm of today's extractive tech: https://vimeo.com/761665339 @40:00
- "resonance theory" (Carr, 67)
- Tech moves our memory outside us (McLuhan). We are captured along with our memory
- The digital world is a tool of technocracy to control and profit from us (Carr 208)
- The old public square has atrophied and we can't go back because digital speed gives us something (Carr 221)
- This has always been the case anyway
- Joke about "more speech"
- Publish to multiple parties
- Selected parties that are more closely aligned
- Advertise which hosts you prefer
- Self-host your own content
- Basics of NIP 65
- Signatures (foreshadow next chapter)