#eli pariser

“Say it with me: Donald Trump will probably try to undermine or dispute the election. But we, the people, aren't going to let that happen. And we're going to make sure the people who aid and abet such efforts are held accountable.

“I've spent a lot of time over the last two months listening to experts on disputed elections and folks involved in democratic movements against autocrats all around the world. One thing that comes through very clearly in case after case: as a movement posture, confidence is essential to winning.

“This isn't just for tactical reasons -- as a hedge against hopelessness and despair. It's actually critical to the strategy, because fights against autocrats are fights for "defectors."

“Ultimately what determines whether autocrats maintain a hold on power is the behavior of a bunch of feckless bureaucrats, who are constantly assessing which way the wind is blowing. The more it looks and feels like they're on the wrong side of history, the more likely they are to support the rule of law. Conversely, a posture of fear ("oh no, he's going to steal the election!!") is for this reason a self-fulfilling prophesy.

“So: Confidence. Sure, he may try some shenanigans. It's in his nature to do so. But we're not going to let him get away with it, and we're going to keep the hope of a truly multi-racial, democratic America alive.”

During the early days of Web 2.0, the Internet’s affordances were considered a valuable tool for democracy, opening the gate for citizens to by-pass established media gatekeepers (Pariser 2011) allowing them to connect and share their opinions with one another, free from regulation. While the Internet has certainly given voice to many and a public sphere has formed, newer data collecting technologies may be stifling democracy.

 Internet corporations such as Google, Facebook, MSN etc., now study our personal data through our browser cookies and Internet usage (Pariser 2011). This information is then analysed and processed through an algorithm, resulting in automatic online suggestions, specifically curated to what the Internet thinks we want to see (Haim et. al 2018).  While this allows us to filter through the vast amount of information available on the web and have a more seamless and personal online experience (Haim et. al 2018), this can result in limited access to information. This process has been termed ‘filter bubbles’ (Haim et. al 2018), in where an individual’s online experience is limited to the bubble of information created for them by these Internet algorithms and at the same time filtering out seemingly irrelevant information.

 What does this mean for democracy? As we continue to see, the Internet is increasingly becoming the preference for news consumption, especially for younger people (University of Canberra 2017). Filter bubbles have the potential to prevent different perspectives from ever reaching an individual, which can limit their world-view. This has adverse effects on our ability for proper civic engagement. The political online discussions and information we are presented with, and are presenting to others through content sharing, can be unknowingly tainted with bias because we are only offered content aligned to our own beliefs and ideas. For democracy to truly thrive online, mass-media must present a balance of news, providing diverse content which will enable citizens to make well-informed, rational decisions (Haim et. al 2018).

 Eli Pariser, executive of the viral media production company ‘Upworthy’, suggests that gate-keeping, which is the control and dissemination of information and news to the public, has moved away from media professionals to these algorithmic systems (Ted 2011). While there have been criticisms in the past of how media gate-keepers regulated news to the point of marginalising voices in the community, Pariser argues that at least the regulation of information was done in an ethical way compared to the current algorithms we are seeing today (Ted 2011). The solution then rests on corporations to revise these systems, approaching data collection and algorithms in a humanistic way. By allowing different points of view to enter our ‘bubbles’ and challenge our own ideas, we are able to learn and grow as individuals and thus be empowered to truly partake in a democratic society.

 To sum everything up, have a look at Eli Pariser’s Ted talk below:

References:

I'm seeing a LOT of people posting that Atlantic article on election mayhem. I do think it outlines a very plausible scenario.

But emotionally, the message of that article is: panic. Let's not.

There's an authoritarian playbook that Trump is using. There's also an anti-authorarian playbook that we can use -- one people around the world have used many times with far stronger strongmen than Donald Trump to reclaim their democracies. And that playbook starts with believing in our power, collectively, to hold on to democracy.

Just reposting this here from a few weeks ago:

Say it with me: Donald Trump will probably try to undermine or dispute the election. But we, the people, aren't going to let that happen. And we're going to make sure the people who aid and abet such efforts are held accountable.

I've spent a lot of time over the last two months listening to experts on disputed elections and folks involved in democratic movements against autocrats all around the world. One thing that comes through very clearly in case after case: as a movement posture, confidence is essential to winning.

This isn't just for tactical reasons -- as a hedge against hopelessness and despair. It's actually critical to the strategy, because fights against autocrats are fights for "defectors."

Ultimately what determines whether autocrats maintain a hold on power is the behavior of a bunch of feckless bureaucrats, who are constantly assessing which way the wind is blowing. The more it looks and feels like they're on the wrong side of history, the more likely they are to support the rule of law. Conversely, a posture of fear ("oh no, he's going to steal the election!!") is for this reason a self-fulfilling prophesy.

So: Confidence. Sure, he may try some shenanigans. It's in his nature to do so. But we're not going to let him get away with it, and we're going to keep the hope of a truly multi-racial, democratic America alive. [emphasis added]

As you know, the titans of big tech have been very happy for the average person to feel like technology and innovation happen somewhere else—behind closed doors by people well off enough to drop out of Stanford.

We bring you: A People's History of Tech, a participatory storytelling and technology project that combines the work of experts and historians with popular media and most importantly your stories to gather a dynamic, shared history. We say to the titans of tech: we have been here the whole time, writing the history of technology, and we all deserve to be architects of its future. 

Our first chapter tackles the mobile phone. Perhaps no technology has changed our lives more. And while popular histories of technology often focus on lone inventors or the technical innovations, A People’s History will capture the full spectrum of the lived experience of mobile technology. 

We're seeking contributions from all walks of life. When's a time your phone made you feel powerful? Vulnerable? How has your relationship to your phone changed over time? 

Eco Chamber & Filter Bubble – Deadly Duo Destroying Decisions

“A world constructed from the familiar is the world in which there’s nothing to learn.” – Eli Pariser We are virtually off from offline mode and have made online our new space for dwelling. By crazely moving onto the virtual space, we have literally cut ourselves off from the reality of life. We already have a distorted view of the world that we live. It is the gap of the perception of our…

Google incognito search results still vary from person to person, DDG study finds

A study of Google search results by anti-tracking rival DuckDuckGo has suggested that escaping the so-called ‘filter bubble’ of personalized online searches is a perniciously hard problem for the put upon Internet consumer who just wants to carve out a little unbiased space online, free from the suggestive taint of algorithmic fingers.

DDG reckons it’s not possible even for logged out users of G…