Free speech online has grown even as Facebook, Google, Twitter control more attention; most effective censorship now is meddling with trust, not muzzling speech
FOR MOST OF modern history, the easiest way to block the spread of an idea was to keep it from being mechanically disseminated. Facebook: Zeynep Tufekci . Tweets: @zeynep , @umairh , @shapshak , @codinghorror , @anthony , @arikaokrent , @brendannyhan , @noupside , @derekpost , and @digiphile See also Mediagazer Facebook: Zeynep Tufekci : It's my first piece for Wired on what the new digital era means for Free Speech. Tweets: Zeynep Tufekci / @zeynep : My new essay for @Wired on how “It's the Golden Age of Free Speech”—except our ideals and battles about “free speech” are now about *attention*, not speech. Besides, can you even believe your lying eyes? It may all be fake. http://www.wired.com/... http://twitter.com/... @umairh : i find american discourse so weird, bizarre, fascinating, soviet. this long critique of facebook propaganda doesn't once consider the idea that capitalism has no incentive to provide good info, hence working societies have public media. http://www.wired.com/... Toby Shapshak / @shapshak : “While this may be the golden age of free speech, it is not the golden age of truthfulness.” http://www.wired.com/... Jeff Atwood / @codinghorror : “the most noble old ideas about free speech simply don't compute in the age of social media” http://www.wired.com/... Anthony De Rosa / @anthony : Sure, Facebook and Twitter sometimes feel like places where masses of people experience things together simultaneously. But in reality, posts are targeted and delivered privately, screen by screen by screen. http://www.wired.com/... Arika Okrent / @arikaokrent : The public sphere is sick. So much to quote in here but this captures the feeling in the pit of my stomach: “The institutional antibodies that humanity has developed to protect against censorship and propaganda thus far...are no longer sufficient.” http://twitter.com/... Brendan Nyhan / @brendannyhan : Key from @zeynep: 1. “The most effective forms of censorship today involve meddling with trust and attention, not muzzling speech itself.” 2. Platform business model “is far too compatible w/authoritarianism, propaganda, misinfo & polarization.” http://www.wired.com/...?amp=1 Renee DiResta / @noupside : Excellent piece, pulls together many threads to explain the interplay between ads, disinformation, and mass coordinated action...and the power of monopolistic platforms with algorithms designed to monetize attention, tailored to deliver each message to the right person. http://twitter.com/... Derek Caelin / @derekpost : The future is here, and it's run by ad brokers. via @zeynep https://www.wired.com/... pic.twitter.com/7B4WqzItWC Alex Howard / @digiphile : “...the capacity to spread ideas and reach an audience is no longer limited by access to expensive, centralized broadcasting infrastructure. It's limited instead by one's ability to garner and distribute attention."-@zeynep http://www.wired.com/... See also Mediagazer