Criticism of Facebook must move beyond content moderation issues; the effort to invent and invest in public cultural institutions should be our focus instead
Every day, a Twitter account run by Kevin Roose, a technology reporter for The New York Times, posts a list of the top 10 sources … Tweets: @aaschapiro , @natematias , @steph_moore , @random_musings , @hkanji , @sivavaid , @javierpallero , @sarah_cone , @sivavaid , @loupas , @leightonandrews , @ethanz , @1br0wn , @glynmoody , @sivavaid , and @kawulf Tweets: Avi Asher-Schapiro / @aaschapiro : “Facebook may be the greatest tool for motivation we have ever known. It might be the worst threat to deliberation we have ever faced. Democracies need both motivation and deliberation to thrive.” https://newrepublic.com/... J. Nathan Matias / @natematias : “reforming Facebook... would not be enough. Breaking Facebook into pieces, creating three dangerous social media services instead of one, would not be enough. We must think more boldly, more radically, about what sort of media ecosystem we need” -@sivavaid https://newrepublic.com/... DR Stephanie Moore / @steph_moore : This is a truly excellent read, especially for the start of a new year when many may be thinking and wondering about preservation of democracy. Siva is superb at making us engage in the critical examination that communications technologies require. Bar none. https://twitter.com/... Christoph Derndorfer-Medosch / @random_musings : An excellent piece by @sivavaid which makes for a great read on this quiet January 1. I particularly like the constructive and upbeat message in this paragraph towards the end of the article: https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Hussein Kanji / @hkanji : Can the largest media platform in the world ever be made safe for democracy? The date is wrong on this @sivavaid https://newrepublic.com/... Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan / @sivavaid : There is no profit in democracy. There is no incentive for any tech oligopoly to stop doing what it is doing. The broken status quo works exceedingly well for them—and especially for Facebook. https://newrepublic.com/... Javier Pallero / @javierpallero : It must be really hard to write such a good piece covering much of the issues around Facebook and content moderation. And the real questions we should be asking. I have some disagreements with it but this is a must read. https://twitter.com/... Sarah Cone / @sarah_cone : “In fact, if you wanted to design a propaganda machine to undermine democracy around the world, you could not make one better than Facebook.” https://newrepublic.com/... Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan / @sivavaid : Democracy is not too big to fix. But the fix will likely take a few more decades. https://newrepublic.com/... Lou Paskalis / @loupas : “Facebook, the most powerful media system the world has ever seen, works better for authoritarian, racist, sexist, extremist, anti-democratic, and conspiratorial content and actors. You could not design a better propaganda machine than Facebook.” @sivavaid https://newrepublic.com/... Leighton Andrews / @leightonandrews : Everyone should read this lucid, thoughtful, comprehensive analysis of Facebook's challenge to democracy by @sivavaid Making Sense of the Facebook Menace | The New Republic https://newrepublic.com/... Ethan Zuckerman / @ethanz : Thorough, thoughtful piece from @sivavaid looks at what's wrong with Facebook - and what's wrong with many recent critiques of Facebook - and what possible ways forward could be. https://newrepublic.com/... @1br0wn : Facebook regulation and break-up aren't enough; “We must think more boldly, more radically, about what sort of media ecosystem we need and deserve if we wish for democracy and decency to have a chance” 👀 https://twitter.com/... Glyn Moody / @glynmoody : “Panning still further back to assess how #Facebook influenced the conjoined causes of decency and democracy around the world, the picture gets darker still. ” https://twitter.com/... Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan / @sivavaid : We can't simultaneously hope to restore faith in science and reason while leaving the future of science and reason to the whims of private markets and erratically curious billionaires. https://newrepublic.com/... Dr. Karin Wulf / @kawulf : “The effort to imagine and build a system of civic media should occupy our attention much more than our indictments of Facebook or Fox News do today.” Really good piece abt democracy's affective infrastructures fr @sivavaid https://newrepublic.com/...