Fookin' GAFM, again

Destry · 2019-11-23 00:07:40

(GAFM in this case meaning Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft; though other big tech companies are implied by the same data privacy and surveillance concerns.)

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Goog and Farcebook were explicitly condemned by Amnesty International, and I fealt a little happier by it:

‘Google and Facebook’s insidious control of our digital lives undermines the very essence of privacy and is one of the defining human rights challenges of our era’

And Goog’s getting mean with the few decent employees it apparently has, which brought me down a notch again.

And then Sasha Baron Cohen lifted me high once more, even higher, with this wonderful vivisection of the ‘Silicon Six’.

Happy reading. Two out of three isn’t terrible.

Last edited by Destry (2021-02-27 08:34:54)

michaelkpate · 2019-11-23 02:11:03

Destry wrote #320210:

And then Sasha Baron Cohen lifted me high once more, even higher, with this wonderful vivisection of the ‘Silicon Six’.

I still remember 15 years ago when Bill O’Reilly used to go into tirades about how terrible the Internet was… mainly because it allowed people to communicate and didn’t favor Hollywood and Big Media.

Cohen has a Net Worth of $130 Million. I am shocked that he doesn’t like Social Media.

phiw13 · 2019-11-23 08:56:13

Related (even if indirectly, both G and F sell your data to any broker around¹): Personal Records for a Billion Individuals, Collected by People Data Labs and OxyData, Found Freely Available on Web Server.

The commenter in that blogpost is still quite a bit naive.

¹ (and of the security apparatus everywhere around are sub client at least)

bici · 2019-11-23 17:08:54

michaelkpate wrote #320213:

Cohen has a Net Worth of $130 Million. I am shocked that he doesn’t like Social Media.

i am not sure of the connection?

colak · 2019-11-23 17:37:49

Destry wrote #320210:

And then Sasha Baron Cohen lifted me high once more, even higher, with this wonderful vivisection of the ‘Silicon Six’.

Thanks for sharing. I saw excerpts of this on twitter but I was admittedly to lazy to search for the whole speech. Wonderfully written and delivered.

michaelkpate · 2019-11-24 04:26:45

bici wrote #320233:

i am not sure of the connection?

This is a great example of hubris.

2002: If you have a fast computer and a fast Internet connection, you make Hollywood nervous. Movie studios and TV networks are worried not because of what you’re doing now, but because of what you might do in the near future: grab digital content with your computer and rebroadcast it online. – Hollywood vs. the Internet

Most people never did that. Even less people would do it now. Because no one cares about most of the stuff they produce.

When I was growing up back in the 1970s there were three main sources of entertainment and news – CBS, NBC, and ABC. There were a few competitors here and there (you could read a newspaper or a book, you could go the movies) but pretty much it was those three companies. Then in the early 1980s cable television took off and there were lots of competing companies.

These days most of the newspapers are gone, far fewer independent films are made, and nearly all of the major cable channels are owned by Disney (ABC), Viacom (CBS), or Comcast (NBC). And yet viewership of their products are at all time lows. Why is that?

Because now we all sorts of forms of entertainment like Facebook and YouTube that they don’t control. And they would really like us to get back to paying them money for the stuff they produce.

And that is my critique of his motivations. I didn’t really discuss the political ramifications.

Cohen concluded his remarks with a call to stop “the greatest propaganda machine in history,” by which he means the cumulative impact of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Google. That’s ridiculous hyperbole: The companies are not engaged in some coordinated effort to spread lies or promote an agenda. In fact, the proposed solution—subjecting speech on social media to government approval—would in some sense create a much more easily recognizable propaganda machine. – Sacha Baron Cohen’s Anti-Facebook Rant at the ADL Summit Was Pure Moral Panic

Even beyond that, Cohen’s claim that Facebook would have allowed Hitler to post a 30-second ad “on his ‘solution’ to the ‘Jewish problem,’” is a perfect example of exactly what Cohen was condemning. Cohen insists Facebook would have helped Adolf Hitler, completely ignoring the fact that mainstream media outlets — such as The New York Times, which Cohen no doubt considers a truthful and worthy outlet — helped support Hitler in the early half of the 20th century. A 1922 Times article suggested Hitler’s anti-Semitism wasn’t genuine and shouldn’t concern readers. In 1941, the Times let Hitler use its opinion page to publish an article literally titled, “The Art of Propaganda,” which included excerpts from “Mein Kampf.” – Sacha Baron Cohen Claims Facebook Would Allow ‘Hitler To Post 30-Second Ads.’ Here’s How Media Treated Hitler Back Then.

Bloke · 2019-11-24 08:38:45

I’m with Michael and Robby Soave. Hate speech is deplorable and Cohen’s comedy is fantastic, but his comments were just chock full of quotable soundbites. Throwing tech, legislation, or an army of moderators at the issue will result in less freedom for all because of the actions of a few.

Destry · 2019-11-24 17:30:12

I took Cohen’s keynote (I assume it was a keynote) for what it was: A well-paid speaking gig that was probably primed by organizers (as organizers oft do) to speak on a particular topic, and was likely given pointers to incorporate for that purpose. (Remember, organizers are producers with an agenda and show to put on.) Cohen being Cohen took the leads and tailored a performance to it, albeit wearing more serious clothes.

But it was still fun to read.

The ‘Silicon Six’ deserves no quarter. The world does not need FB, Twitter, or any of the others. Period. So whether he’s wrong or right or a hypocrite at the podium, it’s still visible pressure on companies with despicable histories that would do the world the most favour by simply disappearing. If the propaganda strategy works for the ugly opposition (it put Trump in office), it’s about time the other side played at the same level.

I would say there are much bigger concerns than social media, but the two are not inextricable. The latter is a formidable propaganda mechanism and the evils of the world know it. Owned and operated by some of the evils.

Bloke · 2019-11-25 10:21:05

@Destry: Word.

colak · 2019-11-25 11:13:11

Joana Moll’s related project, released last week, focuses on monetisation of online behaviours and the ecological impact of this monetisation, uses digital forensics in order to track how amazon is tracking us.

In order to purchase ~~the~~ a book, the Amazon website forces the customer to go through twelve different interfaces composed of large amounts of code, which is normally invisible to the average user. This code carries out all sorts of operations, such as organizing and styling the site’s content, allowing interactivity, and recording the user’s activity. Overall, I was able to track 1,307 different requests to all sort of scripts and documents, totaling 8,724 A4 pages worth of printed code, adding up to 87.33MB of information. The amount of energy needed to load each of the twelve web interfaces, along with each one’s endless fragments of code, was approximately 30 wh.

Destry · 2019-12-15 22:45:25

Once again I’m reminded I need to delete the Google account I don’t use anymore.

Google drops ban on personally identifiable web tracking

https://www.propublica.org/article/google-has-quietly-dropped-ban-on-personally-identifiable-web-tracking

Also, if you want something even better than Reader to strip out the crap layers on articles like that, drop the URL in Outline.com. It’s great.

phiw13 · 2019-12-16 08:05:14

Destry wrote #320560:

Once again I’m reminded I need to delete the Google account I don’t use anymore.

[…]

You did see that that propublica article is from 2016, yes ?
Not saying it is a bad thing to remind everybody about the crap G does.

(also I’m not sure that this is still effective for users of Safari / Firefox 70+ – although if you remain logged in on g-account while browsing the web, all hell is possible)

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