SXSW 2022: “Our Minds Are Being DDOS Attacked”
Mark Zuckerberg and Maria Ressa are living in different metaverses. We have to choose which one we want to live in.
"Without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. Without trust, we have no shared reality, no democracy, and it becomes impossible to deal with our world’s existential problems..." Maria Ressa, 2021
Yesterday at SXSW, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new plan to immediately reduce Russian-sponsored disinformation about Ukraine. Zuckerberg also promised to hire a blue-ribbon panel of experts to find ways that Facebook’s proprietary algorithm can promote freedom and democracy across the globe. “It is time to pick a side,” Zuckerberg said to the cheers of the crowd...
Yeah, no. That did not happen.
Yesterday at SXSW, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the metaverse “the next evolution of the Internet. ” He promised, “we are always going to make the choice that helps people connect the best.” Fubu CEO Daymond John interviewed Zuckerberg, and the two agreed that users really should be able to take an NTF sweater from one metaverse platform to another.
Zuckerberg said virtual clothing will be a big market. “Think about how much time you spend on a video conference; you care about the clothes you wear. “ Zuckerberg explained. “If people spend time in the metaverse, they will care about that, too.” That’s right, NFTs are coming to Instagram!
As is SXSW tradition, Zuckerberg took questions from the crowd, although only indirectly through the conference app. They included scorchers like: What is the timeline for the metaverse? (It is here now! Also, 2-3 years. And maybe longer.) What are the technical obstacles to building the metaverse? (There are lots!) All of the questions were “anonymous.”
Among the topics that did NOT come up in the hour-long talk: disinformation, elections, privacy, transparency, surveillance, Myanmar, monopoly, whistleblowers, Section 230, body image problems, or the Cartél Jalisco Nueva Generación.
Zuckerberg also referred to Facebook as “the most popular social network in the world.” He is counting users, not user sentiment. And he had some good lines about how the metaverse could alleviate geographic economic inequities and help humanity truly leverage its talents. He credits Facebook’s success to the fact that they simply “care more” than competitors. But throughout his talk, I kept thinking of the conversation on that same stage earlier in the day.
How to Stand up to a Dictator
The Philippine government did not allow Maria Tessa to attend SXSW in person, so she had to Zoom in. The journalist, founder of the Rappler and Nobel Peace Prize winner, currently has seven charges pending against her and needs court permission to leave the country. Her opposition to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and coverage of his policies are the source of these charges, but she has more ill words for the tech companies that enable him.
“Facebook and YouTube, these two helped splinter and polarize,” Ressa says. “Their algorithms were exploited by misinformation outfits.”
The relatively straightforward process of misinformation has been supercharged by firms like Facebook and YouTube. Digital technologies can create a lie, micro-target it to individuals based on their personal data, and then customize it for maximum engagement. The platforms were designed to do just this, but for advertising. Unfortunately, the line between advertising and misinformation is one that tech companies are loath to draw. “Our brains are being DDOS’d attacked,” Ressa says. “We cannot fight our biology.”
Ressa wants Facebook to pick a side, much like the one I outlined above. She doesn’t buy that Facebook and YouTube are simple infrastructure neutrality carrying bits of content. “What tech claims is neutral has become a deadly game for power and money,” Ressa says:
In the US, these companies are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which reads:
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider
I have mixed feelings about Section 230. As a new publisher of a newsletter that includes a commenting system, I do not want to be responsible for what you monsters post. For that matter, I don’t think Substack should be responsible for every crackpot that jumps on its platform. But I think content moderation is a straw man in this argument. The real problems are the algorithms that are controlling the distribution of content. The ones built to reward engagement above all else and leverage our personal data to micro-target us ad nauseam. Facebook’s choices are absolutely encoded in those algorithms. Can they be held responsible for those?
Not at this SXSW. Part of being the most popular social network in the world is being the largest purveyor of news in the world. At the very least that should mean engaging with these issues in public spaces like SXSW. The metaverse is going to be really cool, but we have real problems to solve right now. Clearly, Facebook has some responsibility for them.
To be fair, Zuckerberg did start his talk with an acknowledgment that he was thinking a lot about the people of Ukraine. “We have teams working across the company to make sure our services remain available,” he said.
Here is an idea. Maybe don’t?
Art, AI, and Finding Your Best Self
An important part of SXSW is wandering into discussions you know nothing about. I did that with a session titled Under His AI: Human Consciousness and Technology. I was on board until the slide came up explaining this was the age of Aquarius and was told our minds could physically change our DNA. Nonetheless, Pinar Demirdag does some great work working with AI to build new, original artwork. Setting aside my anti-astrology biases, her work is pretty great. If you know of more AI-generated art examples, send them to me.
Today’s Bits
Do You Care About the Metaverse More Than Mark Zuckerberg?
You don’t. See above.
Metaverse real estate sales boom as businesses try to stake a claim in a 'risky' virtual world
Man who had ‘affair’ with AI chatbot girlfriend says it saved his marriage
Watch Maria Ressa’s Nobel Lecture, then tell me what you think about Section 230.
Housekeeping
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Appreciate your funny writing! I laughed out loud which i don’t often do reading about these topics.