Martin Moore (3)

This is a very thorough overview of how the various social media platforms and technology in general have transformed democracy.

Moore's main thesis is that we as citizens have ceded a great deal of our freedom in exchange for getting "free entertainment". Twitter has replaced local media as the place where people get their news. Facebook's statuses have replaced calling or directly interacting with our friends and family. The old forms of communication depended upon us to pull information while the new social media platforms push a deluge of stuff to us. In the end, is it better for us to have information come to us without effort? Do we value it the same as we would if we'd gone out of our way to get it? Moore says no and I agree.

Moore buttresses his points by providing examples of the intersection of tech and government. I was particularly interested in reading about the Aadhaar system in India. Launched in 2012, it had already become an integral part of existing in India when this book was published. That enmeshment into daily life has only continued in the intervening years. Aadhaar had the noble aim to provide services to people who previously weren't able to get them due to not being able to read or write. But instead it's become an Orwellian system where citizens are presumed guilty until establishing their innocence when they're rejected for some public benefit. The Modi government initially opposed Aadhaar, but then saw its potential for control. They've now made it an immovable force that cannot be removed without causing a great deal of chaos. I'd argue that this experiment is a lot like most tech. The proponents fail to see the ways in which their invention can be used to damage society. If Moore ever writes about this topic again, I'd love to see an update of the state of the Aadhaar system.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who's interested in how tech can be misused by bad actors.… (altro)

This is a well written book that provides background on how the digital age is, and has been, influenced and manipulated by the political sphere. However, the focus appears to be a bit left of center. If you feel that Republicans and Russians hacked the 2016 election, this book is for you. If you're looking to find an equally critical story on the Obama social media minions, this book will not fulfill - aside from a brief discussion on White House social media propaganda.

Overall, Moore offers an informing story that helps the reader understand how democracy has been hacked by the digital age, and who some of the main players are, both public and private.… (altro)

Summary: An inquiry into the ways individuals and states have influenced democratic governments, how web-based platforms have made it possible, and some of the alternatives for the future.

Much has been made of various ways the 2016 presidential election in the United States was "hacked" or manipulated exploiting various tools and platforms on the internet. In this book, Martin Moore pulls back the curtain on how it was done, the vulnerabilities of our social media platforms, and both the potential for more influence along these lines in the future, and the alternative, which is not becoming societies of Luddites.

He begins with the different individuals and groups that in some way were connected with efforts to manipulate the internet. He begins by exploring those who are the "freextremists." These are the denizens of image boards like 4chan that generate memes, whose survival on the board depends on how provocative, indeed how offensive, it is as measured by how often it is reposted. Many of the digital natives on these sites were alt-right or neo-Nazi types. Eventually a number became allied with organizations like Breitbart, and became a key asset in the media campaigns of the Trump elections with alliances with Trump operatives. In turn, Moore profiles plutocrats like Robert Mercer, who provided the capital that turned Breitbart into a web powerhouse. Finally, he details the various ways from hacked email accounts of Clinton staff, to various fake news and meme postings through fake Facebook and Twitter accounts, that influence was brought to bear by Russian entities on US citizens to influence the election. The author remains agnostic on whether these played a decisive influence, although he makes it clear that the Republican candidate used these methodologies or benefited from them to a much greater extent than the Democrat candidate.

The second part of the book looks at the social media platforms used to sway potential voters. The Facebook story is insidious, not only because of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but also because Facebook uses an ad and promotional post targeting system utilizing the incredible amounts of information it aggregates on each profile through likes, posts, and clicks on posts. Psychological profiling enables precise targeting of contents to base voters, those who might desert a candidate, and undecided voters. Google's pursuit of ad revenue also makes it vulnerable for similar reasons. Twitter is different in the ability of this platform to disseminate information, exploited heavily by bots and fake accounts (not to mention then candidate and now President, Donald Trump's Twitter presence). A common thread is advertising and the use of personal information to increase ad revenues, making these ideal platforms for political exploitation.

The third part of the book explores directions democracy could go. We could move to a platform democracy where platforms deliver everything from places to stay (AirBnB) to transportation (Uber) to healthcare (something Amazon is experimenting with) and schools. There is a possibility of these platforms pervading every aspect of life, to the exclusion of the local, including local news media. More insidious is what Moore calls "surveillance democracy" where a digital identity is mandated by government and becomes necessary for voting, passports and travel, purchasing a home, or even shopping for groceries. He describes the system already in place in India, and how such systems are already being used for social control in China.

The alternative for Moore is not to "unplug" but rather to use technology to serve rather than manipulate democratic processes, including following Estonia's model of creating policy around the individual and the privacy of their data, rather than large interests. He calls this "democracy re-hacked."

What Moore seems to be doing is relying on regulation to create and implement policies to protect democracy. What bothers me is that it seems easy to circumvent many such measures, and only those without the resources or the savvy to circumvent such regulation will be shut down. It seems that until there are better limits on the data that can be collected about us (or greater transparency about that collection), targeting ads and promoted stories tailored to our interests will likely continue to find their way into our search results, timelines and Twitter feeds. Perhaps privacy and freedom from manipulative advertising (or even algorithms) might be worth paying for--perhaps a subscription fee to platforms like Facebook or Twitter. In exchange for not harvesting and using our data, we would pay an annual subscription (for example, I pay a certain amount for my identity to not be linked publicly to my URL, and to keep my blog site ad-free). There may be many users who would prefer this option, if private really means private, rather than government imposed regulation.

Whether you think democracy can be "re-hacked" or not, it seems important that a populace educate itself how to avoid becoming unwitting victims of political manipulation through the internet, just as we have to learn to be savvy about viruses, spyware, and other ways hackers attempt to compromise the integrity of our computers and our data. Moore at very least helps us understand both that it is being done, and how, and in doing so already provides us a vital tool in taking back our democracy--personal agency.

____________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Program in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.… (altro)