Technology is Not Neutral

Introduction

Section titled “Introduction”
  • Jan 6th for example/illustration/demonstration
    • real-time capture of January 6th Capitol Riot, worldwide virality
    • Trump’s Twitter at the centre of this political event
    • a live-tweeting president, live-tweeting political events as they unfold
    • ‘permanent’ suspension of his account on 8th January 2021 by Jack Dorsey, then CEO of Twitter
    • chain-reaction, the other major players all removed his accounts, YouTube deleted some of his videos and all major app stores removed Parler, (in major use among supporters and used for organizing the riots)
    • “live demonstration of technology ethics in action”
    • what right has the platform to silence the President? they have “no democratic legitimacy”, is this anti-constitutional and is this prevention of free speech, or a duty to users and shareholders, or most importantly, to humanity
    • long thread ensued from Jack Dorsey about being unsure about his actions and essentially asking for feedback
    • people made money livestreaming the riots
    • tech a crucial role in the organisation, the dissemination of information at the time as well as in investigating it after the fact - rich source of data - including facial recognition
    • online vigilantism - Elliot Higgins ‘digilantism’
    • “By June 2021 [Congress] had introduced five bills to break up Big Tech, each one co-sponsored by Republicans and Democrats.”
    • DMA Digital Markets Act from the EU (prior to jan6), compulsory breakup if eu asks
    • Digital Services Act DSA, requiring online platforms to take down illegal content or face fines
    • Digital Markets Unit in the UK
    • China, new anti-monopoly, algorithm and data protection laws, as well as restriction on gaming hours for under 18s
  • “Computing is too important to be left to men” - Sparck Jones
  • “technology is too important to be left to technologists”
  • “technology is part of what makes us human”
  • “Only some of us create technology but we all use it, and we all have it used on us, sometimes without our knowledge and consent”
  • “Technology is the interface between citizens and governments, between consumers and companies, and between humans and the planet.”
  • “Even when we are not interested in technology, technology is interested in us.”
  • “Many of the most valuable and influential companies in the world are technology companies. ”
  • “A growing number of governments have a digital services arm, the job of which is to create ways for us to access health, tax, passport and other services online, minimizing the need to set foot in any physical premises.”
  • “Companies and governments are also working together to create digital identities for us, make our cities “smart”, and transform our civilian and defence infrastructure into a hybrid of the physical and digital.
  • “To ignore technology is a decision - one that turns us into a cog in someone else’s machine.”
  • “This decision places us at the mercy of the ‘true professionals’, hoping they will not harm us.”
  • “passive role in our own lives”
  • “through the lens of physics, we are elemental”
  • on DNA - “our ‘code’ is unique to us.”
  • “We are also social creatures who exist in a network of relationships and in history, not in isolation. We are the product of our environment, our experiences, and our choices. Some of this is out of our control, some of it is down to us. We, in turn, both individually and collectively, shape the environment, experiences and choices of others.”
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