If you build it, they will clone
This week, a new poll from Accountable Tech shows a majority of people blame social media for radicalization; Facebook announces plans to copy Clubhouse’s homework; platforms ban vaccine disinformation—again?; state leaders tackle Big Tech; and more...
CLONEHOUSE
Audio chat app Clubhouse is the latest social media platform to take the world by storm, pairing the eternal allure of exclusivity with the year-two-of-a-pandemic allure of hearing actual human voices that don’t belong to your cohabitants. It’s like a super-secret, invite-only digital VIP lounge—only instead of the super-secret part, you sacrifice any semblance of privacy...
OneZero: “For example, say you have an ex or even a harasser you’ve tried to block from your life, but they still have your number in their phone; if they upload their contacts, Clubhouse will know you’re connected to them and make recommendations on that basis.”
So, Dear Readers, what happens when disruptive social media platforms begin to find success? [Everyone together now] Facebook clones them!
New York Times: “Facebook is building an audio chat product that is similar to the popular young app Clubhouse… Facebook is also known in Silicon Valley for being willing to clone its competitors. Instagram in 2016 copied one of the marquee features of rival Snapchat, ‘Stories,’ which allow users to share ephemeral videos and photos. Last year, Instagram debuted Reels, a TikTok-like video product. When the teleconferencing service Zoom became popular last year, Facebook quickly created Rooms”
While Clubhouse is young, it’s already facing serious issues—the kind of issues Facebook leads on (read: echo-chambers, racism, anti-Semitism, etc.) So it just makes sense that Facebook is trying to recreate this cesspool. I mean, what else are they gonna do, innovate?
Anyways, this is why nobody in Silicon Valley trusts Facebook. You might even say, they have a massive antitrust problem on their hands…
Fortune: “Facebook appears to be relying on its age-old playbook even as antitrust regulators investigate the company for anti-competitive behavior.”
THE SAME OLD PLAN(DEMIC)
Remember the whole ‘Plandemic’ nightmare, and the lessons we hoped platforms had learned about stopping slickly-produced COVID disinformation campaigns before they go viral? Yeah, about that…
This week, Media Matters released a jaw-dropping report about ‘Planet Lockdown,’ which racked up 20 million hits across Facebook and YouTube while parroting false claims about the pandemic. That included lies about the vaccine causing infertility and containing a microchip, validating the concerns of the 84% of Americans who think social media ‘has played a role in radicalizing people,’ as found in our new poll out this week.
Axios: Exclusive: Majority polled believe social media radicalizes people
Media Matters: YouTube and Facebook allowed another COVID-19 conspiracy theory video to go viral
Ironically, both of those claims would theoretically have been caught and scrubbed under Facebook’s newly announced ban on vaccine disinformation (though in classic fashion, nary a company spokesperson can explain exactly how Facebook will enforce this ban). Even more ironically, Facebook and YouTube had already banned content promoting the microchip lie and other COVID conspiracies, so the video never should have gone viral in the first place.
So long as platforms are permitted to shrug away these catastrophes and avoid structural changes or real accountability, we’re likely to see Planet Lockdown 2, Planet Lockdown 3, and Planet Lockdown: Tokyo Drift sooner than later.
Washington Post: Facebook and YouTube ban ‘Planet Lockdown’ film filled with coronavirus falsehoods, after it was shared by millions
THE REGULATORY STATES
Maryland lawmakers today approved the nation’s first law taxing the revenue Big Tech makes from digital advertising. The tax would apply to ads shown in the state, with the projected $250 million windfall going to fund public education initiatives (constitutionality pending…).
Maryland isn’t the only state getting aggressive about taking matters into their own hands. Virginia is on the brink of passing a sweeping online privacy law similar to the one enacted in California, North Dakota Republicans are working to restrict companies from selling people’s data without their consent, and so forth.
All of which is to say, perhaps we should swiftly act to rein in Big Tech at the federal level instead of relying on an increasingly complex patchwork of state crackdowns to do the trick.
New York Times: Maryland Nears Country’s First Tax on Big Tech’s Ad Revenue
POTPOURRI
Real Facebook Oversight Board: Scholars, Experts, Advocates Warn Facebook Oversight Board
CNN: How a quick-thinking computer programmer helped the case against Trump
The Wrap: Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s Instagram Account Removed for False Coronavirus Claims
Financial Times: Big Tech needs to tackle the white supremacists of Gen Z
POLITICO: Campaigns return to old trick after Facebook cuts off fundraising