Helen Saulnier 
Censorship
* Wired: China Is Tightening Its Grip on Major Tech
* NY Instances: ‘An Invisible Cage’: How China Is Policing the Long run
* NY Situations: How Russian Trolls Helped Hold the Women’s March Out of Lock Stage
* Wired: Elon Musk and the Hazards of Censoring True-Time Flight Trackers
* Jodi Brief et al, “The Pet dog That Didn’t Bark: Hunting for Techno-Libertarian Ideology in a 10 years of Community Discourse about Huge Tech Regulation.” A group of researchers documented how political rhetoric and media protection has significantly embraced professional-censorship themes, which has laid the foundation for perilous censorial regulatory interventions. They say: “techno-libertarian (or even just simple old libertarian) ideas about free markets and information and facts liberty engage in a surprisingly modest job in the community discourse, irrespective of the know-how corporations’ relentless emphasis on them. In truth, we locate that the most frequent themes in the discourse about significant tech and regulation problem the require to regulate large tech organizations.” Oddly, the authors apparently celebrate this advancement somewhat than viewing it as a enablement of censorship.
Articles Moderation
* Karsten Muller & Carlo Schwarz, The Outcomes of Online Written content Moderation: Evidence from President Trump’s Account Deletion (Dec. 7, 2022):
We study the consequences of on-line written content moderation on consumer actions in the context of a notable circumstance research: the deletion of President Donald Trump’s Twitter account on January 8th, 2021. We supply four crucial results. 1st, the toxicity of tweets sent by Trump followers relative to a consultant sample of US Twitter customers dropped by around 25% soon after the account deletion. 2nd, this impact is more substantial for professional-Trump tweets and Republican buyers. 3rd, Trump’s suspension lessened the overall variety of tweets, suggesting a drop in engagement. Fourth, we obtain effects on folks who did not adhere to Trump specifically but followed anyone that did, suggesting community spillovers. This proof indicates that taking away a distinguished, polarizing individual can lessen the toxicity of on-line discourse.
Extra evidence that Trump’s account was poisoning Twitter and expected Twitter’s intervention, even with its lengthy-standing acquiescence.
* Tarleton Gillespie, Do Not Advise? Reduction as a Form of Content Moderation
* Knowing how platforms with online video-sharing abilities defend buyers from hazardous information on the internet, August 2021
Once-a-year expenditure on actions to shield consumers on the web varies appreciably by platform size. Overall once-a-year expenditure ranged from hundreds of kilos for the extremely smallest platforms to over £1.5bn for the most significant platforms integrated in our analysis. Big platforms profit from important economies of scale when utilizing on the net security steps. The expense for each user ranged from £0.25 to £0.50 for huge platforms included in our analysis, with proof suggesting costs for some of the greatest platforms might be materially lessen. In comparison, small platforms provided in our study (some of which may be decline-producing start off-ups) used around £45 for each user on online security measures… sizeable incremental investment is required to make marginal advancements to measures.
This raises clear dilemma about Portion 230’s role in lowering entry fees compared to the European expertise (this was a United kingdom examine) and how improved regulation will absolutely consolidate the market place additional.
* The Royal Modern society, “The on-line details atmosphere: Knowing how the internet designs people’s engagement with scientific information”
Whilst misinformation information is prevalent on-line, the extent of its affect is questionable. For example, the Society’s survey of associates of the British general public identified that the huge greater part of respondents believe the COVID-19 vaccines are risk-free, that human action is dependable for local weather improve, and that 5G technology is not hazardous. The the vast majority believe the internet has enhanced the public’s comprehension of science, report that they are most likely to point-look at suspicious scientific statements they examine on the web and state that they experience confident to obstacle their buddies and family on scientific misinformation.
* The existence of echo chambers (wherever people face facts that reinforces their individual beliefs, on the net and offline) is a lot less prevalent than may well be commonly assumed and there is minimal evidence to aid the filter bubble speculation (exactly where algorithms cause men and women to only encounter information and facts that reinforces their have beliefs)
* Uncertainty is a main element of scientific strategy, but considerable dispute among professionals can spill more than to the wider community. This can be notably tough when this uncertainty is prolonged, and the topic has no apparent authority. This gap involving uncertainty and certainty generates facts ‘deserts’ on line with platforms becoming unable to evidently guidebook buyers to dependable sources. For illustration, through the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations this sort of as the Globe Health and fitness Business and the Nationwide Overall health Assistance had been in a position to act as authoritative voices on line. However, with matters such as 5G telecommunications, it has been extra hard for platforms to immediately recognize dependable sources of evidence and advice.
* The principle of a single ‘anti-vax’ movement is misleading and does not characterize the selection of distinct causes for why some persons are reluctant to be vaccinated. These with anti-vaccination sentiments can have unique issues such as little one basic safety, or act not out of scepticism about the proof, but out of distrust of governments. In addition, there are different actors involved in generating and spreading anti-vaccination materials. These involve political actors, particularly when a pertinent celebration (eg a pandemic) is dominating the news cycle.”
* Day-to-day Beast: Do not Be So Specified That Social Media Is Undermining Democracy
Partisan Politics
* Verge: Google designed a spam backdoor for Republicans — and they are not using it
* Bulwark: The Republican Undertaking to Break Your E mail Account. [See also the Republican National Committee’s complaint.]
* Pew: The Part of Alternative Social Media in the News and Details Atmosphere.
- “Alternative social media sites have modest, mainly Republican audiences popular accounts tend to emphasize right-leaning identities and religious and patriotic values.”
- “Notwithstanding their allegiance to free speech, almost all of the websites analyzed have at the very least some limitations on content material. Each a single of the internet sites, with the exception of Gab, moderates user articles over and above the existing legal necessities to clear away illegal written content and cooperate with regulation enforcement requests.” [Keep that in mind when discussing the Florida and Texas social media censorship laws.]
* NY Occasions: On Conservative Radio, Misleading Information Is Very clear: ‘Democrats Cheat’
* New York Intelligencer: Why Republicans Stopped Speaking to the Press
* Techdirt: Arizona GOP Secretary Of State Candidate Insists ‘Deep State’ Google Is Blocking His Site Turns Out He Asked for It Not Be Indexed
Emojis and Memes
* Verge: Microsoft open resources its 3D emoji to let creators remix and customise them
* DEA, Emoji Drug Code Decoded
* Land v. Condition, 2022 WL 10224790 (Tex. Ct. App. Oct. 18, 2022): “A defendant’s decision of “memes” and posts on Fb, like his personal drawings, can replicate his character and/or demonstrate a motive for his criminal offense.”
Miscellaneous
* Rumble Inc. v. Google LLC, 2022 WL 3018062 (N.D. Cal. July 29, 2022): “Plaintiff has adequately alleged a Area 2 claim. 1st, it alleges that Defendant obtained and maintains monopoly energy in the online movie system market place, asserting that YouTube controls 73% of world-wide on line movie activity. And second, Plaintiff alleges among the other matters that Defendant, with no legitimate company intent or profit to people, models its search motor algorithms to demonstrate users YouTube one-way links instead of hyperlinks to its competitors’ web sites.”
* Jones v. Google LLC, No. 21-16281 (9th Cir. Dec. 28, 2022): COPPA does not preempt point out regulation equivalents, even if they give a personal proper of action and COPPA does not.
* NY Moments: For Gen Z, TikTok Is the New Look for Engine
* Cousins v. Goodier, 2022 WL 3365104 (Del. Supreme Ct. Aug. 16, 2022): Lawyer information a personalized lawsuit to defend an offensive Indigenous American athletics emblem. Private citizen complains to his business, which sends him packing. He sues the citizen for sending the letter. The Delaware Sup. Ct. rejects his lawsuit.
* NY Moments: It Came From the ’80s. “We requested four youthful stars of the present to look at the influential sci-fi films that appeared futuristic again in the day. Here’s what they thought.”
* The Atlantic: The mystery historical past of the U.S. government’s family members-separation plan
* Nashville Scene: Code Snitching: Nashvillians Are Weaponizing Metro Codes Against ‘Undesirable’ Neighbors
