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Social Media Boycott
Started by Zizou




47 posts in this topic
Hung S.J.
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05-01-2021, 10:38 AM -
#41
(05-01-2021, 10:28 AM)Zizou Wrote: Enlighten me Scott. Give me your solution to the problem as well please.

I could do this but we are not on this earth for long so I'm going to use my non-working day to work on myself as an individual and be of service to my immediate community.

Please go about the rest of your day with the knowledge that I could've enlightened you beyond your comprehension but have consciously chosen not to.
This post was last modified: 05-01-2021, 10:42 AM by Hung S.J..
Shteve
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05-01-2021, 10:39 AM -
#42
You can't solve and stop things once it's gone too far down the line. How do you stop it? make twitter, Facebook, instagram etc not a thing anymore. you can't create a monster and cry about it further down the line.
Zizou
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05-01-2021, 10:41 AM -
#43
(05-01-2021, 10:38 AM)S.J. Wrote: I could do this but we are not on this earth for long so I'm going to use my non-working day to work on myself as an individual and be of service to my immediate community.

Please go about the rest of your day with the knowledge that I could've enlightened beyond your comprehension but have consciously chosen not to.

Will do mate Laugh Enjoy your remaining time on this earth.
Hung S.J.
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05-01-2021, 10:41 AM -
#44
(05-01-2021, 10:39 AM)Shteve Wrote: you can't create a monster and cry about it further down the line.

said your mum
Hung S.J.
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05-01-2021, 10:42 AM -
#45
(05-01-2021, 10:41 AM)Zizou Wrote: Will do mate Laugh Enjoy your remaining time on this earth.

Shitwine You too bud
Shuto Makino
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05-01-2021, 11:21 AM -
#46
(05-01-2021, 10:35 AM)Zizou Wrote: I'm interested to know what people would like to see to stop abuse on Twitter. I know the focus is mainly on racism but the protest covers all types of abuse. Your posts on this have been pretty weak tbh. You're very clever, we get it bud.

I think that it's okay to point out that a supposed 'solution' is being proposed in entirely bad faith, for reasons unconnected to online abuse, without claiming to have a ready-made answer to what is an enormously complex, multifactorial issue. In fact, I think that claiming to have a simple answer to a problem like online abuse is in itself a sign of having failed to grasp the various factors at stake.

The fact that this covers 'all types of abuse' and not just racism is in itself a part of the problem. What it creates is an environment in which the parameters of acceptable discussion are decided upon by unaccountable (or, to be generous, minimally accountable) tech firms, and most often through algorithms. We have a government that's just released a report claiming that racism isn't a problem in this country, and that has actively worked to discredit anti-racist activists over the past year or so, suddenly hugely supportive of these measures - why? Is it because they're suddenly deeply concerned about racism? Or is it something else? Maybe we can find some clues in the other legislation they're passing, like the legislation against civil unrest for example.

Social media has always had two contradictory sides to it - on one hand, it allows massive surveillance and control by big tech firms, which, for the most part, willingly work with national governments. On the other hand, it allows exactly the opposite: for people to connect across social divides, to create countercultural communities, to have a platform to speak out in ways that weren't previously possible, and to organise collectively. Think the Arab Spring, think #metoo and other similar movements where momentum was built precisely through the way that social media gave people a sense of support and community, showing them that they weren't alone. Think BLM and how protesters were able to use social media to collectively organise, or to post videos of various acts of police brutality online, both of which were often facilitated by being able to do so anonymously (i.e. without fear of personal repercussions). Measures like these would constrain the more positive sides of social media while only strengthening the negatives.

Now, to get onto what this would do against racism/online abuse - it's probable that some people, probably even quite a lot of them, would feel less confident posting abuse if they knew their real name was attached to it. There would still be online abuse, though, because plenty of people are already posting that abuse under their own names. As Acey mentioned, when they do so there can be more consequences, given that we have examples of people who have faced legal repercussions for online abuse. It will only ever be a small minority who face charges, though, because if everyone posting online abuse was to face criminal charges then the entire legal system would collapse under the weight.

Racism, and the other forms of abuse we see on social media, are massive, structural problems which permeate our entire society. While there should clearly be consequences to online abuse, finding new ways to punish the people guilty of them is attacking the symptom without making any effort at all to combat the structural causes - like taking a painkiller but not bothering to see a doctor about your gammy knee. What we're seeing is people who actively oppose attempts to deal with the structural causes suddenly claiming to care about the problem because they see it as a useful pretext to push through measures they want to push through anyway, and not only avoid public opposition, but be actively encouraged by the public to do so. I'm talking mainly about our government and their current plans to regulate social media, but you could equally make the point about football - the SFA are supporting this but actually gave Malky Mackay a job after his widely publicised racism, football in general is supporting it while still playing the 'can't punish anyone if the ref didn't hear it' card, or acting selectively outraged about racism against their own players whole ignoring massive racism within their own support (hello Rangers). Football is going along with this because it's a symbolic gesture that makes clubs and national federations look like they're doing something while making no effort whatsoever to interrogate their own role in helping propagate racism. Racism is a structural problem which we need massive action on a societal level to tackle, and which will take generations to reduce even if we have that. It existed (in far more open forms) before social media, and would continue to exist if somehow social media disappeared overnight. Racism on social media is only one manifestation of a bigger problem, and even if verified accounts were part of the solution (which I don't think they are anyway) they'd be a drop in the ocean.

It's usually around here that people will dismiss this kind of argument as a 'conspiracy theory', as I alluded to earlier - the same people who dismissed claims of BBC bias as conspiracy theories, or dismissed those who warned about how terrible this Tory government would be as paranoid Corbynistas. Somehow these people manage to accept that their credulous acceptance of dominant narratives has always been wrong in the past, but continue to consider their own views justified in the present because they see them reflected in the Guardian and the Times.

Just to go back to your original question: do I have the answer to how to stop either racism or online abuse? No. I think that the idea that any one policy change could have a meaningful impact on either is a fantasy, and I think that tackling racism, misogyny, or whatever else would take generations even if we had a government with any interest in doing so. At a time when we don't have a government interested in doing so, we should probably be suspicious when they suddenly start claiming otherwise in the context of one specific policy. Sorry if you think that's weak - I have neither the time nor the inclination, nor, really, the qualifications to do a deep dive into the relationship between surveillance capitalism, the creation of a digital panopticon, and structural racism on a Hertz forum where I also post pictures of ice cream. Thanks for saying I'm clever.
This post was last modified: 05-01-2021, 11:25 AM by Shuto Makino.
(08-21-2017, 01:25 PM)i8hibsh Wrote: I AM A LONER BY CHOICE
I AM SINGLE BY CHOICE
I HAVE NO KIDS BY CHOICE

Zizou
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05-01-2021, 11:28 AM -
#47
Mak I had actually deleted my response to you when Scott posted his Laugh I'm away to a beer garden soon ( Pinilla ) and can't be bothered getting into it right now.

I'll read in full and give you a response tomorrow.
Shuto Makino
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05-01-2021, 11:48 AM -
#48
Took me so long to type that on my phone that I didn't realise Lampoon

If you don't read it right now then fine but FYI there's a gammy knee zinger in there Shitwine
(08-21-2017, 01:25 PM)i8hibsh Wrote: I AM A LONER BY CHOICE
I AM SINGLE BY CHOICE
I HAVE NO KIDS BY CHOICE




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