When Covid arrived, I was, like most reasonable people, terrified of the virus. I was also absolutely terrified by the glittering, data-hoovering opportunity that a global pandemic represented for the always-hungry likes of Facebook and Google. My fears about how Big Tech might take advantage of this planet-sized tragedy only solidified after it came out […]
Tag: social media
Facebook Destroys Everything: Part 2
It was April 2016, and Mark Zuckerberg, clad in his usual incredibly expensive cotton t-shirt, told the world that his website – and thus, the entire Internet – was headed to a video-filled future, where live broadcasts and snappy, “snackable” content would push out the old, boring world of words. Mark told the world that […]
Facebook Destroys Everything: Part 1
I want to tell you a real bummer of a story about Facebook. The kind of no-fun, downer tale that Alex Mosseri, the head of Threads, Meta’s new social media service, said he doesn’t want his website to support. I arrived in Myanmar for the first time in November 2012, the same week that the […]
Facebook Believes Americans Are Good at Evaluating Their Sources, And Other Comfortable Delusions
Mark Zuckerberg would like you to know that he cares a lot about disinformation and bots and propaganda. He is very concerned about this, and is also very aware that he possesses terrifying technological powers. (See, his brow! Consider how it furrows!) And so on January 19th, he made another one of his big announcements. […]