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Notes from an Emergency [video]

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Re: Notes from an Emergency [video]

#11
post #5
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a transcript of the talk: http://idlewords.com/talks/notes_from_an_emergency.htm

"The emergency I want to talk about is the rise of a vigorous ethnic nationalism in Europe and America. This nationalism makes skillful use of online tools, tools that we believed inherently promoted freedom, to advance an authoritarian agenda. ... There are five Internet companies — Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook. Together they have a market capitalization just under 3 trillion dollars. And please reg…

[deleted]

Re: Notes from an Emergency [video]

#12
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The emergency I want to talk about is the rise of a vigorous ethnic nationalism in Europe and America. This nationalism makes skillful use of online tools, tools that we believed inherently promoted freedom, to advance an authoritarian agenda. ... There are five Internet companies — Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook. Together they have a market capitalization just under 3 trillion dollars. And please reg…

A simple workaround is to regulate the collection, storage and use of personally identifiable information. There's nothing especially horrifying about Facebook not being allowed to use demographic profile information to target advertising.

How do we regulate in a way that limits the power of the big five without also hurting small businesses? Otherwise, the end result will almost certainly be to bolster Google and Facebook.

Re: Notes from an Emergency [video]

#13

> Regulate ads to target content, not users. This. 1000x. At it's core this is essentially like sponsorship. Anecdote : I've always found sponsored content more useful than the ads that ad networks show me and they are also not creepy like traditional ads. Eg- I search for strawberries on google, click through a few links. Separately I visit a tech blog to learn about how to monitor a VPS, guess what shows up on a si…

What's your selling point to advertisers though? That you're a worse-targeted version of the big guys? You could say you're more user-friendly, but I don't think that's a premium most advertisers are willing to subsidize.

If this were a good opportunity for an ad network, then we wouldn't need any regulation to force it.

Re: Notes from an Emergency [video]

#14
Ceglowski wants internet companies to be brought under stronger regulatory authority of local European governments, to protect societies and elections from pernicious forces in those companies and on the internet generally. He hopes there's a spillover benefit to people in other countries.

"Regulate, regulate, regulate!", Maciej urges.

Erdogan of Turkey says, "OK, Maciej!" – blocking Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, & Wikipedia in the name of social order.

Putin of Russia says, "OK, Maciej!" – running the Zuckerberg-of-Russia (Durov) out of the country, blocking protest websites, and moving Russia towards a Chinese model of internet content control.

Newly-elected Macron of France says, "OK, Maciej!" – following previous French initiatives to fine Google for failing to delete truthful news worldwide under EU 'Right to be Forgotten' rules, and to ban 'terrorist' websites by administrative decree, Macron pledges further regulations to "stop fake news".

Theresa May of the UK says, "OK, Maciej!" – unveiling a manifesto to make Britain "the global leader in the regulation of the use of personal data and the internet", penalizing internet companies that "direct users – even unintentionally – to hate speech, pornography, or other sources of harm".

Re: Notes from an Emergency [video]

#16
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A simple workaround is to regulate the collection, storage and use of personally identifiable information. There's nothing especially horrifying about Facebook not being allowed to use demographic profile information to target advertising.

How do we regulate in a way that limits the power of the big five without also hurting small businesses? Otherwise, the end result will almost certainly be to bolster Google and Facebook.

Regulating adtech will really only hurt Google and Facebook, who are capturing all of the revenue growth.

Most kinds of limits on data retention should have no effect on small business (like the kind I run!).

Re: Notes from an Emergency [video]

#17
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A simple workaround is to regulate the collection, storage and use of personally identifiable information. There's nothing especially horrifying about Facebook not being allowed to use demographic profile information to target advertising.

How do we regulate in a way that limits the power of the big five without also hurting small businesses? Otherwise, the end result will almost certainly be to bolster Google and Facebook.

I honestly don't care if regulation that protects consumers ends up hurting small businesses.

Perhaps something else would also need to be done about Google and Facebook having too much power, but continuing to screw over everyone else to help small businesses isn't really on my personal radar.

Re: Notes from an Emergency [video]

#18
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A simple workaround is to regulate the collection, storage and use of personally identifiable information. There's nothing especially horrifying about Facebook not being allowed to use demographic profile information to target advertising.

How do we regulate in a way that limits the power of the big five without also hurting small businesses? Otherwise, the end result will almost certainly be to bolster Google and Facebook.

By creating strong regulations to curb the worst practices of ad company tracking, then dismantling these monopolies the same way we did with Microsoft in the 90s.

Re: Notes from an Emergency [video]

#19
post #14

Ceglowski wants internet companies to be brought under stronger regulatory authority of local European governments, to protect societies and elections from pernicious forces in those companies and on the internet generally. He hopes there's a spillover benefit to people in other countries. "Regulate, regulate, regulate!", Maciej urges. Erdogan of Turkey says, "OK, Maciej!" – blocking Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, & Wi…

Obviously there is good and bad regulation. I go into specifics about what I want in the text version of this talk, and here:

http://idlewords.com/six_fixes.htm

Re: Notes from an Emergency [video]

#20
post #13

> Regulate ads to target content, not users. This. 1000x. At it's core this is essentially like sponsorship. Anecdote : I've always found sponsored content more useful than the ads that ad networks show me and they are also not creepy like traditional ads. Eg- I search for strawberries on google, click through a few links. Separately I visit a tech blog to learn about how to monitor a VPS, guess what shows up on a si…

What's your selling point to advertisers though? That you're a worse-targeted version of the big guys? You could say you're more user-friendly, but I don't think that's a premium most advertisers are willing to subsidize. If this were a good opportunity for an ad network, then we wouldn't need any regulation to force it.

This is why it's a regulatory argument, not a business argument. Without a regulatory floor, it's a race to the bottom.

People will always respond better to novel forms of advertising, and it takes bad actors some time to figure out how to game new kinds of online advertising. The result is ever more invasive surveillance and tracking techniques, in a Red Queen's race.

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