jtblog

[jtblog]

TIL about social media policy and community standards

Social media platforms are bad (this is an understatement with a lack of context, but soon you'll understand).

Labour, but reproductive?

Labour comes in different forms, many of which I didn’t know. As talked about in lecture, reproductive labour consists of acts of work that help “renew” the person working and where they work. Reproductive labour extends into types of qualities like care, socialization, and planning, as listed in the lecture slides. It is so disappointing to see this type of labour go unnoticed and unrewarded, although it occurs everywhere and is essential for other forms of labour to occur. Understanding how reproductive labour is mostly associated with women makes society’s lack of acknowledgement make a lot more sense to me.

It's the patriarchy at work again.

Information from my prof's (Madison Trusolino) lecture and slides.

2. Facebook is sexist and racist.

This image is from Facebook's slides which train their content reviewers. Oh dear.

It’s not surprising that Facebook is a terrible platform that doesn’t care for its users. What is surprising to me are the secret guidelines enforced by the platform regarding its differing demographic groups. Facebook teaches its content reviewers to remove hate speech about white men over hate speech towards female drivers and black children. Facebook views all races and genders as equal. The platform personified would most likely say, “I don’t see colour.” In fact, they would also be the type of person who wouldn’t speak up against hate symbols, because that is exactly what is said in their guidelines. My goodness.

Thank you to ProPublica's article for rightfully exposing this platform!

3. TikTok is homophobic.

Can we stop supporting these social media applications? Time to become cave people again.

Shadow-banned videos during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 were widely talked about in my social media feeds, as most of the videos that were shadow-banned included important information that wasn’t covered on the news. However, videos aren’t the only thing TikTok shadow-bans. TikTok receives views largely from LGBTQ+ content creators, but chooses to censor their work out of homophobia and out of the fear of receiving backlash from conservative countries. The platform removed the hashtags “gay,” “lesbian,” and “transgender” in specific regions. This means that although local creators post with the hashtags, their content is not discoverable to their public.

The PinkNews article is linked here.

4. Facebook risks their users’ safety with the Real Name Policy

Again, Facebook? Are we surprised at this point?

Learning about Facebook’s Real Name Policy shocked me. (Facebook does not have the best track record and it shows in this blog). The policy essentially forced drag queens and other people off the platform until they displayed their legal names on their accounts. It was intended to address impersonation, but even when people are impersonated on the platform, Facebook doesn’t really do anything about it. People that didn’t fit normative identities, performers, and even victims of abuse and stalking were put in danger by Facebook.

Source is here.

5. Content reviewers have the worst job ever.

I liked the photo, but the following information is not from The Guardian. Pretend that logo isn't there (but credit goes out to them :D).

For some odd reason, I thought that bots reviewed the content posted on social media platforms. I think the artificial intelligence hype got to me. Finding out that content reviewers are people forced to signed NDAs came as a surprise to me. (The NDAs are already a warning of how bad the content they review can get). The mental health risks that content reviewers face every day at their job are astounding. They don’t get mental health support and are often diagnosed with PTSD, which is another indication that social media platforms don’t care about their workers.

The information is from Madison Trusolino. Credit to her again!

If you liked the facts I listed or if you'd like to learn more, follow me on my blog, jtblog (creative name, I know).

[jtblog]

TIL about the consumer and free labour

Is this stinking* play about us? Yeah, somewhat.

*Keeping it PG <3

Exploitation is more than just physical labour?

You're probably thinking, "What does an aesthetic Instagram post have to do with this point?" Well...

The circuit of exploitation consists of all the labour which makes our use of and access to technology possible. While mining, technology production, and outsourcing are more obvious forms of exploitation, it is dangerous for us to assume that they are the only kinds of exploitation. In fact, influencers are also being exploited despite wanting a job on an online platform. Even you and I are being exploited as regular users of social media. The content we post and share and the features we interact with are all FREE data for companies to commodify. It’s so odd to think that a person’s selfie or a photo of coffee is being commodified right now...

Credit goes to my prof's (Madison Trusolino) lecture and slides!

2. Foxconn is terrible.

TW: mentions of death and suicide

I learned that Foxconn is the largest employer in mainland China, with one of their factories assembling most Apple products in 2017. The conditions at Foxconn dormitories and factories are barely livable and are stress-inducing. It is heartbreaking to hear about the dozens of workers that have either committed, attempted, or thought about suicide. It is even more devastating to see how desensitized workers are to the deaths. In the article, Merchant describes the nets used to catch people who attempt suicide. Merchant says the nets are pointless as people would try to kill themselves even if they were caught in them. Absolutely cruel and inexcusable.

Merchant's article is linked here.

3. China’s Special Economic Zones or should I say, Special Exploitation Zones

What is the purpose of the building on the far left...

China’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are designated areas where trade laws are different from China’s regular laws. Although the zones sound like an opportunity for the country to benefit from foreign trade, they are extremely sketchy. SEZs are looked over by single administrations and are secured with fences. They are spaces for exploitation to occur inside the country. Other countries around the world also have Special Economic Zones, signifying internal exploitation at a global scale.

Thank you again, Madison Trusolino *inserts hyperlink that directs you to her in-person :D*

4. People helping people online!

Something somewhat positive in the midst of everything!

Kyedae, a known female gamer and Twitch streamer!

It is so interesting to hear about projects made by people online which intend to protect other users. For example, the gauttoblocker project by Randi Harper censors misogyny towards women in gaming. This project most likely helped a lot of women pursue their passion in gaming and enjoy the games they love. Another example is the FatUglyorSlutty.com website which collects and publishes instances of hate speech in gaming. These examples are proof of individuals who work to help out online communities but receive no compensation and are looked down upon by companies.

Click this article for more!

5. Facebook lies about the privacy of their users? Whaaaattt nooo…..

Hope you enjoy the ironic photo <3. Sorry for another jumpscare, this keeps happening unintentionally.

Facebook denies selling data and replaces the word “data” with “access”. Spoiler alert, the word “access” is a fancy loophole for them to sell user data. Facebook allows for advertisers to target their advertisements to users. When a user clicks on an advertisement through Facebook, they confirm the beliefs advertisers have about their profile (i.e. their demographic groups, their interests) and advertisers can become more specific and intentional with their ads. Once again, Facebook allows this because, you guessed it, more money! Who cares about the privacy of their users anyway?

More information here!

Reblog if you learned something and follow me for more TILs! See you next time <3

[jtblog]

TIL about The Industry and Silicon Valley

Oh no, not The Industry™.

The Californian Ideology is unrealistic

The Californian Ideology oversimplified is the belief that computers will improve society. It also promotes the idea that most qualified people creating new forms of technology for profit are the people that will benefit the most.

An example of the Californian Ideology doing a terrible job is the ‘Free Basics’ program by Facebook. The program allowed for phone users in India to have access to websites chosen by Facebook. The choices of website access were deeply influenced by Western perspectives of what Indian users would need, making the entire program useless. This is called, “corporate (and Western) ignorance”!

Click to see the article here!

2. The Department of Homeland Security isn’t protecting you online

Censorship is a controversial topic, especially within the context of technology. It was found that an agency from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the United States plans to fight against false information online. The agency hopes to influence the actions of social media platforms when it comes to disinformation. It also aims to protect “democratic institutions” from misinformation online, listing the financial institution as democratic. Is it democratic? The answer is… drumroll please… no! This alone raises questions about the motivations behind DHS’ censorship. Questions like, “What’s the real end goal here?” or “Are you just censoring things that will harm the image of your government?”.

Learn more about this here.

3. Burning Man is for the rich (of course it is).

As if the image didn't make it obvious enough...

Although I heard “Burning Man” somewhat frequently, I never understood its origins or its impact on the world. In lecture, Burning Man was described as a “temporary de-commodifying space”, a place for community and the rejection of capitalist values. It’s no surprise that the festival attracted rich white males as their main audience and its entire goal was undermined by its types of attendees. For example, while regular people would camp out at the festival with their necessities, the rich would bring far more than they needed and took up way more space than they had to. Ironic how this festival turned to glorify capitalism, but things usually turn out this way. ://

Say a biiiiig thank you to Madison Trusolino, my prof, for her slides and lecture and for this point!

4. Social media platforms don’t care about you or your information (keep in mind what words I chose to put in bold)

Jumpscare, my bad!

Most of the blame goes to users for not reading the Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policies of the apps they sign up for. The blame should actually go to the corporations that intentionally mislead their users with corporate jargon and unclear descriptions of their use of user data. As users get to use Facebook at no cost, it’s only reasonable that Facebook sells their user data to their advertisers (sarcasm)! In fact, 90% of Facebook’s revenue comes from doing just that. This is going on my list of reasons to never trust big corporations and billionaires.

Thank you again, Madison Trusolino :D!

5. Silicon Valley has an international influence?

Is that a rainbow bridge in the center or am I imagining things...

Sometimes I forget the global influence of the United States. There are copies of Silicon Valley in countries like the Philippines, Israel, and Wales, because of its prosperity as a center of tech and creation. Surprisingly, even with the support of the government and academic institutions, these regions are unsuccessful in replicating the growth of Silicon Valley. For example, several governments and investors helped startups in Latin America, but their ventures failed. The saddest part is that Silicon Valley can never be replicated, no matter how hard any country tries. What Silicon Valley is today was caused by the history of the region and other social circumstances.

Another link to the source here!

Thank you for reading and I hope you learned something too!