The online debate over #FreeSpeech *suuuuucks*, and, amazingly, it's *getting worse*. This week, it's the false dichotomy between #FreedomOfSpeech and #FreedomOfReach, that is, the debate over whether a platform should override your explicit choices about what you want to see:
https://seekingalpha.com/news/3849331-musk-meets-twitter-staff-freedom-of-reach-new-ideas-on-human-verification
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https://seekingalpha.com/news/3849331-musk-meets-twitter-staff-freedom-of-reach-new-ideas-on-human-verification
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Musk meets Twitter staff, says 'Freedom of reach,' targeting 1B users are critical (updated)
Billionaire and presumptive Twitter buyer Elon Musk used a highly anticipated employee meeting on Thursday to say the media isn't representing his $44 billion buyout deal accurately.Jason Aycock (Seeking Alpha)
Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT
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https://www.wired.com/1996/10/atm-3/
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Netheads vs Bellheads
Steve G. Steinberg (WIRED)Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT
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Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hush-A-Phone
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privacy enhancing telephone device
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT
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Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT
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https://lpeproject.org/blog/predatory-inclusion-a-long-view-of-the-race-for-profit/
It wasn't just the phone that came with an unlimited price-tag: everything you did with the phone was also a la carte, like the bananas-high long-distance charges, or even per-minute charges for *local* calls.
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Predatory Inclusion: A Long View of the Race for Profit
LPE ProjectCory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT
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Remember when #CallerID came in and you had to pay $2.50/month to find out who was calling you before you answered the phone? That's a pure Bellhead play. If we applied this principle to the internet, then you'd have to pay $2.50/month to see the "from" line on an email before you opened it.
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Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT
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https://www.isen.com/papers/Dawnstupid.html
This is called the #EndToEnd (#E2E) principle: a network is E2E if it lets anyone receive any message from anyone else, without a third party intervening.
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The Dawn of the Stupid Network
www.isen.comCory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT
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The degradation of the internet into "five giant websites, each filled with screenshots of text from the other four" (h/t @tveastman) meant the end of end-to-end.
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Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT
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The platforms treat your unambiguous request to receive messages from others as mere suggestions, a "signal" to be mixed into other signals in the #ContentModeration algorithm that orders your feed, mixing in items from strangers whose material you never asked to see.
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Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT
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Why do companies balk at showing you what you've asked to be shown? Sometimes it's because they're trying to be helpful. Maybe their research, or the inferences from their user surveillance, suggests that you actually prefer it that way.
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Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT
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https://www.movetodon.org/
A feed that is controlled by a company using secret algorithms is much harder for a rival to replicate.
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Movetodon: Finds your Twitter Friends on Mastodon
www.movetodon.orgCory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT
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But there's another side to this playlistification of feeds: playlists and other recommendation algorithms are #chokepoints: they are a way to durably interpose a company between a creator and their audience. Where you have chokepoints, you get #ChokepointCapitalism:
https://chokepointcapitalism.com/
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chokepointcapitalism.com