SNS: FROM BAD TO EVIL: OUR (ANTI-) SOCIAL NETWORKS

In This Issue
Vol. 27 Issue 31

FROM BAD TO EVIL: OUR (ANTI-) SOCIAL NETWORKS

• I. DON’T BE EVIL
• II. TWITTER
• III. YOUR MOBILE NUMBER
• IV. FACEBOOK
• V. WHAT BUSINESS PLAN?
• VI. DICTATORS, AUTHORITARIANS, THE ARAB SPRING, AND FREE SPEECH
• VII. APPLE
• VIII. CHINESE NETWORKS
• IX. NEXT STEPS

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I. Don’t Be Evil

When Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page were just jumping out of Stanford to create Google, they adopted their famous slogan, now part of Valley legend. Unfortunately, the meaningful part of that legend came much later, with the apparent decision between 2015 (Alphabet formation) and 2018 to drop this world-famous motto.

I try to imagine that meeting, with whomever was attending. How did it go? Who made the motion? What exactly did they say? “Let’s be evil?” It’s hard to picture.

Gossip has it that Alphabet replaced it with the milquetoast “Do the right thing,” and later, perhaps under pressure, restored the old phrase somewhere else in the corporate code of conduct.

But there is no question whatsoever, at least to my mind, that the company made a clear and definite turn to the dark side. The people I respected the most – the founders, and Eric Schmidt – are pretty much out of there. I don’t know Sundar Pichai or his new team, which may make writing this easier, but so many fights and struggles with his employees does not bode well. And then there’s Project Dragonfly, whose existence he seems to deny, wherein the company appears to have secretly developed a Mandarin-language, censorable news service just for the a**holes running the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – without most Google users being aware.

Yeah, that would be evil.

Losing much of the AI team over ethical issues could also get a nomination.

Yeah, that’s evil, too.

And then there are the questions about the invasion of the privacy of Google’s search users, whereby when you look up a medical condition, for instance, you find drug ads cropping up later, on different sites, for that illness – without having requested your opt-in permission.

Yeah, that’s pretty evil.

And then selling your info to others, unnamed.

Wow, that’s really evil.

And then at the same time, according to the New York Times, tracking your location via Google Maps tech – without your permission.

Sure, that would be evil.

And selling it to advertisers and vendors without your knowledge.

Yeah, that would definitely be evil.

Perhaps including things like abortion-clinic lookups, which could get a woman or girl into court or jail in some states, or even get them hurt or killed.

Okay, that is really evil. No wonder everyone at Google is back-pedaling on that one.

Goodness, I’m only getting started on Part One of the first point on the first company. That didn’t take long.

Let’s keep moving; after all, Google is one of the better of those we will cover today.