We, the Data by Wendy H. Wong

Author:Wendy H. Wong [Wong, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Human rights; datafication; Big Data; AI; emerging technologies; governance; Big Tech; data literacy
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2023-09-20T00:00:00+00:00

A Lack of Data Literacy in a Datafied World

On October 28, 2022, Elon Musk, the multitech tycoon who has taken on the mantle of global disruptor-general, announced “the bird is freed.”4 This move culminated the tumult that had surrounded his initial announcement to buy social media company Twitter in April.5 To some, especially on the political right in the United States, Musk is the savior of free speech.6 The political left, in the meantime, has dropped the platform in droves since news of Musk’s takeover.7

Article after article in the business and tech worlds links Musk’s Twitter takeover to the metaphor of a “town square” that enables free speech.8 Former Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted “Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness. . . . It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company,”9 in explaining his support for Musk’s leadership. Musk himself proclaimed that he bought Twitter because, “it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.”10 Should we lament or take a leap of faith that the mercurial businessman would do the right thing with one of the most prominent pieces of social media real estate in the world?

The companies that provide us with the essential services we have come to rely on are not public, and we should not think of them as public. They might feel public, both in content and scope. This is why some have argued that we should make social media state-owned enterprises to improve their attention to human rights.11 The dissonance between the “public” reach and accessibility of social media and its “private” nongovernmental and shareholder accountability structure is usually subverted. But the reality can burst jarringly forth when “public” infrastructure like Twitter can change dramatically with a shift in corporate leadership. In the days and weeks following Musk’s official takeover, he became the sole director of the company,12 controversially restructured the “verified” checkmarks by adding new subscription fees,13 and let go of 50% of Twitter staff.14 If Twitter is a “global town square” for everyone developing “global consciousness,” it seems inappropriate that only one person’s actions have such resonance for so many others.

As Siva Vaidhyanathan points out in this chapter’s epigraph, Twitter is not and will not be a public square. Twitter is global, not local, and it is not part of a town; it’s part of the internet. Its economic interests (and drama) have clearly interfered with its ability to serve the public interests of being a public square. Twitter needs to sell ads, and if not ads, subscriptions, or other products that will limit access. It has economic realities, and will govern itself, and by extension, all of us on its platform, accordingly. Despite what Musk proclaims, these economic imperatives affect the practice of free speech on Twitter.15

Vaidhyanathan goes on to say of town squares: “They have no rules of decorum.

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