Jan. 28, 2021, 10:41 a.m.
Ethical Technologist Issue 16: The Year That Keeps on Giving
The Ethical Technologist
2021 is the year that keeps on giving. Between Redditors manipulating the stock market to kill off a hedge fund (expect an in-depth analysis from Chip next issue!), and the battle for the definition of “open source” heating up as Amazon Web Services and Elastic trade shots, we just can’t catch a break.
This week: A new kind of open source; how open source was designed to discriminate; the myth of organic content; how social media has created a new concentration of power; and how Adobe single-handed shut down a Chinese railroad.
If you have a recommendation for a theme, or an article you’ve seen recently that you think I ought to share, please do let me know. You can reply to this email, or hit me up on Twitter
As always, you can find back issues of The Ethical Technologist in the archives. And if you found this issue thought-provoking and informative, please share with your friends and colleagues!
[ ⚖️ A New Kind of Open Source ]
I want to open this week’s newsletter with an announcement that I’m personally quite proud of: The formation of the Organization for Ethical Source, a new non-profit dedicated to foster and sustain the growing ethical source movement. With a founding grant from the Omidyar Network, we’re developing new programs that build on our initial work with the Hippocratic License. If ethical open source software is something that speaks to you, I personally invite you to join us as a member!
[DEGW]
[ 🤚 The Power Structures of Open Source ]
Ken Mitchell notes a curious fact about the role of open source software in today’s tech industry: While licenses such as the original GPL were intended to move power away from corporations who would seek to benefit from free software without contributing back to the community, these days those same corporations are apt to dismiss inconvenient licenses as “not open source”. The problem is not that more restrictive licenses are discriminatory; it’s that companies who want to cut costs by using any free software available to them fail to understand why licenses discriminate in the first place.
[CH]
[ 🌱 The Myth of Organic Content ]
The fact that some social media content is marked as “ads” or “promoted content” implies that the rest of the content is somehow more natural. While the lack of such designations may indicate that the creators did not pay for placement, that doesn’t mean that a given piece of content just happened to occupy its position in a user’s feed. Nor does it even mean that its placement was due to the oft-maligned algorithms that curate content. This article from Real Life Magazine examines how human content moderators, in adherence to proprietary content moderation policies, work alongside the algorithms with the goal of maintaining platform profitability (and not necessarily the vague “community standards” as we have been led to believe).
[CH]
[ 🤑 Concentration of Power in the Age of Social Media ]
> In a way, taking a predominately hands-off approach to problems for so long is itself an exercise in power.
A recent interview with Prince Harry takes a look at the role social media played in the organization of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and challenges the idea that holding social media companies accountable amounts to the suppression of free speech.
- ‘Time is running out’: Prince Harry calls for social media reform after U.S. Capitol riot (from Sepideh)
[CH]
[ 🚆 Never Underestimate the Law of Unintended Consequences ]
After years of warnings, Adobe finally killed off Flash this month. Most of us didn’t notice the disappearance of a once ubiquitous—and fundamentally insecure—web technology. But you never can predict how people will use technology. It turns out China Railway Shenyang ran their operations using, that’s right, Flash. And when Adobe flipped the switch, it left the railroad operators scrambling for a fix to keep the trains running.
[DEGW]
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So much for Issue 16! Thanks for subscribing and reading, and thanks to the many folks who have continued to share content with us! If you enjoyed this issue, share with your friends! If you have an article that should be featured in an upcoming issue of The Ethical Technologist, let me know by either replying to this email (what, a newsletter you can reply to!?), or pinging me on Twitter.
Until next time, yours, Chip Hollingsworth & Don Goodman-Wilson