site you decide there’s no need to pay
for a shop so you snap a photo of a blue
bag post it on your Facebook and soon
customers from across East Africa are
liking your photo
some people even place orders
they’re happy because they
found a bag and didn’t pay any sales tax
your data piece you’re happy because you
avoided renting a shop
life is good but then you realize your
entire economic existence is resting in
the hands of a coder and a hoodie who
loves avocado toast sitting in Silicon
Valley what would happen if Facebook
decided to start taking a cut of your
business well what would happen if the
Kenyan government added feeds to
Facebook would they pass it on to you
what if you decided to cut them out and
go straight to the customer yourself how
could you possibly have a chance against
Facebook
digital colonialism for Kenyans
see a video of your man in it he appears
to say the Quran is lying
the video has millions of hits in
response you and hundreds of thousands
of other people come out to protest
calling for the mayor to be removed from
office six months later he’s voted out
but the problem is the video that got
you so angry was edited to make the
statement seem more provocative than it
actually was but you don’t know that and
you don’t even have the ability to seek
out other information because Facebook’s
free version of the Internet only gives
you access to a few sites so you’re left
only with a Facebook reality
Facebook’s reality is one that’s based
on an algorithm and that algorithm
rewards engagement which often means
prioritizing inflammatory posts
problem goes further into what gets
promoted and why for Facebook there
isn’t a lot of incentive to cut down on
half-truths and misconceptions its main
goal is to hold its audience captive and
grow its community ever larger
major Internet companies control our
online lives and each is aggressively
trying to expand does the Kenyan
government care if Facebook has allowed
Phil to circumnavigate their tax system
does the Indonesian government care that
200,000 people are in their streets
protesting
now instead of one internet there are
many some are controlled by countries
others by companies and everyone wants
more control
China’s internet is cut off from rest of the internet. filters that keep websites like Facebook
from working it’s sort of an anti
Internet instead of facilitating free
communication it often works as a means
to control that communication instead of
connecting China to the world it cuts it
off according to China’s internet this
China’s internet and facebook are similar.
whose values are we following
we cater to the values of Facebook’s
algorithm and policies in order to be
heard
even understanding Facebook’s values can
be difficult in many places they promote
free speech yet and others they’re
willing to consider censoring they push
for encryption in some places but turn
around and in other places fight privacy
laws that would damage their ad business
that inconsistency is driving
fragmentation and while facebook claims
to be connecting people they’re doing it
their way with their rules and you don’t
really have a say in it
that’s because Facebook isn’t a
democracy it’s a business and their
business interests are changing the
future of your Internet