https://www.garbageday.email/p/this-is-what-an-unmoderated-internet
"In February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, I wrote a piece called
“Everything will be all the time and everywhere,” where I essentially used
social media, but mainly Twitter, to construct a ticking clock of the first
hours of the invasion. And while I was able to make some sense of the noise
online, I still concluded at the time that, “our feeds aren’t meant for content
like this and are breaking.” And a year and a half later, those feeds are
completely broken.
As an exercise, I tried to keep track of what I was seeing online this weekend
from Israel and Palestine. And it has been, of course, impossible to follow
anything. My understanding of what’s going on has not just been muddled by
platforms like X, but warped entirely. I know more about adult film star Mia
Khalifa’s cancelation for tweeting that Hamas should shoot their videos
horizontally, right-wing influencers Ben Shapiro and Andrew Tate arguing with
each other about who’s tough enough to go fight in Gaza, and unfathomably
racist posts from verified losers than I do about anything material that’s
happening on the ground. I’ve seen so much content reported, debunked, and
rebunked(?) that I think I’ve reached the limits of my mind’s ability to
understand reality. To say nothing of the endless cascade of horrifying
violence X is serving up via the autoplaying videos it bricks my phone’s
battery with, posted by verified accounts who are actively monetizing them,
whether they’re genuine or not. Surrounded by ads for hentai mobile games, of
course."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
