A new Netflix film, The Social Dilemma, would have us believe that increasing social division and polarized political rhetoric is the product of Facebook and Twitter, and not the fact that income inequality has returned to pre–Great Depression levels.
Een terugblik op de film The Social Dilemma, eind vorig jaar populair op Netflix. Auteur Paris Marx beargumenteert waarom de sociale netwerken niet zozeer het probleem zijn, maar de onderliggende economische structuren in onze maatschappij. De effecten van de technologie worden gedreven door de wil om steeds meer geld te verdienen in plaats van een maatschappij dichter bij elkaar te brengen.
Ultimately, a better internet is not just about having more competition or reining in data capture and surveillance. We need to recognize that the internet was the product of public funding and research, and maybe improving it requires returning to a more non-commercial structure where public companies own key infrastructural pieces, cooperatives operate a range of platforms with far different incentives given the lack of profit motive, and average people can collaborate on new digital tools without a commercial imperative.