How to Reclaim Social Media from Big Tech:
Middleware, an idea whose time has come.
Now in @francis.fukuyama's Persuasion - by @Noupside and me. #FreeOurFeeds
https://www.persuasion.community/p/how-to-reclaim-social-media-from
#FreeOurFeeds

The conclusion and some key ideas in this thread on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@rreisman.nyc/post/DLndYhzvjmi

Thanks to Richard Whitt, coauthor on AI piece, @lukethorburn + many coauthors/participants on Symposium piece,
+ many, including early voices: @mmasnick, Francis Fukuyama, @daphnehk
+ @ethanz @mchris @Noupside
+ @justinhendrix at @techpolicypress
+ @knightcolumbia for events and discussions that helped crystallize the broadening and crossover framings in the two recent pieces: @jameeljaffer @aviv @sethlazar
+ FAI: Zach Graves, Luke Hogg

My earlier overview of the foundational principles that apply here, with a proactive vision toward powerful and beneficial "bicycles for our minds" is in this policy brief in support of CIGI's Freedom of Thought project.
https://www.cigionline.org/publications/new-logics-for-governing-human-discourse-in-the-online-era/

Both build on MIDDLEWARE (betw users, platforms) to enable INTEROP w/ platforms to control feeds & recommenders. White paper out soon reviews the case for middleware + roadmap for developers, investors, & policymakers, drawing on this symposium of leading thinkers.
https://www.thefai.org/posts/symposium-announcement-shaping-the-future-of-social-media-with-middleware

That extends framings derived from social media in this recent companion.
It broadens case for "middleware" that gives users choice over feeds/recommenders (with open market): how USER AGENCY is primary, but must be guided by SOCIAL MEDIATION and REPUTATION.
https://www.techpolicy.press/three-pillars-of-human-discourse-and-how-social-media-middleware-can-support-all-three/

Re-aligning SOCIAL MEDIA & AI: "Whom does it serve?
That is the overarching issue as we confront "enshittification" & threats to democracy. Subject of 4 publications covered in this thread. 🧵
Most recent applies to PERSONAL AI AGENTS - "Have your AI call my AI"
https://www.techpolicy.press/new-perspectives-on-ai-agentiality-and-democracy-whom-does-it-serve/

New podcast! Justin Hendrix spoke to Greg Epstein, who drew on lessons from his vocation as a humanist chaplain at Harvard and MIT to write a new book, just out from MIT Press, called Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation. https://www.techpolicy.press/salvation-abundance-apocalypse-is-technology-the-worlds-most-powerful-religion/

The contrast between the breaking news from at least two “frontier” labs and the hype and bravado that we have seen over the last two years from @sama and @elonMusk and others is simply breathtaking.

𝘼𝙂𝙄 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙗𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙤𝙣.

Don’t Let Liberal Purity Elect Trump. History teaches us the cost of protest votes or not voting at all. (Gift article.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/30/opinion/gaza-harris-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WU4.v2BV.jzb9jBghWLIA&smid=em-share

“Pressure is mounting on state and federal prosecutors to investigate tech billionaire Elon Musk’s $1 million lottery-style giveaway to registered voters in seven battleground states.A Justice Department spokesperson said Tuesday that it had received a letter from 11 former government officials including several Republican ex-prosecutors urging the department to investigate whether Musk’s daily prizes violate a federal law prohibiting paying people to register to vote.” https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/elon-musk-petition-million-swing-state-giveaway-money-legal-rcna176568

These fuckers are relentless. Wasn’t long ago that nobody would dare to try suppressing military votes.

“None of the six lawmakers, who represent Pennsylvania, voted to certify the 2020 election results, and the lawyers working with them were involved in the election-denial efforts in 2020.”
#fascism #Election2024 #trump #maga #votersuppression

https://www.inquirer.com/politics/overseas-ballots-pennsylvania-20241010.html

Here’s my contribution to The Discourse on the insane rumors that have become reality among a subset of X users

1. The platform privileges rumors. This has always been structurally true but “policy shapes propagation” & Elon’s policy changes juices it.
2. This is not accidental. Rumors are useful for political propaganda. MAGA elites now amplify & legitimize them. It’s not just “more visible,” it’s normalized.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/10/rumors-x-twitter-musk/680219/

Yesterday, Elon Musk joined Donald Trump on stage at a political rally in Butler, PA. He's the world's richest man and owns one of the most important communications forums in America. How might he use it to influence the 2024 election? What if any guardrails exist? Dean Jackson and I explore: https://www.justsecurity.org/100265/musk-trump-legal-boundaries/

The Trump DETESTimonials: the case against him from his own people. 
Still not enough??? 
“…A republic, if you can keep it.” (Franklin)
Can we???

The Dangers of Donald Trump, From Those Who Know Him https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/09/26/opinion/donald-trump-personality-history.html?smid=tw-sharev

"former President Trump expressed that he would play with their lives and their homes if he doesn’t get what he wants. He would rather watch our state burn in the name of his political games, than to send help if he were to become president again" https://www.yahoo.com/news/california-firefighters-union-trump-ashamed-170047730.html

Understanding the drivers of platform regulation requires looking at its key actors, their interests, and the institutional channels through which they can pursue them, writes Robert Gorwa, considering the case study of Telegram: https://www.techpolicy.press/durovs-arrest-and-the-shadow-politics-of-platform-regulation/

Eryk Salvaggio says we must dispense with several salient myths if we are to think more clearly about what AI actually is and does, and avoid developing value statements (and laws) that buy into corporate fiction. https://www.techpolicy.press/challenging-the-myths-of-generative-ai/

An early finding from research for a future piece: A neurologist and neuropsychologist I interviewed pointed out to me that the essence of mindfulness is to sit with one's thoughts and not pass judgment.

But social media is often a slot machine designed to induce the compulsion to comment and pass judgment on *everything*, and is in this way precisely the opposite of what millennia of wisdom has revealed is one key to a good life.

@mimsical
Right.
Tech that is binary does not make reality binary.
As Ted Nelson said, “Everything is deeply intertwingled” (and hypertext was designed to support that).

Building on AI and empowerment, I'm gathering a lot of good reading material, such as this paper by Richard Whitt: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4899709 - would love other links, please share in replies!