Zucked : A Cautionary Tale of Cyber Success
An interesting article in Times as well as a timely relevant book by Roger McNamee.
The book will be published in Feb, I will write a review then … The Times article is equally compelling …
Roger has been (and is) an investor in Facebook as well as an early advisor to Mark Zuckerberg. I like three interesting observations by Roger on the workings of Facebook and seven areas for tech to improve …
The machinery that drives Facebook
- Growth hacking enabled Facebook to monetize its oceans of data so effectively that growth-hacking metrics blocked out all other considerations
- Facebook responds to nearly every problem with the same approach that created the problem in the first place - more AI, more code, more short-term fixes.
- Their strategy — Plan A : Deny, Delay, Deflect, Dissemble; Plan B: Apologize, and Promise to do better
Key Areas for tech to focus in an era where social media is a pseudo-utility
Democracy depends on shared facts and values. It depends on deliberation and the rule of law. To Facebook, facts are not an absolute; they are a choice to be left initially to users and their friends but then magnified by algorithms to promote engagement. This shouldn’t be so, tech should focus on preserving democracy.
Unintended consequences, which are more numerous and severe than we can afford. Regulation and subsidies might be an answer
Privacy and the ability for users to control data is of utmost importance.
The platforms should also protect the users against addiction as well as protect the children
Make it human : Roger proposes that Silicon Valley embrace human-driven technology as the Next Big Thing
My words of caution to the tech giants is that they pay close attention to Roger’s words and start mitigating their platforms.
As Roger mentions, “social media is practically a public utility — civically responsible social media may be essential to the future of the country”
If the platforms, be they Facebook, Google or Apple, do not build in the relevant primitives, the unintended consequences will render them unusable and with that their business empire is in peril !!!
