The Rise of Techno-authoritarianism - 2024-01-30

The Rise of Techno-authoritarianism January 30, 2024, Adrienne LaFrance, The Atlantic

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Facebook (now Meta) has become an avatar of all that is wrong with Silicon Valley. Its self-interested role in spreading global disinformation is an ongoing crisis. Recall, too, the company's secret mood-manipulation experiment in 2012, which deliberately tinkered with what users saw in their News Feed in order to measure how Facebook could influence people's emotional states without their knowledge. Or its participation in inciting genocide in Myanmar in 2017. Or its use as a clubhouse for planning and executing the January 6, 2021, insurrection. (In Facebook's early days, Zuckerberg listed "revolutions" among his interests. This was around the time that he had a business card printed with I'M CEO, BITCH.)

And yet, to a remarkable degree, Facebook's way of doing business remains the norm for the tech industry as a whole, even as other social platforms (TikTok) and technological developments (artificial intelligence) eclipse Facebook in cultural relevance.

The new technocrats claim to embrace Enlightenment values, but in fact they are leading an antidemocratic, illiberal movement.

Wikipedia cite:

{{cite news | first = Adrienne | last = LaFrance | title = The Rise of Techno-authoritarianism | url = https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/03/facebook-meta-silicon-valley-politics/677168/ | work = The Atlantic | date = January 30, 2024 | accessdate = February 2, 2024 }}