Following the Deaths of Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray and Many Others, The 2016 Announcement of "Interest-Based Algorithm" Gave Many The Opportunity To Look Away.
Instagram Chief Executive, Adam Mosseri, isn't one of my favorite people. He talks about Instagram's platform as if it's a struggling startup with a conscience, when in reality, it's one arm of one of the biggest modern-day monopolies in the world. Users are complaining about their work being stolen by AI, or being overly exposed to AI slop and Adam's response was that the engineers will do their best, but there's no guarantee they can stop, slow, or hinder AI slop on the platform.
While AI is a new-age issue, one that's going to require a new-age solution, tech CEOs like Mosseri and Zuckerburg have been faced by angry mobs of users before. They're also no strangers to having to testify in front of Congress, either. Neither is former Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey. Even former TikTok CEO, Shou Zi Chew, had to testify in front of Congress. And it should be no surprise that Elon Musk hasn't had to since purchasing Twitter and privatizing it in 2024. Nearly every social media platform in America has had its leadership in front of Congress, questioned, and held accountable for how the their platforms are impacting American life.
In my latest YouTube Video, I put on my best tinfoil to bring light to an era long before Mark Zuckerburg or Adam Mosseri or even Jack Dorsey ever had to ditch the Silicon Valley sandals and put on a suit to head to Washington.
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In the short era between August 2014 and March 2016, America was being rocked by seemingly nonstop protests as the repeated extrajudicial killings of citizens at the hands of law enforcement continued. While Trayvon Martin's case landed George Zimmerman in court for his acquittal, the police-involved shootings that included Mike Brown, Alton Sterling, Sandra Bland, and many more almost never resulted in those officers seeing the courtrooms. And the results were widespread awareness campaigns, protests, and a lot of citizen journalism through social media platforms like Twitter.
From coast to coast, northern border to southern border, America's growing Black Lives Matter protests became an issue for law enforcement on the local level, federal level, and civil level, eventually crossing over into all parts of American life when 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick remained seated during the NFL's National Anthem ceremony.
"You didn't get a chance to wake up in the morning and see what happened and go, oh my god, oh my god, this is terrible....That didn't happen anymore. You woke up to find that Drake had dropped hotline bling...You woke up to find out that Donald Trump was a guest on Saturday Night Live doing a spoof of hotline bling."
This latest video highlights the calculated coincidences of how social media was used for communication, organizing, and real-time reporting and how that used was disrupted with the introduction of interest-based algorithms in March 2016. However, ten years later, long after the smoke and tear gas and the traction of Black Lives Matter has faded away, everyday interactions and engagement has eroded away in the long-term wake of the development and optimizing of algorithms that were designed to disconnect us, divide us, and drive profits.
Today, it's clear no two people see the world the same. Their habits and engagement shapes what they see, what they believe, and is beginning to also shape how they see and believe. Conspiracy theories galore, and literacy through the floor, if this analysis holds true, the disdain for Black protest and the widespread lack of empathy of the mid-2010s is doing numbers on our country long after the stories of the deceased have fallen to the wayside.
What are your thoughts? Do you think the development of the algorithm intentionally disrupted organizing on social media? What are your thoughts on building online communities and digital spaces on apps like Clubhouse, Signal, Telegram, and Discord versus through followers on social media apps?
Like, Comment, and share this video and stayed tuned for more monologues and day in the life vlogs.
