Admin

• There will be another forum thread for next Tuesday's readings
• To prep for Connie visit, read the T&S of a website
• April 15 (2 weeks from now): submit paper topic and rationale

[Meta] Aims of book, intervention she's trying to make, why it matters, method

• Shed light on human labor aspect of content moderation, which has been left out of academic debate
• Matters because these people play such a key role, yet are invisible; especially because they're chosen to uphold certain cultural values
• This is very skilled, traumatizing labor... what's at stake in making this part of the story visible?
• ***I associated this with tech customer support, but that's probably less traumatic
• Second layer / outer layer: opacity and transparency of technology platforms

• Methods: made a choice not to ask for the worst things they've seen; challenging the idea that we need to provoke to get generative data

  • Conversations in qualitative methods about ethics of care, reciprocity
• Treats the interviewees so differently from the way they're used to

Forum conversation starters

• Bias, tensions between moderation and censorship
• How do you enforce journalistic ethics at a corporation like this?
• ***Huge barriers (institutional level): brand protection, the monopolistic role of MegaTech
• Individual: Mods aren't informed
• Economics: keeping costs down
• Deplatforming

• Labor, stratification (red and white badges)

  • "It's interesting that they grabbed humanities folks too--as if they have some special claim on understanding cultural norms and maybe lower standards for payment?"
  • "+ the paternalism of being from a “top tier school”, like you’re invested in the system, and shame & guilt feel real—top tier school grads typically don’t cause friction, are acculturated in particular ways"
  • "^Scale recruits a lot of MIT cs kids to build AI but do a surprisingly amount of heir data labelling with mturks lol"
  • Individual and collective intervention

Tomás's presentation

• Platform governance: governance by platforms and governance of platform companies

• Modes

  • Self-governance
  • External governance: common in Europe around privacy, repudiation of intermediary protection, anti-monopoly
  • Co-governance: w/ civil society orgs, or including user input in decisions

• 2009: Huge backlash against FB data use policy changes

  • LA Times blog: FB governance poll is a homework assignment no one did
• "Town halls/hearing sessions are an appeasement tactic that only cedes more power to institutions/employers that hold them"

• Predecessor to today's Global Oversight Board

  • Members from digital rights and law schools
• We should stop calling it a "supreme court"
• "This reminds of corporate HR processes—what laws, what precedent, what how does this work, and university administrative boards"