Alex Blechman [@AlexBlechman]. Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus. November 2021. URL: https://twitter.com/AlexBlechman/status/1457842724128833538 (visited on 2023-12-10).

As a social media user, we hope you are informed about things like: how social media works, how they influence your emotions and mental state, how your data gets used or abused, strategies in how people use social media, and how harassment and spam bots operate. We hope with this you can be a more informed user of social media, better able to participate, protect yourself, and make it a valuable experience for you and others you interact with. For example, you can hopefully recognize when someone is intentionally posting something bad or offensive (like the bad cooking videos we mentioned in the Virality chapter, or an intentionally offensive statement) in an attempt to get people to respond and spread their content. Then you can decide how you want to engage (if at all) given how they are trying to spread their content.

Todd Spangler. Elon Musk Says He’s ‘Obviously Overpaying’ for Twitter in \$44 Billion Deal but Sees Huge Upside Long-Term. Variety, October 2022. URL: https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/elon-musk-twitter-obviously-overpaying-deal-1235409500/ (visited on 2023-12-10).

When Facebook started, there were already other social media platforms in use that Facebook had to compete against, but Facebook became dominant. Since then other companies have tried to compete with Facebook, with different levels of success. Google+ tried to mimic much of what Facebook did, but it got little use and never took off (not enough people to benefit from the network effect). Other social media sites have used more unique features to distinguish themselves from Facebook and get a foothold, such as Twitter with its character limit (forcing short messages, so you can see lots of posts in quick succession), Vine and then TikTok based on short videos, etc. Mastodon [s45] (Fediverse [s46] set of connected social media platforms that it is part of) has a different way of distinguishing itself as a social media network, in that it is an open-source, community-funded social media network (no ads), and hopes people will join to get away from corporate control. Other social media networks have focused on parts of the world where Facebook was less dominant, and so they got a foothold there first, and then spread, like the social media platforms in China (e.g., Sina Weibo, QQ, and TikTok).

Seth Meyers. Jimmy Kimmel's Halloween Candy Prank: Harmful Parenting? Psychology Today, October 2017. URL: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/insight-is-2020/201710/jimmy-kimmels-halloween-candy-prank-harmful-parenting (visited on 2023-12-10).

18.2.1. Aside on “Cancel Culture”# The term “cancel culture” can be used for public shaming and criticism, but is used in a variety of ways, and it doesn’t refer to just one thing. The offense that someone is being canceled for can range from sexual assault of minors (e.g., R. Kelly, Woody Allen, Kevin Spacey), to minor offenses or even misinterpretations. The consequences for being “canceled” can range from simply the experience of being criticized, to loss of job or criminal charges. Given the huge range of things “cancel culture” can be referring to, we’ll mostly stick to talking here about “public shaming,” and “public criticism.”

Jane Dalton. Dentist who slaughtered Cecil the lion ‘hunts and kills protected wild ram’ just four years on. The Independent, July 2020. URL: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/walter-palmer-cecil-lion-hunt-ram-sheep-mongolia-a9613856.html (visited on 2023-12-10).

harassment (one individual harassing another individual) has always been part of human cultures, bur social media provides new methods of doing so. There are many methods by which through social media. This can be done privately through things like: Bullying: like sending mean messages through DMs Cyberstalking: Continually finding the account of someone, and creating new accounts to continue following them. Or possibly researching the person’s physical location. Hacking: Hacking into an account or device to discover secrets, or make threats. Tracking: An abuser might track the social media use of their partner or child to prevent them from making outside friends. They may even install spy software on their victim’s phone. Death threats / rape threats Etc.

Makeability Lab. Project Sidewalk. 2012. URL: https://sidewalk-chicago.cs.washington.edu/ (visited on 2023-12-08)

When tasks are done through large groups of people making relatively small contributions, this is called crowdsourcing. The people making the contributions generally come from a crowd of people that aren’t necessarily tied to the task (e.g., all internet users can edit Wikipedia), but then people from the crowd either get chosen to participate, or volunteer themselves. When a crowd is providing financial contributions, that is called crowdfunding (e.g., patreon [p1], kickstarter [p2], gofundme [p3]). Humans have always collaborated on tasks, and crowds have been enlisted in performing tasks long before the internet existed [p4]. What social media (and other internet systems) have done is expand the options for how people can collaborate on tasks.

Maggie Fick and Paresh Dave. Facebook's flood of languages leaves it struggling to monitor content. Reuters, April 2019. URL: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1RZ0DL/ (visited on 2023-12-08). o11

In order to make social media sites usable and interesting to users, they may ban different types of content such as advertisements, disinformation, or off-topic posts. Almost all social media sites (even the ones that claim “free speech”) block spam [n1], mass-produced unsolicited messages, generally advertisements, scams, or trolling. Without quality control moderation, the social media site will likely fill up with content that the target users of the site don’t want, and those users will leave. What content is considered “quality” content will vary by site, with 4chan considering a lot of offensive and trolling content to be “quality” but still banning spam (because it would make the site repetitive in a boring way), while most sites would ban some offensive content.

Pamela B. Rutledge. How to Overcome Social Media Trauma Dumping. Psychology Today, September 2021. URL: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/positively-media/202109/how-overcome-social-media-trauma-dumping (visited on 2023-12-08).

Researchers at Facebook decided to try to measure how their recommendation algorithm was influencing people’s mental health. So they changed their recommendation algorithm to show some people more negative posts and some people more positive posts. They found that people who were given more negative posts tended to post more negatively themselves. Now, this experiment was done without informing users that they were part of an experiment, and when people found out that they might be part of a secret mood manipulation experiment, they were upset [m5].

Aja Romano. This is why there are jokes about plums all over your Twitter feed. Vox, December 2017. URL: https://www.vox.com/2017/12/1/16723210/this-is-just-to-say-plums-twitter-baby-shoes (visited on 2023-12-08).

Since genes contained information about how organisms would grow and live, then biological evolution could be considered to be evolving information. Dawkins then took this idea of the evolution of information and applied it to culture, coining the term “meme” (intended to sound like “gene” [l4]).

Petter Törnberg. How digital media drive affective polarization through partisan sorting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(42):e2207159119, October 2022. URL: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2207159119 (visited on 2023-12-07), doi:10.1073/pnas.2207159119.

When social media platforms show users a series of posts, updates, friend suggestions, ads, or anything really, they have to use some method of determining which things to show users. The method of determining what is shown to users is called a recommendation algorithm, which is an algorithm (a series of steps or rules, such as in a computer program) that recommends posts for users to see, people for users to follow, ads for users to view, or reminders for users. Some recommendation algorithms can be simple such as reverse chronological order, meaning it shows users the latest posts (like how blogs work, or Twitter’s “See latest tweets” option). They can also be very complicated taking into account many factors, such as: Time since posting (e.g., show newer posts, or remind me of posts that were made 5 years ago today) Whether the post was made or liked by my friends or people I’m following How much this post has been liked, interacted with, or hovered over Which other posts I’ve been liking, interacting with, or hovering over What people connected to me or similar to me have been liking, interacting with, or hovering over What people near you have been liking, interacting with, or hovering over (they can find your approximate location, like your city, from your internet IP address, and they may know even more precisely) This perhaps explains why sometimes when you talk about something out loud it gets recommended to you (because someone around you then searched for it). Or maybe they are actually recording what you are saying and recommending based on that. Phone numbers or email addresses (sometimes collected deceptively [k1]) can be used to suggest friends or contacts. And probably many more factors as well!

Cynthia Bennett. Cynthia Bennett – Human-Computer Interaction Researcher. 2022. URL: https://www.bennettc.com/ (visited on 2023-12-07).

10.2.1. Coping Strategies# Those with disabilities often find ways to cope with their disability, that is, find ways to work around difficulties they encounter and seek out places and strategies that work for them (whether realizing they have a disability or not). Additionally, people with disabilities might change their behavior (whether intentionally or not) to hide the fact that they have a disability, which is called masking and may take a mental or physical toll on the person masking, which others around them won’t realize. For example, kids who are nearsighted and don’t realize their ability to see is different from other kids will often seek out seats at the front of classrooms where they can see better. As for us two authors, we both have ADHD and were drawn to PhD programs where our tendency to hyperfocus on following our curiosity was rewarded (though executive dysfunction with finishing projects created challenges)1. This way of managing disabilities puts the burden fully on disabled people to manage their disability in a world that was not designed for them, trying to fit in with “normal” people.

Lyra Hale. New Book Says Facebook Employees Abused Access to Track and Stalk Women. The Mary Sue, July 2021. URL: https://www.themarysue.com/facebook-employees-abused-access-target-women/ (visited on 2023-12-06).

For example, a social media application might offer us a way of “Private Messaging” [i1] (also called Direct Messaging) with another user. But in most cases those “private” messages are stored in the computers at those companies, and the company might have computer programs that automatically search through the messages, and people with the right permissions might be able to view them directly. In some cases we might want a social media company to be able to see our “private” messages, such as if someone was sending us death threats. We might want to report that user to the social media company for a ban, or to law enforcement (though many people have found law enforcement to be not helpful), and we want to open access to those “private” messages to prove that they were sent.

Marie C. Baca. Housing companies used Facebook’s ad system to discriminate against older people, according to new human rights complaints. Washington Post, September 2020. URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/18/housing-companies-used-facebooks-ad-system-discriminate-against-older-people-according-new-human-rights-charges/ (visited on 2023-12-05).

8.4. How is this data used# Social Media platforms use the data they collect on users and infer about users to increase their power and increase their profits. One of the main goals of social media sites is to increase the time users are spending on their social media sites. The more time users spend, the more money the site can get from ads, and also the more power and influence those social media sites have over those users. So social media sites use the data they collect to try and figure out what keeps people using their site, and what can they do to convince those users they need to open it again later. Social media sites then make their money by selling targeted advertising, meaning selling ads to specific groups of people with specific interests. So, for example, if you are selling spider stuffed animal toys, most people might not be interested, but if you could find the people who want those toys and only show your ads to them, your advertising campaign might be successful, and those users might be happy to find out about your stuffed animal toys. But targeting advertising can be used in less ethical ways, such as targeting gambling ads at children, or at users who are addicted to gambling, or the 2016 Trump campaign ‘target[ing] 3.5m black Americans to deter them from voting’ [h17].

Nidhi Subbaraman. Meet Dr. Troll. Fast Company, May 2012. URL: https://www.fastcompany.com/1838743/meet-dr-troll (visited on 2023-12-05).

7.2.2. Origins of Internet Trolling# We can trace Internet trolling to early social media in the 1980s and 1990s, particularly in early online message boards and in early online video games. In the early Internet message boards that were centered around different subjects, experienced users would “troll for newbies” by posting naive questions that all the experienced users were already familiar with. The “newbies” who didn’t realize this was a troll would try to engage and answer, and experienced users would feel superior and more part of the group knowing they didn’t fall for the troll like the “newbies” did. These message boards are where the word “troll” with this meaning comes from. One set of the early Internet-based video games were Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs [g14]), where you were given a text description of where you were and could say where to go (North, South, East, West) and text would tell you where you were next. In these games, you would come across other players and could type messages or commands to attack them. These were the precursors to more modern Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGS [g15]). In these MUDs, players developed activities that we now consider trolling, such as “Griefing” where one player intentionally causes another player “grief” or distress (such as a powerful player finding a weak player and repeatedly killing the weak player the instant they respawn), and “Flaming” where a player intentionally starts a hostile or offensive conversation.

Zoe Schiffer. She created a fake Twitter persona — then she killed it with COVID-19. The Verge, September 2020. URL: https://www.theverge.com/21419820/fake-twitter-persona-covid-death-munchausen-metoostem-co-founder (visited on 2023-11-24).

Authenticity is a rich concept, loaded with several connotations. To describe something as authentic, we are often talking about honesty, in that the thing is what it claims to be. But we also describe something as authentic when we want to say that it offers a certain kind of connection. A knock-off designer item does not offer the purchaser the same sort of connection to the designer brand that an authentic item does. Authenticity in connection requires honesty about who we are and what we’re doing; it also requires that there be some sort of reality to the connection that is supposedly being made between parties. Authentic connections frequently place high value on a sense of proximity and intimacy. Someone who pretends to be your friend, but does not spend time with you (proximity) or does not open themselves up to trusting mutual interdependence (intimacy) is offering one kind of connection (being an acquaintance) under the guise of a different kind of connection (friendship).

Federal Trade Commission. FTC Alleges Facebook Resorted to Illegal Buy-or-Bury Scheme to Crush Competition After String of Failed Attempts to Innovate. August 2021. URL: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2021/08/ftc-alleges-facebook-resorted-illegal-buy-or-bury-scheme-crush-competition-after-string-failed (visited on 2023-11-24).

Graffiti and other notes left on walls were used for sharing updates, spreading rumors, and tracking accounts Books and news write-ups had to be copied by hand, so that only the most desired books went “viral” and spread

Kareem Carr [@kareem_carr]. In the summer of 2020, I got into a huge internet fight about math. It was such a big controversy that I ended up being profiled in Popular Mechanics. It was even discussed by the New York Times. Read this thread to find out why a little skepticism about math is good for you. July 2022. URL: https://twitter.com/kareem_carr/status/1551950155330600960 (visited on 2023-11-24). d12

Now, there are many reasons one might be suspicious about utilitarianism as a cheat code for acting morally, but let’s assume for a moment that utilitarianism is the best way to go. When you undertake your utility calculus, you are, in essence, gathering and responding to data about the projected outcomes of a situation. This means that how you gather your data will affect what data you come up with. If you have really comprehensive data about potential outcomes, then your utility calculus will be more complicated, but will also be more realistic. On the other hand, if you have only partial data, the results of your utility calculus may become skewed. If you think about the potential impact of a set of actions on all the people you know and like, but fail to consider the impact on people you do not happen to know, then you might think those actions would lead to a huge gain in utility, or happiness.

Dale F. Eickelman. Kings and People: Information and Authority in Oman, Qatar, and the Persian Gulf. In Joseph A. Kechichian, editor, Iran, Iraq, and the Arab Gulf States, pages 193–209. Palgrave Macmillan US, New York, 2001. URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-63443-9_12 (visited on 2023-11-17), doi:10.1007/978-1-349-63443-9_12.

3.4.2. Bots and responsibility# Bots present a similar disconnect between intentions and actions. Bot programs are written by one or more people, potentially all with different intentions, and they are run by others people, or sometimes scheduled by people to be run by computers. This means we can analyze the ethics of the action of the bot, as well as the intentions of the various people involved, though those all might be disconnected.

So how is ethics supposed to help us decide about how things should go in the world of social media

Locke: Everyone has a right to life, liberty, and property Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence [b30]: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Discussions of “human rights” fit in the Natural Rights ethics framework Key figures: