Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #684 - Anti-Net Neutrality and Networked Protest Movements

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #684 - Anti-Net Neutrality and Networked Protest Movements

Hi Mom,

I am off to the Motor City Comic Con today and leaving very early with no time to create a worthwhile post, and then even when I got back, all day Monday, I was too busy to create a worthy post when I thought I would write about seeing Wil Wheaton at the con (which I will do next week sometime), and I still have to finish my Penguicon posts.

So, instead of more original content than what I just wrote, here's two articles from Boing Boing, both written by Cory Dotorow, whose new book Walkaway I am almost done reading and loving so much that I will read it again (though not immediately).

from - http://boingboing.net/2017/05/21/err-on-inclusions-side.html

 / CORY DOCTOROW / 11:35 PM SUN MAY 21, 2017

The FCC will not disregard anti-Net Neutrality comments left by identity-stealing bots

Before the FCC stopped taking comments on its plans to destroy Net Neutrality (but after so many people rallied to tell it not to that its site crashed and the agency manufactured a fake denial of service attack to avoid admitting how much America hated its plans), the FCC's comment form was flooded with 128,000 identical comments sent by bots that used an alphabetical series of stolen names and addresses, possibly taken from an old voter registration data breach.

The 128,000 fake comments are likely to be "considered" by the FCC. The agency and its chairman, Dingo Babysitter and former cable lobbyist Ajit Pai have repeatedly said that the Commission likes to "err on the side of inclusion" and thus not discard comments unless they have obvious fake names like Joseph Stalin.

Pai said the agency wouldn’t consider comments with obviously fake names, like Wonder Woman and Joseph Stalin, but declined to go further. Reached for comment after Pai’s statement, an FCC official declined to comment specifically on astroturfed comments.

“You heard his answer on erring on the side of inclusion,” the official said.

Sohn said Pai’s reluctance to condemn astroturfing was further evidence his FCC was less democratic than its predecessor.

“We’ve heard not a peep from Chairman Pai about what he intends to do about the failed electronic comment filing system and the numerous fake comments filed to the net neutrality docket,” she said.

FCC Is Honoring Fake Anti-Net Neutrality Rants Left By Bots [Kevin Collier/Vocativ]

(Image: Lorie Shaull , CC-BY-SA)

from - http://boingboing.net/2017/05/21/read-zeynep-tufekcis-book.html

 / CORY DOCTOROW / 11:51 PM SUN MAY 21, 2017

How can networked protest movements hold power while staying flexible and inclusive?

Zeynep Tufekci (previously) is one of the most consistently astute, nuanced commenters on networked politics and revolutions, someone who's been literally on the front lines around the world. In a new book called Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest, she sets out a thesis that (as the title suggests) explores the trade offs that political movements make when they use fluid, improvisational networks to organize themselves, instead of hierarchical, traditional organizations.

The upsides are all about flexibility and spontaneity -- oppressive governments have a hard time getting into the decision-making loops of opposition groups that don't have decision-making loops! But the downside is about follow-through, cohesion and decision-making efficiency. Given that these two seem to be two sides of the same coin, how can networked political movements overcome the deficits of networks without giving up their strengths?

This is literally the question I have been thinking about since I was a kid, and chronicling here for more than 15 years, and organizing for, and writing novels about. In an era in which networked insurgencies are destroying old political institutions from the major US political parties to the EU -- and also threatening some of the world's most-entrenched autocracies -- Tufekci's book could not be more timely.

For example, the ability to use digital tools to rapidly amass large numbers of protesters with a common goal empowers movements. Once this large group is formed, however, it struggles because it has sidestepped some of the traditional tasks of organizing. Besides taking care of tasks, the drudgery of traditional organizing helps create collective decision-making capabilities, sometimes through formal and informal leadership structures, and builds a collective capacity among movement participants through shared experience and tribulation. The expressive, often humorous style of networked protests attracts many participants and thrives both online and offline, but movements falter in the long term unless they create the capacity to navigate the inevitable challenges.

These movements rely heavily on online platforms and digital tools for organizing and publicity and proclaim that they are leaderless although their practice is almost always muddier. The open participation afforded by social media does not always mean equal participation, and it certainly does not mean a smooth process. Although online media are indeed more open and participatory, over time a few people consistently emerge as informal but persistent spokespersons—with large followings on social media. These people often have great influence, though they lack the formal legitimacy that an open and recognized process of selecting leaders would generate. The result is often a conflict-ridden, drawn-out struggle between those who find themselves running things (or being treated as de facto leaders) and other people in the movement who can also express themselves online. These others may challenge the de facto spokespersons, but the movements have few means to resolve their issues or make decisions. In some ways, digital technologies deepen the ever-existing tension between collective will and individual expression within movements, and between expressive moments of rebellion and the longer-term strategies requiring instrumental and tactical shifts.

TWITTER AND TEAR GAS: HOW SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGED PROTEST FOREVER [Zeynep Tufekci/Wired]

Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest [Zeynep Tufekci/Yale]

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 686 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1705.21 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.