How technology has been used to manipulate society?
Introduction
Most people are using smartphones and social media nowadays and thrilling about these innovative technologies. However, people have not realised that technologies may have an enormous social impact that is invisible and imperceptible. People’s attention, data and privacy have been sold as a product without their awareness and consent. In this case, more and more related experts are aware of this problem and urgently call to change and regulate these technology giants to protect the human rights of not being sold as a product. The exposed scandals have proved that the misuse of technology can lead to social conflicts and polarisation.
Social Media and how it works
First of all, it is essential to understand how the technology companies such as Facebook and Twitter operate to earn profit. According to Tristan Harris, former Google design ethicist and now co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, in ‘The Social Dilemma’: “as you don’t pay for the product, you’re the product”. Tim Wu also defines these companies as the Attention Merchants in his book. These technology firms gather your data when you create your profile, interact online and find out what you pay the most attention to. Once they find you are the target customer of their customer, who paid to advertise, they will send it to you precisely. In some circumstances, it can be a good thing in some cases cause you may reach what you want quickly, maybe even without research. But the negative side is, technology companies need to think about their shareholders, which makes them need to consider their shareholders’ interests and requests. Thus, they improve their technology to make it more beneficial to the advertiser instead of users. In that case, some users may only see what advertisers want them to see and be manipulated invisibly. According to David Carroll, “the digital traces of ourselves are being mined into a trillion-dollar-a-year industry. We are now the commodity”. The professor of Harvard Business School, Shoshana Zuboff, has described users’ attention as ‘the human future’. The problem is, is that ethical to harm the interests of ‘ordinary people’ to fulfil the needs of people on the top of the pyramid? In my opinion, the answer should be no. It may be exaggerated to accuse the technology firms are who caused the social problems and polarisation. However, Philip Boucher claims they are responsible for exacerbating the problem.
Fake News and Evolving Algorithm
Fake news and the evolving algorithm are also splitting people. There is an MIT study that explores fake news spread six times faster than the truth on Twitter. Most people would think several fake news and conspiracy are hilarious, but algorithms will find who would tend to believe. That is the explanation Marco Silva, from BBC News, found of the reason Flat Earth Community has been grown rapidly is the Youtube algorithm. Conspiracies also spread during the pandemic. There were so many conspiracies to distract people from the truth, which happened the first time and was called ‘infodemic’. Conspiracies were saying the virus was created by Italy, China or the U.S. No only about where the virus originated, but also myths like cannabis can cure Covid-19. The same thing happens to the ‘Anti-vaccine group’ and ‘Pizza Gate’.
Cambridge Analytica Scandal and Politics
‘Cambridge Analytica Scandal’ has shown how scary it can be when the data is being misused. Brittany Kaiser described information analysing they did as a weaponised source in The Great Hack. Users personal data has been gathered to affect a country’s future and even challenge democracy. The company has created ‘5000 data points on every Amerian via social media’ and categorise people with psychological profiles. Project Alamo has spent 1 million dollars per day on Facebook Ads. It chose people who are easily affected and targeted advertising with propaganda until they see the world in the way the campaign team what them to see. Cambridge Analytica used politics in less developed countries as an experiment causing violence and social conflicts. After that, the corporate with Brexit parties and then Trump teams in Project Alamo. In this case, this has been considered challenging democracy when people are not making choices on their own but with an external influence from those who receive benefits. Moreover, not only Cambridge Analytica but Facebook should also be responsible for the leak of users data and the manipulative big data marketing. Social conflicts and even civil wars were happening by misuse of technology. The legislative change is urgent to constrain the tech giants. Meanwhile, the companies need to be responsible and develop an internal ethics investigation system.
Conclusion
In conclusion, technologies may be innovated for good deeds, they can connect people from two sides of the earth, but they can also be used in unethical ways. Legislative reform is certainly complimentary. However, it should be tech firms’ responsibility to prevent something like the ‘Cambridge Analytica Scandal’ to happen again. Only if more and more people recognise their personal data as their own property and rights will it be able to force a change.
Regina Wang 