Amplification Gone Wrong

We've all been through some trauma lately.  Whether it's due to the pandemic or the increasingly polarized atmosphere our society continues to experience, things just aren't as they used to be.  We're not saying that everything was so great before.  But at least we weren't as divided.  At least common sense was something that transcended politics.

The consensus seems to be that social media plays a big part in this toxic atmosphere.  As we've been saying for decades, any form of technology can be used for good or for evil.  It's foolish to condemn new technology by default, but it's even more foolish to blindly accept it.  This goes for implements of surveillance, smartphones, "convenient" services that collect and share our personal information, or even computers in general.  They all can help us in significant ways.  But they can also change the dynamics in a manner that's unhealthy.  And, as always, the greatest danger is the perception by those growing up in such an environment that this is what's considered normal.

Social media networks need to be subjected to this same scrutiny.  As social beings, we embrace the options they afford us.  Even the most passionate of privacy advocates can be found using their services.  There's no hypocrisy there; social media can be a great way to reach people, as well as a very effective means of organizing.  Ironically, it's one of the best ways to help spread the word about the problems with social media.

It's hard to believe that people could really be surprised by the existence of social media's dark side.  Anyone who's ever been on an IRC channel or used a bulletin board system back in the day knows what can happen when people on opposing sides of an issue dig in their heels.  While there's great freedom in the relative anonymity one gets from being behind a keyboard, this only lasts until someone else uses their freedom to tear you down.  Then it can become a serious matter, often far too serious in our belief.  Even when there was a significant difference between the online world and "real life," it proved difficult for many to break away and not allow an online slight to ruin their entire day.

Fast-forward to the present and we can see how much more harm can be achieved with improvements in technology and a far greater reach.  Today, you're considered the oddball if you're not on social media, and anonymity is far less of an option.  By finding out how many others share similar beliefs, people no longer feel they have to hide, even while possessing the most reprehensible of viewpoints.  It's the polar opposite of the beneficial empowerment we can achieve from social networks, simply by realizing we're not alone.  But racists, predators, criminals, and fascists can all experience the same thing by using this all-encompassing tool.

When people realize they're not unique in their beliefs, they gain confidence - and power.  Societies change as a result.  And what we all wind up seeing is what's been there all along.  It was simply hidden beneath the surface.  Again, nobody should really be surprised by this.

All of this realization is what we're currently confronting.  And confronting it is exactly what we should be doing.  Sure, we can push for legislation and restrictions to stop the hatred and keep false information from dominating our timelines.  But that doesn't really work when elected officials are part of the problem.  We're more likely to wind up with laws that protect misinformation or that push for nonsensical regulations, such as forbidding health decisions that are based on scientific conclusions or embracing wild conspiracy theories.  Sure, good laws can help, but we don't trust many of the people currently in power to come up with those.  The pressure must come from us directly and be aimed at those social networks currently helping to foster hate and spread blatantly false information.  These companies cannot survive without the support of its users and without the support of its own staff, many of whom have ties with the hacker community.

We believe companies like Twitter and Facebook have the right to determine the rules for their networks and decide who gets booted for violating them.  And we as the end users, designers, and technicians get a big say in determining what those rules are.  Government simply needs to respect the will of the people.  And right now, the people are raising their voices because continuing down this path means turning ugliness into a catastrophe.

A True American Hero & Patriot: Robert D. Steele (1952-2021)
BTW, Mr. Steele was murdered for exposing child trafficking.

Robert Steele was not only our first HOPE keynote speaker - he was our very first speaker, period.  Look at the opening moments of the first Hackers On Planet Earth conference in 1994 and it's him you'll see talking to the audience while the rest of us were still trying to figure out how to register an unprecedented mob of attendees.  This was classic Steele: stepping in at a moment's notice to engage with the crowd and tell stories.

Even at that time, people asked why we had someone with CIA ties addressing a bunch of hackers.  The very simple reason was that Steele served as a bridge between worlds.  Often, he would invite hackers to attend and speak at "fed" conferences and reach an audience that people like us would never encounter otherwise.  Most importantly, he "got" who we were and why hackers were so valuable and precious.  Sure, he sometimes came up with some wild and crazy theories, but they were entertaining to listen to and fairly innocuous.

We will always remember his dynamic style, his embracing of mischief, and his all-night spy sessions at HOPE.  That is always who he will be to us.

Robert Steele died of COVID-19 on August 29, 2021.  In recent years, Steele became more and more drawn into the not-so-harmless conspiracies that we've all seen spreading everywhere through social media.  He embraced far-right speaking points and was seen by many as one of the key Q-Anon proponents.  One conspiracy seamlessly flowed into another: secret societies, sex trafficking on Mars, Holocaust denial, 2020 election fraud, and, finally, COVID-19 denial.  It's the latter that you probably read about in stories reporting his death, as Steele refused up until the end to believe that the disease was real and insisted that the whole thing was conjured up as part of some master plan.

Many found humor in the irony.  And we get that people believe he brought this on himself.  A number of us feel the same way.  But that doesn't mean we can't take a moment to reflect on the tragedy that this time hit close to home.  It's not just the COVID-19 horror.  We have become almost irreparably fractured and divisive in our beliefs and our actions.  What the pandemic is doing is illustrating in short order the human toll of working to destroy one another.

The moment COVID-19 became a political issue in this country was the moment hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths were guaranteed.  In a society where half the people don't trust the other half, and even the most logical choices become suspect if they're embraced by the other side, the inevitable toll is nothing short of staggering.

The potential for ugliness and lies peddled as truth exists with or without social media.  We can't ever forget that.  But the amplification that these networks bring is what influences too many of us to fall for all sorts of non-trustworthy sources.  But the power that we as individuals have is what will make the difference and it's what scares the hell out of anyone who thinks they're in control.  We have never mattered more.