Broken Links and History Lost
Plus this full moon and mercury moving into retrograde is rough
Greetings from Greensboro, North Carolina where I’m in town for an Alan Jackson concert. My friend Beth and I have a list of country artists we want to see before they die and Alan is one of the last on the list along with Dolly Parton and Shania Twain. Given this is his farewell tour and he wasn’t coming closer to DC we made the drive down here for the night.
This week’s newsletter is going to be on the shorter side as well. This has been a tough week for me and I can’t quite put my finger on why other than to blame the full moon and mercury going into retrograde today. So I’m trying to take things easy this weekend.
I do want to mention a few things.
First, last year I remember seeing this study from Harvard and the New York Times about the risk we have of link rot and content drift on the web. Basically links that no longer work. I’ve started to realize more how big of an issue this can be when one is trying to look back at the history of something on the web.
As I’ve been doing the analysis on the database of links about tech and elections as well as talking to people to add more to that database for anything even as recent as 2014 it’s been hard to find some links to the various announcements. Blogs have been taken down, companies shut down and newsrooms revamped. If I didn’t either remember something happening, someone else telling me it did or I found the story on Lexis Nexis a lot of things I would have never found again.
What does that mean for historians years down the line who will want to study the last twenty years? If I weren’t putting this database together would parts of that history get lost? How can we better archive these things? Archive.org has been fantastic, but it also doesn’t have everything. For instance, I’ve learned that my Blogspot blog from the 2001/2002 era is forever gone. I know you all are so sad about that. To find things on archive.org you also need to know where to look.
I don’t have answers here but it is making me think even more about how I want to save things for history including the stories in my head, digitizing a lot of my journals, photos, and other memorabilia from the last twenty-plus years. I’m nervous about only having it in physical form but I’m also nervous about only having digital copies too. If anyone has tips on how to do good personal archiving of things I’d love to hear it!
Second, next week is a big week for social media hearings. On Tuesday, the Twitter whistleblower will testify and on Wednesday two hearings will happen in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee - one that will include witnesses from the companies. Chris Cox, Chief Product Officer for Meta will represent the company - the first time I can recall him doing a hearing. Will be worth watching.
Finally, we had a few more companies - notably Nextdoor - who put out updates on their midterms election work so I’ve updated that chart.
I hope the full moon and mercury in retrograde don’t affect you too much these next few weeks and that you have a good weekend.
What I’m Reading
The Intercept: Twitter Censored Post for “Abusive Behaviour” Toward Queen
USA Today: 'Hope' is out, 'fight' is in: Does tweeting divide Congress, or simply echo its divisions?
Time: Tech Companies Missing a Brutal Wave of Hate Speech in Japan
Social Media Today: Instagram Confirms That it is Testing a ‘Re-Post’ Feature for the Main Feed
WSJ: Facebook Parent Meta Platforms Cuts Responsible Innovation Team
Washington Post: Twitter can't afford to be one of the world's most influential websites
Time: Facebook Owner Meta Is Failing to Prevent Repeat of Jan. 6 in Brazil, Report Warns
The Intercept: Facebook Engineers: We Have No Idea Where We Keep All Your Personal Data
Protocol: The legacy of Steve Jobs
Axios: Snap blunder steers Dem and GOP voter data to the opposition
Think Tanks/Academia/Other
Congressional Research Service: The Metaverse: Concepts and Issues for Congress
German Marshall Fund/Brennan Center for Justice: Midterm Monitor
White House: Readout of White House Listening Session on Tech Platform Accountability
London School of Economics: The focus on misinformation leads to a profound misunderstanding of why people believe and act on bad information
Kinzen: Weaponising Fear in Brazil: How Online Election Disinformation is Inciting Offline Harm
Public Opinion Quarterly: Does Political Participation Contribute to Polarization in the United States?
Companies
Job Openings
International Republican Institute - Program Associate - Technology & Democracy
Integrity Institute: Community Organizer, Partnerships and Operations Coordinator and Research Project Manager
Wellspring Philanthropic Fund: Program Director, Civil Society
Oversight Board: Senior Officer, Strategy & Development
Meta Oversight Board: Variety of positions open. More info at link.
Freedom House: Policy and Advocacy Officer or Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer, Technology and Democracy
There are **many** open positions at Freedom House. Check them out here: https://freedomhouse.org/about-us/careers
National Endowment for Democracy: Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program
Democracy Works: Openings for software engineer and director of HR
Atlantic Council DFR Lab: Variety of positions open. More info at link.
National Democratic Institute (NDI): Variety of positions open. More info at link.
Protect Democracy: Technology Policy Advocate
Calendar
Topics to keep an eye on that have a general timeframe of the first half of the year:
Facebook 2020 election research
Oversight Board opinion on cross-check
Senate & House hearings, markups, and potential votes
September 11 - Sweden elections
September 13 - New Hampshire Primary (Hassan defending Senate seat)
September 13 - Twitter Whistleblower Hearing
September 13 - 27: UN General Assembly
Sept 20 - High level general debate begins
September 14 - Senate Hearing on Social Media’s Impact on Homeland Security
September 15 - International Day of Democracy
September 21-23: Atlantic Festival
September 27 - 28: Trust Con
September 28 - 30: Athens Democracy Forum
September 29 - 30: Trust and Safety Research Conference
October 2 and 30: Brazil
October 15 - 22: SXSW Sydney
October 17: Twitter/Musk Trial Begins
November 8: United States Midterms
March 10 - 19: SXSW
March 20 - 24, 2023: Mozilla Fest
Events to keep an eye on but nothing scheduled: