Re: <nettime> Christchurch and the Dark Social Web by Luke Munn

[Francis Hunger <francis.hunger@irmielin.org>]

Dear Geert and Luke,

although I agree with  a large part of Lukes analyse let me put in
question the point of machinic agency.

Luke writes: "Calibrated correctly, platforms grasp the social, cultural
or ideological connections between content, presenting a sequence of
ideas that seem natural, even inevitable. These links, as [Rebecca]
Lewis argues, make “it easy for audience members to be incrementally
exposed to, and come to trust, ever more extremist political positions.”"

This kind of description ascribes a lot of power/agency to the technical
medium and does in my opinion not fully grasp the agency of individuals
who have to actively seek this content (they have to go online,
subscribe to certain streams, pick their phones and read messages, click
on more extreme content and so on). I mean, "audience members" or
individuals have to actively engage with certain political positions.
I'm not sure if this kind of argument "the user get's lured into" not
even depoliticizes the whole situation as it argues mainly "the user is
the victim".

It wasn't me – it was the actor-network.

The decision for instance to actively engage within let's say the KKK or
Blood and Honor and similar groups to me seems similar to the decision
of engaging in todays online hate-groups, which may be spread more
globally, but nethertheless these are not "algorithms" acting by
themselves (what motivation should they have?) but humans who interact
with each other trough global communication platforms.

Luke further, after describing Pewdiepies influence says: "One of the
strengths of the dark social web is that is highly individualized, an
environment algorithmically optimized to reflect its inhabitant. … Yet
in an operational sense, T.'s environment of platforms, sites and
services is exactly the same as ours—it is designed in the same way,
with the same architectures and affordances."

So I wonder, why does the discussion want to look into the
"sociotechnical properties of that environment" instead of looking into
the political dimension which forms and enables humans who wish to kill
other humans.

warm greetings,

Francis

-- 
http://databasecultures.irmielin.org

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