Can blockchain fix social media?

A debate-themed video game

Like just about everyone else in this profession, I spend way too much time on Twitter. I’m what “normies” might consider Extremely Online and what Ted Kaczynski would call “oversocialized.” Marc Andreessen would probably label me a “wordcel.”

In February, I managed to log out of Twitter for an entire week. The experience confirmed my suspicion: Life is better offline. I spent more time reading fiction and less time worrying about nuclear war. I felt compelled to organize social outings in real life (IRL, as the Zoomers would say). I baked three heads of broccoli and ate them while watching “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” a show I didn’t have the patience for in my Twitter days.

Most Americans share my uneasy relationship with social media. Conservatives (83%) are more likely than liberals (54%) to feel that social media has a negative impact on the way things are going in the U.S., according to a 2020 Pew Research Center poll. That partisan divide helps explain why so many of the attempts to launch new social networks come from the right. But none of those upstarts, whether Parler or Truth Social, pose a real threat to the dominant platforms.

Clearly, something is wrong with the status quo. Social media demands ever more of our lives despite a growing unease with the bargain. Is there another way forward? If so, what is it?

Techno-optimists believe more tech — in particular, blockchain — can address the ails of social media.

• Mark Zuckerberg and Evan Spiegel answer to shareholders, not voters. Social media is undemocratic. And despite the best efforts of the Facebook Oversight Board to appropriate the aesthetics of democracy, it is still just that: an aesthetic performance that ultimately exists to serve shareholders.
• Blockchain proponents see decentralization as a means of democratizing social media and making it more transparent.
• Minds is the most prominent attempt at creating a blockchain-based, open-source alternative. Users contribute to the governance of the site and are rewarded in Ethereum tokens that can be used to buy ads or promote posts on the site. Content moderation is performed in part by a jury of 12 randomly selected unique active users.
• Minds CEO Bill Ottman claims this model can decrease polarization, contrary to what proponents of misinformation labels might think. “You cannot change someone’s mind if you do not give them a platform to communicate,” Ottman told Protocol.
• Ottman believes Big Tech understands this dynamic and intentionally avoids the issue. He claims dominant social media platforms are “pushing the problem under the rug and just letting the rest of the internet handle it.”

Even the blockchain has limits. While I can understand some of the theoretical benefits of Minds, I don’t see how it poses a threat to the dominant centralized platforms. TikTok is addictive precisely because it’s guided by an extraordinarily complicated, black-box algorithm beyond human comprehension. Ottman likened transparent algorithms to food labels, and I think the analogy works in more ways than one — knowing fast food is unhealthy doesn’t make it any less addictive or pleasurable.

True change can only come from “a total destruction of the current economic model,” according to Justin E. H. Smith, a professor of history and philosophy of science at the University of Paris. (I interviewed Justin about his recent book, “The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is.” A full Q&A will be out later this week.)

• “What we have right now is a digital pseudo-public space,” Smith told me. “It allows people to play as if they are exchanging ideas, when in fact, what they’re doing is playing a video game — racking up points in the form of likes and followers, based on figuring out how to game the algorithm.”
• Smith added: “As long as that’s the only game in town … we’re all doomed. Whatever side you defend, we are all doomed because it’s not actually a forum for debate: It’s a debate-themed video game.”

As for me, I’m still trying to spend less time online. At the risk of sounding like a doomer, I don’t anticipate we’ll break free of the debate-themed game in my lifetime. Then again, I’m not trying to upend the system; I just want to eat broccoli and ponder.

— Hirsh Chitkara (email | twitter)

In Washington

Administration officials repeatedly raised ethics concerns about Eric Schmidt’s ties to employees at the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, according to POLITICO. Among links to the former Google CEO were two OSTP officials who did part-time work for a biotech initiative where Schmidt chairs the board. A separate pair of officials also “had their salaries paid through a fund with the Federation of American Scientists that Schmidt Futures pays into,” although Congress has mandated the use of consultants at the office.

OSTP is also putting together a report that assesses whether digital assets “impede or advance efforts to tackle climate change.” The report is also supposed to explore any potential benefits of crypto and blockchain technology, like how it might improve the reliability of the electricity grid.

Contractors for Google Fiber successfully unionized last week, creating the Alphabet Workers Union’s first recognized bargaining unit. The National Labor Relations Board said the win came after “a continuous union-busting effort from management.” In a response on Friday, Google emphasized that these workers were contractors and employed by BDS Solutions Group.

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In the courts

Apple challenged part of the Epic Games ruling that found it was enforcing anticompetitive steering restrictions under California law. Apple and Epic are gearing up for an appeals court hearing later this year, in which Epic will challenge the ruling that went largely in Apple’s favor.

Apple is also set to incur another fine in the Netherlands for not fully complying with the alternative payments order, officials from its Authority for Consumers and Markets told Reuters. “As we understand it, Apple essentially prefers paying periodic fines rather than comply with a decision of the Dutch Competition Authority,” Margrethe Vestager remarked in a speech delivered in February.

On Protocol

A former Microsoft senior director has come forward alleging the company ignored his concerns about corruption in its government contracting in the Middle East and Africa — and eventually fired him. Yasser Elabd also says U.S. authorities let an investigation into the practices wallow because of resource and operational constraints during COVID-19.

Companies are offering AI-based data analytics tools that let their customers see if cargo ships have ties to sanctioned entities — a role that’s becoming particularly important in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing penalties launched by other nations.

The popularity of WhatsApp would seem to explain why Russia has bent over backwards to keep it (and Telegram) running in the country, despite declaring Meta an extremist organization.

A MESSAGE FROM HASHICORP

As a business leader, you need to understand that zero-trust is not just another buzzword. It’s a fundamentally different mindset that you will need to embrace — and the sooner you do so, the better.

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