Meta's MAGA hat

The brazenness. At a time when society is crumbling due to polarization and the war on truth. When autocrats and oligarchs manipulate the masses. When the screens of young people are a cocktail of content preying on their uncertainties. When medical misinformation is creating unnecessary epidemics. When a genocide we don't want to talk about is in fact being silenced by the algorithm.

At that time, Mark Zuckerberg uses his newfound bro balls to say that even the little content moderation Meta did was still overstepping boundaries. That facts are censorship. That anything goes because 'free speech'.

Then you know it's all just capitalism, baby. We seem surprised. Zuckerberg does what's best for his company. He reads the room. Tired: progressivism. Wired: populism. Especially now that anything goes.

I'm not sure how the tech bros feel about their new MAGA hats. But it's not a bad turn of events for them. Content moderation was expensive, responsibility a chore. Being called in front of Congress was not fun. Being held accountable by critical reporters wasn't either.

Now, all there's left to do, is get in the graces of The Orange Emperor. And it's golden years for the business. So we get visits to Mar-a-Lago. Donations to the comeback party fund. And this.

For quite some time, we have known that much of society is dictated by technology companies. But until recently, those were headed by sensible people. Money-loving people. But people with some sense of norms. Now, Meta joins Twitter in heading for a direction that a lot of people suddenly don't feel comfortable with. It won't be the last company go there.

The times have changed, especially in the VS. Our future in Europe needn't be the same. Let's chart our own future.

Let's stop the Euro-bashing, just because the EU wants to safeguard some level of decency and well being. Bureaucratic, sure. But do we really want the Wild West? I swear to God, if I see one more LinkedIn post damning plastic caps, somehow keeping us from sending Europeans rockets to space. The EU has many flaws, but unabashed bashing is simply parroting lobby-speak by Big Tech.

Let's also choose our new digital homes more thoughtfully. Time after time, we have seen what happens when the shoulders media and makers stand up start to shake. You're stuck. Although still small, new decentralized networks like Mastodon avoid the 'Benevolent Dictator for Life' problem, where a platform with concentrated power can turn ugly. If you get tired of a decentralized network, you just take your followers and go elsewhere. Or there's platforms like Bluesky that are much more open. Where multiple news feeds can be made. One with fact checking, and one without, just to give one example.

These networks are still small. But so were Twitter and Facebook when they started. When they themselves where the standard bearers of new kinds of online networks.

The time for something new is now. But let's stop being naive. And take our future into our own hands.