Of Looking out for 2022
The Information Ecologist 56
What is this? Surprise, surprise. This publication no longer goes by the name MisDisMal-Information. After 52 editions (and the 52nd edition, which was centred around the theme of expanding beyond the true/false frame), it felt like it was time the name reflected that vision, too.
The Information Ecologist (About page) will try to explore the dynamics of the Information Ecosystem (mainly) from the perspective of Technology Policy in India (but not always). It will look at topics and themes such as misinformation, disinformation, performative politics, professional incentives, speech and more.
Welcome to The Information Ecologist 56
Yes, I’ve addressed this image in the new about page.
In this edition:
What should we look out for in 2022? 5 independent publications asked their networks this question.
#Lookoutfor2022
If you’re a long time reader/subscriber, you’ll already know that I end up covering some pretty dark territory (if you’re new here - then consider yourself warned). Since it is the first week of the new year, I thought I’d spare you my usual doomy-and-gloomy takes. That does not mean that this is a doom-and-gloom free edition though, read on.
Through December, 5 independent publications reached out to some thoughtful voices and asked them one question:
What one idea, issue, person or event should people look out for in 2022?
Wait, Prateek, is this a predictions thing?
Well, sort of, and no. While the question is forward-looking, the idea behind reaching out to some really smart people is to create a conversation around what our collective focus can or should be this year.
Before I go into what people said, I want to write a bit about the 4 other publications that were a part of this effort (in no particular order). Because, you know, the first week of a new year is also a great time to add good information sources (hint hint).
Tech Policy Press (technology and democracy): Covers important themes such as concentrations or power, technology geopolitics, how tech exacerbates or solves challenges such as racism, bigotry, violence and oppression, etc. I am a regular listener of the weekly podcast too.
Reboot (techno-optimism): Driven by the belief that technology is a part of the system, technologists should also be thinkers, writers, and advocates and that optimism is an action, not a belief. I enjoy the book reviews.
Everything in Moderation (content moderation): Well, it is in the name :), EiM focuses on content moderation, policies, products and platforms. In the crazy world of technology policy, I read EiM on Saturday’s as I plan my editions of The Information Ecologist.
New Public (digital public spaces): A community of thinkers, designers and technologists that features takes on what the future of digital public spaces might look like. There’s a good chance you’ve seen their framework on 14 signals for better digital public spaces.
We had responses from people like Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Jillian C. Yorke, Cory Doctorow, Ethan Zuckerman, Evelyn Douek, Torsha Sarkar, HR Venkatesh and many more. I won’t list all of them here - only those that thematically overlap with topics I have written about in the past - even if I don’t necessarily agree. Based on my own interpretation, I’ve also tried to categorise them and emphasise certain parts of the responses (for the slightly longer ones) for help with consumption. But note that the categorisation and emphasis is not something that people were aware of when sending in their inputs.
Regulation/Governance
Big Picture Questions:
Ethan Zuckerman - on governance v/s control:
The hard question for the future of the social web is not ownership or control, as web3 folks are primarily focused on. It’s governance. How do communities decide what speech and conduct they allow? How do we handle rulebreakers? Is tokenized democracy a reasonable way to answer these questions, or should we learn from existing communities?
Carolina Are - on one-size-fits-all approaches:
In 2022, consumers, creators, platforms and regulators are going to at the very least admit the importance of a fair, transparent and balanced governance of nudity and sexuality on the Internet. Although spaces for nudity and sex are shrinking due to FOSTA/SESTA, pressure from payment providers and platforms’ PR damage control, the backlash received by OnlyFans when the company announced it was going to ban adult content – and its almost immediate U-turn – highlighted a new understanding of the demand for online nude and sexual content, and of the dangers of banning it outright, affecting the lives and livelihoods of not only sex workers, but of users who use their body to work in digital spaces. While a solution for the regulation of various online harms will probably not be reached by 2022, we are coming to an understanding that Internet spaces cannot apply one-size-fits-all approaches to their governance without serious consequences.
What’s coming?
evelyn douek - on the transformation of the legal environment for platforms:
An explosion of regulation, proposed regulation, regulatory threats… There’s barely a regulator in the world right now that’s not passing or drafting some law to deal with social media platforms. While the US Congress may not be able to stop yelling long enough to pass a bill anytime soon, other countries aren’t waiting and local laws can have global effects (I’m looking at you, EU!). The legal environment for platforms is about to fundamentally transform.
Torsha Sarkar - on must-carry legislation:
Must-carry legislations. As more and more populist governments come to power around the world, they’d be looking to use social media fueled disinformation to consolidate their strong-hold. Must-carry legislations that compel social media platforms to carry speech, would appear to be a rather convenient tool for achieving this end. Texas and Florida have already tried to float some versions of these laws, Poland is reportedly planning somethings, and Bolsonaro in Brazil has already floated a decree that got junked. If news reports are to be believed, India’s Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report on the Personal Data Protection (PDP) bill is going to include a similar clause.
Chris Riley on greater regulatory scrutiny:
As the European Union moves forward both the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, the UK continues developing its Duty of Care law, while the US marches toward another messy election where both parties compete to show their anti-big tech bona fides. Greater regulatory scrutiny of American tech companies in 2022 is an inevitability, and I predict it will develop to a hard law change, though the question remains open as to what form it will take and who will move first.
Approaches
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen - on transparency and access for researchers:
Look out for #transparency. Policymakers and academics including e.g @RebekahKTromble @persily @TaberezNeyazi and more are doing the hard work of developing privacy-compliant, practical ways to ensure researchers get data access that will help make our societies more intelligible.
Paul Resnick - on comparable transparency reporting:
Greater public transparency about content moderation decisions by platforms, sharing enough data to allow for public report cards that are comparable across platforms.
Julie Owono - on acceptance of the multi-stakeholder approach for content policies and regulation:
The idea that we can use the multi-stakeholder approach to create content policies and regulation that are efficient and rights based seems like something we will see more in 2022. The Content Policy & Society Lab at Stanford University is the first initiative exploring how fostering dialogue and collaboration between Governments, Companies, Civil Society Organizations and Academia, globally, can lead to solutions to some of the major challenges posed by content online.
Specific steps + Areas of greater scrutiny
Cory Doctorow - on FTC rolling back ‘giga-mergers’:
The FTC using its authority to roll back one of the corporate giga-mergers rushed through while they were staffing up their merger review division, making good on their promise and taking billions out of the shareholders who let management subvert the FTC’s authority.
Taberez A. Neyazi - on restrictions on Facebook:
I hope Facebook will start treating developing markets on par with their developed counterparts and invest more resources in content moderation. Facebook should not be allowed to operate in a language for which they do not have content moderators.
Munmun De Choudhury on social media and mental health:
Social media platforms have been in the news in 2021 for their role in affecting teen mental health and well-being. 2022 will be the year we keenly look at what these platforms do to respond to this emergent crisis, and ensure teens and youth find a supportive and welcoming platform to express themselves and construct their identities.
Digital Sovereignty
Courtney C. Radsch on Digital sovereignty:
Digital sovereignty. The core idea is that countries should have a greater control over information, data, and technology services within their borders, and is a rebuke of dominant US-platforms and American approaches to “free speech”, privacy (as in, lack thereof), and intermediary liability protections. The growing backlash against surveillance capitalism also fuels the idea that we must develop alternatives to US-market driven behemoths. This idea resonates globally in populist authoritarian, post-colonial, and European countries alike. But it’s just as much at odds with the idea of an open- interoperable, secure internet as the private walled gardens created by Big Tech are. The vision of cyberspace existing beyond Westphalian borders is officially dead.
Michael Caster on worsening internet freedom, digital so:
Across Asia-Pacific, from India to Thailand and Indonesia to Australia, we have witnessed the tightening of internet freedom through new laws and policies, a trend that will continue in 2022. We are seeing attempts to strip away intermediary liability, force service providers and platforms to appoint local contact persons, impose over-broad data access requirements, and go after online anonymity and encryption. This is often framed in the language of national security or digital sovereignty. Through 2022, we should look out for opportunities to form new coalitions to confront the promulgation of such restrictive measures and the narratives that give rise to them.
Misinformation, Disinformation, Hate Speech, Extremism
Jared Holt - on organised extremist movements:
The further decentralization of organized extremist movements is something to watch in 2022. The continuation of the trend will produce new and more frustrating challenges to those who monitor and work against their negative impacts.
Zev Burton - on near-personalised fake/false content:
People should look out for a dramatic rise in falsified content. With algorithms being able to write convincing news stories at a breathtaking pace, I can only imagine how much worse it will get. Can social media companies adequately figure out how to stop it, and will their efforts be enough to deter malicious actors from doing it anyways and finding ways around their policing? How long until deepfakes get put on TikTok, and the TikTok algorithm pushes that video towards people more likely to believe in its legitimacy? 2022 will be the first big test for people to counter near-personalized fake content online, and I have no clue whether we will succeed or fail.
Melissa Ryan - on The Disinfo Defence League’s work
The Disinfo Defense League has been quietly building capacity and power for awhile now, “organizing to disrupt online racialized disinformation.” Look out to hear a lot more about their work next year, starting with the policy platform they just released with more than 35 organizations behind it.
New Approaches
H R Venkatesh - on a Declaration of Rights for Information:
I think we need a Universal Human Rights Declaration for ... Information. Wrote about it last Sunday and also in March 2019.
David Ryan Polgar - on not calling users users:
2022 should mark the end of calling people “users” online. Calling individuals “users” falls to capture the complexity of a social media ecosystem that is both influenced by, and influencing, the people on its platform. HX (Human Experience) is a concept that may allow us to evolve in our approach toward technology, as it centers the discussion around the wellbeing of the humans (not the business). HXProject.org recently launched and All Tech Is Human will have a report around the concept on January 30. Let’s shift from UX to HX.
Do head on over the other 4 publications to check out which responses they covered (and how). Also, keep an eye out for #Lookoutfor2022 on Twitter, where we’ll be posting some stuff over the week.
About Takshashila’s Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy
You can find out more here.
Since we’re on the subject of things to look out for in 2022, the team at Takshashila put out a short, light-hearted (mostly) video on what we learned in 2021, and predictions for 2022.
For reference, this is me when asked to make predictions 👇.
Here’s hoping 2022 isn’t a year that makes 2021 look like a prequel, and 2020 like a pre-prequel.
