I watched the Netflix documentary about Cambridge Analytica and their involvement in Trump and Brexit last night (The Big Hack) and really I was not impressed. I did learn some things I didn’t know (e.g. that Nix tried his tricks in places like Trinidad and Tobago before bringing them to Broadway), but there was really quite little in the way of explanation about what CA actually did, how they evaded responsibility for it, etc. It has enough running length to tell a lot of the story, but I thought a lot of that time was wasted.
The tech/socmedia industry is just as unethical and immoral as the energy or arms industries. My own company treats its employees better from a OHSA aspect (incl mental health) and we’re globally reviled.
Technocapitalist enterprises have adopted hypercapitalist values but their public face is one with professed ethical and moral values as core foundations of their business. Its utterly cynical.
KevinC
1620
That story is pretty funny. Social media shall forever remain a fucking weird cesspool that I do my best to stay away from.
Oghier
1622
The BBC did a fascinating look at the weird little world of Chinese live-streaming last year, focused on Lele Tao. My take is that they’re modern-day geishas for a technological age (I’m aware the geishas are not Chinese, but I think the analogy works).
Nesrie
1623
I am curious, outside of shall we call them traditional celebrities, how many of the stop social media stars skew heavily male. The fake presentation, beauty filter as they call it, is just odd.
A lot of the big (Western) ones are primarily makeup vloggers, so it seems relatively unlikely for them at least.
Clay
1625
Good look at the social media behind Old Town Road:
Embarrasingly maybe, this is the first time I’ve ever heard that song. :D
Nesrie
1627
This song is… huge!
Even my lil nephew loves this. He just loves it…
CraigM
1628
Nah, same. But then again most people probably haven’t heard of the Tunisian metal band I’m listening to right now either.
KevinC
1629
First time here too. I’m usually unaware of what’s blowing up the Billboard charts though, so I’m not necessarily surprised.
Clay
1630
It popped up on our radar about 3 weeks ago. My kids LOVE it. The video is pretty good/funny.
You and my kid, lol. He’s a metal fan, but STRONGLY prefers when it’s not from the US, lol.
I also had never heard that before, but it’s pretty catchy. I like the Lil Nas X vocals much more than Billy Ray Cyrus’, but I can’t find the original Lil Nas X version before Cyrus was added.
I’ve never heard the song, but I have already read an article about its origins about two weeks ago.
