And because you have the power to amplify messages, people also want to manipulate you

You are not algorithms. But you are also not neutral. That’s just par for the course. And in today’s day and age, it’s not just corporations, governments, and PR shops that have your number. Just as the US military needed to change tactics to grapple with a tribal, networked, and distributed adversary, so must you. Focus on networks – help connect people to information. Build networks across information and across people. Be an embedded part of the social fabric of this country.

“Building networks across information and across people” has been one of my goals with this newsletter from the beginning. Becoming an embedded part of the social fabric – that’s going to require a different approach. If you have any ideas, I’m all ears.

Democracy

If you are good at human rights than do I have an important job for you to consider! Jon Fingas has the details:

The company is hiring a Director of Human Rights Policy who will develop approaches that foster human rights and peace while simultaneously cracking down on those who “enable harm, stifle expression, and undermine human rights.” This leader would steer investigations into human rights abusers and work with both government and corporate partners.

The future director would be particularly well-experienced. They’d need at least 12 years of experience with public policy and human rights (including in developing countries), and would require some background in technology.

“The Justice Department is inviting a bipartisan group of 24 state attorneys general to discuss concerns over social media platforms, after receiving an “increased level of interest” from the AGs, John D. McKinnon reports. Their level of interest increased after they were told that Justice planned to hold such a meeting to begin with! (Initially the feds planned to meet only with Republican attorneys general.)

North Koreans love social media! Unfortunately they are not allowed to use it, because they are committing crimes with it. Nice little caper story from Wenxin Fan, Tom Wright and Alastair Gale:

A Facebook page for Everyday-Dude, showing packages with hundreds of programs, was taken down minutes later as a reporter was viewing it. Pages of some of the account’s more than 1,000 Facebook friends also subsequently disappeared https://hookupdate.net/it/quickflirt-review/.

Facebook said it had no knowledge of North Koreans using its platform but is committed to rooting out profiles using false names. It suspended numerous North Korea-linked accounts identified by the Journal, including one that Facebook said appeared not to belong to a real person. After it closed that account, another profile, with identical friends and photos, soon popped up.

Elsewhere

One of the first pieces of software criticism I ever wrote was about why I thought Path was doomed. Turns out, it was!

Jessica Guynn talks to Facebook working moms who say the company’s paid leave policies fall short of its public claims to support them:

“We say Facebook is this great company and that it’s so great for parents, all knowing that it’s a four-month leave, which just indicates that, in our culture, we think a four-month leave is generous and it’s just not, and somebody had to say it,” Khuner says. “I thought there might be other people like me who don’t feel like it’s the right time to leave their baby and feel that it’s wrong to say you are supposed to come back to work full-time, no matter what, when your baby is that young.”

The impact of competitors ount of time people spend using Snapchat. A survey published this week by analysts at Cowen Research found that Snapchat users spent less time with the app this quarter than they did a year ago. Users still spend roughly 31 minutes inside the app per day – pretty good – down slightly from 33 minutes in the third quarter of 2017. But Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest all saw time spent increase this quarter over the same time last year.