Spin Dictators

 

For the highly optimistic bunch who, like me, was thinking that Internet will make the world a better free and democratic place, Spin Dictators by Sergei Guriev&Daniel Treisman is a bitter wake-up call. In fact, what Internet and online/social media tools in particular provided was equal chances: to either do good or bad.

Search for the money and then you may know that people in power, keen to keep being in power at any price, will do their best to manipulate algorithms and get online visibility. Fake news and non-news upgraded to the level of news through SEO-related tricks may prevail compared to the classical information sharing. Spin Dictators can have it all, except one single thing: stand faced with informed readers, who may be as versed as them in the field of media/online knowledge. 

The tools may have been used before: television used to play with similar - although at a smaller scale - manipulations. The antidote is a generation of critical thinkers, able to distinguish bad from good, that in no way could believe everything they read. Able to recognize the manipulation of the digital dictators and their misgivings. Informed citizen, aware of their rights and how precious they are to fight for it.

This book is an useful and well -researched source of information that may definitely help understanding the mechanisms of political manipulation but instead of being deterred and skeptical about the chances of democratic survival, to rather realize how one and a society in its entirety can better fight to maintain our democratic rights and freedom.

What to Learn from the Pegasus Story

Does science and innovative achievement take into account moral implications? Should we limit the success of our scientific and techonological projects for the sake of presumptive moral and political harm?

I don´t have the knowledge of critically assessing the label that Pegasus is ´world´s most dangerous spyware´, but as much as it was featured in the media, this system developed by the Israeli company NSO was definitely sold to state actors and institutions that used them contrary to human rights, media freedoms and democracy principles. 

In general, the overall discussion about Pegasus took inevitably a biased direction that does not have necessarily to do with the results of the investigation, targeting NSO beyond the purely sake of the investigation. However, after reading the investigation by Forbidden Stories investigative reporters Laurent Richard&Sandrine Rigaud I couldn´t stop from thinking in terms of responsibility and human risks - privacy, and well beyond that. 

Should companies, any of them, consider more the human element into their risk assessment considerations? We are living in an era when social responsibility is higher than ever before. Companies are taking responsibility and trying to behave in a responsible way when it comes to protecting the environment, for example. Why not trying to take a similar take on issues that may pertain to digital surveillance and human rights? 

As humans who are creating machines and apps and push forward for technological achievement, maybe we can try sometimes to temper our enthusiasm in order to leave place for human and moral consideration. From the academic point of view, this is a discussion that belongs to our current process of mentalities shaping in the making. For each times, it´s own priorities and until the transition will fully take place, conflicts between new and old mindsets will prevail.