The NYT needs someone who understands tech at a human level, the way Donald McNeil understands viruses. Yesterday's Daily could have been so much better, more informative, and less scary. #
The terrorists will hit some new speed bumps now that they've had some success. If their online groups follow the pattern of every group I've ever belonged to, it won't be long before they're attacking each other. Probably has already started.#
Just like there were defenses against the virus, which we learned about in March from McNeil, there are defenses against the terrorists, beyond deplatforming.#
Maddow needs help too. You know how she always asks if she got it right and the other person says yes. Well, when it comes to tech, the answer is no. Her stories, when they involve tech are usually nonsense.(I say usually because I haven't heard them all.)#
For example, the app stores on Google and Apple. That's where Parler was cut off. They didn't provide back-end services, they provided distribution. Like when you buy bread at the supermarket, they didn't make the bread, but they have it all there in one place for you to buy.#
With Apple and Google, they make it very hard if not impossible to install something that didn't come through their store. This is for security, and also gives them full control over the platform. So when they removed Parler, that was pretty much the end for them on mobile devices. They still had the open web until Amazon knocked them off there too.#
Also the news is butchering the difference between Amazon and the others (Twitter, Facebook, Apple, Google). They are providing something completely different. And them kicking Parler off is pretty unprecedented for them. That in itself is big news. Like the failure of a vaccine.#
There's another interesting angle that they touched on yesterday in the Daily, that deplatforming has a disadvantage, it means it's harder to spy on the terrorists. Something like this happened 20 years ago with Napster. At that time everyone was getting their music from Napster. The music industry, sued them, and won, buh bye Napster. But something was lost there. The idea of a central place for music, that might have been interesting. It'll never happen again, just like we will never get the Coronavirus contained again, as it was before 2019.#
Tech is interesting! But the lack of confidence among journalists not only lets people manipulate them (Hillary's emails) it often distributes information that's just plain wrong and that's too bad. Because a lot of these things aren't mysteries now.#
Last update: Thursday January 14, 2021; 3:52 PM EST.
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