Media 2070 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 83
XVIII. Black Activists Confront Online Gatekeepers
TECH IS NOT NEUTRAL
Malkia Devich-Cyril helped “coin the term ‘media justice’”
in 2002 and was the visionary lead founder and former
executive director of the Center for Media Justice. The
group, now known as MediaJustice, has had an enormous
impact on ensuring that the voices of diverse communities
— fighting for racial, economic, and gender justice — are
heard in the struggle for media access, control and power.
MediaJustice also leads a network of more than “100 social
justice, media, and arts organizations” that advocates “for
communication rights, access, and fair representation.”1
And because of groups like MediaJustice, activists today
are fighting across the country to ensure the internet
remains a platform for Black organizing, storytelling and
liberation rather than oppression.
These efforts have taken many forms. Activists are calling
for affordable internet access for the Black community
and for the restoration of Net Neutrality rules. They’re
challenging online government and corporate surveillance
of the Black community. And they’re fighting the
amplification of online white-supremacist hate that
harms the free-speech rights of Black people — and
disinformation campaigns aimed at suppressing the Black
vote.2
Like every other media platform that has been created
in our country, the internet has spawned an overflow of
racist narratives that powerful gatekeepers have amplified.
Big tech companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google and
Twitter have risen to dominance in this century while
profiting off of racism and other forms of hate — and
white supremacists use these platforms to organize,
fundraise, recruit and spread their racist ideology.3
By amplifying hateful content, tech corporations provoke
their users to ensure they stay engaged. This gives these
companies more data about ways to keep users glued to
their platforms — furthering the companies’ predatory
business goals.4
There is nothing neutral about online platforms. Their
harms are baked into their algorithmic designs and protect
a white-racial hierarchy. This algorithmic bias has resulted
in the spread of racist hate speech even as the posts of
Black users speaking out against racism are more likely to
be removed.5
Meanwhile, social-media giants like Facebook are among
the most powerful companies in the world. And they
have consolidated control over the social-media space —
giving them enormous power in determining how Black
voices are heard online. As media and tech activist Brandi
Collins-Dexter testified during a congressional hearing
earlier this year:
While the Internet has provided a means
for decentralized media voices to breathe
digital oxygen into emerging mobilization
efforts, it has also given rise to new tech
oligarchies and distortions of political
thought. Today, social media companies
have consolidated online media and are
now in control of how Black and other
marginalized voices are represented online.
Disinformers using media manipulation
tactics see social media platforms as an
integral part of their plan to destabilize the
work of organizers.6
#MEDIA2070
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