• Will blockchain fulfil its democratic promise or will it become a tool of big tech? | John Naughton | The Guardian

  “The problem with digital technology is that, for engineers, it is both intrinsically fascinating and seductively challenging, which means that they acquire a kind of tunnel vision: they are so focused on finding solutions to the technical problems that they are blinded to the wider context. At the moment, for example, the consensus-establishing processes for verifying blockchain transactions requires intensive computation, with a correspondingly heavy carbon footprint. Reducing that poses intriguing technical challenges, but focusing on them means that the engineering community isn’t thinking about the governance issues raised by the technology. There may not be any central authority in a blockchain but, as Vili Lehdonvirta pointed out years ago, there are rules for what constitutes a consensus and, therefore, a question about who exactly sets those rules. The engineers? The owners of the biggest supercomputers on the chain? Goldman Sachs? These are ultimately political questions, not technical ones.”

  Tags: ITGS, blockchain, security, utopia, technocentric, control, server, politics and government

  • – By dr tech

• Why Nigeria Has Finally Lifted Its Twitter Ban

  “The Nigerian government reinstated Twitter on Jan 13, 2022, after Twitter agreed to conditions issued by the Nigerian government, according to CNN.

  Notably, one of these conditions includes “managing prohibited publication in line with Nigerian law”.

  Twitter also has to comply with “applicable tax obligations on its operations under Nigerian law” as well as enroll Nigeria in its Partner Support and Law Enforcement Portals.”

  Tags: ITGS, Nigeria, ban, censorship, twitter, global citizenship, law, social media, politics and government, equalityofaccess

  • – By dr tech

• This law firm employee secretly automated their job and now works 10 minutes a day from home | Boing Boing

  “When Reddit user Throwaway59724 had to start working from home because of Covid, they learned how to automate their IT job duties so they don’t have to work more than 10 minutes a day to earn their “just-shy-of-90k” salary.”

  Tags: ITGS, automation, ai, people and machines, business and, business, and, employment

  • – By dr tech

• Facebook mistakenly banning ok content a growing problem | Thaiger

  “People have been censored or blocked from the platform because their names sounded too fake. Ads for clothing disabled people we removed buy algorithms that believed they were breaking the rules and promoting medical devices. The Vienna Tourist Board had to move to adult content friendly site OnlyFans to share works of art from their museum after Facebook removed photos of paintings. Words that have rude popular meanings but other more specific definitions in certain circles – like “hoe” amongst gardeners, or “cock” amongst chicken farmers or gun enthusiasts – can land people in the so-called “Facebook jail” for days or even weeks.”

  Tags: ITGS, facebook, social media, censorship, content, problem, alogorithm

  • – By dr tech

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