Another fascinating fortnight of technology developments has passed, as Tech Talk unpacks social media ID checks, Amazon's union showdown, and defeating disinformation.
Key points:
- As part of a parliamentary inquiry on domestic violence, there was a suggestion of submitting official identity documents like a driver's license or passport to verify our identities
- This is problematic given Facebook's consistent data breaches including the most recently reported data breach affecting about half a million Facebook users
- This also opens up the discussion on the 'right to anonymity' as a foundational right for people online, which is particularly important for at-risk groups like certain minorities
- Anonymity online can be important for dissidents, people who try to hold power to account, and other marginalised groups who are subject to abuse if they are identified
- Amazon continues to act very strongly against workers' attempt to unionise, including the recent bizarre example of astroturfing where Amazon released fake (but very obvious) profiles that sang Amazon's praises
- It is worth watching Amazon's reactions to the increasing trend of workers organising, including the possibility of escalation to preemptively identify possible future union leaders and punish those workers accordingly
- Defamation law is another way politicians are attempting to manage social media, including Peter Dutton declaring he's pursuing individual Twitter users for defamation
- The "influencer" industry needs greater scrutiny, especially since it appears to have outsized impact with a lot of children and young people, who now express "influencers" as being one of their preferred future career paths.
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