By Takura Zhangazha*
Its great to be back in Berlin after a two year hiatus for re:publica18. This year’s conference main motto 'POP', as it suggests, seeks to ‘pop the filter
bubbles, step out into the public and make net culture and politics tangible
for everyone.’
Its turning out to be an enlightening experience that is
motivated by fun, intellectualism and a firm grasp of issues such as the
internet and knowledge production (epistemology), algorithmic influence, digitization’s impact on labour and
how resilience really works (the future as a commodity). Among many, many other topics of great
interest.
There were and will be many other topics that have/will be
discussed in the remaining two days. But
for the first day I participated, there are a number of issues that are worth
highlighting.
The first being the issue of algorithms and their impact on perceptions,
political attitudes and persuasions. It
is a hotly debated topic in the global north and significantly so on how algorithms
have come to be default (or de-fault if you want) purveyors of racist and
sexist attitudes. It turns out there are
some phases you may ‘google’ in good faith (even if full trust of your
preferred search engine) but the first page of our ‘your’ results may have
links to sexist/racist content.
And how
all of this is not driven by what individuals on the internet prefer but how
they are working on algorithms through ‘clickbaiting’ and how search engine
companies/leading monopolies such as google may be more motivated by following
the advertising revenue/profit over than promoting fairness and equality.
If you are an African or of African descent, this is nothing new in real life but very significant in relation to your online presence. And as some of the amazing speakers
such as Dana Boyd, Safia Umoja Noble and Wendy Chun (see their profiles here) outlined,
these algorithms or about getting the numbers/clicks are not merely
mathematical but also informed by tapping into historical prejudices (colonialism,
racism, sexism). And therein lies the
challenge not only globally but also specifically to be considered on the
role of algorithm in influencing African societies.
African countries, largely as a result of colonial legacies/global
cold wars (with some complicity), generally do not have as strong a tradition
of democratic values and by dint of the same, an ability to push back against
the conforming and persuasive influence on perception that are algorithmic functions
of the internet/ and social media. There
is therefore need for African governments and citizens to reexamine the role of
algorithms in creating perception that may reinforce racist, sexist attitudes
or that may altogether create false and valueless political realities much to
the detriment of much needed democratic values. The latter having reportedly been
tried in the most recent Nigerian presidential election and the first round of the
Kenyan general election.
The second issue I picked up was one on the significance of
always linking up any social media activism with action on the ground (basic
point, I know). But in her presentation
Ece Temulkuran titled, ‘How to lose a Country, the New Political Ice Age’, I
learnt that genuine or at least public interest intellectualism of sorts is
always key. And that social media
platforms are facing a huge vacuum in this respect.
A final topic that was of great interest was one on resilient
speculation by Orit Halpern. Illustrated with equations, engaging thoughts on data
and climate change and examples of smart mining, smart cities, the chilling knowledge
that the future has become an exchangeable commodity gives one pause for serious
reflection. While most of the examples
given were from the global north and east, the uptake of smart cities as a concept
on the African continent is growing. The
speculation and investment around a future that may not obtain as envisaged by
those with the capital to do so is not yet well known. And may never be unless we all step up.
A final thought however that crossed my mind was that in all
of the issues/topics I picked up during the course of the day, I realized that
back home, be it in Zimbabwe or the rest of the African continent, these are
issues that we haven’t begun to deal with at such a thoughtful, passionate and
even intellectual scale. Perhaps in the
near future we will do so with a new sense of urgency. Because after all, the internet as a medium
will invariably be everywhere. Deriving democratic utilitarian value from it
requires greater understanding of context and an active pursuit of ensuring
that it also retains a significant public interest role in Africa. And now on to Day 2 of @re:publica18
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
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