@SXNoir – Hacking the conversation of sex, tech, love and dating in digital space and Vice President of Women of Sex Tech
@TechWithTaz – Professional Cyber Security Specialist, Founder of Cyber Collective.
@FalkYou – cybersexurity and President of Women of Sex Tech
@Mistress Blunt – Femdom, Dominatrix, Yoga Teacher, and co-founder of Hacking//Hustling
What is #BlackOutTuesday?
This conversation started in response to #BlackOutTuesday, a viral trend to post a black tile to instagram which quickly transformed into the obfuscation of important protest information on #BLM and #BlackLivesMatter. It is still TBD whether this was started as an intentional weaponization of white guilt and performative allyship to invisibalize movement work via the taking over the hashtag with black tiles, or if well meaning indivduals action was coopted and pushed forward in an unintentionally harmful way.
Either way, this tactic is not new. It is just deployed differently here. In the case of #BlackOutTuesday, performative allyship is being used, instead of bots or trolls, to create noise and disrupt the sharing of information in the middle of protests and a global pandemic.
In this conversation, we talk about trends we are noticing in the online space as we are in the middle of a pandemic and protests against police and state violence. We discuss memes and their use in spreading information and misinformation. We place this conversation in a history of authoritarian regimes and what we know of internet censorship during revolutions. We then talk about algorithmic curation, more commonly referred to as shadowbanning, and hypothesize on how we see this practice impacting movement work in the future. We wrap up with a discussion of some harm reduction tips ask yourself before sharing viral content.
What is Propoganda?
Propoganda is the use and spread of “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.”
What is a meme?
The word meme originates from the Greek word mimēma, or that which is imitated. A meme is defined as “an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.”
The memes that we are familiar with being shared online are often humorous and involve an “image, video, piece of text, etc., that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.”
What is obfuscation?
Obfuscation is the at of making something unclear or illegible. In Helen Nissenbaum and Finn Burton’s book, ‘Obfuscation: A Users Guide for Privacy and Protest‘ they define obfuscation as “the deliberate addition of ambiguous, confusing, or misleading information to interfere with surveillance and data collection.”
What is Psyops?
Psyops (psychological operations) are military operations usually aimed at influencing the enemy’s state of mind through noncombative means (such as distribution of leaflets).
Check out this research by CNA Exploring the Utility of Memes for U.S. Government Influence Campaigns. In this study they talk about Memetic Warfare as something that could “be viewed as a ‘digital native’ version of psychological warfare, more commonly known as propaganda. If propaganda and public diplomacy are conventional forms of memetic warfare, then trolling and PSYOPs are guerrilla versions.”
What is an algorithm on social media?
The algorithm in this context refers to the machine learning algorithm deployed to stack-rank the content a user is shown in Feed and Stories. The algorithm predicts what content is most important to you and shows you this content. Notably it also does this with advertisements and predicts what type of of content it is, who it’s from, hashtags used, if it’s an original post or a repost, etc. It is impossible to know every single factor that goes into this algorithm, as it is constantly adapting and changing itself
What is shadowbanning?
How shadowbanning currently works: shadowbanning is a tool designed to reduce the prevalence of content that Instagram deems should not be easily discoverable on the platform. This takes a few forms: not showing up on the Discover tab, not showing up in relevant hashtag pages, and not showing up when searched for in the app (unless using full screen name). Shadowbanning is not responsible for changes in a users feed, or how often someone’s content shows up in a followers feed. It is mainly about discoverability.
How do I assess viral content?
- Where did it originate? Do you trust this source?
- Is it asking for identifying information? Do you trust the source?
- It is a good practice to question the potential benefits or harms of sharing something.
- Does it look like a fed op?
- ex: Does this work in solidarity with BLM? (ex: black tiles tagged w #BLM vs. sharing bail funds)
Social media asks us to think and share quickly. Take a few moments to think about what you are sharing. Ask yourself it is accurate. If it is asking for personal information, do you trust the source? If it seems too easy, it probably is.
Full Transcript:
Blunt:
… Recording now. SX, do you want to kick us off and intro yourself and what we’re doing a little bit?
SX Noir:
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Hello everyone, I am SX Noir and we are here today to talk about memes and security pretty much. So we’re going to be talking about the social sharing aspect behind viral memes which are quick forms of processing information, I think. My team’s going to expand more on that because I’m not the expert, but I am the thought leader of sex technology and I am the host of the Thot Leader Podcast where we navigate concepts of sex, tech, love and dating and I also am the host of a documentary called [inaudible 00:00:49] we are navigating how COVID-19 has impacted the sex industry. So I’m very happy to be here with you all and my three co [inaudible 00:01:00]. It’s very early while we’re recording this, so be patient with us today.
SX Noir:
So do y’all want to introduce yourselves or do you want me to? You all introduce. Blunt, you can go first.
Blunt:
Thank you. Hey, I’m Blunt. I use she/her pronouns. I am a sex worker and a sex worker rights activist. I am one of the co-founders of Hacking Hustling, an organization of sex workers and accomplices working at the intersection of tech and social justice. Right now our main goal is to bring folks information as quickly as possible, which, SX just mentioned, we’re filming this in the morning so please be generous with us while we sort of have this conversation on the fly.
Alison:
Go ahead Taz.
Taz:
Okay. Hi, I’m Taz. I am a cybersecurity [inaudible 00:01:56] amazing. I have been working in security for the past 10 years and recently doing more research on how data is weaponized, how data affects marginalized communities and I started an effort called Cyber Collective to basically provide security and privacy information for everyday people.
Alison:
Hey, I’m Alison. I use she/her pronouns. I am part of Women of Sex Tech. I am a cybersecurity professional and I work [inaudible 00:02:34] intersection of sex and technology. I work with SX and I also … My cybersecurity focus is on policy, data privacy and surveillance, particularly when it comes to sex work, so I am happy to be here with all of my friends today and I’m really looking forward to having this dialogue.
SX Noir:
Amazing.
Blunt:
Y’all are with the Women of Sex Tech. [crosstalk 00:03:04]
SX Noir:
Yes, I forgot to mention that. I am also the vice president of Women of Sex Tech with an initiative to actively include sex workers in the sex tech world and I work with Alison and Alison’s great, and so we’re happy to be here with you all today bringing this information to you, and I do use the pronouns she and her. I think I did say that, but [crosstalk 00:03:27]
Taz:
I don’t know if I did. I also use the pronouns she and her.
Blunt:
Awesome. SX, do you want to start us off with the community guidelines?
SX Noir:
Yes I do. As always, we love to start off with an intention, setting intention for the space whether it be physical or digital. We want you to know that these are just suggestions for the conversation that we’re having today. We are experts of our own selves and we’re sharing information that we know personally, so take it as you will and this is by no means professional advice. You have to do whatever works best for you and you know best.
SX Noir:
We are trying to share information very quickly, so this is very much a day to day assessment that we’re going to be sharing with you all right now, and if the opportunity presents itself, we can have a more formal conversation later down the road but we wanted to get this to you right now and as your thought leader, I always like to remind everyone to be thoughtful. So be kind with us, your leaders of the conversation, but also yourself as you are listening and watching this. As always, what we talk about is very emotionally impactful, so if you need to take a moment, actually step away, you are always welcome to do that or you could pause the video since you will be watching this … we recorded.
SX Noir:
So, something else that we like to acknowledge in this space is to accept people as who they are, so please do not question anyone’s identity or question anyone’s truth of what they tell you today. Accept it as true. So, let’s get it going. Let’s start. Yeah. So what is a meme?
Blunt:
Yeah, what is a meme? First I wanted to thank you, SX, for that intro because I do think one thing that we will be talking about is the emotions behind when things go viral and what sort of internalized is weaponized that we might share something that’s misinformation. So I think that’s a really important part of the conversation. But first I want to talk a little bit about memes. I feel like folks are most familiar with memes as sort of a silly picture with text that can change that’s shared really rapidly, but I want to share what the more traditional, before that was happening on social media, the definition of what a meme is to help sort of place it culturally and historically.
A meme is an element of culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by non-genetic means, especially imitation. So I believe actually the word “meme” is related to the word “imitation”, may have similar roots. Memes, as we know it now, are sort of like a humorous image or video or piece of art that is copied often with slight variations and spread very rapidly by internet users. Do we want to spitball a couple of memes that we’ve been seeing that we might talk about in this
SX Noir:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). To expand on what Blunt was saying, my personal interpretation of a meme is something that is very easily understood, so it may not take a lot of education or a lot of background information but it is very specific to a cultural reference, right? And so it has many layers of cultural understanding, that is almost an immediate knee jerk, “Oh, this is funny,” or “Oh, this is important,” or, “Oh, this is impactful.” Most often if you are digesting a meme or sharing a meme, it doesn’t have to be explained, which is also the heart of it all, right?
SX Noir:
Yeah, so memes … I don’t know. I should have pulled up an example but I’m thinking of the meme … The Pokemon meme where it’s like the little bird and he’s going like this and it’s like, “Is this …” [crosstalk 00:07:14]
Alison:
Oh yeah.
Blunt:
I love hearing people explain memes. I’m just setting you up for my entertainment. We could all share our favorite memes.
SX Noir:
Or the meme of the girl going like this, you know? An expression, right? Yeah, an expression of something that has cultural significance. So that was funny to us because … I think it was a video or something like that. What else? We just [crosstalk 00:07:45]
Taz:
Is it okay if I add something from the cultural piece? I think adding popular culture, which … Because there are so many different definitions and ideas of what culture is, and a lot of times you show a meme to somebody that maybe isn’t in kind of social media popular culture, follows a certain type of people and they don’t really get … You referenced this, right? When I show it to my parents, my parents definitely don’t understand my meme that I showed them.
Blunt:
Explaining one to your therapist or parents is like-
Taz:
So trying.
SX Noir:
Too much.
Taz:
Right, and so I think acknowledging that specifically to pop culture, and that’s why it is so relevant in what’s going on in all of the discussion that we’ll be unraveling here.
Blunt:
Totally.
Alison:
Yeah.
SX Noir:
Yeah, this is the one … I think it was here. Shit, I just had it. Where’d it go? Oh, this one.
Blunt:
[crosstalk 00:08:45] Yeah. What does it say?
SX Noir:
It says … It’s a sex worker meme because that’s all I know.
Blunt:
Is this my girlfriend?
SX Noir:
Is like a person in there … Yeah, so anyway.
Blunt:
I love it. What were you saying, Alison?
Alison:
I was just going to say, when I initially hear the word “meme”, for me I relate it to something that’s humorous but I think that it gets information across in a way that how we visually process content on social media, because sometimes we can get content fatigue if there’s too many words. One thing that I do know that is within psyops, the whole point is to kind of move public opinion at a really large scale in order to influence a certain type of behavior.
Blunt:
Can you define psyops?
Alison:
Yes. I have a Merriam-Webster definition that I will use so I don’t mess this up. Psyops is military operations usually aimed at influencing the enemy’s state of mind through non-combative means such as distribution of leaflets. Looking at the history of psyops, we know that this is something that’s been going on forever and it has a lot of history but what we do know now is that it has been transformed into a modern day type of digital warfare, particularly by people within our own country as well as other nation states. If we look at how AI in particular has impacted psyops, which is short for psychological warfare, we know that it has this ability to automate and segment folks in social networks, and if we think about what social networks are, they are essentially voluntarily and mutual surveillance. So they are essentially surveilled spaces and the AI can segment people into categories that are then surveilled spaces.
So that AI will then be able to analyze these people into kind of psychological segments as well and then be able to identify cognitive biases and apply the narratives that they need to [inaudible 00:11:28] at scale and then using that information, folks will create memes in order to change the behavior of the people that they are targeting.
Blunt:
Memes as propaganda is what I’m-
Alison:
Exactly, yeah.
Blunt:
That’s super interesting. Yeah, and I think a lot of what sort of stemmed this conversation was the black tile, Blackout Tuesday, that was then shared with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter to clog the feed. I don’t know if someone wants to chat briefly about what that was, what they saw.
SX Noir:
Yeah. I just wanted to reiterate that the one thing that Alison said that was very interesting was the volunteer aspect. This is so interestingly implemented psychologically that people volunteer this information. It reiterates the idea that to navigate free space online means to give your information away for free, this volunteer aspect. So yeah, Taz, did you want to expand on the black tile?
Taz:
Yeah, I mean, Alison teed it up really, really well as far as the way that information reaches our screens and what that … how and how kind of intentional that information is and as far as the black tiles specifically, and this is something that I kind of spoke about a few days ago, and I just … The frustration of how something so positive can so quickly be turned into something negative and against the movement and against the good work. You think about it from an existential perspective almost, it’s like who has control of how this information is being distributed? The control group that … Who are they? Are they allies? Are they oppressors?
So even though something can come, and there was a lot of commenting and feedback on, yes, the Blackout Tuesday was made by two women that had all of the intention to mute people that needed to … Can I curse? Can I speak freely? That needed to shut the fuck up. People needed to shut the fuck up about their protein shakes and all of the things that bloggers and stuff … and space needed to be created for the movement, Black Lives Matter, specifically as the hashtag amplifying [inaudible 00:14:13] voices but specifically Black voices. And how that turned into … And that’s the question, like the chicken and the egg question. How did this movement of blackout-
Blunt:
Can you explain exactly what the ask was and how the hashtags crosspollinated?
Taz:
Yeah. So I don’t know both of their names, but one is Jamila and if you guys know either of the two women, they’re in the music industry and basically the goal of the blackout was to get people in the music industry that were continuing to kind of push out content, the creatives and artists that were still promoting their own work, to get them to stop promoting their own work for some time because the music industry … I mean, there would be no music industry without Black people, so the music industry was really standing by that and trying to amplify the right voices that needed to be amplified. And it wasn’t necessarily to only talk about the movement and the protesting what’s happening, but talk about the work of Black people and be able to share all of the good work that they’re doing and share their resources.
So the goal of the blackout was to literally amplify all Black voices and talk about what is happening right now, the unrest at large, and have everybody else mute any other post that doesn’t have to do with what’s going on right now. And somehow the blackout was completely misinterpreted … Not necessarily misinterpreted. It shifted.
Blunt:
I’d say even weaponized.
Taz:
Weaponized.
Blunt:
Yeah.
Taz:
Intentionally weaponized, and it turned into, “Everybody shut up, don’t talk, only post the black tile and then don’t say anything at all.” As soon as I saw that on the internet, and as soon as you click the hashtag and everybody was hashtagging #BlackLivesMatter, right? Without mal-intent, I’m sure the good people that … and people that are trying to be allies and be able to show their support wanted to be able to show their support somehow and stand in solidarity, and I think also I can’t speak on behalf but from what I surmise on my feet, a lot of people were looking for some sort of solidarity to be able to show support in one way or one form or another, and it was weaponized.
And then all of the information, that valuable information about protests, about surveillance, about what’s actually fucking happening out there was completely suppressed and that information stopped reaching people’s timelines. And especially the whole point was to, I think, break into certain algorithmic bubbles and generate content that normally … or allow content to reach places that normally don’t reach, say into a … Maybe like a British beauty blogger or something that only has white fans and has 2.4 million followers or something, for her to be able to post a blackout and then maybe amplify more voices.
The narrative was completely weaponized, misconstrued and it fucked up the whole initiative. I think people started asking questions, which was really important and there were some key voices that spoke up. Miss [Pakyeti 00:17:49] spoke up around why this doesn’t seem right, and I think people are questioning things now that just aren’t sitting right and connecting dots that us in our work, we’ve been connecting and speaking on for some time now. I want to stop talking so other people can start.
SX Noir:
Yeah, thank you for sharing that. As a Black woman, I can share what my experience with the black tile, the Blackout Tuesday was and what I saw on my timeline which is predominantly Black. I think there was a lot of confusion and I think it was interesting because at first I saw Rihanna post it, because it was a music thing. So I thought it was Blackout Tuesday for musicians and music. That’s what I thought it was about originally, which I was like great, that’s cool. That makes a lot of sense to me. Awesome. And then it quickly turned into this thing of, “Yeah, no one say anything on social media. Take the day off of social media. Don’t post anything. Don’t say anything and post this tile,” right?
So I was a part of the organizing team on International Whores’ Day that takes place on June 2nd, which is a Tuesday, which was the Blackout Tuesday. And so the International Whores’ Day Coalition is a group that absolutely uplifts Black voices and amplifies Black voices and has many [inaudible 00:19:11] organizers in the group. So in my opinion it was a Black Lives Matter organization and it was an organization that should have been uplifted in talking about Black lives, right?
And so basically I woke up that day a little bit frustrated because I’m like, “Why is everyone acting as if they’re not going to participate in social media?” And then I put a post up that, like, “This is what we’re doing today. Post a selfie in red in support,” and all these things, and we had a few people comment and go, “Well, could you consider doing this on another day? Today is supposed to be Blackout Tuesday. Today is supposed to be a day for Black Lives Matter,” and I was honestly offended. As a Black woman, you’re commenting on my post telling me that I should … correcting my behavior.
And this is from other Black women. You’re correcting my behavior from a marginalized group of how we’re supposed to internationally celebrate sex workers and you’re asking me, me, to take a pause from social media. I’m not the one who needs to take a pause from social media, so it was very quickly confusing and also some policing that happened that shouldn’t have ever happened. How dare you come to my Instagram and tell me that what I should and should not be sharing that amplifies the lives of Black people. What are you talking about?
And so it was a very productive conversation because I quickly … I said that and they quickly were like, “Oh my God, you’re so right. I should never police what you have [inaudible 00:20:40] … I should have never [inaudible 00:20:43] tell you what to say.” And so I also saw a comment thread of Black people being like, “Well I don’t care about Blackout Tuesday. Why should I care about this? What’s the point of it? This has nothing to do with what we’re trying to do.”
Then obviously the conspiracy theories come of, “Oh, it’s white supremacists who did it.” I had people DM me, “Oh, it’s white supremacists who started this,” and oh, yelling at other people. “Don’t you understand that you’re suppressing information from Black Lives Matter,” you know? Over a hashtag. Over a hashtag on social media, right? So it was incredibly interesting socially how people digested the information and turned to policing, turned to attack and turned to the exact problem that it was trying to eradicate.
And so I didn’t post the black square, I didn’t participate in it at all because for me, I didn’t have to if I didn’t want to and I’ll be damned if anyone makes a judgment on me and what I do with my social media, because I do the work. But that’s me and I can understand that and that’s why I’m sharing it with you as a Black person, because utterly it was confusing to me and it felt like a movement that didn’t include me at some point. It felt like it wasn’t even about it. It was about white performance allyship more than anything, and it turned more into … I saw less Black Lives Matter about the post and more of, “We all just need a moment to reflect and we all just need to take a break and a pause.”
You know, this kind of like … as if you’re so exhausted as a white person that you need to take a break, you know? So it just kind of quickly was co-opted and it was quickly weaponized. A comment that I like to reiterate to people who are having difficulty understanding is that the internet as of now is not designed for Black people. So when Black people attempt to implement initiatives, social initiatives even more, they are co-opted, it is messy, it is confusing because the internet is not designed to support us, period, point blank. And so therefore things like this can happen versus if Jack of Twitter or, you know what I mean, did an initiative, it most likely would be understood and used effectively.
So we have to understand, why is it different when two Black women start something versus a white male in digital space, specifically these monopolized social media platforms like Facebooks and the Snapchats and the TikToks, right? And so that’s kind of how I feel about these kind of … processing information and understanding, are you actually participating in something in a greater good or is it performative allyship? Is it performative allyship? So yeah, that’s my opinion on that.
Blunt:
Yeah, thank you-
SX Noir:
Because … Oh, one more thing.
Blunt:
Go for it.
SX Noir:
One more thing. Just one more last thing to tie it all together-
Blunt:
Go for it.
SX Noir:
Is because, understand that the Black Lives Matter hashtag happened in about 2014, 2015. This is something that is a new thing, and understand that it was seen as a huge threat because for the first time in forever, more Black people had technology and access to digital space than ever before. They were able to document their experiences, share their emotions and actually have video and share what’s actually happening to them on the ground. This was revolutionary. This was crazy. This had never happened before. And so we saw this happen in Ferguson with … I cannot be sure if Black Lives Matter happened because of Ferguson. I can’t speak to that, I’m not sure, but there is an important historical element to that, because Black Lives Matter started in digital space. It did not start in physical space. It started as a hashtag on social media, and so that’s important to understand too when we start talking about hashtag initiatives around Black lives and how that’s implemented, who co-opts it, what happens. And so that’s that. That’s it. That’s my last point.
Blunt:
Thank you.
Taz:
The people that are looking for that information, a lot of people that are trying to reach racial sobriety, I think there are a lot of people around me that are deeply looking into themselves. My husband is white and his entire family, right? They are having conversations and they … He gave an example, I was like, “You need to post some shit because your timeline is full of fucking white people, and so you need to say more,” and he posted the black tile. I opened my door, I was like, “Why did you post the black tile? You didn’t give any other information.”
SX Noir:
Right.
Taz:
He was like, “Oh my God, wait. I thought this is what I was supposed to do. I thought I needed to …” He was like, “Okay, tell me more. Explain this to me,” because he’s been my punching bag. I’m like, “It’s really sad for you right now to be white in this home.”
SX Noir:
In this home only, yeah.
Taz:
I’m coming for you. I’m coming for all of them. I have been always, but it’s like … Anyway, that’s a whole separate conversation outside of this. But he said something that really hit me. He said that, “I just saw somebody post a black tile, that I know knows nothing about it, that wrote hashtag what is this, hashtag memes,” right? And he said that, “Most of the people that are posting on my timeline, they’re not a part of a culture. They don’t know the pop culture that we maybe probably exist in and what our timelines look like and whatnot.” His timeline is fucking wake surfers and snowboarders and shit. That’s what he knows and that’s what he sees, and those are his people, and they were not getting the information, and so then when they went to go … When he even went to go look up, if you look up the hashtag Black lives … If you type in #BLM #BlackLivesMatter, fully spelled out, or even #Blackout, it’s like damn, there’s nothing explaining this.
And now all of a sudden you are … It’s like, “Okay, this is making me want to get more information, maybe as an ally non-Black POC or any non-Black person,” and then you look up the hashtag and all of a sudden it’s black squares and the time that people are trying to find information, that information is suppressed. And why, and how?
Alison:
When we talk about data weaponization, it’s really important to know that data gets weaponized when we can acknowledge what parts of the information that we represent back to folks in order to influence how they feel, so in this case it’s very apparent that white guilt was what was weaponized because there’s so many people saying, “I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to post. I don’t know what to do,” and so by posting this, they feel like they did something, but they actually contributed to the suppression and to white supremacy not knowing that they were being manipulated and I saw so many examples of that. And so right now I think the oppressor’s goal is they want to suppress as much information and resources and police violence content as possible but they can’t just go out and be like, “Okay, shut off the media, shut down Twitter, shut off Instagram,” so they have to find a workaround.
And so the workaround is psy ops. And so in this case the people who want to post but can’t and don’t know what to post are white people and the voices that they need to silence are Black voices. And so that’s exactly what they did.
Blunt:
Right. It made me think of the 2018 elections with the Russian bots just adding a bunch of noise into social media so that the information that we’re looking for isn’t as accessible. This work really made me think of Helen Nissenbaum’s Obfuscation: A User Manual, which I highly recommend folks check out if they haven’t. Obfuscation is the tactic of sort of disappearing information within more information, is one of the ways that you can obfuscate something. So people use the black tile and tagged it with Black Lives Matter, but also you could use that tile to tag it with Blue Lives Matter, and so I think asking yourselves, “Does this work in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement or against” is a really good question to ask yourself, and I want to second what Alison was saying.
What was so successful about Blackout Tuesday in suppressing Black Lives Matter’s movement information was that it preyed on white guilt, it was a very successful campaign of silencing marginalized communities because it had an incredibly easy ask and the ask was to post something and then get offline. What more could you want as a white person who doesn’t want to engage in these conversations. So I think being really thoughtful about what the ask is, where it’s coming from … I had a person in my DMs who was like, “This is the music company that it started with. This is how it spread,” and literally tracing it all the way back to Jared Kushner.
So just to put on my little tinfoil hat, I think you actually might be seeing some news articles coming out about the intentionality behind it and how and when it was weaponized. And I think that this is something that’s really important for folks to be aware of as more and more movement work happens online, because this is what we’re going to see. I think in the states it’s less likely that they’re going to directly block certain internet websites, though we might see that as well, but algorithmic curation or shadowbanning or the takeover of a hashtag to hide I think is going to be a psy ops tactic that we see over and over again that is suppressing really vital, life saving information, so I think understanding how the algorithm works, how your guilt or your positioning is actually something that could be weaponized to suppress information in the algorithm is something that’s really important to start becoming more aware of.
I also want to shout out Zeynep Tufecki’s Twitter and Tear Gas which talks about Arab Springs and protests in Turkey about the way that Twitter was used both in solidarity with movement work and against it, so it talks about the power and fragility of organizing online and within social media and the rapid exchange of information.
SX Noir:
Thank you both for sharing that. Something that I love to touch on is, is this concept of organizing digital space … You know, we can’t have this conversation without acknowledging the fact that we are still in isolation with coronavirus. We cannot deny the fact that we are turning to social media to talk and connect more than ever before because the typical places where we see each other and organize the bars … Well, I like to drink, so the bar … the nightclub, you know. I’m just thinking about sex work. You know, the nightclub or schools or work, where we normally are seeing each other and having these conversations. We’re not anymore, so what’s happening is we’re on Twitter DM, which you can’t delete messages. You’re on Instagram DM. You can’t delete messages. You’re on these platforms that are highly surveilled, therefore are able to, like Alison said, reflect information back to you to be used to manipulate.
And so, part of this mission being co-opted and the information being used to suppress actual Black voices that are needed as far as Black Lives Matter go, is the need for connection and purpose, which COVID-19 has exasperated. I love to use that word but I can never say correctly.
Blunt:
You said it great.
SX Noir:
Yeah, I think it’s a weird word and I just think I say it wrong. But the need for connection and purpose is amplified right now during coronavirus because we do not feel purpose and connection for those millions who’ve lost their job, for the millions who are in entertainment industries or creative industries who have no idea when they’re returning back to work. So there is this sense of urgency to feel connected and to feel comradery with other humans, but there is a disconnect of being able to dissect that information, process it and critically think about it in digital space because it is not a physical person. It is not a group of people. It is a cell phone. It is something we are already very desensitized to.
Without my even liking, I see things I don’t want to see and I have to immediately be able to process that in my brain. And so that’s something that should be acknowledged, this empathetic level of Alison brought up in the chat this process of white people posting about it, being called out about it, being upset that they’re being called out and then completely disengaging from it, right?
And so this is a psychological process that we do in physical space. If we see a threat … It’s the same thing that we do when we see people or have these interactions in person, so I encourage people to, just how you navigate threats in physical space, really kind of think about that in digital space too and that thought process of, “Is this good for me? Is this wrong for me? Who is this really helping? And what is my intention of doing what I’m doing?” And so that’s a very important harm reduction tactic, especially now when most of our lives are … a lot of our connection is happening online. A lot of it is.
Blunt:
I think, too, white folks are not going to be perfect about what you post and having grace when you’re called in or called out, I think, is a really important harm reduction task, so you can continue to do the work that’s in solidarity with Black Lives Matters, I think is an important harm reduction tip.
SX Noir:
Should we go into the examples of different types of memes? I thought it was really good, like the “match my donation”, the swipe trends that get you to reveal personal information or images to try facial recognition or to collect data, personal data.
Blunt:
Totally. Yeah, so this is actually a conversation I was having with Erin at atmfiend who maybe I’ll ask her to share more on this, but she was talking about the black tile as being co-opted to suppress movement work versus the “match my donation” being something that’s used to actually, factorally amplify bail fund donations. So, both are virtue signaling to some extent, but the “match my donation” was actually, tangibly increasing funds and what I thought was so interesting about that, that as a meme, that as a rapidly spreading form of ways of raising money is that it is virtue signaling but another form of propaganda is saying, “Hey, I did this. You could too,” and then people are significantly more likely to make that action.
So, there’s positive ways that we can deploy these psychological tactics that work in solidarity with raising money for bail funds, for raising money for memorials, for raising money for Black Live Matters movements, and there’s ways that those same tactics can be weaponized against movement work.
Taz:
And performative. The whole conversation around race and responding to anti-racism work, the difference between performative action and actually transforming your inner psyche and your cognitive behavioral patterns, which is the biggest difference and when you think of our … I mean just the history in America and white people and their need for maybe virtue signaling or performative action to show that, “Hey, I did something,” but not really do the work and have the discomfort inward. It has so much to do with the way they were raised and their privilege, and that’s a whole other type of psychological conversation that we could probably speak on for hours. It’s like something that … it could go on and on and on.
But one thing that I wanted to mention too with the memes, it’s where the culture of memes exists also. So I think the culture of memes started on Facebook and then the culture of memes moved into Instagram because memes are way more palatable on Instagram and how the information is shared there and on Twitter. I’m newer to Twitter so I’m still getting used to the way Twitter runs, but I’ve been really struggling over LinkedIn and Facebook and understanding how certain content isn’t reaching the various algorithmic bubbles on other mediums, and as we think about how our data is weaponized, we have to think about it from many different angles of the medium that it’s being weaponized on.
So Facebook in one right, Instagram in another, and then LinkedIn or any other type of social media platform that it comes out. And that’s something I’m still learning. I’m not familiar with LinkedIn’s algorithms and how you can gain more followers and people are just now starting to leverage LinkedIn as more of a social media platform where you’re making videos and creating content. LinkedIn has not been a content medium. LinkedIn has more so been a medium for networking, right? The way kind of Facebook started, as a medium for networking, and when you think of Safiya’s book, Algorithms of Oppression, like even within the first couple of pages, you’re like, “Damn. Facebook was for the whites, LinkedIn’s for the whites,” and the way that it remains that way.
I think of the circle that I have on LinkedIn, in the security industry, 90% of my connections on LinkedIn are white, if not more that percentage, and that’s because the security industry, 90% of the security industry is white and that’s why it’s that, and I literally was just struggling to understand why aren’t these posts about Black lives? Why aren’t the posts of companies that are maybe standing in solidarity or matching donations or whatever work that they’re doing to combat racism right now, why am I not seeing any of that on my timeline? Is that me? Is it because I’m not associated with enough people that are sharing that informatioN?
It made me start thinking about a lot of different questions and on LinkedIn, it’s only people of color and Black people right now that are talking about what’s going on, and so how do we get the right information to reach the necessary places and, again, to the question, who’s the oppressor? Or what medium, right? Who are they trying to appease and what side … Who’s an ally and who’s not an ally? I don’t know if any of you guys are avid LinkedIn users. I’m not really, but just trying to understand how data truly is … it’s weaponized, and that psy ops that’s working on LinkedIn, people just are living blindly and that’s in the spaces where we need to break those algorithmic bubbles the most.
I’m really trying to understand why it’s been so difficult.
Blunt:
Yeah. Oh, sorry.
Taz:
Go ahead.
Blunt:
I think that’s sort of what the intention behind Blackout Tuesday was for, to amplify the voices of Black folks on social media and so that white person’s feed doesn’t remain so white, so that that algorithmic bubble can expand beyond the echo chamber, because these websites are monetized and the more time you spend on it, the more money the platform makes, and they’re going to show you similar things so that you stay on longer. SX, would you be interested in reading a little bit about the notes about the algorithm in the notepad? We have some notes on shadowbanning and what is shadowbanning and what the algorithm is.
SX Noir:
Yes. Taz, I realize that you do have to hop off the call soon. I wanted to give you some space if there’s anything you’d like to share or say in regards to meme culture or anything that we’re talking about today.
Taz:
I think it’s just really important to take the information that we’re getting that is so valuable, all these memes that are being developed, these smaller graphics that are existing on platforms where Black and brown people are posting and where I would say that there are more allies for the Black movement on Instagram than there are on LinkedIn, in my opinion, right? And it’s a different demographic and age group, so I think that in the same right where we’re thinking about these hashtags, okay, we want to support Black Lives Matter but if this is a video, we should hashtag the opposite hashtags that we think to, right? The Blue Lives Matter, so that those hashtags get inundated with the information that we’re trying to push out to the screens that need them most.
So the one thing that I would ask as anybody that is active in their allyship, bring the information to the places that need it most and I think places like LinkedIn and … I don’t really use Facebook like that but I’m trying to post the information there as well, and taking the same effort that we have of creating the memes that are circulating and putting them on a new medium, on a medium where it is majority white, because that’s where the information, I think, really needs to reach.
So, that’s what I would leave off with and if anybody has any questions, if any Black owned business needs any type of security assessment, any help, I’m in. I’m here to help any way that I can, so thank you all so deeply for having me. I am extremely appreciative and I wish I could stay on longer.
SX Noir:
I know.
Blunt:
Hopefully we can continue these conversations next week or something. So interesting.
SX Noir:
Thank you so much [crosstalk 00:44:27]
Taz:
Yeah. I could talk about this shit for days. I have been. But I’m sending all of you ladies so much love, and also, the last thing I’ll add is I have a lot of friends that are spiritual healers and during this time if anybody needs healing, that’s something that … Find me and I can point you in the right direction to send some good healing work. But thank you for the work that you guys do.
Blunt:
Thank you, take care of yourself.
Taz:
Bye.
SX Noir:
Bye darling.
Alison:
Okay, something I really feel that I need to say is that if somebody is asking you to do something on social media, for example post a black tile or share something or swipe up, it’s so important that you take the time to investigate the source of where that’s coming from, why that person is asking you, who that person is, are they a bot, are they real, is it a fake account, are they impersonating somebody, and weigh the risk over the convenience and ask what the main goal of posting or sharing that piece of content is, because that could have saved a lot of people from this black square bullshit.
Blunt:
Yeah, I think that’s really important, thank you, and I think I also think the question to ask yourself is, does this look like a fed op? I’m thinking of the viral meme of, “Share a photo of you at 18 and now.” Is this being used to further facial recognition technology without your consent? They’re asking for your stripper name, the street that you grew up on and your dog’s name. Those are your security password questions. So, be mindful about the information that you share and how you share it, and if it looks like a fed op, if it’s too easy, it very well could be.
I’ve been seeing the swipe up thing to sign this going around sort of virally and I could trace it back to who originated it and that looked reliable, but I would only swipe up on that link from her page because you don’t know where along the chain of this information being spread that they’re actually just collecting data on your political leanings and [crosstalk 00:46:42]
Alison:
And it’s coming from Instagram. Do you trust Instagram to [crosstalk 00:46:47]
SX Noir:
And also something to understand too is that we know Black and brown people are more vulnerable when it comes to facial recognition, and so as a white person when you do engage in these trends, for example the “show a photo of you at 18, show a photo of you now” to amplify the goals of AI, they will probably have less repercussions or less impact than people of color and Black people from participating in that. So that’s something to acknowledge too, how the internet’s being used similar to how physical space is, right? So you may be engaging in an act that seems harmless but ultimately it’s harmful to certain people.
Mistress Blunt asked me to speak on understanding the algorithm. So, Hacking Hustling has some great resources around algorithms and how to think about algorithms and how it impacts your life, specifically sex workers, but how shadowbanning currently works. Shadowbanning is a tool designed to reduce the prevalence of content that Instagram deemed should not be easily discoverable on the platform. This takes a few forms, not showing up on the discover tab, not showing up in relevant hashtag pages and not showing up when searched for in the app unless using full screen name.
Shadowbanning is not responsible for changes in user’s feed or how often someone’s content shows up in a follower’s feed. It is mainly about discoverability. We can absolutely acknowledge that this discoverability has a moral judgment behind it. It has a moral judgment behind the people who are making that judgment who tend to be white men. The algorithm is in context refers to the machine learning algorithm deployed to stack rank the content a user is shown and be in stories. The algorithm predicts what content is most important to you and shows you that content. Notably it also does this bandwidth with advertisements and machine learning including what type of content it is, who it’s from, the hashtag used and if it is an original post or a repost.
It is impossible to know every single factor that goes into this algorithm and it is constantly adapting and changing itself. So, this is important to acknowledge because there is a learned helplessness element from probably the person who’s viewing this, which is someone who could be adjacent to the sex work industry of our personal navigation, our work navigation of these social medias and how algorithms impact that. What else do you guys think about it?
Blunt:
Yeah, I think just … I just really want folks to … I think this is a time to really increase our digital literacy and understanding of the way that these platforms that we rely on, how they work and how invisibilized it is, because as we’re progressing in this revolutionary time, I think that this is how we’re going to see information being repressed, is through algorithmic curation or shadowbanning. And so sex workers have been shadowbanned for years. This isn’t something that’s new for us. I’m curious if the Black Lives Matter hashtag will at some point be shadowbanned, is something that I’m nervous about. I truly hope that that does not happen but I think thinking about that and then thinking about … I think Taz said something really interesting and there was a post going around with the Blackout Tuesday … Don’t share this with the Black Lives Matter, share this with the Blue Lives Matter, and share it off platform, move it across different platforms.
If you know certain groups of people don’t show up in algorithms and are not getting the same amount of engagement that someone else with the same amount of followers would be, how can you amplify those voices so that they can be seen on a platform that has erased them?
SX Noir:
Yeah. I feel like I like … I mean, I like this narrative but it also makes me nervous. For a fact, I’m never going to make a post that says Blue Lives Matter. I would never do that, simply because I don’t want the people who follow that hashtag to come to my page. I think as being someone-
Blunt:
A very good point.
SX Noir:
… In the sex industry, we had a really interesting conversation, I think … I think it was a Hacking Hustling thing, and we were talking about how we bring energy … Oh, it was the SEO about how we navigate the energy that we bring to our pages and I think it is scary to think about cross referencing and algorithms and all of that, because I don’t know what energy I’m bringing to not only my life but, you know, my [crosstalk 00:51:36]
Blunt:
Do it with a throwaway account.
SX Noir:
Yeah, right, right, right, but that’s a good distinction. I think it’s a lot. It’s a lot, but I guess … What else do we have to touch on before we …
Alison:
[crosstalk 00:51:54] They have been so critical on the efforts to shut down White Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter hashtags. I don’t know if you saw that happening on Twitter.
SX Noir:
Who?
Blunt:
Can you say that again?
Alison:
K-pop stans. K-pop.
Blunt:
Oh.
SX Noir:
Oh. But I also feel like [crosstalk 00:52:09]
Blunt:
I did see that [crosstalk 00:52:10]
SX Noir:
Because each category’s been really weird. It’s like some of the things are defined under certain categories, and so when we talk about Blunt mentioning nervous about the shadowbanning of Black Lives Matter, in a lot of ways, a lot of Black people have been shadowbanned, so Black Lives Matter has been shadowbanned, but it’s concerning simply because of the founders of these tech platforms are being put on social blast more than they ever have before, and their personal views are impacting the design of these social media sites.
And so Facebook is absolutely working with Trump, so who’s to say that it won’t be shadowbanned? Who’s to say … People on the streets are being stopped. Protestors on the streets are being stopped by FBI agents and asked about anti-fascist statements on their social media. This is happening. It’s here, right? And so when you are a victim of someone spreading misinformation … I’m not sure that’s the right phrasing … It’s okay to take a moment and sit in that discomfort because a lot of things are happening that are not right. A lot of things are happening that is very confusing for us and it’s changing rapidly.
Blunt:
Yeah, no, I think that’s a really important point. It’s like assessing the information a little bit slower than you would normally engage with social media I think is really important. At this time I think we’re going to start seeing a lot more fake information going around. I also want to … Your own threat model, a lot of people aren’t going to want to use those hashtags for that. Use a throwaway account if that’s something that you want to do, but I do think we’re going to be seeing more psy ops of weaponizing guilt or weaponizing a lack of awareness or misinformation to spread misinformation or to reduce the visibility of really important information in movement work, and I think that that’s how we’re going to see it sort of take place in the states of the suppression of information online.
Alison:
Yeah, but it’s also … Because that’s really important, and also important to note that that in particular is targeted at Instagram, right? So each different platform is going to have its own form of psy ops and I think with Facebook with the data that was subpoenaed from the 2016 election, there were so many Black Lives Matter movements and events that were actually advertised in created by folks in Russia. We have evidence that that is what happened, and when people showed up, they were … I think some folks were arrested. Essentially they set people up and they created a divide not only between the right and left but also within their own communities because they were putting out information that was intentionally meant to divide.
So we’re going to see that on Facebook. It’s probably happening right now, and I personally would discourage people from using Facebook and engaging in Facebook events because in the past, people have … I posted a case study recently, last night actually, where the DOJ submitted warrants because they wanted access to all the data of folks who not just clicked “attended” but engaged with anti-Trump protests. We’re going to see that happen soon because they said that they were able to submit these warrants because violence occurred at that protest. Violence is occurring at the protests here, whether it’s … Whoever’s doing it doesn’t matter, but it’s like the fact is, those warrants will be submitted.
And so we need to also figure out an action plan of how can we protect the people who, as you said, don’t have the digital literacy to know that they should not be engaging in these types of ways with these platforms. In every single platform there needs to be some type of digital literacy and I think that that is something else that is 100% being weaponized within America.
SX Noir:
And we have to understand that this is new. Our parents, our grandparents did not have to do this, so have patience with yourself. Be kind to yourself. This is something your mom, when she was marching out in the ’70s, did not have to deal with, did not have to worry about subscribing to a Facebook event and being tracked. Did not have to worry about swiping up and having their personal information being shared. That was not something that they have to navigate. There was definitely technological surveillance, I’m sure, but not to the extent that it is today. Not to the extent.
Blunt:
The tactics are new but this is just very in line with every fascist regime takeover that we’ve seen. It’s just that the tactics are new, they’re online, it’s way easier to collect information and that network … Social media is literally a network of people that you know. That network is now very concrete in the and the web of how it’s spread. You’re totally right, this is happening so fast, SX, and in this way that we haven’t seen before.
SX Noir:
We’ve got to be kind with each other. We have to be kind with each other and trust respected sources like the people that you’re listening to right now. That was a great harm reduction tactic of spreading misinformation. I recommend finding two, three people that you actively trust, journalists or community leaders, and that’s who you get you information from and check in with. I know Melissa Gira Grant is one of my journalists that I follow. I go through their feed every other day because I trust the words that they say. I trust their opinions. I respect them, and so Melissa Gira Grant, Kate [Diama 00:58:15]. You know, just sex worker shit, but those are the people that I value and trust. And there’s another Black reporter who does a lot of work, a journalist for the … I don’t know if it’s for the White House but they do a lot of … That’s my trusted source, and so that’s how I counteract the mis-spread of information.
Because something to understand about social media is it will reflect what you want to see and it will actively validate what you want to see, and it is harder to digest information that is countering what you want to see. So that’s something that’s important to understand in this movement as well, that when you … As humans, we want to reaffirm what we know to be true. We don’t like things that are new. It’s the flight or fight, right? We don’t like things that are presenting a threat to us. It’s not necessarily hard to understand, but it’s a different process of how we understand it.
So, we in social media are constantly being reaffirmed our beliefs and our views, and so this is why it is important to find, because for example if MGG posted … Melissa Gira Grant posted something that was like, “That’s making me think,” but it’s a trusted source and I know that what they’re saying is true and valid, then I can then, on my own, critically think about how I should maybe change my behavior or [inaudible 00:59:30] differently, right? And so that’s a tactic that, guess what, I probably don’t have to do that the same way in physical space like I do in digital space. It’s a little different.
So yes. Okay, so it’s been about an hour and 15.
Blunt:
Yes. I just want to shout out some of the references that we’ve used and if anyone has anything that they want to share … I think now is a really important time to educate yourself about social media and fascism and propaganda, because I think the way that propaganda moves, similar to a meme, is constantly changing and evolving and the tactics that we’re going to see in this time, I think any literacy that you can do to help prepare yourself to reduce … I’m not going to even say not, because to reduce the amount of information that you share and spread is a really important harm reduction tip.
I wanted to shout out … Ruha Benjamin is also an amazing person to follow. She wrote Race After Technology as well … She also has a collection of essays that recently came out, that I’d suggest. I think Alison said it, but Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Noble. Obfuscation: A User’s Guide for Privacy and Protest by Finn Brunton and Helen Nissenbaum to sort of go into the ways that obfuscation is like a military psy ops tactic that can be used to make something invisible which can be really useful. So Helen Nissenbaum has this really interesting art project called Ad Nauseum which just hides all of your clicks by clicking on every single thing that’s shown to you. So that, as a form of obfuscation.
I think that that’s a very helpful text. Zeynep Tufekci’s Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. This is just like a case study of how social media has been used in uprisings in the past and if one book, I think that that one is the most helpful. Also you can follow her on Twitter. She’s writing a lot about the current uprisings and what’s going on in the states. I think Network Propaganda from Harvard is about about manipulation, disinformation and radicalization in American politics and if you like maps, that’s a great one for you, which literally just maps out the ways that misinformation is spread and sort of how echo chambers stop exacerbate the spread of information.
And yeah, I don’t know. Does anyone have anything to add? I was just going to pop up little book titles at the end of this.
Alison:
I would definitely add Mindfuck by Chris Wylie. He was one of the people that helped build Cambridge Analytica. He was the whistleblower on the entire thing. His book is very eye opening. It will make you feel like you do not have a tinfoil hat on and everything that you said is totally valid. He shines light on how the Trump campaign and … What’s that other white supremacist guy? The guy who owns Cambridge Analytica. I can’t think of his name. It’s escaping me now but yeah, how they work together with Facebook and took data to create these memes, actually, and kind of divide people and helped Trump win the election and also helped Brexit happen.
So I definitely encourage reading his book, and at the end he has great suggestions for regulating technology. One of the points that he made, which is something that I often voice and learn from him is that unlike every single other industry like architecture or law, all of these people have to agree to being held accountable because if not you can lose your job, you can be fined, but in technology it’s an architecture. We’re creating an architecture for services and we are the only industry that does not have any regulations where we can build architecture and invite people into a crumbling building knowing that it’s about to crumble, you know?
So, he gives a lot of great suggestions for how policy needs to be enacted immediately or else this is just going to continue to happen. So I definitely really recommend this book to everybody to understand what happened with the last election and what’s going to happen with this election and what’s happening right now.
Blunt:
Awesome.
SX Noir:
You guys are such thought leaders. I don’t have any books to recommend. I don’t know things.
Blunt:
I want to end … I’m going to share my screen real quick with you. I made this meme which I feel like … I’m going to delete this, but this is just for you. That feeling when conspiracy theories are true. Oh fuck yeah, spread it.
SX Noir:
I love a good conspiracy theory so much.
Blunt:
Also, is it a conspiracy theory? But yeah, I think being mindful about the information that you spread and how you spread it, and also, memes are really an accessible form of ways of engaging in political discourse and you can make your own, making sure that they’re true, that they’re working in solidarity with the movement work that you want to be doing … It’s like this is what our brains have evolved to be able to digest, is these little bite-size crumpets of content and it is a very useful way of sharing information really quickly and just being mindful of it.
Alison:
Yeah, and also I feel like the word “conspiracy” has been co-opted in itself to gaslight people, so another way to think of conspiracy is alternate agenda, and everybody has an alternate agenda.
Blunt:
I love that. I love that.
SX Noir:
Yeah, that was good.
Blunt:
SX, do you want to close us out with any thoughtful thoughts?
SX Noir:
No, just as always, practice radical thoughtfulness and understand that there is no middle ground between being anti-racist or supporting the fascist state, so don’t delete us, YouTube or whoever this is being streamed to for saying that, and if you’re out there marching, please be safe and Black lives do matter. That’s all I have to say. Black lives matter.
Blunt:
Black lives matter.
SX Noir:
Yep.
Blunt:
And where can we find you, SX?
SX Noir:
Oh yeah. I’m on SX Noir, the letter S, the letter X … I forget that we’re still … I feel like we’re just hanging out, which is bad that we’re still recording. You can find me everywhere on at the letter S and X, N-O-I-R. You can find my podcast on iTunes at Thot Leader Pod and that is T-H-O-T Leader. Yeah.
Blunt:
Alison, if you want to be found, do you want to share anything about Woman of Sex Tech or your work?
Alison:
Yeah. Join Women of Sex Tech this summer. Follow me and SX for updates. You can find me on Instagram at Falkyou, F-A-L-K-Y-O-U, or you can find me on Twitter at AlisonFalkPGH. I have recently been more active on Instagram in trying to share what I know to help keep people safe, so yeah. Find me there. Find me everywhere.
Blunt:
Awesome, and I’m at HackingHustling on Instagram and Twitter, HackingHustling.org for more resources on digital security. Feel free to get in touch and let us know what you want to see. I want to make sure that the conversations and the webinars that we’re doing are relevant to folks who are out on the front lines doing that work and you can find me at MistressBlunt cross platform, MistressBlunt.com. One day sexy content will return, so beware, and yeah, take care of yourselves and be mindful about what you share and post.