Théophile LenoirMay 8, 2023

"Now is *not* the best time to intervene. This would have been clear earlier if observers had analyzed the information environment via an ecological lens."

Pretty bold and thought-provoking piece by @lageneralista

https://www.lawfareblog.com/there-no-getting-ahead-disinformation-without-moving-past-it

There Is No Getting Ahead of Disinformation Without Moving Past It

It’s time for democracies to stop focusing on disinformation.

Lawfare
Show threadAlicia Wanless
@TheoLenoir yeah, after five historic case studies and much thinking about the past 25-30 years, the time to have been helping people prepare for life in our current information environment was likely with the introduction of 24-7 cable news coverage. Since then it’s just been change after change to how we process and share info, and now there are at least two major worldviews that are increasingly incompatible. Not quite sure how we come back from that.
May 8, 2023 at 6:47pmWeb
Show threadThéophile LenoirMay 8, 2023

@lageneralista

Really sensible to this idea that action is worse than inaction. What I keep wondering is: if this already happened in the past then objectivity as an ideal to guide public sphere already went through rough patches and survived. But today for a lot of people it feels like something new is happening. If they're wrong then we'll find new ways to share objective facts. But if they're right... "Coming back from that" will mean building a 'new-objectivity' pub sphere.

Show threadAlicia WanlessMay 8, 2023
@TheoLenoir yeah. I think there are definitely patterns to how technology changes our relationship with information, and in our reactions to those changes, such that it’s possible to study the information ecosystem where this all happens. Something I keep wondering about is what resilience really means in the information environment - is it possible ecosystems and the people in them naturally rebound to information pollution? Can those rebounds be boosted? I don’t know yet.
Show threadThéophile LenoirMay 8, 2023
@lageneralista but isn't the point of looking at information ecology to consider them not as pollution but as a normal (let's be bold: 'healthy'?) part of the information ecosystem? Maybe the emphasis on consensus and unity in politics prevents us from thinking past these issues. On this this piece keeps boggling me: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448231161880
Show threadAlicia WanlessMay 8, 2023
@TheoLenoir That’s exactly what information ecology would aim to get at. I think democracy requires some sort of compromise at the least, but to expect that everyone will agree all the time or hold the exact same views seems like a reach knowing humans. That paper looks interesting, thanks!