content moderation (10. 868)

With the recent onslaught of US supreme course cases leaving us a little overwhelmed, it was difficult to unpack this coda in the form of an injunction imposed by a district judge in Louisiana (another Trump appointee) against federal agencies from communicating with social media. Under appeal, the temporary ruling bars the government from working with Facebook and others to redress posts hosted that propagate false claims that could undermine public confidence in matters of health and election integrity and could seriously curtail the ability to fact-check and steer the narrative away from conspiracy theories and unfounded claims in the upcoming presidential election. Pitting fighting disinformation for public safety against “free speech” and the grievance of some conservative elements have for social media’s bias against them, the suit claims that the government overstepped its bounds by rallying to deplatform posts that questioned the risk or origin of COVID (emboldened by the concession it might have come from a Chinese laboratory), the efficacy of protective measures or whether the Biden administration is legitimate, competent departments including the press secretary, Justice, the FBI and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention are barred from reaching out directly to platforms or engaging with third-parties who research the effects of media on public perception. Though unclear how accustomed government agencies were with accessing social media in the past (and the ruling does at least promise to reveal the scope and regularity of contact), it does seem clear that a blanket restriction will limit the government’s ability to shape the narrative and combat disinformation and will bear heavily on the 2024 presidential race.

bundestagswahl 2021

Germany is holding a national ballot to elect the members of the twentieth Bundestag, the federal parliament. With Angela Merkel having chose not to run after sixteen years as chancellor, this vote marks the first time in modern Germany history that the incumbent is not seeking reelection.  Seven top candidates from Germany’s forty-seven listed political parties are vying for top position and the mandate to form a coalition government and reach a power-sharing agreement with the opposition.  

the ayes have it

First installed in January 1973—another very pivotal month for America with the Oil Crisis, the drawdown from Vietnam, Richard Nixon’s second inauguration and the Roe v. Wade decision in the US Supreme Court—we find, via JWZ, that little has changed and the US House of Representatives’ electronic voting system (relatedly) very much preserves its original Star Trek: TOS aesthetic (see also). Forty-seven stations are spread throughout the chamber—they’re not on the backs of all seats and members can cast they vote at any one of them, using an ID card they carry.

6x6

mother lode: the Hubble Space Telescope spies a metal ore asteroid worth an estimated ten-thousand times the global economy of 2019 (previously)—via Slashdot  

8800 blue lick road: one of the best accidental, immersive gaming experiences of the year is this virtual real estate tour 

franchisement: we enjoyed this pairing of articles about the “I Voted!” stickers—first with an overview of their contested origins as a badge of participation once democracy moved towards the secret ballot and the civics exercise that has artists reimagine them  

lorembarnak: a Québécois curse (see previously) generator—via Things Magazine  

seaweeding: Victorian-era hobby lends insight on our changed oceans  

one parsec: a breath-taking visualisation of ten million stars at the centre of the Milky Way

super tuesday

Ahead of the first national primary to secure the candidacy of the Democratic Party, the field of contenders has thinned significantly with former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and former hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer—after spending a quarter of a billion dollars of his personal fortune—have dropped out of the race. Klobuchar and Buttigieg (whom polls consistently showed him roundly unseating Trump in a one-to-one race) have yielded the party’s central constituency and endorsed former vice president Joe Biden for the high office.

armchair quarterback

Though it is sometimes difficult to confront one’s own shortcomings and gladiatorial instincts that we hope to dress-up as and therefore translate to political engagement, there’s a danger in political hobbyism and its self-curatorial overreach that compels one to share and to share passionately with expertise and insight but then fails many of us when it comes to follow-through.
The social media, network news takedown that Hidden Brain accompanies us on is harsh but fair and we ought to aspire to dislodge this trend that dilutes political engagement (surely by design) into something akin to collecting crafts, recipes and destinations, the allotment thereof cultivating our own image. Those efforts are important too and real labour but also proves taxing and leaves many of us too exhausted to act on our platforms. We find ourselves tantalized with the apex of politics to the neglect of the nadir—those issues that we can impact (also obfuscated and shoved off as dull or irrelevant by those who would wield power rather than be spectators) and multiply the impact of our individual votes and restores democracy by dint of participation.

wahllokal

After having secured the right to vote and stand for public office the preceding November, women in Germany and Austria for the first time had the occasion to participate in the democratic process on this day in 1919 during federal elections (Nationalversammulung)—the Austrian constituent assembly elections were held a few weeks later on 16 February.

frauenwahlrecht

Following the November Revolution that ignited with the abdication of the Hapsburg and German emperors and subsequent truce, this day marks the centenary of universal suffrage in Austria and Germany with both women and men aged at least twenty (down from twenty-five from prior to Great War) being able to vote and stand for public office in any and all elections.
For the people of Germany, this pronouncement was legally ratified on 30 November 1918 and was to shortly thereafter be tested in the field and at the polls with federal elections called for the Weimar Republic in January 1919. Austria held Constituent Assembly (Konstituierende Nationalversammung) elections in mid-February. Though activists all over had been working towards the enfranchisement of women for years and the struggle for equal representation continues, political will acquiesced in part because so many millions had perished in the fighting and constituencies were more and more reliant on the votes of women to confer confidence and mandate.

electoral college

On this day in 1733, polymath and political scientist Jean-Charles de Borda was born in the Aquitaine city of Dax whose most significant contribution to the sciences were his precise tables of logarithms meant to help with the transition to the metric system and decimalisation (including the calendar) in general after the French Revolution.
We are probably more familiar with him for his namesake method of voting, however, referred to as the Borda Count, wherein constituents rank candidates in order of preference and the overall winner secures his or her standing via consensus rather than a bald majority. Only three governments currently use the inclusive, weighted criteria of the Borda Count in some form for national elections—Kiribati, Nauru and Slovenia—but a large number of student body government and academic races are decided by these means as well as many sporting superlatives and significantly the winners of the Eurovision Song Contest are picked by a modified form of Borda’s system too. Maybe these other institutions are on to something.

civics lessons

On Monday, the electors of the US Electoral College travel to their respective state capitols to cast their votes. Most jurisdictions require the representatives to be faithful to the will of their constituency, however a few states allow electors the option to go faithless and, like in Texas, two electors have chosen to resign their commissions rather than assent to Trump and one individual will be going to Austin to vote for someone other than Trump.
Some suggest that up to twenty electors are seriously considering abstaining or changing their votes, which is something truly unprecedented, and pressure groups on both sides are plying their case. What do you think? The numerical constraints the such a system introduces might be by their nature flawed but is it the responsibility of the College to decide elections? Or to ratify the popular vote? Twenty possible dissenters nearly erodes that surplus of thirty-seven that cost team Clinton the presidency, but in the end is unlikely to change the results—still razor-thin no matter how it’s called. A few score of electors are asking that all, prior to casting their ballots, should be debriefed by the intelligence agencies in order to make an informed choice (arguably one not afforded to the general electorate) about the role that Russian interference played in the outcome. Many more are asking that that the ballot be delayed until the investigation is finished. Another affiliate branch within the College plans to abstain and thus narrow the gap to the point where the decision to turned over to the (Republican-controlled) Senate to anoint the next president.

ford v carter

The other day I came across this logo for US election night 1976, and was surprised by how contemporary the design seemed. On closer investigation, however, this convention developed by television anchor-men at the time was not the standard adopted by broadcasters universally and was in fact the opposite to the colour-coding in use today.
Until the 1980s, following the European system with red being associated with Communism and the left-leaning politics, the relatively and presently liberal Democratic Party was symbolised with that colour—though not by all media, and the Grand Old Party was represented by blue—harking back, according to some sources, to the blue uniforms of Unionist soldiers during the American Civil War. The colour schemes remained relatively mixed—with some outlets assigning one colour to the incumbent party and the other to the challenger, without respect for affiliation—until the contested outcome of the 2000 that took weeks to resolve and to less than a majority’s satisfaction between Al Gore and George W Bush. When the interpretation of the prevailing votes mattered not only state by state but county by county and precinct by precinct, all networks had to get it right (too much was at stake) and so adopted the same protocols for reporting and calling. The convention of Red States and Blue States for the media has held since.

motor voter

Safely shielded from the majority of US campaign mobilisation initiatives, polling and cold-calls, I was a bit surprised to learn that Rock the Vote is still making appeals to engage the plebiscite. During the last mid-term elections in 2014, there was a considerable push to get a certain demographic to register and participate, though the whole exercise was criticised as a stunt by conservatives for baiting the invitation with liberal issues—like legalising drugs or free access to educational opportunities—prompted by personalities that didn’t count themselves amongst the voting-class.
It was a bit off-cycle for the first time I was eligible to participate in a national election but I do remember feeling inspired and even actively campaigning for Ross Perot, which I am ashamed to admit but at least that helped unseat George I. What is perhaps most daunting is that there is wide-spread apathy and a marked disconnect and a feeling that few—especially among the younger demographic, are stakeholders in this process. I am not surprised that people feel jaded and disenfranchised and maybe don’t have much of a choice ultimately, but I don’t think there’s really an authoritative, impartial voice there admonishing them either to invite them, just in their lifetimes of majority how different each outcome might have been. Visitors from the parallel universe of Field Marshal LaRouche and Grand Vizer Lamar are not really pleased with their present prospects with far stranger timelines on offer.

wahltag

I switched on my Windows laptop at home--we use a Mac and my work computer masquarades as a States-side PC, and this strange pop-up greeted me at start-up.  I thought at first it was some invasive spam but when I tried to ignore it, it persisted with credentials from the EU.  I suppose that this is a result from the EU litigation against MicroSoft for failing to give users a choice when it comes to using the browser, and by extension the, the operating system of their choice.  Having no freedom of choice for your computer is disheartening and no company should have a monopoly, but it is even more disconcerting to have the selection-round thrust up on one by a litigious bureaucracy and a bit scary that such democracy can be spread, virally through the Inter-webs.