As 2019 comes to an end, it’s hard to reflect on a year so full of scandals, investigations, leaked information, and controversies that its richness feels more like expired dollar-store donuts than a festive box of Turkish delight. It’s no secret that this has made some people sick of the U.S. and its sometimes-flawed democratic processes, but it’s my view that this may also be because of the way we’re informed about these issues online. Having digested this year’s news, my “best of’s” are stories that highlight our world’s complicated relationship to the news, the internet, and each other.
It’s Time to Break Up Facebook by Chris Hughes (The New York Times)
To break up or not to break up? That is the question that Hamlet once posed mid-soliloquy while app-switching, between reacting to memes on Facebook, liking an influencer’s post-workout #ad smoothie picture on Instagram, and chatting with family abroad on WhatsApp. Or at least that’s what Shakespeare might have probed today. Whether you agree or disagree with Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, his op-ed addresses the social network’s struggles with free speech, politics, and monopoly power head-on in a manner atypical for people affiliated with the company. Not much has changed for Facebook since its publication, but I hope it’s an argument that continues to be debated. Five months after this article appeared, Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress that Facebook would not take down inaccurate political ads. Why? Essentially, because they make money. There’s profitability in his platform’s control, and Hughes’s article aptly reminds us that.
The Great Hack by Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim (Netflix)
Streaming on Netflix, the documentary The Great Hack reveals everything you want to know about the relationship between Cambridge Analytica, social media, and elections—plus plenty you didn’t want to know. The filmmakers unpack the information battle and persuasion warfare that took place online during the Brexit campaign and the 2016 U.S. election—and still takes places on our social networks—telling the story through the eyes of former Cambridge Analytica employee Brittany Kaiser, Professor David Carroll, and journalist Carole Cadwalladr. Most people know about Cambridge Analytica, its connections to Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and Nigel Farage, but it’s challenging to conceptualize the real-world impact that digital ads have and the effectiveness of digital influence in general. This documentary will fix that.
‘Shut the Site Down,’ Says the Creator of 8chan, a Megaphone for Gunmen by Kevin Roose (The New York Times)
Journalist Kevin Roose went to the Philippines to talk to the creator of 8chan, the online social forum for the most hateful thoughts on the internet—and the digital safe space for mass shooters. The El Paso, Texas, shooting, the mosque shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the synagogue shooting in Poway, California, all have connections to 8chan. After these attacks, Fredrick Brennan, the creator of the platform, spoke with Roose. He explained how he started the site (he got the idea while high on mushrooms), and why he thinks it should be taken down. Some of the most visible tragedies this year were willed into existence from the darkest parts of the internet. Tragically, a website meant to protect people’s rights through a severe interpretation of free speech has infringed on the rights of others with fatal consequences. (I also highly recommend his takeover episodes of The Daily from late-2018, where he discusses the profitability of internet outrage and interviews a professional Russian troll.)
And here’s a sampling of stories that I wrote this year:
The Industrialized World is Failing to Meet Paris Agreement Goals
The U.S. may have pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement, but the rest of the developed world hasn’t fared much better in keeping their carbon emissions to the level necessary to prevent excessive warming. See also: The Biggest Rogue States of the Climate Crisis, Morocco and Gambia: The Unlikely Global Climate Leaders, and The Global Challenge of Decarbonization.
All the President’s Whistleblowers
A survey of government whistleblowing in the U.S., which historically has put those who speak out in peril.
Virginia Elections Feature Competitive Races Where There Have Been None for Years
A dispatch from Old Dominion, where redistricting after a court order enabled Democrats to triumph in legislative elections.
Blue Dog Consultant Working With Industry Group Lobbying Against Health Care Reform
Documents show that a Democratic operative who is working against changes to the healthcare system is also coordinating with the main industry-funded group.
Mitch McConnell: King of the Senate Impeachment Trial
An analysis of how the impeachment trial will play out and the power Mitch McConnell has as Senate Majority Leader to shape it. We’re already seeing this play out in real time.
Of course, many more consequential stories were told in 2019. Gwen Carr did not see justice for the wrongful death of her son, Eric Garner, after five years of waiting for a trial. Steve Bannon took his right-wing circus outfit to Europe to build an army for the Christian right out of Southern Italy. Donald Trump continued horrendous family separations at the border and is responsible for the deaths of asylum seekers in American custody. And you could do a whole book-length listicle on the environmental regulation rollbacks and the international failure to combat the climate crisis. But what all of these stories have in common for me is how they were shared online.
I’m fascinated by how we talk about this new product called “the news,” which doesn’t exist simply in newspapers or in your email morning-briefing newsletter, but for so many people also comes from Facebook ads and online forums. More than ever we live on the internet, a tool that can miraculously be used to learn how to code a website or why you should be an anti-vaxxer. Our culture’s precarious relationship with the internet consequently will affect how we make decisions at the ballot box, how we protest, and how we communicate—and this year, I found the work around this phenomenon fascinating.
