CEO of Meta, which recently joined the newly founded #SocialWebFoundation, suggests that there is "no causal connection" between social media and teen mental health.
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Stefan Bohacekreplied to Evan Prodromou last edited by
@evan Fair enough! I appreciate you engaging with critical voices in the community, and I look forward to reconnecting again.
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I see it slightly differently: there's a continuum between non-engagement and embracing vendors profiting from fascism. Different people and organizations have different constraints and priorities so make different choices.
Given the players involved, of course SWF's going to be friendly with Meta, and that in turn leads to funding and partnerships that wouldn't be possible otherwise. On the one hand that creates opportunities; on the other hand, it's also easy to imagine SWFs benefits being directed primarily to people and organizations who are also willing to be friendly with vendors who profit from fascism. Time will tell.
In terms of SWF pursuing harm reduction, @[email protected] also mentioned this in her newsletter, and it's a place where SWF could potentially have an impact -- especially partnering with @[email protected]. That said when I look at SWF's program (attached) I don't see anything related to this.
Also, harm reduction for who? Anti-Blackness is a huge problem in the fediverse, and so are equity problems in general. Mallory also highlighted the importance of making progress on equity in her newsletter, and SWF could have a big impact here -- including directing funding to BIPOC people, women of color, and others who have historically been very marginalized in the fediverse's power structures. That said haven't seen anything in their statements so far that implies they see this as important (and the long list of supportive quotes from white people on their launch announcement doesn't allay my concerns on this front; neither does listing an advisor whose recently been called out for anti-Blackness). Similarly queer and trans communities in the fediverse have been very outspoken about the threats from Meta, what if anything is SWF doing to involve and fund people from those communities to ensure that it's not just "harm reduction for cis people"?
@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]