Our mission is to mobilise action on the systems that harm us and the planet. Some of these systems are highly visible and well understood – the fossil fuel economy, the exploitation of the oceans, deforestation etc.
But in 2023, one of the most damaging systems in which we are all trapped is the outrage economy, i.e. how and why we see what we see online.
The story is increasingly well-understood. Most apps and websites are free for users and funded instead by advertising. Content which generates the most clicks and ‘engagement’ brings in the most advertising revenue. So social media – and much of the internet – is engineered to prioritise engagement.
If engagement is your priority, provoking emotions, such as anger, hate and FOMO is the quickest route to profit.
Unfortunately, they are also the most personally, societally and ecologically damaging buttons to press. Silicon Valley’s major forces recognise this this yet continue to do nothing about it.
Thankfully, researchers are sounding the alarm about the causal links between the explosion of social media and the spiralling mental ill-health crises among young people.
We are determined to build understanding of the societal and ecological harms of this business model.
We commissioned a brilliant report by ‘Freedom to think’ author Dr Susie Alegre. Big Tech's Dirty Secret sets out the multiple layers in which big tech is undermining the fight for climate justice. Most significantly, it outlines how a digital sphere constructed around anger and mistrust is not one which nurtures collective action to address climate breakdown.
The same could be argued for almost any social cause. Racial injustice, income inequality and much besides will persist if we are deliberately pitted against one another. Trapped in systems harnessed by those who wish to divide us.
The media and political focus on online harms is welcome – we need people to understand just how bad it can be online for so many people. And we must address these harms by striking at the heart of the business model that perpetuates and relies on this content. We want the government to ban online ‘surveillance advertising’ – targeting people with ads based on their activities.
Let's ban social media and other websites from tracking our every move. Let's stop them working in cahoots with the opaque and fraud-riddled AdTech industry to target us with invasive ads. In turn, a major incentive behind the drive for 'engagement' would fall away.
Silicon Valley will never cut off the hand that feeds it. Governments must step in. A ban on ‘surveillance advertising’ would be bold, dramatic and no-doubt controversial. But system change doesn’t happen through timidity.
