{"html":"\t\n\t\u003C!-- Advertisement Script --\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022postid-376024 scrolltrace textContainer_Truncate\u0022 articlelisttitle=\u0022These Machines Won\u2019t Kill Fascism: Toward a Militant Progressive Vision for Tech\u0022 articlelistlinks=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/society\/tech-labor-progressive\/\u0022 article-post-id=\u0022376024\u0022 article-keyword=\u0022\u0027infrastruc\u0027, \u0027labor-stri\u0027, \u0027technology\u0027, \u0027unions\u0027\u0022 article-subject=\u0022\u0027jobs\u0027, \u0027labor\u0027, \u0027labor-orga\u0027, \u0027technology\u0027, \u0027the-left\u0027, \u0027working-co\u0027\u0022 article-authors=\u0022\u0027nantina-v\u0027, \u0027meredith-w\u0027\u0022\u003E\n\t\n\t\t\u003Carticle id=\u0022url-title\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\u003Cdiv id=\u0022tn_pixel_376024_1\u0022 style=\u0027height:0px; width:0px;\u0027\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cdiv id=\u0022tn_pixel_376024_2\u0022 style=\u0027height:0px; width:0px;\u0027\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\u003Cheader class=\u0022article-header\u0022\u003E\t\n\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022article-header-content\u0022\u003E\t\t\n\t\t\u003Cul class=\u0022article-info\u0022\u003E\u003Cli class=\u0022category\u0022\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/subject\/technology\/\u0022 class=\u0022anchor_subject\u0022 subjectlink=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/subject\/technology\/\u0022\u003ETechnology\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli class=\u0022category\u0022\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/subject\/labor\/\u0022 class=\u0022anchor_subject\u0022 subjectlink=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/subject\/labor\/\u0022\u003ELabor\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli class=\u0022subcategory\u0022\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/keyword\/infrastructure\/\u0022\u003EInfrastructure\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Ch1 class=\u0022article_title hide\u0022\u003EThese Machines Won\u2019t Kill Fascism: Toward a Militant Progressive Vision for Tech\u003C\/h1\u003E\u003Ch1 class=\u0022title\u0022\u003EThese Machines Won\u2019t Kill Fascism: Toward a Militant Progressive Vision for Tech\u003C\/h1\u003E\u003Ch2 class=\u0027subtitle\u0027\u003EThe left must vie for control over the algorithms, data, and infrastructure that shape our lives.\u003C\/h2\u003E\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022byline\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Ch2 class=\u0022author_name\u0022\u003EBy \u003Ca class=\u0022author\u0022 href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/nantina-vgontzas\/\u0022\u003ENantina Vgontzas\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca class=\u0022author\u0022 href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/meredith-whittaker\/\u0022\u003EMeredith Whittaker\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ch4 class=\u0022time is-today article_pub_time\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\tToday 10:00 am\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/h4\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\n\t\t\u003C!--\u003Cul class=\u0022article-share\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca class=\u0022social-share fb\u0022 href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EFacebook\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca class=\u0022social-share tw\u0022 href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003ETwitter\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca class=\u0022social-share email\u0022 href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EEmail\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca class=\u0022social-share tn_print\u0022 href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022 onclick=\u0022tn_print_fn()\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EPrint\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n\t\t\u003C\/ul\u003E--\u003E\n\t\t\n\t\t\u003Cul class=\u0022article-share\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022 class=\u0022social-share fb\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003Efb\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022 class=\u0022social-share tw\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003Etw\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022 class=\u0022social-share mail email\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003Email\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022 class=\u0022social-share tn_print\u0022 onclick=\u0022tn_print_fn()\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EPrint\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022 class=\u0022social-share msg\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003Emsg\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022 class=\u0022social-share wa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003Ewa\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022 class=\u0022social-share sms\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003Esms\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022 class=\u0022social-share bookmark tn-sfg-add-to-list hide\u0022 onclick=\u0022tnAddToReadingList(this, 376024)\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EBookmark\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E \t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/ul\u003E\n\t\t\n\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/header\u003E\n\n\u003Csection class=\u0022tnpaywallcontent article-body  abody-376024 keep-reading \u0022\u003E\n\t\u003Ctime class=\u0022tn_publish_date hide\u0022\u003EJanuary 29, 2021\u003C\/time\u003E\n\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022article-body-inner\u0022\u003E\n\t\u003Caside class=\u0022left full-width-mobile image wide indent\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ca class=\u0022gallery imgHover\u0022 href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Youth-Protests-Parliament-square-gt-img.jpg\u0022 title=\u0022Youth protests at Parliament Square against a new exam rating system which has been introduced in British education system in London, England.  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Journalism\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\u003Cem\u003EThe Nation\u003C\/em\u003E is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter.\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022cta\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/donate-website\/?sourceid=1020085\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cinput type=\u0022button\u0022 class=\u0022btn btn_5000b2 para_one_button\u0022 name=\u0022submit_sailthru\u0022 value=\u0022Donate\u0022 style=\u0022\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbackground-color:#dd9933;color:#ffffff;\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/a\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\u003C\/aside\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Caside class=\u0022left indent indents email-signup-module para-one-3\u0022 style=\u0022display: none;\u0022 data-section=\u00224\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv 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data-section=\u00225\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022emailetext-blocks\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ch4\u003ESign up for our Wine Club today.\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\u003Cspan data-sheets-value=\u0022{\u0022 data-sheets-userformat=\u0022{\u0022\u003EDid you know you can support \u003Cem\u003EThe Nation\u003C\/em\u003E by drinking wine? \u003C\/span\u003E\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022cta\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenationwineclub.com\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cinput type=\u0022button\u0022 class=\u0022btn btn_5000b2 para_one_button\u0022 name=\u0022submit_sailthru\u0022 value=\u0022LEARN MORE\u0022 style=\u0022\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbackground-color:#dd3333;color:#ffffff;\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/a\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\u003C\/aside\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\u003Cscript\u003Eparagraph_module[376024] = [{\u0022order\u0022:\u00222\u0022,\u0022event_name\u0022:\u0022paragraph-1-subscribe\u0022,\u0022user_logged_in\u0022:\u00221\u0022},{\u0022order\u0022:\u00221\u0022,\u0022event_name\u0022:\u0022paragraph-1-subscribe\u0022,\u0022user_logged_in\u0022:\u00221\u0022},{\u0022order\u0022:\u00224\u0022,\u0022event_name\u0022:\u0022paragraph-1-subscribe\u0022,\u0022user_logged_in\u0022:\u00221\u0022},{\u0022order\u0022:\u00225\u0022,\u0022event_name\u0022:\u0022paragraph-1-donate\u0022,\u0022user_logged_in\u0022:\u0022\u0022},{\u0022order\u0022:\u00223\u0022,\u0022event_name\u0022:\u0022paragraph-1-donate\u0022,\u0022user_logged_in\u0022:\u0022\u0022},{\u0022order\u0022:\u00226\u0022,\u0022event_name\u0022:\u0022paragraph-1-wineclub\u0022,\u0022user_logged_in\u0022:\u0022\u0022}];\u003C\/script\u003E \u003Cp\u003EThe modern fascist movement relies on Big Tech to reproduce\u2014and it knows it.\t\t\t\t\u003Caside class=\u0022ad right most-popular-plus-ad grey_back\u0022\u003E\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv align=\u0022center\u0022 id=\u0022thenation_right_rail_376024\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t  \u003Cscript data-cfasync=\u0022false\u0022 type=\u0022text\/javascript\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\tfreestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tplacementName: \u0022thenation_right_rail\u0022, \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tslotId: \u0022thenation_right_rail_376024\u0022,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttargeting:{\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_author: [\u0027nantina-v\u0027, \u0027meredith-w\u0027],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_articleid: [376024],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_ptype: \u0027article\u0027,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_keyword: [\u0027infrastruc\u0027, \u0027labor-stri\u0027, \u0027technology\u0027, \u0027unions\u0027],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_subject: [\u0027jobs\u0027, \u0027labor\u0027, \u0027labor-orga\u0027, \u0027technology\u0027, \u0027the-left\u0027, \u0027working-co\u0027],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_pos: \u0027rectangle_1\u0027,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_loc:\u0027atf\u0027\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t}\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t});\n\t\t\t\t\t  \u003C\/script\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\u003C\/aside\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\n\u003Cp\u003EBefore Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and even Pinterest banned Donald Trump, the then-president was taking aim at a wonkish target: Section 230, a 1996 provision of the Communications Decency Act that shields tech companies from being sued for the content they host. As he \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/talk2020\/candidates\/donald-trump\/quotes\/CHTS000020210105eh140002t_Q21_SP60580_EP61477\u0022\u003Etold\u003C\/a\u003E his base in the lead-up to the fumbled coup attempt on January 6, \u201cWe have to get rid of Section 230, or you\u2019re not going to have a country.\u201d Around the same time, Trump vetoed the annual defense spending bill because it didn\u2019t repeal 230, and pressured Republican then\u2013Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to make it a bargaining chip in the stimulus negotiations.\n\u003Cp\u003EIn pursuing their campaign against 230 at the same time that they\u2019re seeking to protect corporations from \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/story\/2020-12-12\/congressional-covid-relief-legislation-business-liability-protection\u0022\u003Eworker lawsuits related to Covid-19\u003C\/a\u003E, conservatives have made their agenda painfully clear: Corporate liability is permissible in the tech industry only  if it helps them dominate the platforms and capture a sector that has long been the darling of liberals.\u003Cdiv id=\u0022ConnatixPlaceholder\u0022\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIt was the so-called \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.jacobinmag.com\/2016\/02\/geismer-democratic-party-atari-tech-silicon-valley-mondale\/\u0022\u003EAtari Democrats\u003C\/a\u003E who, deeming tech a source of growth during the economically stagnant 1980s, grew the industry through tax breaks, regulatory loopholes, and the privatization of the formerly public Internet. Today, computational infrastructure has crept into nearly every corner of our lives, enabling media curation, labor control, means testing, resource distribution, and much more. These systems generally employ AI\u2014powerful algorithms that require surveillance and other data to train and inform them. The result is an unprecedented scale and granularity of tracking and control.\n\u003Cp\u003EThis ascent was part of an implicit bargain: Democrats relied on Big Tech for campaign contributions and the partisanship of its elite workforce; in exchange, they gave companies control over the infrastructure on which our civic institutions relied. Then came 2016. The industry that Democrats had spent decades boosting wasn\u2019t living up to its unspoken agreement to use its power responsibly. Rebuking tech executives for disseminating misinformation through engagement-driven algorithms, Democrats revisited the terms of their deal. \u201cThe same Federal law that allowed your companies to grow and thrive,\u201d \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.intelligence.senate.gov\/hearings\/open-hearing-social-media-influence-2016-us-elections\u0022\u003Esaid Democratic Senator and Section 230 author Ron Wyden\u003C\/a\u003E, \u201cgives you absolute legal protection to take action against those who abuse your platforms to damage our democracy.\u201d For some, the time had come to \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/medium.com\/@teamwarren\/heres-how-we-can-break-up-big-tech-9ad9e0da324c\u0022\u003Ebreak them up\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Caside class=\u0022right hidden-on-mobile most-popular-plus-ad\u0022\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022most-popular hover_b_remove thenation-single-article-most-popular\u0022\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/aside\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe US right, meanwhile, was taking a different tack to gain influence over tech infrastructure. Conservatives, joined by some hawkish Democrats and tech titans like Alphabet\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180416092823\/https:\/www.cnas.org\/publications\/transcript\/eric-schmidt-keynote-address-at-the-center-for-a-new-american-security-artificial-intelligence-and-global-security-summit\u0022\u003EEric Schmidt\u003C\/a\u003E, have been working to align the profit motives of these giant corporations with the interests of the police and US armed forces. At the same time, the global far right is using \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/datasociety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/DS_Alternative_Influence.pdf\u0022\u003EYouTube and other social media\u003C\/a\u003E to radicalize people who follow algorithmic recommendations to hate speech and misinformation while \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2019\/5\/15\/18626785\/white-house-trump-censorsip-tool-twitter-instagram-facebook-conservative-bias-social-media\u0022\u003Ecountering\u003C\/a\u003E grassroots \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.freepress.net\/news\/press-releases\/activists-protest-outside-twitter-hq-demand-deplatforming-white-supremacists\u0022\u003Eefforts\u003C\/a\u003E to deplatform such dangerous language.\u003Cdiv class=\u0022inline-counter\u0022\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe right in the United States has made a clever calculus. Just the threat of repealing Section 230 restrains tech companies from taking action against online fascists and hate speech. If they were to take incendiary speech off their platforms, not only would fascists troll the firms, but Republicans would push even harder to remove 230 under the banner of \u201c\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/10\/28\/technology\/evidence-of-anti-conservative-bias-by-platforms-remains-anecdotal.html\u0022\u003Eanti-conservative bias\u003C\/a\u003E.\u201d And if the right were to go through with its threat and repeal 230, companies would still want to avoid lawsuits from well-funded and well-organized conservatives. In this scenario, tech companies would push their decisions about \u201cpermissible content\u201d into the hands of their top lawyers. Afraid of Republican backlash, they would become de facto editors. In either case, companies would hesitate to expel fascists, especially given the revenue-generating potential of their content\u2014which is substantial for engagement-driven platforms, as Harvard\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/lifestyle\/magazine\/disinformation-can-be-a-very-lucrative-business-especially-if-youre-good-at-it-media-scholar-says\/2021\/01\/19\/4c842f06-4a04-11eb-a9d9-1e3ec4a928b9_story.html\u0022\u003EJoan Donovan\u003C\/a\u003E points out.\t\t\u003Caside class=\u0022left indent indents current-issue\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Ch4\u003ECurrent Issue\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022current-blocks\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/issue\/february-8-15-2021-issue\/\u0022 class=\u0022no-target-blank\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cimg src=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/cover0208.jpg\u0022 alt=\u0022\u0022\/\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/a\u003E\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022current-blocks\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/issue\/february-8-15-2021-issue\/\u0022 class=\u0022textred-highlighted\u0022\u003EView our current issue\u003C\/a\u003E\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022magazine_text\u0022 id=\u0022magazine_text_376024\u0022\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022cta magazine_button\u0022 id=\u0022magazine_button_376024\u0022\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\u003C\/aside\u003E\t\t\n\t\t\u003Cscript \u003E\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tvar magazine_text_376024            = \u0027\u0027;\n\t\t\tvar magazine_button_text_376024     = \u0027\u0027;\n\t\t\tvar magazine_button_url_376024      = \u0027\u0027;\n\t\t\tvar magazine_button_bg_color_376024 = \u0027\u0027;\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tvar is_user_logged_in = getCookie(\u0027SESSname\u0027);\t\t\t\tif( is_user_logged_in != null ){\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tmagazine_text_376024 = \u0027\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan id=\u0022\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022socialHighlighted\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\u0022\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan id=\u0022\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022tweetButton\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\u0022\u0022 class=\u0022\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022socialButtonHighlight\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\u0022\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022clickheresocial\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\u0022\u0022\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E \u003Cspan id=\u0022\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022emailButton\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\u0022\u0022 class=\u0022\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022socialButtonHighlight\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\u0022\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022clickheresocial\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\\\\\u0022\\\\\\\u0022\u0022\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003EIf you like this article, please give today to help fund \u003Cem\u003EThe Nation\u003C\/em\u003E\u2019s work.\u003C\/p\u003E\u0027;\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmagazine_button_text_376024 = \u0027\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022\u003E\u003Cinput type=\u0022button\u0022 class=\u0022btn btn_ffcf0d\u0022 name=\u0022submit_sailthru\u0022 value=\u0022Donate\u0022\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0027;\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmagazine_button_url_376024 = \u0027https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/email-signup-module-donate\/\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmagazine_button_bg_color_376024 = \u0027#ffcf0d\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t}else{\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tmagazine_text_376024 = \u0027\u003Cp\u003ESubscribe today and Save up to $129.\u003C\/p\u003E\u0027;\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmagazine_button_text_376024 = \u0027\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022\u003E\u003Cinput type=\u0022button\u0022 class=\u0022btn btn_d41d00\u0022 name=\u0022submit_sailthru\u0022 value=\u0022Subscribe\u0022\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0027;\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmagazine_button_url_376024 = \u0027https:\/\/subscribe.thenation.com\/flex\/NA\/key\/G0EECAT\/\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmagazine_button_bg_color_376024 = \u0027#dd3333\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( magazine_text_376024 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#magazine_text_376024\u0022).html(magazine_text_376024);\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( magazine_button_text_376024 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#magazine_button_376024\u0022).html(magazine_button_text_376024);\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( magazine_button_url_376024 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#magazine_button_376024 a\u0022).attr(\u0022href\u0022,magazine_button_url_376024);\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( magazine_button_bg_color_376024 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#magazine_button_376024 a input\u0022).css(\u0022background\u0022,magazine_button_bg_color_376024);\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\u003C\/script\u003E\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\u003Cp\u003EFor now, the far right in the United States has hit a road bump in its attempt to seize tech from the liberals. Not only have thousands of far-right accounts been banned by the most powerful social media platforms, but efforts to move its base to Parler have been contained after the alt social network (underwritten by the powerful Mercer family) was deplatformed by Apple, Google, and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/twitter.com\/AMZNforClimate\/status\/1348117550501031940\u0022\u003EAmazon\u003C\/a\u003E, which has so far successfully invoked Section 230 against Parler\u2019s legal claim that it should be \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/01\/21\/956486352\/judge-refuses-to-reinstate-parler-after-amazon-shut-it-down\u0022\u003Ereinstated\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/01\/21\/956486352\/judge-refuses-to-reinstate-parler-after-amazon-shut-it-down\u0022\u003E on Amazon\u2019s web-hosting services\u003C\/a\u003E. Seeking a stable transfer of power during the violent dusk of the Trump presidency, the owners of US tech platforms have finally heeded the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=A6984NNJyWQ&feature=youtu.be\u0022\u003Ewarnings\u003C\/a\u003E of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2019\/6\/7\/18656540\/googles-youtube-lgbtq-employees-harassment-policies-pride-month\u0022\u003Eworkers\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ampersand.gseis.ucla.edu\/sarah-t-roberts-social-media-and-politics\/\u0022\u003Eresearchers\u003C\/a\u003E, and advocates. For years, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/slate.com\/technology\/2019\/04\/black-feminists-alt-right-twitter-gamergate.html\u0022\u003EBlack feminist\u003C\/a\u003E scholars like Sydette Harry and I\u2019Nasah Crockett have documented the way online ad-tech companies like Facebook and YouTube amplify and enable a fascist media ecosystem in which Black women in particular are often hounded off platforms.\n\u003Cp\u003EThat it took this long for Big Tech companies to take fascists seriously enough to remove some of them from social media should serve as a wake-up call: Elites tend to realize the dangers of fascism only when violent flash points hit close to home. It is workers and historically marginalized people who are\u2014and always have been\u2014the anti-fascist front line. If progressives are to ensure that technical systems aren\u2019t yoked to a far-right agenda, they\u2019ll need to stop relying on legislative maneuvering or entreaties to corporations and, together with these frontline actors globally, vie for control over the infrastructure itself.\n\u003Ch6\u003EInfrastructures of Control\u003C\/h6\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EReflecting on the dynamics of German National Socialism in 1941, exiled philosopher \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/courses.cs.washington.edu\/courses\/cse490e\/19wi\/readings\/marcuse_social_implications_1941.pdf\u0022\u003EHerbert Marcuse\u003C\/a\u003E saw \u201ca striking example of the ways in which a highly rationalized and mechanized economy with the utmost efficiency in production can also operate in the interest of totalitarian oppression.\u201d Industrial capitalism\u2019s tools of efficiency and profit, he argued, can easily serve authoritarian ends.\t\u003Caside class=\u0022left indent indents related-oneup\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\u003Ch4\u003ERelated Article\u003C\/h4\u003E\t\t\n\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022oneup-blocks\u0022\u003E  \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022oneup-block-img\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/politics\/trump-censorship-twitter-facebook\/\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cimg src=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/zuckerberg-big-brother-gt-img.jpg?scale=228&compress=80\u0022 alt=\u0022The Nation\u0022\/\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/a\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/politics\/trump-censorship-twitter-facebook\/\u0022 class=\u0022related-oneup-click\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ch5\u003ETech Giants Can\u2019t Be Trusted to Police Speech\u003C\/h5\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022author\u0022\u003EJeet Heer and The Nation\u003C\/p\u003E\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\u003C\/aside\u003E\n\t\t\n \n \n \n\u003Cp\u003EThe history of IBM\u2019s work on the Nazi census presents a chilling lesson. In service of the Nazi regime, IBM\u2019s German subsidiary customized its Hollerith punch card systems to allow the government to classify, track, and sort people based on categories like \u201cJewish.\u201d Without IBM\u2019s proto-computational technology, the Holocaust\u2019s ghastly efficiency would not have been possible. Indeed, the numbers tattooed on the arms of many Nazi prisoners were their \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.villagevoice.com\/2002\/10\/08\/the-ibm-link-to-auschwitz\/\u0022\u003EHollerith codes\u003C\/a\u003E, which allowed them to be neatly accounted for in the database.\n\u003Cp\u003ENazi Germany isn\u2019t a historical anomaly in its use of such computational tools to discipline and oppress its population. South Africa\u2019s apartheid government also relied on systems of technological efficiency to maintain brutal minority rule. In 1970, it contracted IBM to build the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/wiser.wits.ac.za\/sites\/default\/files\/Breckenridge%20-%202014%20-%20The%20Book%20of%20Life%20The%20South%20African%20Population%20Reg_0.pdf\u0022\u003EBook of Life\u003C\/a\u003E, a computerized identity registry linked to the country\u2019s hated passbooks. This system provided pretext for stop-and-frisk-style police domination and harassment and for managing an exploitable, racialized labor force. As one bureaucrat \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/lchc.ucsd.edu\/mca\/Mail\/xmcamail.2014-12.dir\/pdfXZkdabWBdl.pdf\u0022\u003Eput it\u003C\/a\u003E, \u201cThe combination of [passbooks] and a central registry would permit total control of the black population, allowing Native Affairs bureaucrats to allocate the black labour force efficiently while permitting police to locate and identify any individual swiftly and positively.\u201d\n\u003Cp\u003EHollerith machines and the mainframe computers that powered the Book of Life are a far cry from the powerful computational infrastructure of today. But the modern systems are built on those foundations. They are still codifying and reproducing patterns of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nist.gov\/news-events\/news\/2019\/12\/nist-study-evaluates-effects-race-age-sex-face-recognition-software\u0022\u003Eracialized\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/blog\/womens-rights\/womens-rights-workplace\/why-amazons-automated-hiring-tool-discriminated-against\u0022\u003Egendered\u003C\/a\u003E inequality, and they are already use in high-stakes domains\u2014applied by insurance companies and hospitals to decide \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2020\/12\/23\/covid-vaccine-algorithm-failure\/\u0022\u003Ewho gets health care\u003C\/a\u003E, by landlords to \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bostonreview.net\/class-inequality-science-nature\/erin-mcelroy-meredith-whittaker-genevieve-fried-covid-19-crisis\u0022\u003Eselect \u201cgood\u201d tenants\u003C\/a\u003E, by cops to predict \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/our-work\/research-reports\/predictive-policing-explained\u0022\u003Ewho is a criminal\u003C\/a\u003E, and by employers to determine whether or not someone will be \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.upturn.org\/reports\/2018\/hiring-algorithms\/\u0022\u003Ea productive worker\u003C\/a\u003E and then whom to\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2020\/09\/workplace-surveillance-times-corona\u0022\u003E surveil\u003C\/a\u003E, control, and assess once they are hired.\t\t\u003Caside class=\u0022ad-300\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cdiv align=\u0022center\u0022 id=\u0022thenation_article_indent\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t  \u003Cscript data-cfasync=\u0022false\u0022 type=\u0022text\/javascript\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t  freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ \n\t\t\t\t\tplacementName: \u0022thenation_article_indent\u0022, \n\t\t\t\t\tslotId: \u0022thenation_article_indent\u0022,\n\t\t\t\t\ttargeting:{\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_author: [\u0027nantina-v\u0027, \u0027meredith-w\u0027],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_articleid: [376024],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_ptype: \u0027article\u0027,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_keyword: [\u0027infrastruc\u0027, \u0027labor-stri\u0027, \u0027technology\u0027, \u0027unions\u0027],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_subject: [\u0027jobs\u0027, \u0027labor\u0027, \u0027labor-orga\u0027, \u0027technology\u0027, \u0027the-left\u0027, \u0027working-co\u0027],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_pos: \u0027rectangle_4\u0027,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_loc:\u0027atf\u0027\n\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t  });\n\t\t\t  \u003C\/script\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\t\n\t\t\u003C\/aside\u003E\n\t\t\n\u003Ch6\u003ELabor\u2019s Past\u003C\/h6\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EJust as Big Tech\u2019s command of the means of surveillance and coercion echo authoritarian histories, labor\u2019s historical fight against mechanized and automated systems points a way forward, toward militant mass movements demanding ownership and agency over the infrastructure of social control.\n\u003Cp\u003EIn 1912, the Massachusetts state legislature passed a law that reduced weekly hours for women and children. But workers in the textile hub of Lawrence suspected a loophole, and their suspicions were confirmed \u201cwhen the mill corporations speeded up the machines and posted notices that, following January 1, the 54-hour work week would be maximum for both men and women operatives,\u201d as labor educator and historian \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.pmpress.org\/index.php?l=product_detail&p=359\u0022\u003EJoyce Kornbluh\u003C\/a\u003E recounts. In other words, while the mill owners honored the weekly-hour limit set by the legislature, they subverted its intent by speeding up the mechanical looms, which increased workloads and reduced workers\u2019 take-home pay.\n\u003Cp\u003EOrganized through the Industrial Workers of the World, mill workers went on strike with banners that read, \u201cWe want bread, and roses, too\u201d\u2014a demand for more than subsistence. Reflecting on this bold political scope, labor reporter Mary Heaton Vorse commented at the time, \u201cIt was the spirit of workers that was dangerous.\u201d\n\u003Cp\u003EThose opposing the workers understood this as well. Militias made up of Harvard students attacked strikers; Congress called hearings; and strike leaders were imprisoned under false charges. Ultimately, the workers won increased wages and agreed to return to the mills. But they did not gain power over the mechanized infrastructure of worker control, which made them vulnerable to a counteroffensive. In addition to creating a spy network on the shop floor to identify and root out worker organizing, mill owners implemented additional speedups that displaced workers and nullified the wage increase won during their strike.\n\u003Cp\u003EThis is a lesson the US labor movement of the 1920s and \u201930s took to heart. It shaped its demands for control over production technologies and linked them to questions of human dignity and political autonomy.\n\u003Cp\u003EIn Southeastern Michigan, workers challenged the terms of Henry Ford\u2019s \u201cwage-effort bargain,\u201d in which a $5 wage and other material benefits came at the expense of domination on and off the clock. Ford\u2019s \u201csociology department\u201d would even make unannounced home visits to determine if workers were sufficiently clean and sober. Black workers, newly arrived through the Great Migration, were made especially vulnerable through usurious payment plans for homes that Ford built as industrial growth outpaced housing availability.\n\u003Cp\u003EAs the benefits that workers had traded for autonomy dried up with the Great Depression\u2014during which two-thirds of the sector was laid off\u2014Detroit\u2019s working class began organizing through the Unemployed Councils, a national initiative of the Communist Party. This was particularly important for Black workers, who were usually the \u201clast hired, first fired.\u201d The councils shut down several plants and jump-started the first wave of strikes in the auto sector. They made economic and political demands that went well beyond the workplace: They wanted the reinstatement of unemployed workers, health insurance for them and their families, a halt to the Ford home foreclosures, an end to discrimination against Black workers, the abolition of Ford\u2019s internal security agency, and even the release of the Scottsboro Boys, Black teens who had been framed for rape. These organizers understood that that worker power was a force that could achieve political ends toward justice and equity.\t\t\n\t\t\u003Caside id=\u0022inline_cta_2_module_376024\u0022 class=\u0022inline-cta-2\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022inline-cta-blocks\u0022 id=\u0022inline_cta_2_376024\u0022\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022cta\u0022 id=\u0022inline_cta_2_btn_376024\u0022\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\u003C\/aside\u003E\n\t\t\n\t\t\u003Cscript \u003E\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tvar inline_cta_2_text_376024            = \u0027\u0027;\n\t\t\tvar inline_cta_2_button_text_376024     = \u0027\u0027;\n\t\t\tvar inline_cta_2_url_376024             = \u0027\u0027;\n\t\t\tvar inline_cta_2_bg_color_376024        = \u0027\u0027;\n\t\t\tvar inline_cta_2_font_color_376024      = \u0027\u0027;\n\t\t\tvar cta_2_check_376024  = false;  \n\t\t\tvar is_user_logged_in = getCookie(\u0027SESSname\u0027);\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tif( is_user_logged_in != null ){\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_2_text_376024 = \u0027\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGive a gift subscription today!\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKnow someone who would like \u003Cem\u003EThe Nation\u003C\/em\u003E?\u003C\/p\u003E\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_2_font_color_376024 = \u0027#ffffff\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_2_button_text_376024 = \u0027\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022\u003E\u003Cinput type=\u0022button\u0022 class=\u0022btn\u0022 name=\u0022submit_sailthru\u0022 value=\u0022GIVE A GIFT\u0022\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_2_url_376024 = \u0027https:\/\/ssl.drgnetwork.com\/ecom\/NAT\/app\/live\/subscriptions?org=NAT&publ=NA&key_code=68F1CGS&type=S\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_2_bg_color_376024 = \u0027#cc0e0e\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t}else{\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_2_text_376024 = \u0027\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESupport our work with a digital subscription.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGet unlimited access: $9.50 for six months.\u003C\/p\u003E\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_2_font_color_376024 = \u0027#ffffff\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_2_button_text_376024 = \u0027\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022\u003E\u003Cinput type=\u0022button\u0022 class=\u0022btn btn_ffcf0d\u0022 name=\u0022submit_sailthru\u0022 value=\u0022Subscribe\u0022\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_2_url_376024 = \u0027https:\/\/subscribe.thenation.com\/flex\/NA\/key\/G0E1CTA\/\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_2_bg_color_376024 = \u0027#cc0e0e\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( inline_cta_2_text_376024 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta_2_376024\u0022).html(inline_cta_2_text_376024);\n\t\t\t\tcta_2_check_376024 = true;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( inline_cta_2_button_text_376024 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta_2_btn_376024\u0022).html(inline_cta_2_button_text_376024);\n\t\t\t\tcta_2_check_376024 = true;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( inline_cta_2_url_376024 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta_2_btn_376024 a\u0022).attr(\u0022href\u0022,inline_cta_2_url_376024);\n\t\t\t\tcta_2_check_376024 = true;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( inline_cta_2_bg_color_376024 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta_2_btn_376024 a input\u0022).css(\u0022background\u0022,inline_cta_2_bg_color_376024);\n\t\t\t\tcta_2_check_376024 = true;\n\t\t\t}\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( inline_cta_2_font_color_376024 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta_2_btn_376024 a input\u0022).css(\u0022color\u0022,inline_cta_2_font_color_376024);\n\t\t\t\tcta_2_check_376024 = true;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( cta_2_check_376024 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta_2_module_376024\u0022).addClass(\u0022tn-inline-cta-module\u0022);\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\u003C\/script\u003E\n\t\t\n\t\n\u003Cp\u003EInside the plants, workers began experimenting with a series of slowdowns that culminated in the famous 1936\u20131937 Flint sit-down strike. They forced the auto industry to recognize their union after shutting down several \u201cmother plants,\u201d which were indispensable to production. But their fight didn\u2019t end there. The camaraderie that developed during the plant occupations emboldened them to make demands over the pace of work and the infrastructure of worker control. On an almost daily basis, they challenged managerial authority through shop steward representation, slowdowns, and strikes. The threat these workers posed to capital accumulation prompted employers, the state, and union bureaucrats to work together to undermine their power. The postwar \u201cred scare\u201d\u2014and the wartime no-strike pledges that laid the ground for it\u2014saw union leadership cutting deals with management as they purged leftwing dissidents. As Walter Reuther, the president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) during this period, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.haymarketbooks.org\/books\/1383-the-long-deep-grudge\u0022\u003Esaid\u003C\/a\u003E, \u201cLabor is not fighting for a larger slice of the national pie\u2026labor is fighting for a larger pie.\u201d What was good for business was, in Reuther\u2019s view, good for workers.\n\u003Cp\u003EThis did not turn out to be true. The narrowing of organized labor\u2019s focus took militant action off the table and reduced the site of worker struggle from politics and power to negotiating contracts around pay and benefits\u2014with few ways to push back when these were violated. Carl Keithly, a Chevrolet factory worker under United Auto Workers at this time, summarized the cost: \u201cThe company will cut your wages, knock out your seniority and your vacations, and there will be no way to protest outside of quitting your job. There will be nothing left at the plant but wage cuts and speedup.\u201d\n\u003Cp\u003EIn the face of increasing automation, this was a serious misstep for labor. As scholar and autoworker \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/libcom.org\/library\/american-revolution-pages-negro-workers-notebook\u0022\u003EJames Boggs\u003C\/a\u003E stated, \u201cA new force had now entered the picture, a force which the union had given up its claim to control when in 1948 it yielded to management the sole right to run production as it saw fit.\u2026 Management began introducing automation at a rapid rate.\u201d Boggs, writing in the early 1960s, went on to remark that \u201ctoday the workers are doing in eight hours the actual physical work they used to do in 12.\u201d\n\u003Ch6\u003EThe State of Play Today\u003C\/h6\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAutomation was just one aspect of US employers\u2019 reassertion of control. Sociologists \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/blog.lareviewofbooks.org\/interviews\/greatest-potential-structural-leverage-talking-joshua-murray-michael-schwartz\/\u0022\u003EJoshua Murray and Michael Schwartz\u003C\/a\u003E show that after the UAW\u2019s conciliatory turn, US automakers decoupled their production process, stockpiling parts in every plant so that workers at one particular plant would be unable to fully disrupt operations again. Moreover, as a global economic crisis took hold in the 1970s, employers invested in systems of technical management and automation in order to recover profitability, further entrenching mechanisms of worker control and immiseration. This strategy didn\u2019t return the US to manufacturing leadership. Instead, it helped elevate tech as a sector in its own right.\n\u003Cp\u003EToday, the app-based precarity (or \u201cgig\u201d) economy, enabled by large-scale AI systems, has led to an increasingly dire situation, in which workers\u2019 livelihoods are dictated by opaque algorithms calibrated to extract as much profit from them as possible. This is compounded by US-based \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/logicmag.io\/security\/a-brief-history-of-the-gig\/\u0022\u003Egig companies\u003C\/a\u003E\u2019 self-serving legislative maneuvering and dissembling marketing, which as legal scholar Veena Dubal argues, has already rolled back US labor protection to create a \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/onezero.medium.com\/prop-22-where-do-gig-workers-go-from-here-e6eaa3ee2324\u0022\u003Elow-rights\u003C\/a\u003E category of app-based workers who lack basic protections, like an hourly wage floor or health insurance. But this isn\u2019t confined to app-based workers. Across all job categories, workers are being hired, surveilled, controlled, and assessed by opaque algorithmic systems tuned to maximize employers\u2019 objectives. A startup called \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/argyle.com\/\u0022\u003EArgyle\u003C\/a\u003E is even selling a service that claims to create a kind of worker credit score by aggregating workers\u2019 employment records across jobs along with other data. The company sells this to businesses for use in hiring, as well as to insurers and lenders.\t\u003Caside class=\u0022left indent indents related-oneup\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\u003Ch4\u003ERelated Article\u003C\/h4\u003E\t\t\n\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022oneup-blocks\u0022\u003E  \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022oneup-block-img\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/culture\/ruha-benjamin-race-after-technology-book-review\/\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cimg src=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Kearse-circuit_board-getty_img.jpg?scale=228&compress=80\u0022 alt=\u0022The Nation\u0022\/\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/a\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/culture\/ruha-benjamin-race-after-technology-book-review\/\u0022 class=\u0022related-oneup-click\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ch5\u003EThe Racist Roots of New Technology\u003C\/h5\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022author\u0022\u003EStephen Kearse\u003C\/p\u003E\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\u003C\/aside\u003E\n\t\t\n \n \n \n\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s not surprising then that we\u2019ve seen a surge of labor action, particularly among workers most subject to these systems. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2020\/feb\/05\/amazon-workers-protest-unsafe-grueling-conditions-warehouse\u0022\u003EAmazon warehouse workers\u003C\/a\u003E, whose labor is controlled by a punishing algorithmic productivity rate, have organized across Europe and the United States, carrying signs reading, \u201cWe are not robots.\u201d Striking \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/inthesetimes.com\/article\/instacart-gig-economy-strike-mathwashing-algorithm\u0022\u003EInstacart workers\u003C\/a\u003E have also opposed the company\u2019s \u201cblack box\u201d app, which sets workers\u2019 pay via an unintelligible model that \u201cmathwashes\u201d their exploitation. In a similar vein, the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/twitter.com\/aigwu_union\/status\/1296325817543176192\u0022\u003EAll India Gig Workers Union\u003C\/a\u003E recently demanded that app-based delivery company Swiggy \u201cstop algorithmic manipulation of ratings and incentives payout.\u201d\n\u003Cp\u003EThose suffering under Big Tech know the source of their pain and are not fooled by marketing about \u201cflexibility\u201d and \u201centrepreneurship.\u201d These workers have broadened the terrain of labor struggle to include the technical infrastructure that dictates their livelihoods, something that heralds a return to the militancy of the 1920s and \u201930s.\n\u003Cp\u003EPeople outside of the workplace but whose tastes and opportunities are increasingly directed by algorithms have also registered dissent. These efforts often combine strategic litigation, protest, and legislative campaigns. Protesters have pushed for\u2014and in some cases won\u2014\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ainowinstitute.org\/regulatingbiometrics.pdf\u0022\u003Ebans\u003C\/a\u003E and moratoria on the use of facial recognition in the United States. Students in the UK rallied under the slogan \u201c\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/novaramedia.com\/2020\/08\/17\/fuck-the-algorithm-how-a-level-students-have-shown-future-of-protest\/\u0022\u003Efuck the algorithm\u003C\/a\u003E\u201d and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.foxglove.org.uk\/news\/home-office-says-it-will-abandon-its-racist-visa-algorithm-nbsp-after-we-sued-them\u0022\u003Esuccessfully sued\u003C\/a\u003E the British government for using racist software that determined student rankings during Covid-19. And in Canada, after years of struggle, the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.blocksidewalk.ca\/\u0022\u003EBlock Sidewalk\u003C\/a\u003E campaign forced Google to \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2020\/may\/07\/google-sidewalk-labs-toronto-smart-city-abandoned\u0022\u003Eabandon\u003C\/a\u003E its plan to develop a \u201csmart\u201d surveillant city on the Toronto waterfront.\n\u003Cp\u003EThe growing worker uprisings and community-based opposition movements present an organic coalition that progressives would do well to acknowledge and support, especially when their demands involve issues of control and ownership of technical systems. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.transnational-strike.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/Strike-the-Giant_TSS-Journal.pdf\u0022\u003EAmazon warehouse workers in Poland\u003C\/a\u003E, who are fighting not only for a reduction in the grueling pace of work but for access to the data and algorithms that set it, are making a claim to the conditions of their labor and to the systems that mediate it. Similarly, organized white-collar tech workers are fighting for the right \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2019\/08\/22\/war-inside-palantir-data-mining-firms-ties-ice-under-attack-by-employees\/\u0022\u003Eto refuse\u003C\/a\u003E unethical work and the ability to shape their companies\u2019 decisions on issues like \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.greenbiz.com\/article\/how-employee-activists-inspired-amazons-climate-pledge\u0022\u003Eclimate change\u003C\/a\u003E or whether or not they should \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/04\/04\/technology\/google-letter-ceo-pentagon-project.html\u0022\u003Epartner with the US military\u003C\/a\u003E. Importantly, many of these efforts go beyond the scope of the workplace or workers\u2019 immediate material conditions. Aims shared by tech workers and community organizers in the United States have animated the movement, putting those directly affected by technologies of social control, like people experiencing \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/mijente.net\/2018\/10\/whos-behind-ice-the-tech-companies-fueling-deportations\/\u0022\u003Esurveillance and tracking by Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u003C\/a\u003E, in coalition with workers refusing to create such technologies.\n\u003Ch6\u003ETerrains of Contestation\u003C\/h6\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWe\u2019re not likely to get much help from the mainstream of the Democratic Party in claiming a tech infrastructure for the people. Failing to situate congressional reform efforts within a \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/marshallsteinbaum.org\/assets\/paul-and-steinbaum-2020-antitrust-recommendations-to-ca-future-of-work-commission.pdf\u0022\u003Ebroader strategy\u003C\/a\u003E for building power, establishment liberals have a record of losing even their piecemeal initiatives to the right.\n\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to leading the charge against Section 230, Republican members of Congress Jim Jordan, Tom Cotton, and Josh Hawley spent much of 2020 working to appropriate and warp progressives\u2019 antitrust agenda to combat tech\u2019s alleged \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/rachelsandler\/2020\/07\/29\/republicans-use-tech-antitrust-hearing-to-rail-against-anti-conservative-bias\/?sh=34e2490e55aa\u0022\u003Eanti-conservative bias\u003C\/a\u003E. In reality, the far right has been using algorithmic targeting and social media to create a powerful propaganda arm that bypasses more responsible media. Indeed, the role that social media played in helping coordinate the recent coup attempt on the Capitol speaks to the centrality of these platforms to the fascist agenda and to Big Tech\u2019s historical permissiveness and perverse business incentives. And it\u2019s not just in the US; Facebook was used to fan a genocide of the Muslim Rohingya minority in Myanmar and similar dynamics are visible now in Ethiopia.\n\u003Cp\u003EThe US far right has fashioned a compelling if fatuous \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/160937\/gop-fell-love-cancel-culture\u0022\u003Enarrative\u003C\/a\u003E for its growing base: The \u201c\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/twitter.com\/sentomcotton\/status\/1317116059435081728?lang=en\u0022\u003EBig Tech oligarchs\u003C\/a\u003E,\u201d as Cotton calls them, are liberal gatekeepers driving conservatives out of business and curbing their freedom of speech. The recent enforcement of terms of service for a handful of English-speaking accounts will further fuel this narrative, even if this move follows years of inaction on similar accounts around the globe, as scholar \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/jilliancyork.com\/2021\/01\/10\/everything-pundits-are-getting-wrong-about-this-moment-in-platform-regulation-an-ongoing-list\/\u0022\u003EJillian York\u003C\/a\u003E points out.\n\u003Cp\u003EEstablishment Democrats remain unable to counter this narrative. Hamstrung by their allegiance to large corporate donors and reticent to reclaim the interests of their once more working-class base, they are easily neutralized in their legislative efforts to reform tech. And Biden\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/prospect.org\/cabinet-watch\/big-tech-critics-alarmed-at-direction-of-biden-antitrust-per\/\u0022\u003Ewillingness to consider\u003C\/a\u003E Big Tech insiders to key cabinet positions does not signal a change.\n\u003Ch6\u003EThe Political Horizon\u003C\/h6\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFacing the consequences of punitive technologies of social control, workers and social movements are beginning to reject meek unionism and the conciliatory reforms of the Democratic Party. In the process, they are building a progressive flank in the battle for control of algorithms, data, and the computational systems. These coalitions are also claiming ownership of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/logicmag.io\/care\/community-defense-sarah-t-hamid-on-abolishing-carceral-technologies\/\u0022\u003Eimaginative horizon\u003C\/a\u003E, including the right to dismantle, reject, and rebuild technical infrastructures. And they\u2019re recognizing themselves as political actors, pushing institutions to meet social obligations. This is something typified by progressive teachers\u2019 unions, who have not only fought the use of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/when-women-organize-we-win-lessons-from-the-west-virginia-teachers-strike\/\u0022\u003Etracking\u003C\/a\u003E and ed-tech surveillance but are also \u201c\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/archive\/chicago-ctu-strike-win\/\u0022\u003Ebargaining for the common good\u003C\/a\u003E.\u201d\n\u003Cp\u003ETech workers, too, are forming \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/01\/04\/technology\/google-employees-union.html#:~:text=But%20unlike%20a%20traditional%20union,full%2Dtime%20employees%20and%20contractors.\u0022\u003Eunions\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/techworkerscoalition.org\/\u0022\u003Ecoalitions\u003C\/a\u003E that unite those building technologies of social control\u2014or, refusing to build them\u2014with the communities harmed by them. Adrienne Williams, an Amazon delivery driver and organizer, expressed this when she called on drivers and engineers to design the algorithmically generated driving routes together. As she told \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/ep4qdz\/amazon-workers-blocked-delivery-trucks-from-leaving-a-warehouse-for-hours\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EVice\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, \u201cOur routes [in the San Francisco Bay Area] are designed by employees in Seattle. They\u2019re so dangerous and inefficient. You could fix this immediately if the drivers just had someone to talk to.\u201d Here we see the progressive wing fight to determine who gets to shape, or be shaped by, tech. It is one of our best hopes for combatting a fascist takeover of computational systems of control.\t\u003Caside class=\u0022left indent indents related-oneup\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\u003Ch4\u003ERelated Article\u003C\/h4\u003E\t\t\n\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022oneup-blocks\u0022\u003E  \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022oneup-block-img\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/economy\/monopoly-policy-biden\/\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cimg src=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Teachout-BIden100-ftr-getty_img.jpg?scale=228&compress=80\u0022 alt=\u0022The Nation\u0022\/\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/a\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/economy\/monopoly-policy-biden\/\u0022 class=\u0022related-oneup-click\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ch5\u003EHow Biden Can Break the Stranglehold of Amazon and Other Monopolies\u003C\/h5\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022author\u0022\u003EZephyr Teachout\u003C\/p\u003E\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\u003C\/aside\u003E\n\t\t\n \n \n \n\u003Cp\u003EWhile Section 230 certainly needs improvement, reform alone will neither reduce concentrated platform power nor address the capitalist incentives that propelled Big Tech companies to provide propaganda tools for fascists around the world. Meanwhile, it is also clear that the fight against a brute repeal of Section 230, which would be \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/technology\/532137-sex-workers-warn-of-unintended-consequences-in-section-230-fight\u0022\u003Edisastrous\u003C\/a\u003E for sex workers and other marginalized populations, will only be won as part of a broader and more militant fight. It will require the kind of nuanced understanding of tech\u2019s unevenly distributed harms and consequences that does not come from the executive offices of tech companies or the halls of Congress.\n\u003Cp\u003EThe progressive tech agenda must be international, and will emerge through supporting and drawing connections between \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/156349\/new-majority-behind-sex-work-decriminalization\u0022\u003Esex workers\u003C\/a\u003E who\u2019ve opposed the harmful effects of SESTA\/FOSTA, the 2018 amendment to Section 230 that made online platforms liable for content promoting sex work; elite tech workers, like those at \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/how-kickstarter-employees-formed-union\/\u0022\u003EKickstarter\u003C\/a\u003E who\u2019ve contested their employers\u2019 capitulation to fascist trolls; \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2020\/9\/22\/21450477\/youtube-content-moderator-sues-lawsuit-ptsd-graphic-content-exposure\u0022\u003Elow-paid tech workers\u003C\/a\u003E objecting to algorithmic exploitation; frontline workers who, in the model of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/prospect.org\/blogs\/tap\/who-should-say-when-a-workplace-is-safe\/\u0022\u003ELos Angeles safety councils\u003C\/a\u003E, are demanding access to data about their lives and health; \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/amazon-workers-of-the-world-unite-jeff-bezos-protest\/\u0022\u003EAmazon workers\u003C\/a\u003E who\u2019ve formed international organizations; \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.newscham.net\/news\/view.php?board=news&nid=105164\u0022\u003ECoupang e-commerce workers\u003C\/a\u003E in South Korea who sent messages of solidarity to e-commerce workers elsewhere; \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/wxqkqb\/this-map-lets-you-report-landlords-using-tech-to-screw-over-tenants\u0022\u003Etenants\u003C\/a\u003E who\u2019ve fought landlords\u2019 use of assessment and surveillance technologies; and other \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/detroitcommunitytech.org\/?q=us\u0022\u003Ecommunities\u003C\/a\u003E and organizers \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.carceral.tech\/\u0022\u003Eresisting\u003C\/a\u003E carceral infrastructure of control and domination. These, among others, are the protagonists shaping a more socially just tech infrastructure, and it is their struggle that regulation efforts should work to bolster.\n\u003Cp\u003EThe neoliberal bargain is fraying, and if we don\u2019t vie for control over the algorithms, data, and infrastructure that are shaping our lives, we face a grim future. It is time to rally behind a militant strategy that recognizes the danger of leaving US tech capitalists at the helm of systems of social control while far-right authoritarians jockey for access. A new and historic bloc is possible. Militant workers, engaged social movements, progressive politicians, radical lawyers, and critical researchers will find that achieving their demands for control will\u2014indeed, must\u2014radically change the tech ecosystem. Contesting for power against those who have it is never easy, but the path forward is clear: Fuck the algorithms, dismantle the tech monopolies, and build infrastructures of care and justice where these systems of social control once stood.\n\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/section\u003E\n\n\u003Csection class=\u0022aside-wrap\u0022\u003E\u003C\/section\u003E\n\u003Cfooter class=\u0022article-footer narrow new-article-footer\u0022 id=\u0022article-footer-376024\u0022\u003E\n\n\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022footer-module narrow author-bio\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\n\t\t\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/nantina-vgontzas\/\u0022\u003E Nantina Vgontzas\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca class=\u0022author-twitter\u0022 href=\u0022https:\/\/twitter.com\/@nantarsya\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003ETwitter\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/span\u003ENantina Vgontzas is a postdoctoral researcher at the AI Now Institute at NYU, and holds a PhD in sociology from NYU. Their research focuses on the politics of globalization, work, and authoritarianism. They are working on a book project about the shop floor politics of Amazon\u0027s global logistics network.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/meredith-whittaker\/\u0022\u003E Meredith Whittaker\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca class=\u0022author-twitter\u0022 href=\u0022https:\/\/twitter.com\/@mer__edith\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003ETwitter\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/span\u003EMeredith Whittaker is the Minderoo Research professor at NYU and the co-founder and faculty director of the AI Now Institute at NYU. Her work focuses on the social implications of artificial intelligence and the tech industry responsible for it. 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