Daniel 🤖💀 Wilson @dan9000.bluesky.social

History / Science & Technology Studies / 'Data' / Researcher @turinginst on @livingwmachines project |

[Anne Hidalgo @Anne_Hidalgo]

Why I am leaving Twitter.

I have made the decision to leave Twitter.

Twitter, far from being the groundbreaking medium that initially made information accessible to the greatest possible number of people, has in recent years become an impressive tool for destroying our democracies.

Whether it be manipulation, disinformation, the fostering of hatred, harassment, anti-Semitism and open racism, or vicious attacks on scientists, climatologists, women, environmentalists, liberals and all those of good will who wish to engage in peaceful political debate in an increasingly complex world, the range of abuses is endless. Not to mention the daily external meddling in electoral processes, aimed at destabilizing our democracies and undermining their image and sovereignty.

Today, controversy, rumor and crude manipulation rule public debate, fueled by Twitter's algorithm, where the only thing that counts is the number of "likes". Facts are irrelevant.

This platform and its owner intentionally exacerbates tensions and conflicts.

Furthermore, it intentionally hinders the information needed to bring about the ecological and energy transformation we much need, in favor of climate protectionist arguments driven by fossil fuel interests and boundless greed for the planet. We can keep denying, clarifying and explaining, but the noise produced by a piece of misinformation will still dwarf the echo of a proven truth.

We must not deceive ourselves. We are dealing here with an utterly clear political project to push aside democracy and its values in favor of powerful private interests.

The latest transparency report on content control, released by Twitter itself, ranks France first in Europe for violent and illegal content.

This medium has become a gigantic global sewer, and we should continue to wade into it?

We see it every day: Twitter hinders debate, the quest for truth, and the serene and constructive dialogue needed between human beings. With its thousands of anonymous accounts and its troll farms, life on Twitter is the exact opposite of democratic life.

I refuse to endorse this evil scheme.

I believe deeply in democracy, which remains in the making.

I believe in exchanges, in these difficult times.

We should never accept the bullying of vile attacks.

We should not allow the "engineers of chaos" to seize control of our destinies.

We should not accept the daily disintegration of our democracies on our screens.

In March 2009, I was one of the first French women in politics to join this network, which today counts a community of over 1,500,000 subscribers worldwide.

To remain true to my convictions and my commitment, I am leaving Twitter today.

I will remain on other social media networks in which respectful exchanges can still take place: https://t.co/52QpyGVbey

We need more than ever to keep real democracy alive, whether it be through town councils, town meetings, referendums, conferences or get-togethers. These are places where people see each other, argue, build together and simply live together.

When all is dark, we need to reach for the light and those great spirits who, at certain times in our history, have shown us the way. "We must learn to live together as brothers, or we will all die together as idiots", Martin Luther King told us in the early 1960s.

We can trust each other and find our way back to democracy, peace and fraternity. It is in our hands.

Read this Op-ED in @lemondefr : https://t.co/97DG4WgJSB

[The Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) @SocHistTech]

In ‘The Living Machine: Computational Approaches to the 19th Century Language of Technology’ @technocene et al., use language models to explore how the changing human-machine relation was depicted in Victorian Britain.

Read the full article here: https://t.co/lQHOpLJ5UW

[The Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) @SocHistTech]

Have you read Technology and Culture's July issue? It had a excellent assortment of articles! Stay tuned over the coming days for a review of all the great pieces that were published. #histtech #histSTM

[Living with Machines @LivingwMachines]

Big news! MapReader has won the 2023 Roy Rosenzweig Prize for Innovation in Digital History, awarded by @AHAhistorians & @chnm. Thank you to the committee for recognizing our work.
https://t.co/SH22po4bHW
Congrats to all involved!!
@ahrcpress @britishlibrary @turinginst

[Living with Machines @LivingwMachines]

Stop Press! 🧵The Living Machine! 🤖 New OA Article in Technology & Culture (https://t.co/1r8X7KoU8Y) by @technocene et al., using a language model to explore 19th century texts #history #dh @SocHistTech @turinginst @ahrcpress @blpressoffice 1/n...

[Living with Machines @LivingwMachines]

The project may be winding down, but we have fresh research for you. New blogpost by @technocene about a long research article: 'The Living Machine', published this week in history journal Technology & Culture. More details to follow... #history #histtech https://t.co/UjlsWNrXQz

[Living with Machines @LivingwMachines]

...2/2: @technocene reflects on experiments with computer vision and the value of in-person collaboration for multi-disciplinary challenges such as document layout. Thanks @ahrcpress @smgresearch @wjbfarrell @historianjon @jon_agar @khetiwe24 @vanstriendaniel @f_nanni @amsichani

[Living with Machines @LivingwMachines]

New blogpost! 'Directory Enquiries Part 2' https://t.co/KyMMxlB4HC by @technocene reporting on a workshop @turinginst on machine-learning approaches to parsing difficult historical documents such as 19th-century Trade Directories... 1/2 #dh #computervision #twitterstorians

[Daniel 🤖💀 Wilson @dan9000.bluesky.social @technocene]

@RDBinns @mer__edith Thanks @RDBinns! And here's the tidy version (paywalled at https://t.co/q4t71CF3XZ), contact me for a copy.

[Daniel 🤖💀 Wilson @dan9000.bluesky.social @technocene]

https://t.co/rn40IATlc4

It's been on preview for a while, but delighted to share our officially published 'Environmental Scan' article (with page numbers!) in DSH on 'Bias and Representativeness in Digitised Newspaper Collections', led by Kaspar Beelen… https://t.co/ZWhLW5Ir99

[SMGResearch @SmgResearch]

Interested in how #digital tools can be used to create new collections-based histories?

#CongruenceEngine research fellow Daniel Wilson is using trade directories and machine learning to unlock radical historical contexts.

Read more about his work here:
https://t.co/7fjZcCv3OJ

[Daniel 🤖💀 Wilson @dan9000.bluesky.social @technocene]

https://t.co/iGr9TexjRB

[Daniel 🤖💀 Wilson @dan9000.bluesky.social @technocene]

https://t.co/NiGw7xpOKS

[Daniel 🤖💀 Wilson @dan9000.bluesky.social @technocene]

https://t.co/v5NNKH1EbW