william watkin's blog (since 2003)

The DCMS report shows them to be well-meaning, but digitally illiterate The long awaited DCMS report on Fake News and social media was published today, and while the tone of its criticisms of Facebook is notable in its harshness, overall the report is rather bland and toothless.   While the recommendations may give parliament more regulatory rights over social media, the report also shows a disturbing lack of understanding of what Facebook is, its business model, its role in our lives and its participation in our democracy.   The list of findings includes things like Mark Zuckerberg isn’t very nice, Russians are dodgy, multi-billion companies can’t be trusted to regulate themselves, and Brexit was hacked using secret funds.   Really!?   I am shocked.   Meanwhile Facebook comes out of it all as a company who will sell your private data at the drop of a hat, or the click of a like, but when asked to share information about their algorithms, data sha...

Just over half a year after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, the ongoing investigations into the criminal and nondemocratic role that illegal data-harvesting and targeted political ads have had on the election of Trump, and of course Brexit rumble on.  At the same time there is clear disagreement as to what degree companies like Cambridge Analytica in cahoots with the far right and the Russians really skewed recent elections.  It is now clear that what they did was on the edges of legality, but does that mean to say it was wrong?  And if CA did not elect Trump, then what is the real political significance of data-based campaigning?  Prof. Watkin, as ever, thinks we may have fresh insights into the debate.

Check out my latest piece at The Conversation:  Cambridge Analytica used our secrets for profit – the same data could be used for public good

Hi Here is my latest video explaining the whole Cambridge Analytica / Alexsandr Kogan data privacy and fakes news moral panic. Cambridge Analytica / Kogan Explainer Video

The 72 victims of Grenfell Tower Fire were murdered, victims of the violence of neglect.  Here is the proof. A year ago, a fire started on the fourth floor of Grenfell Tower, due to a faulty appliance.  The fire spread quickly up the side of the building because the tower had been refurbished in 2016.  Flammable cladding had been added to the exterior building as part of an £8 million refit which appears to have primarily made the tower more cosmetically pleasing.  The money was not spent on improving fire safety within the building, it would appear, a cause for concern for residents’ groups for years. The initial cladding that was to be used is not illegal in the UK but its use is restricted in other countries.  To save costs a cheaper version was eventually attached to the building, a more flammable version.  Once the fire caught, residents were advised to stay in their flats.  In 99% of all cases this is the best advice, because flats a...

It has been a busy time for Cambridge Analytica (CA) and the DCMS Fake News committee, what with whistle-blowers in the morning, and disgraced ex-CEO Nixes in the afternoon.  Okay, only one Nix, but one is enough.  As I listened last Wednesday to Nix give evidence in parliament I thought, for a moment, what if he is right, and all of this is a global conspiracy of the liberal left to find a data-goat for their own political impotency? Admittedly, it is clear CA has a somewhat murky business model, and that Nix doesn’t always tell the whole truth.  But it is also obvious that his arch-nemesis and ex-employee Christopher Wylie is something of a self-publicist, that liberal Americans are looking to blame someone for Trump, that we liberals in the UK still cannot accept that Brexit will happen and yes, the MSM led by the Guardian are at war with the fake news industry. Sleazy Nix was at least classy enough to avoid using the term fake news but, in terms of CA’s inv...