Follow the Money.
Follow the Law.
Follow the Rules.

Hello Everyone!

This week was a week of firsts.

It was my son’s first overnight trip. (For a 2.5 year old, he can road trip with the best of them. Helps that he’s still in diapers.)

And this is the journal’s first weekly entry!

I’m still working on the layout and topics, so please feel free to comment or reach out if any issues interest you. I’m working on improving our outreach to everyone. I’m learning on this journey as much as I hope you are.

The legal landscape around digital media is a fascinating one. Just looking at the TikTok drama in the US over the last year shows that we are not working in black or white but many, many shades of gray.

(I’m not avoiding the politics behind it all. But focusing on what passed, cuts through a lot of noise and gets to the heart of the matter. We can get into politics another day… maybe.)

The law is slow regarding big tech. It’s trying to catch up, but what are we trying to catch?

  • Child Safety
  • Potential Terror Threats
  • Financial Scams

This week’s topics focus not on the laws that passed, but their impacts. Mississippi’s Law, as well as Online Gaming, shows what companies are doing in the reality they find themselves in.

And how it impacts our families.

News

Think Of The Kids?

Article - Our Response to Mississippi’s Age Assurance Law

Bluesky, a social networking startup, has decided to block users from Mississippi from using their app.

In the last few years, states have been rolling out age verification for social media sites. These states include:

Age verification is nothing new, but the scope of these new laws is. Mississippi's law require companies to verify the age of all users using their platform.

Not just adult or mature content.

All content.

This law is currently being challenged in the US court system; however, it will remain in place as it stands. In the meantime, this law impacts existing companies by either:

Making them develop tools to store and track personal information including:

  • Name
  • Age
  • Parents (Including current legal status of parents)

Or block users from the app.

Just so you know, this will apply to everyone using the app.

I don't know how Facebook, Google, and other companies will respond to this law. Or even if this law will last, considering Justice Kavanaugh remarked that the law is "likely unconstitutional" on its merits. However, there is currently no relief for existing companies.

On one hand, I applaud these states making big tech actually moderate content using methods that would work. To date lawmakers have left moderation to the company's discretion which seems to always take a back seat to increasing profits, clicks, or users.

On the other hand… at what cost?

I believe that existing online moderation systems for kids are flawed, and we need to find more effective solutions.

However, solutions that remove freedoms we currently hold, especially those that protect us from the rich and powerful, are not a solution.

In short, it's a trap.

Follow the Money

Article - 70% of Japan smartphone games bypass in-app payments to avoid IT giants

If you are looking solely at your Apple or Google purchases to detect online game purchases, you may miss where the money actually changes hands.

In-App purchases in online games have long been a hot topic. Recently, more games are starting to take this approach in order to both adapt to consumer trends, but also to get more money for games than more traditional means.

If you notice that app stores are promoting higher quality games for free. There is a reason.

Apple and Google typically get a cut of the revenue when games charge players in-app purchases. However, developers are now moving players to other channels to avoid the Apple / Google tax. This also bypasses many of the security measures Apple and Google have set up for payments like this.

One way this works is that you visit a game's website, outside the game, to purchase in-game currency. You then use the currency to buy additional features or power-ups.

The article features Japanese video game companies, and almost 70% of games use this practice.

But other games outside Japan, like Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves, follow this model.

Blogs

Feedback Loops


Article - In 1949, he said you’d be addicted to your phone

Nate Sowder wrote an article about a MIT mathematician who saw the value and dangers of algorithms.

Norbert Wiener, an MIT mathematician, published a book in 1948 titled "Cybernetics," in which he explored the relationships between humans and machines.

Wiener defines Cybernetics as

“The science of control and communications in the animal and machine.”

Or put another way, the study of how people interact with machines.

With the recent impact of AI, the constant drum of gaming social media algorithms, and the desire to go viral. This topic seems more relevant now than ever.

Sowder sums up Wiener’s work in three parts:

  • Metrics become reality
    • Algorithms enforce the goal we give them. And we define the objectives.
  • Speed shapes your control
    • If algorithms finish before we are conscious of it, then we are not steering the outcome; we are being steered.
  • Every system is a moral system
    • The values of the system are the values of the creators. How it does what it does is where its morals lie.

The article from Sowder is definitely worth the read, and I want to read more about Wiener's work.

Sowder ends with this:

“Every loop (Algorithm) is a kind of policy. Every metric is a choice about what matters, and every system gives power to some people and takes it from others.”

It's a sober reminder for those who work in tech that the things we make matter.