"It should go without saying that, outside of maybe the executive level, there are very few grandparents working at tech companies. Because of this, there’s rarely anyone in the room who’s truly able to understand what it must have been like to be a 78-year old logging onto Facebook for the first time in 2016, in a world where internet memes go 9000 levels deep and the web is an information battleground where governments and corporations unscrupulously compete for our attention. Amid all of this, your friend of 60 years posts a link to a Denver Guardian article saying that the Pope endorsed Donald Trump; you’re excited, click “share,” and move on...
The challenge is that this is precisely the sort of epistemic cover that governments need to assert their will without the risk of oversight. Social media had a brief burst of power to coordinate protests against decrepit regimes (like in the Arab Spring), but political actors have now caught on; political scientists have repeatedly shown how modern regimes use social media to distract and sow confusion and doubt. It seems likely that something similar will happen here."
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