Social software can promote inequality rather than counter it.

Evidence

I hypothesized that studying the status structure of this community—the people who built virtually all the popular social media applications of the time—would reveal a great deal about how status was built into Web 2.0, and thus illuminate how popular social software may promote inequality rather than counter it. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 19

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the reader’s prior material on how well-intentioned systems (access systems, communication infrastructure) produce unintended harms. — connects to: Privately controlled data extraction produces social classifications that entrench inequality — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 443; Technology-based surveillance sorts people socially rather than reducing bias. — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 221; Digital speculation obscures inequality through hidden code just as nations hid exploitation — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 138 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Privately controlled data extraction produces social classifications that entrench inequality #corroborates (0.92) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 443
• Inequality serves surveillance capitalism as a lever for extracting consent #corroborates (0.90) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 800
• Algorithmic homophily makes moving from worker to capitalist harder for nonwhite influencers #exemplifies (0.88) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 41
• Algorithmic systems deepen racial inequality by rendering rather than erasing racialized bodies #exemplifies (0.88) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 93
• Technology-based surveillance sorts people socially rather than reducing bias. #corroborates (0.85) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 221
• Digital speculation obscures inequality through hidden code just as nations hid exploitation #corroborates (0.85) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 138
• Surveillance capitalist experiments exploit knowledge asymmetry to engineer user behavior for profit #corroborates (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 934
• Paternalism governs long-term inequalities through social rewards rather than force #qualifies (0.72) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 671