In the last few months we’ve seen the large social platforms take what appears to be a stand against the far-right. This point from Richard Seymour is absolutely crucial in understanding the ideological significance of this move, lest it be seen as a damascene conversion to civic responsibility rather than a business decision:
Hitherto, the ‘networked far-right resonance machine‘ has been dominated by the social industry giants. However, as they’ve maxed out their audience, acquired unparalleled media power, and gained a close relationship with Washington, DC, it costs them less to foreswear the profitable far-right market than to keep it going. The purge of QAnon, Infowars, overt neo-Nazis, and Trump himself, does not mean that these platforms will not continue to profit from the alt-right. However, the latent profitability of that scene will be realised elsewhere
Categories: Platform and agency
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