Mozilla's decline is an unstoppable process. Last year we signed the Pact for Gender Equality in Colombia, an agreement that symbolizes the co-responsibility of around XNUMX organizations with the implementation of actions that contribute to reducing inequalities. i wrote about how political correctness replaced technical excellence as a goal, and the events of the past week destroyed all my hopes that things would change.
I'm going to make the usual clarification. This is not a post for or against a certain politician. It is a post in favor of the principles with which the web was born.
Mrs. Baker's Ministry of Truth
Mitchell Baker is the president of the Mozilla Foundation and the top executive of its commercial arm the Mozilla Corporation. On the Foundation's official blog, wrote:
… Of course, the question of when a head of state should be banned is a critical one, among many others that must be addressed. When should platforms make these decisions? Is that decision-making power only yours?
So far we are doing fine. Except for one detail. Platforms shouldn't be able to ban anyone permanently until cleared by a judge.
But as reprehensible as Donald Trump's actions are, the rampant use of the internet to foment violence and hatred and reinforce white supremacy is about more than just a personality. Donald Trump is certainly not the first politician to exploit the architecture of the Internet in this way, and he will not be the last. We need solutions that don't start after untold damage has been done.
Note that Mrs. Baker says nothing about the black tweeters calling for violent retaliatory actions against whites or the hateful message from women who consider every heterosexual male to be a rapist.
Your post continues
Changing these dangerous dynamics requires more than just the temporary silencing or permanent removal of bad actors from social media platforms.
Additional precise and specific actions must also be taken:
Let's see what those measurements are.
- Inform who pays for the ads, how much they pay and to whom they are directed.
- Make the platform's algorithms public so that you know how and what content is being amplified, to whom, and the associated impact.
- Activate by default the tools that warn about false information.
- Work with independent researchers in the study of the impact of platforms on people and our societies.
I know of a couple of dictatorships who were sure to approve of Mrs. Mitchell's "transparency measures." On the other hand, what is the criterion to determine that something is false?
I had a crazy idea. What if we better educate people so that they know how to distinguish it for themselves?
The decline of Mozilla And how are we doing at home?
So far, Baker's ideas may be debatable, if well-intentioned. But eLet's take a look at the work you are being paid for with Google's generous contributions to the Foundation.
The general market is comfortable third behind Chrome and Apple
Chrome: 63,38%
Safari: 19.25%
Firefox: 3.77%
The newcomer Edge already has 3.08%
In the growing market for mobile devices, things are getting worse. On both tablets and mobiles, Firefox is the least used browser and does not reach 1%.
Well, you say. At least Mrs. Baker will be great with her employees. Let's see:
Not only did he manage to lay off 250 employees during the pandemic (as Internet use grew) he also announced a restructuring that nowhere spoke of reducing executive compensation.. This is a graph of the evolution of compensation to executives and that of market share in 2018.
To end. a minor detail, but one that illustrates the double discourse.
Last year they posted this:
Facebook has a big problem with hate speech and misinformation on its platform. Despite groups calling on him to take action, including Mozilla, he has yet to make changes.
But Facebook has an Achilles heel: 99% of its $ 70 billion in revenue comes from advertisers.
We're calling on Mozilla's peers - tech companies and companies heavily reliant on the Internet for their core business - who are among the top Facebook advertisers to get their ads off Facebook including Amazon, Uber, Samsung, Disney, and Apple.
We need your help to encourage them to join the growing movement against hate speech and misinformation online. Can you tweet telling companies to join #StopHateForProfit?
Take a look at the screenshot of their latest newsletter.
While launching a campaign to boycott democratically elected presidents (like it or not) the Mozilla Foundation proposes measures that will allow dictatorships to persecute opponents. MWhile complaining about social networks, they encourage their users to use them and are very careful to encourage the use of open source alternatives that guarantee privacy and net neutrality.
Of course, from the looks of it, neither of the two things interest Mozilla anymore.