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David delivered a paper on the acquisition by Facebook of the messenger WhatsApp at the Challenging Media Landscapes conference, part of the Salford Media Festival, at Salford Quays, November 2014.<\/p>\nDavid delivered a paper on the acquisition by Facebook of the messenger WhatsApp at the Challenging Media Landscapes conference, part of the Salford Media Festival, at Salford Quays, November 2014.<\/p>\n
The Programme<\/a> is available here.<\/p>\n Abstract<\/strong>: \u00a0The purchase of\u00a0<\/span>internet chat application\u00a0<\/span>WhatsApp by\u00a0<\/span>social networking giant\u00a0<\/span>Facebook this\u00a0<\/span>year<\/span>\u00a0should give us pause for thought regarding the real agendas behind such monopolistic acquisitions in the tech<\/span>nology<\/span>\u00a0world.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>It\u2019s clear that<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>the teen market is something\u00a0<\/span>Facebook<\/span>must buy into in order<\/span>\u00a0to capture the next generation<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0but<\/span>\u00a0even if Facebook does\u00a0<\/span>delay<\/span>\u00a0placing advertisin<\/span>g on this messaging platform<\/span>, it will still have access to all the meta-data of teen chatter, so valuable to them in targeting their advertising at\u00a0<\/span>people<\/span>\u00a0on Facebook itself.<\/span><\/p>\n L<\/span>ook a little deeper<\/span>, however,<\/span>\u00a0and there are disturbing traces of the activities of\u00a0<\/span>self-styled neoliberal elites<\/span>\u00a0(Kreps 2011)<\/span>, a\u00a0<\/span>newly superrich\u00a0<\/span>class unto themselves<\/span>\u00a0(Picketty 2013)<\/span>\u00a0continually trying to ensure that the world runs in their best interests. The meta-data about our relationships in social networks so valuable to Zuckerberg and his advertisers is, as we have recently seen all too clearly, also extremely valuable to the national security agencies in the US and UK<\/span>\u00a0(Landau 2014)<\/span>. It gives us the incredibly detailed depiction only Big Data can offer of the shape, trends, shifts and movements of societies: those amorphous entities neoliberals once upon a time\u00a0<\/span>dismissed as irrelevant to market needs<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n We can gain even more insight into this acquisition b<\/span>y taking a look at Peter Thiel<\/span>. Paypal founder turned venture capitalist, Thiel was Facebook\u2019s first big investor back in 2004 and still sits on the company board.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>As an undergraduate Thiel was taught by the French philosopher Rene Girard (and now\u00a0<\/span>funds<\/span>\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>Imitatio<\/span>\u00a0organisation promoting Girard\u2019s work). Girard is famous for his assertion that all human behaviour is based on imitation \u2013 his mimetic theory<\/span>\u00a0\u2013 to which he<\/span>accords objective scientific status, while at the same time basing it all in Biblical references\u00a0<\/span>(Pommier 2010)<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Thiel\u2019s video about Girard\u2019s influence on his life<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>makes it clear<\/span>\u00a0the Facebook capitalist believes human beings act as a \u201cherd\u201d, and that his success has come from second-guessing the herd mentality, innovating in spaces counter to the movements of the herd.<\/span><\/p>\n This paper takes a close look at these interweaving issues and asks: have online social networking sites<\/span>, supposedly a place of family, friends, and pictures of kittens,<\/span>\u00a0become\u00a0<\/span>little more than\u00a0<\/span>sinister harvesting machines fo<\/span>r shadowy government agencies and billionaire elites to hoover up the data about our \u2018herd\u2019 behavior in their attempts to maintain social control and competitive advantage<\/span>?<\/span><\/p>\n Ref<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Kreps, D (2014) \u2018WhatsApp? Even private chatter now exploited by billionaires\u2019 Paper delivered at\u00a0Challenging Media Landscapes<\/a>\u00a0conference, as part of Salford Media Festival, November 2014<\/p>\n