Digital Digest August 18th 2017
1. Big News

Silicon Valley is reminded it’s inconveniently located between hate speech & free speech
In the aftermath of the protests and tragic death in Charlottesville, tech companies have begun to take action. Facebook committed to hiring 3,000 more content moderators to filter out offensive posts. A neo-Nazi site, The Daily Stormer, saw their hosting denied by GoDaddy, Google and a Russian company as well as Cloudflare backup and SendGrid email services revoked (effectively blocking then from the internet). Airbnb dropped accounts of rally attendees and OKCupid publicly banned a prominent white nationalist.
Gab (a Twitter clone the founder claims was started due to “dissatisfaction with the entirely left-leaning Big Social monopoly”) was kicked out of the Google Play store for violating their policy on hate speech. Apple Pay, PayPal, GoFundMe and Kickstarter have cut off white supremacists from using their services. Spotify has removed music the Southern Poverty Law Center flagged as hate bands.
Why it matters
- At the birth of Web 2.0 (and during copyright disputes of the early 2000’s),YouTube and MySpace claimed that they were “dumb pipes” like the telephone lines — companies that provided communication services but could not be expected to actively police what was happening on their platforms.
- Since then, tech companies have spent tremendous effort to monitor and classify what we say and do (largely to serve us better ads).
- Silicon Valley is now increasingly finding themselves in the role of free speech referee.
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- The limits of free speech have always been difficult to define. Modern communication methods are not making that the definition any easier.
- In addition to the larger societal implications, Charlottesville is a reminder that brands can no longer expect to sit quietly on the sidelines.
2. I wish I thought of that

Objectifier is a piece of hardware from Bjørn Karmann that uses computer vision and neural networks to trigger real world IFTT. For example, you might want to turn on your stereo automatically with a dance move or have the lights turn off when you pull your sheets up at night. It’s super easy to train and can also be a great assistive technology for people with disabilities.
3. Tool of the Week

StartupStash is a curated directory of resources & tools for startups that is super helpful for marketing, too (think tools for naming, design, presentations, HR… you name it!). Take a spin through, I bet you’ll find something helpful.
4. Startup Radar

GawkBox allows fans to tip their favorite content creators/streamers…with a brand’s money. How you ask? The platform allows users to do something (ex. download an app or create an account) that will reward a content creator with a specified amount of cash. (The tipping culture is a thing on streaming platforms like Twitch). Win/Win/Win: fans are $0.00 out of pocket, the content creators don’t need to join a MCN and the brands get KPI action.
5. From the Archives

A Journey To The Bottom Of The Internet- is a video from Creative Lab friends that shows us what the internet is really made of.
