The Web is regularly hailed for its “openness” and that’s where the confusion begins, since “open” in no way means “equal”. —Astra Taylor
Professional Domain of Men
Almost each week some user on Medium would have decided they’ve seen enough content marketing to write up an angry response on how the platform is crumbling. I have not as yet seen any socioeconomic commentary on why a certain kind of content dominates Medium. Absent is the recognition that the familiar hierarchies that exist in the world equally exist online, which is to say that Men are overrepresented both in technology and in online writing, with Women’s roles relegated to front desk reception offline and as such the Mommy blog online. Likewise for Minorities; Blacks for Social Justice, Latinos for Immigration and Asians just “naturally” quiet. Which confronts the question, who in society has the privilege of spending their leisure time online? In the real world, mothers still disproportionately shoulder housework while low income groups juggle multiple jobs that despite the openness of platforms, you cannot really count access to publishing as equal given societal constraints. On any given month one can infer who within real society can afford to churn out top stories, the vast majority of which will point to a certain amount of affluence. Rare are the stories of struggle or poverty because who really has the luxury to churn out such content online—not that this is somehow Medium’s fault. But let’s not imagine that online participation has entirely escaped the trappings of socioeconomic status, race, and gender found offline. Some participate more online because they can while others cannot and of course some write with more authoritativeness than others by virtue of their status, that it should not surprise us to find the same hierarchies reflected in online popularity as found offline. It becomes apparent that an “open” internet is not as such an “equal” internet for which algorithms take the flack.
Defend Yourself
Worse yet than inequity then are the attacks that those outside the dominant group face in presenting themselves and their views online. Abuse has been a mainstay of the social internet that has largely gone unchallenged with platforms or conferences acquiescing to trolls under the banner of “neutrality” or “free speech”. These are not especially new problems in media and nowhere is this more visible than the biggest troll alive, Donald Trump. Neutrality serves power and invariably the troll is given stage while the trolled withers. As things stand, most users are left to defend for themselves and the instances viewed as isolated incidents however vile. The state of internet products still seem relatively passive regarding online attacks that I don’t fault anyone for leaving. We’re told toxicity is the inevitability of every platform but there seems a cost to “free speech” that in such instances are shouldered by Women and Minorities. And although trolling can be drastically reduced simply by adopting a White Male avatar, online publishing already suffers from worse whitewashing than print, not to mention that Women and Minorities are most in need of visibility today.
The question of how we encourage, or even enforce, diversity in so-called open networks is not easy to answer, and there is no obvious and uncomplicated solution to the problem of online harassment.—Astra Taylor
Urban Planning
How Medium goes about building and maintaining thriving communities, much like real cities, will likely be a reflection of the makeup of decision makers. Are mixed communities encouraged? Are underrepresented writers supported? Is safety paramount? What does advertising look like? Are there public spaces? People prioritize these questions differently based on their lived experiences that it makes a strong argument for diversity in hiring — else we risk building for ourselves and only those like us.
As of Medium’s last diversity report, that measure sits at 1:2 Women to Men in product and likewise for Minority to White. And while they’re not yet at parity they are still ahead of the curve in Silicon Valley, which is possibly reflected in their quick adoption of blocking and the lower incidences of rampant trolling.
To return to the issue of disappearing Women on Medium, if they and others leave, it is because systems or codes are not yet built well enough to account for heirarchies or harrasment. That is a flaw that users can only point to when prolific Women leave the platform.
If equity is something we value, we have to build it into the system, developing structures that encourage fairness, serendipity, deliberation, and diversity through a process of trial and error. The question of how we encourage, or even enforce, diversity in so-called open networks is not easy to answer, and there is no obvious and uncomplicated solution to the problem of online harassment. As a philosophy, openness can easily rationalize its own failure, chalking people’s inability to participate up to choice, and keeping with the myth of the meritocracy, blaming any disparities in audience on a lack of talent or will.—Astra Taylor
This essay takes the bulk of its ideas from Astra Taylor’s Open Systems and Glass Ceilings which appeared in Guernica, April 2014.
