Hollywood Drama and Internet Terror

Twitter Is Worrying Darling 

Hollywood is back, baby! The upcoming film Don’t Worry Darling premiered at the Venice Film Festival this weekend, and… well… honestly, it’s better if I just let the tweets explain this one.

If you want a more coherent play-by-play of how we got to this state of darling worry, check out this thread.

Platform Updates

Instagram 

• Instagram Tests New ‘Add Topics’ Option in the Reels Upload Process

• Instagram Scales Back In-Stream Shopping Elements as it Re-Examines its Approach

The Rest of Meta 

• Meta Announces 2022 Connect Conference, a Key Showcase of its Evolving Metaverse Vision 😴

• Meta Launches ‘Creators of Tomorrow’ Initiative to Highlight Emerging Digital Artists 

TikTok

• TikTok Adds More Regional Trend Insights to its ‘TikTok Insights’ Data Tool

• China gaming crackdown: ByteDance cuts ‘hundreds of jobs’ from its video game operations in Shanghai and Hangzhou, sources say

Snap 

• Snap Shutters Web3 Division as Part of Broader Job Cuts

Apple 

• Everything Unveiled From iPhone 14 to Apple Watch 8

Tumblr 

• They changed the app icon, and it looks ugly now. If you know how to change it back, please DM.

Culture Movers 

Memes

• Where Do Memes Come From? The Top Platforms From 2010-2022

Gaming 

• They built a Minecraft crypto empire. Then it all came crashing down

What It Means to Be Safe Online

This week, after a long campaign by Twitch streamer Keffals, Cloudflare finally blocked Kiwi Farms, effectively removing the hate site from the internet. If you are lucky enough not to know about Kiwi Farms or the kind of malicious, life-threatening tactics deployed by sites like it before this week, I’m happy for you. They are responsible for stalking, doxxing, and swatting many individuals and have been linked to multiple suicides. 

I’m very fortunate that I’ve never personally been the subject of one of these online harassment campaigns. Saddly, I know multiple friends (online and IRL) who have dealt with these tactics of domestic terrorism. There were times as the social media lead at Patreon when I was legitimately afraid the rage certain communities were directing to the brand would spill over into my personal life. 

Many of us don’t get to use the internet without fear. 

Before Cloudflare took action, it released a blog post about their approach to abusive content. In it, they make the case that, as a provider of security services, they don’t want to be responsible for making content moderation decisions. 

“Some argue that we should terminate these services to content we find reprehensible so that others can launch attacks to knock it offline. That is the equivalent argument in the physical world that the fire department shouldn't respond to fires in the homes of people who do not possess sufficient moral character.”

I’m sympathetic to this argument on some levels but find it lacking in this instance. To take the IRL metaphor all the way, Kiwi Farms is like if someone set up a physical shop in your town and started chucking molotov cocktails at anyone who looked a little funny when they walked by and sometimes following them home in stolen police cars crashing them through the front door. Tell me how your fire department would respond to that. Others have pointed out that Cloudflare actually protects producers and distributors of Malware, making them more like the mob’s version of protection than the fire departments. 

We’re at a moment where technology and its ability to do harm are evolving much faster than our cultural or legal institutions. I’d love to live in a world where our legal system understood these tactics, was able to meaningfully protect targets of online harassment, and effectively prosecute the abusers behind forums like Kiwi Farms. I’d also like to ride a flying unicorn around the city instead of using BART. We live in the real world and the real online world. Worlds where platforms and service providers need to think about the harm they enable. 

Back to Don’t Worry Darling 

I just think we should get Hedda Hopper on the Ouija board real quick to catch her up on all this. There was a time when this level of celebrity palace intrigue was a key part of what sold movie tickets. It wasn’t even that long ago. Be honest, we all wanted to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith in part because of the Brad, Jen & Angelina drama. The real innovation of The Kardashians Inc was giving us nothing but this kind of drama without ever needing to make an actual movie. Even if the reviews are terrible, I know I’ll want to go see Don’t Worry Darling for myself. 

On the other side of the film industry, giant IP machines like Disney/Marvel/StarWars keep their talent locked down with aggressive NDAs. All of their drama seems to be with Kiwi Farms adjacent “fans” who dislike any inclusion of women, people of color, or queer people in media. So I have a proposal for the Disneys and Amazons of the world: relax those NDAs. A good stream of behind-the-scenes drama would get me to finally watch those Star Wars shows that don’t have Baby Yoda. Hell, hire some ex-Bravo producers to script some juicy star-studded fights for you. I promise this would be good for ratings and box office numbers.