Conspiracy theories rage online over coronavirus

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: In this episode of Tech Tent, host Rory Kathland-Jones and reporter Jane Wakefield cover the spread of coronavirus misinformation on social media, discussing its dangers with Professor Paul Hunter. They also examine tech industry monopolies with Cory Doctorow and post-capitalist ideas from Yancey Strickler, and explore cybersecurity psychology around password behavior with Dr. Jessica Barker at RSA 2020. The episode highlights how misinformation has real-world health consequences, challenges Silicon Valley's growth-at-all-costs model, and suggests positive nudging could improve cybersecurity practices.

Main Topics: Coronavirus Misinformation on Social Media (Priority: 5/5): Discussion of wild rumors and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 spreading on Facebook and YouTube, including claims the virus is a bioweapon or linked to 5G. Professor Paul Hunter explains how such misinformation reduces adoption of safe practices, drawing parallels to the Ebola epidemic. Tech Industry Monopolies and Post-Capitalism (Priority: 4/5): Cory Doctorow argues tech giants like Facebook and Google grew through anti-competitive conduct, buying nascent competitors and merging with major ones. Yancey Strickler envisions a shift toward measuring multiple values beyond financial ROI, including climate and social impact. Cybersecurity Psychology and Password Behavior (Priority: 3/5): Dr. Jessica Barker discusses how negative messaging about passwords backfires due to 'social proof,' leading people to think weak passwords are acceptable. She advocates for positive nudging to encourage secure behaviors, similar to auto-enrollment in pension schemes. Clearview AI Hack and Facial Recognition Controversy (Priority: 3/5): Clearview AI, which scraped images from Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter for its 3 billion-image database, was hacked. The breach exposed client lists including law enforcement agencies, raising privacy concerns. Tesla Autopilot Fatal Crash Report (Priority: 3/5): US NTSB report on a 2020 fatal crash found driver distraction from a smartphone game and inadequate collision avoidance system. Recommendations include preventing 'automation complacency' and questioning the 'autopilot' label's misleading nature. Impact of Coronavirus on Tech Conferences (Priority: 2/5): Facebook canceled its May developer conference, following other cancellations like the Geneva Motor Show and a watch conference. This raises questions about the future of large events and suggests a shift toward locally hosted and live-streamed alternatives.

Key Arguments: Misinformation on social media leads people to reject safe health practices, increasing risk of infection and death. The speed of information in social media era makes distinguishing reliable from unreliable data more difficult than during SARS. Tech companies grew large through traditional monopolistic behavior—buying competitors, vertical integration, and anti-competitive conduct—not tech exceptionalism. Society is transitioning to a post-capitalist focus where decisions integrate climate and social metrics alongside financial returns. Cybersecurity messaging should use positive social proof (highlighting good behavior) rather than fear-based warnings which can normalize bad passwords. Clearview AI's scraping of public social media images without permission and subsequent hack exposes privacy and security risks in law enforcement facial recognition.

Data Points: Clearview AI database size: 3 billion images - Scraped from Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, used for facial recognition by law enforcement Facebook user exodus (2018): 50 million users (13-34 year olds) - Largest ever US exodus from Facebook, most ended up on Instagram which Facebook purchased Global capital: $140 trillion - Mentioned by Yancey Strickler as available capital not being used for solving problems like climate change Tesla crash date: March 2020 - Fatal accident involving 38-year-old Walter Huang with autopilot engaged, driver playing smartphone game Dow Jones index drop: Below 25,000 - Tech stocks suffered particularly; Dow had been heading for 30,000 before the plunge Conference cancellations due to coronavirus: multiple - Facebook developer conference (May), Geneva Motor Show, Watch conference in Switzerland; also big-name dropouts from RSA 2020 (IBM, AT&T, Verizon)

Pivotal Quotes: "We know from the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2016 that people who believed these conspiracy theories about Ebola were less likely to adopt safe practices, especially safe funereal practices, and so were putting themselves at increased risk of getting the infection and ultimately increased risk of dying." — Professor Paul Hunter: Explaining why coronavirus misinformation on social media matters and has real health consequences "When you look at how tech companies got big, they got big doing the things that monopolists have done to be big all along. They buy their nascent competitors, they merge with their major competitors, they create vertical monopolies, and they engage in anti-competitive conduct." — Cory Doctorow: Arguing against 'tech exceptionalism' and for breakups of tech giants at an economics conference at Facebook HQ "According to social proof, what we're actually doing is saying to people, there's all these terrible passwords out there, and people think, oh, okay, everyone else is using a terrible password. If it's good enough for them, it must be good enough for me." — Dr. Jessica Barker: Explaining why negative cybersecurity messaging backfires and advocating for positive nudging instead

Implications: Tech platforms must urgently improve misinformation detection, especially health-related. Antitrust enforcement against big tech may accelerate. Cybersecurity education should shift from fear-based to positive nudging. The pandemic-driven cancellations of major conferences may permanently reshape the tech event landscape.