This is going to be a political post, which is admittedly somewhat, though not entirely, outside the norms for this newsletter. But I think it highlights how it is important to look at what the systems do rather than what we think they should or what the people in them say they do, a key issue when dealing with tech bullshit.
The New Republic has a story about how the West Virgina House has passed a bill that would put librarians in jail if a minor reads a book containing obscene material from their library, even if the librarian had no knowledge of the event, the book’s content, or the parents gave consent. Give a kid a dictionary that happens to contain entries on sexuality that people find obscene? Go to jail. Have the kid check out a book with their parents that someone thinks is obscene? Got to jail. Give a kid a children’s book that is supportive of LGTBQ+ people? That’s obscene according to someone, so go to jail.
The supporters of the bill claim it is not censorship or banning books since the bill won’t force these books to be taken out of the libraries. But censorship is not the point. The purpose of these laws is to destroy public services for at least people they do not approve of. The point of this law is to drive librarians who are not anti-gay out of the business and thus cripple public services for anyone who is not aligned with the right wing.
Recently, a non-binary student was killed after their school apparently did not get her medical treatment after a fight in the girl’s bathroom. That school in Oklahoma had been target by the LibsOfTikTok account after a teacher had expressed support for gay students. The hatred and death threats eventually lead to the teacher resigning. Now a non-binary student is dead shortly after these events. If the attack had to do with their non-binaryness, how many gay or non-binary kids are going to feel safe in that school? And that is the point of attacks by LibsOfTikTok — to encourage violence to drive gay people out of public life. They know that the lies they tell about gay students and supporters will likely result in violence — that is apparently the point:
NBC News identified 33 instances, starting in November 2020, when people or institutions singled out by Libs of TikTok later reported bomb threats or other violent intimidation. The threats, which on average came several days after tweets from Libs of TikTok, targeted schools, libraries, hospitals, small businesses and elected officials in 16 states, Washington, D.C., and the Canadian province of Ontario. Twenty-one of the 33 threats were bomb threats, which most commonly targeted schools and were made via email.
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She continues to post the identifying details and images of her subjects. She has rarely criticized the threat-makers or urged them to stop. She told The Washington Post in September 2022, when the newspaper was reporting on threats against children’s hospitals: “We 100 % condemn any acts/threats of violence.”
Raichik has at times mocked the idea that she could influence people making threats, once joking that maybe she was also responsible for natural disasters.
But some of her followers take her posts as an invitation. People have replied with the phone numbers of schools, the names of teachers and school board members and requests for Raichik to provide more details so that users can take action.
Recently, a series of bomb threats against libraries has been going around the Midwest. Again, when people call librarians groomers or insist that all gay people, and thus all gay literature, is sexual by nature and/or an attempt to “recruit” children (do you remember being recruited as a heterosexual? Where you a five start recruit and revealed your decision — by putting on the hetero ball cap instead of the gay ball cap — at a press conference at your school and saying you were going to take your talents to straight people? Good times. Good times.), they are well aware that they are telling lies that will lead unstable or angry people to act out. That is the point.
The simplest rule in systems analysis, whether it is technical or organizational, is that the system is what it does. If you create an imitative AI system that copies and requires unfettered access to copyrighted material to train, then your system is a means of taking wealth from copyright holders to you. If your movement lies, uses inflammatory language, creates laws that make harassing gay people, teachers, and librarians easy to do, then you are an organization dedicated to persecuting gay people and preventing them and their allies from being full participants in public society.
No one has to wait for these people to tell us who they are — we can see who they are based on the systems they build.