Perhaps it is a naive desire for simpler times that makes this so very difficult for me to admit, but increasing complexity is an inevitable outcome of our modernity. That said, I refuse to roll-up my sleeves, tap a vein, and inject complacence into my veins or offer it to others. I’m just not wired that way. I started to write about these topics because I care, deeply. At times too deep I fear. What do I care about? Reasoned choice. Yeah, it is proving to be a struggle, but I keep hacking away at it, much like I did with a 2x4, and a handsaw when I was 4yrs old on the back patio. I eventually did saw through that board, but generated a cut more reminiscent of a beaver on a tree than a modern tool. In the end, I was rewarded with sawdust and a stubborn pride that seem to have been an oddly formative constituent of my character.
In Accept-ing the System I write about the confounding mess that End-User Licensing Agreements (EULAs) and Terms-of-Service (TOS) create. You know, those long legalese documents that most people just click on Accept for to get to what it was they wanted to do in the first place (lawyers aside as they do love a good contract). So that is the dark side (yes, I do mean that) of our modern media world with its platforms, corporations, and endless parade of busy-body product managers who feel that their sole raison de etre is to write another user-story for yet another UI change (yeah, I’m talking about you Apple).
I’d be remiss however if I neglected to acknowledge my appreciation for the times when, due to whatever OKR, strategic pillar, product strategy, or mission/purpose they purport, that something good comes out of all that agileness. This admission, or is it a reconciliation? I’m referring to is their fight, highlighted by TechDirt with the UK on breaking their encryption.
“ The UK Home Office demanded in early September that Apple create a backdoor into users’ cloud storage service, but stipulated that the order applied only to British citizens’ data, according to people briefed on the matter. “
Apple is one of the very few companies in the world with enough platform power to engage in lawfare with a nation with as much of their own clout, as the United Kingdom. Linking this together with accept-ing the system, opt-in/out mandates, or other transnational concerns, we’re in a unique time of human history. Since the advent of the corporation, corporations have had to coexist with nations. This coexistence has not always been invited or peaceful. However, the nation states tended to have the upper-hand. In our instantly global connected world however, I’m not sure this is the case anymore. Today, in democratic society at least, it seems the social license to operate is just as likely to be jeopardized by a global corporation via the mass-media as it is electoral means.
For anyone building in media tech, these platform versus state fights aren’t abstract. Encryption backdoors, shifting compliance rules, and jurisdiction creep turn into workflow risk. When Apple pushes back on the UK, it is not just a legal spectacle; it winds up shaping what everyone at the edge has to plan for.