Watch Video Of Cornell Tech Digital Life Initiative Roosevelt Island Community Conversation Last Evening - Social Media Political Manipulation Of Elections, Ads Tracking Your Online Habits & More

The Cornell Tech campus location on Roosevelt Island offers residents an opportunity to participate in timely and interesting discussions about important current and future issues concerning technology and society. Last evening, December 16, the Cornell Tech Digital Life Initiative (DLI) hosted:

...  a panel discussion about technology and society, including privacy, social media, behavioral advertising, and media manipulation. Panelists include Helen Nissenbaum, Lee McGuigan, Noa Mor, Yael Eisenstat, and MC Forelle....

Thanks to @HNissenbaum, @mcforelle, @LJamesMcGuigan, @Noa15694733, and @YaelEisenstat for participating on the panel, and to all of the community members who attended!

— Digital Life Initiative @ Cornell Tech (@dlicornelltech) December 17, 2019

Among the issues discussed at last evenings Roosevelt Island Community Conversation were social media political manipulation of elections on Facebook. Responding to a question on this subject from a Roosevelt Island resident, DLI's Yael Eisenstat said:

... when a political advertiser wants to advertise to you, traditionally they would have to on network news or even cable news they can target you by location. They can have different ads run in different markets but they couldn't get as specific as - I want this ad to be shown to women of this certain age who have this certain political leaning who look like they might be voting for this person.

I won't get into all the details on how marketing works but it means that you and you might live near each other but the two of you might be served completely different ads and if that's the case than we're not coming from the same starting point. We don't even have the beginning starting point of where this conversation began because we're each being shown different things.

So for me, the big question, the big debacle around whether or not politicians should be allowed to lie in ads. Again that is a bigger debate about how you feel about freedom of speech versus paid advertising.

My bigger concern is the way we are able to be targeted with those ads and if we allow unchecked lying and political advertising to be hyper-targeted to us. There is no way that's an even playing field or what a democracy means in order to thrive....

Other question included personal targeted advertising by companies and individuals web browsing being tracked online.



Here's the full Cornell Tech DLI Roosevelt Island Community Conversation from beginning to end. Stay tuned for announcement of next Roosevelt Island event.



The Cornell Tech DLI intends to continue the Roosevelt Island Community conversations in 2020.

More information on the Cornell Tech Digital Life Initiative available at their web site.