Edward Ongweso Jr (@edwardongwesojr.com)

@jwherrman.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 12:19 PMReposted by @edwardongwesojr.com

The Social Reckoning is a movie about how liberal institutions utterly lost a war they barely even knew they were fighting nymag.com/intelligence...

By the time the rest of Horwitz's Facebook Files reporting came out, the controversial mechanism behind that 64 percent figure - captured in an internal presentation given in 2016, a full decade before the film
— was well on its way to eating the entire company. In its legacy products, including Facebook's News Feed, algorithmic recommendations had become more central over time, not just for pages but for the next post users would see, deprioritizing social connections in favor of what the company started calling "unconnected" content. By August 2020, the main tensions of the film
- that Facebook's self-serving algorithms were distorting its users' interactions with and views of one another, and the world in general, and that the company didn't care — were not just obvious but quaint. That's when Instagram Reels, Facebook's answer to and clone of TikTok, started rolling out to American users.
Soon, old notions of the feed, and of "public squares," and even "social" media in general, would be overwhelmed by billions of individualized and alienated For You pages, stocked primarily with "unconnected" content from strangers, brands, and influencers, filled by far more advanced algorithms than before. It was a post-social retreat into an opaque system both far larger and more thoroughly designed to serve Meta's needs.
Facebook wasn't just ignoring the problem, in other words. It actually saw, in the source of the problem, its entire future: a platform that didn't depend as much on sharing and posting to grow engagement and consumption; a social network not only supported by targeted advertising, but remade entirely in its image.
In Meta's profit centers, it's recommendations all the way down.

This was a view that took seriously the idea, embraced by companies like Twitter and Facebook, that its projects of "democratizing" online publishing and communication were aligned with the project of democracy. The most obvious mistake here was to assume that the tech industry's Obama-era politics were inherent and stable. The bigger but more subtle mistake was to conceive of tech platforms like Facebook as para-civic institutions that, if designed correctly, and built with just the right safeguards, could actually fortify the democratic process, or at least extend the end of history for a few more years. This resulted in a weird dynamic, rendered in near-parody by Sorkin, in which many of the people attempting to hold companies like Facebook accountable — government officials, but critics and journalists too - took marketed claims about the importance of election integrity and free speech and disinformation more seriously than the companies themselves.

@rooseveltinstitute.org Sep 30, 2026, 8:51 PMReposted by @edwardongwesojr.com

In a panel conversation moderated by @edwardongwesojr.com, @ainowinstitute.bsky.social Co-Director @ambakak.bsky.social and @saalevine.bsky.social explain why the past few decades of tech regulation prove that "self-regulation" for AI must be a non-starter.

@edwardongwesojr.com Sep 21, 2026, 9:24 PM

lol why is this sector run by even more cartoonishly stupid capitalists than average

@josephcox.bsky.social Sep 21, 2026, 1:30 PMReposted by @edwardongwesojr.com

New: we are starting to get data showing what cops are using Axon's license plate cameras for, which are replacing Flock around the country.

But we need your help: is your city using Axon? We have written the request you need to get this data yourself. Get it here: www.404media.co/is-your-city...

@nycpolicyforum.bsky.social Sep 21, 2026, 4:12 PMReposted by @edwardongwesojr.com

We're pleased to share that @ambakak.bsky.social co-ED of @ainowinstitute.bsky.social will join @hellodcwp.bsky.social Commissioner @saalevine.bsky.social to discuss local AI governance with writer @edwardongwesojr.com next week.

RSVP at governing-ai-for-nyc-workers-and-consumers.eventbrite.com

@ogresloth.bsky.social Sep 15, 2026, 5:33 PMReposted by @edwardongwesojr.com

Important point and makes me think of @edwardongwesojr.com 's argument that aesthetic and moral opposition isn't to AI isn't enough, we need to "articulate an opposition that will survive improvements in the technology"

@nycpolicyforum.bsky.social Sep 15, 2026, 7:08 PMReposted by @edwardongwesojr.com

Join us and the @cuny.edu School of Law Burns Program for a talk on 9/30 with @hellodcwp.bsky.social Commissioner Sam Levine and writer @edwardongwesojr.com exploring city government tools to protect New Yorkers through the rise of AI and corporate consolidation: buff.ly/kcsU0fL

@70sbachchan.bsky.social Sep 10, 2026, 1:22 PMReposted by @edwardongwesojr.com

14/“a lucrative alliance has arisen between Big Tech and fossil fuel companies—the former signing cloud computing deals that maximize productivity, while the latter build new coal & gas power plants to satisfy exploding AI energy demands”
@edwardongwesojr.com www.bostonreview.net/forum/the-ai...

@hypervisible.blacksky.app Sep 8, 2026, 4:44 PMReposted by @edwardongwesojr.com

Worth a listen.

@propublica.org Sep 5, 2026, 2:22 PMReposted by @edwardongwesojr.com

When 3M scientist Kris Hansen discovered that a chemical the company produced was in the blood of the general public, her bosses questioned her work. Yet all along, some people inside the company had known the same thing. Listen to this excerpt:

@pjmaciak.bsky.social Sep 3, 2026, 3:29 PMReposted by @edwardongwesojr.com

"Refusal is not just some impotent act of nostalgia, and the extent to which we think so is a measure of our contempt for the prospect of taking democratic politics seriously." This, by @edwardongwesojr.com, is a wonderfully good and urgent piece of writing. www.thetechbubble.info/p/the-future...

@navneetalang.com Sep 1, 2026, 11:33 PMReposted by @edwardongwesojr.com

Wowwowwow. This is definitely worth your time.

@ruddock.bsky.social Sep 1, 2026, 10:54 PMReposted by @edwardongwesojr.com

🗣️🗣️🗣️ “It needs ceaseless and prioritized access to energy. And it needs complete opacity. What’s the political and social order we can expect to follow from that?”

@westbynoreaster.bsky.social Sep 1, 2026, 10:55 PMReposted by @edwardongwesojr.com

This essay by @edwardongwesojr.com is proper good shit, especially necessary for anyone with the "horseshoe" itch they feel the need to scratch when it comes to the topic of #ServerWarehouse resistance.

I hate the term #DataCenter almost as much as #Cloud.

@edwardongwesojr.com Sep 1, 2026, 10:31 PM

This essay talks about the left's vision for technology, the "alliance" between left and right-wing anti-data center movements, politics of refusal, democratic control over the AI infrastructure buildout, China, industrial policy, and more.

www.thetechbubble.info/p/the-future...

@ali-alkhatib.com Sep 1, 2026, 9:43 PMReposted by @edwardongwesojr.com

surfacing for a minute to point out this good piece by @edwardongwesojr.com > Refusal is not just some impotent act of nostalgia, and the extent to which we think so is a measure of our contempt for the prospect of taking democratic politics seriously.

@stateeducated.bsky.social Aug 27, 2026, 5:17 PMReposted by @edwardongwesojr.com

From @edwardongwesojr.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ_S... Public backlash is a serious threat to the AI bubble.

@edwardongwesojr.com Aug 12, 2026, 4:30 PM

Mamdani inherited a sprawling surveillance state. What is he going to do with it? Wrote about the gang database, NYCHA surveillance cameras, Domain Awareness System, the POST Act, and more for @nymag.com

nymag.comMamdani’s Surveillance StateThe mayor inherited a vast network of cameras, databases, and tracking tools. Now he has to decide what to do with it.