Jul 7, 2023·edited Jul 7, 2023Liked by Georgina Brooke
Surprised you don't mention the significant privacy/data protection concerns (so serious that Threads is not available in the EU as it contravenes GDPR) that, I'd suggest, should be part of the decision-making and evaluation process for any cultural organisation assessing a new platform.
That's a very good point and one that we didn't address in the post (I'd given Steven a 1,000 word limit)
Chatting it through with Steven, personal data is a problem with most of the social media platforms: TikTok, Facebook, Threads all have different problems with privacy and data protection... which it would have been worth exploring in this piece and thanks for adding those links so that future readers have the resources to be aware for Threads specifically
oh absolutely, they're all a shitshow but the fact that Threads isn't even attempting to launch in the EU yet (the others you cite are all available, with varying degrees of ongoing legal issues, in the EU) feels interesting/notable.
It's a much bigger question, I would be intrigued to see explored in a future piece. I know it's long been a debate in the sector about ethics/values vs "going where the audience is" but I wonder whether the ramping up of the legal pushback (across the EU at least) against some of these platforms creates space for cultural orgs to be a little braver/makes the rationale differently weighted
We also had a good point on accessibility - Threads is not currently a platform that performs well for users with additional needs. It's possible that Threads has landed as a Beta phase and that this will be built in in future developments, but it would have been more equitable if they'd done that from the start. Steven pointed out that Wellcome Collection are manually threading alt text on their threads as a work around. So definitely wider conversations to be had around best practice of accessibility on this platform and how effective those workarounds are at the moment.
Surprised you don't mention the significant privacy/data protection concerns (so serious that Threads is not available in the EU as it contravenes GDPR) that, I'd suggest, should be part of the decision-making and evaluation process for any cultural organisation assessing a new platform.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/threads-no-eu-launch/
https://time.com/6292586/privacy-concerns-threads-meta/
That's a very good point and one that we didn't address in the post (I'd given Steven a 1,000 word limit)
Chatting it through with Steven, personal data is a problem with most of the social media platforms: TikTok, Facebook, Threads all have different problems with privacy and data protection... which it would have been worth exploring in this piece and thanks for adding those links so that future readers have the resources to be aware for Threads specifically
oh absolutely, they're all a shitshow but the fact that Threads isn't even attempting to launch in the EU yet (the others you cite are all available, with varying degrees of ongoing legal issues, in the EU) feels interesting/notable.
It's a much bigger question, I would be intrigued to see explored in a future piece. I know it's long been a debate in the sector about ethics/values vs "going where the audience is" but I wonder whether the ramping up of the legal pushback (across the EU at least) against some of these platforms creates space for cultural orgs to be a little braver/makes the rationale differently weighted
We also had a good point on accessibility - Threads is not currently a platform that performs well for users with additional needs. It's possible that Threads has landed as a Beta phase and that this will be built in in future developments, but it would have been more equitable if they'd done that from the start. Steven pointed out that Wellcome Collection are manually threading alt text on their threads as a work around. So definitely wider conversations to be had around best practice of accessibility on this platform and how effective those workarounds are at the moment.