If we had Facebook and Twitter on 9/11

[Bloomberg]( Hi folks, it’s Naomi in Washington. I’m going to talk about social media in the post-9/11 world, but first… Today’s top tech news: - Google [settled](with an employee who the U.S. labor board said was improperly fired for workplace activism - Softbank Vision Fund’s sole senior managing partner, Deep Nishar, is [discussing leaving the firm]( - Twitter introduced a tool for [private group]( conversations A 9/11 With Social Media In the days after the 9/11 attacks, I went to a bulletin board hanging in my middle school where someone had tacked up a [piece]( by Miami Herald columnist [Leonard Pitts Jr](. Pitts’s words—addressed to the then-unknown terrorists behind the attacks—gave voice to the shock and anger I felt but had trouble articulating on my own. I wonder now if his column would have had the same impact if it found me through a tweet. I suspect not. When the planes struck the Twin Towers in New York, Jack Dorsey was tinkering with taxi-dispatch software, and Mark Zuckerberg was a senior in high school. Friendster wouldn’t emerge until 2002. Now, as we approach the two-decade anniversary of the tragedy on Saturday, it’s hard to contextualize how profoundly the internet has shaped our daily lives. If we had Facebook and Twitter, social media would have provided an endless stream of reactions—some thoughtful and some not so much—to satiate my need to understand the moment. The photos of fire and smoke billowing out of the World Trade Center would have flooded our feeds. Video footage of people running or jumping from danger would have racked up views on YouTube. Politicians, activists and so-called thought leaders would have filled Facebook posts pledging prayer, patriotism and justice. Most important, I wouldn’t be content simply consuming other people’s reactions. I could have shared my own. That kind of power might have been useful. When communities go through moments of extreme duress—the kind where there is a before and an after—social media can be a healthy place to find refuge. We can quickly tell our friends and family that we’re safe and how we’re feeling and get comforting messages in response. We can express our outrage to a faceless internet and feel like we are doing something to fight injustice. We can use social media sites to organize protests, donation drives and commemorations. Social media broadcasts our collective grief with an intensity that can’t be matched by huddling with our families watching news coverage on the television. The promise is that everyone gets a voice. The problem is that everyone gets a voice. The outpouring of grief may have been met by terrorists and sympathizers to celebrate or deny Americans’ pain. After the Taliban took over Afghanistan last month, the New York Times [reported]( that pro-Taliban accounts were promoting an image of peace and stability in stark contrast to the reality portrayed by journalists on the ground. They have been doing this despite restrictions against the Taliban imposed by some of the social media platforms. The companies now have to decide [whether to hand over]( Afghanistan’s official government accounts to the Taliban. The Taliban is hardly the only group that Silicon Valley is struggling to police on their websites. Russian actors are [using social media]( to promote anti-vaccine propaganda around the world. Far-right groups openly [organized the riots]( at the Capitol on internet platforms. As the world sees a rise in extremism and authoritarianism, the content moderation challenges facing tech companies will only grow more complicated in a post-9/11 world. The companies have yet to prove they’re up to the task. —[Naomi Nix](mailto:nnix1@bloomberg.net) If you read one thing Prosecutors and defense lawyers presented [starkly different portraits]( of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes during opening statements in her fraud trial. The jury must decide if she was a liar who cheated investors of millions or simply a failure as an entrepreneur. Sponsored Content Interrupt Ransomware, Not Your Business Powered by Autonomous Cyber AI, Darktrace neutralizes ransomware before it spreads. Only malicious activity is interrupted, allowing normal business operations to continue.  [Protect your organization >]( Darktrace What else you need to know U.S. lawmakers are [pressing forward]( with legislation to regulate Apple’s App Store despite the company’s recent changes to reduce fees and open the platform. Chipmaker Nvidia formally [sought approval]( from the European Union for the company’s planned acquisition of U.K-based Arm. 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