Re: <nettime> What is the meaning of Trump's victory?

[Alessandro Delfanti <a.delfanti@insiberia.net>]

Hello all, thanks for a great discussion in these obscure times.

I wonder what the role of Silicon Valley will be in the next years. I 
don't strictly mean the communicative role of their platforms but rather 
the possible overall reaction by an industry that is the poster child of 
globalization and libertarianism. Silicon Valley corporations have 
showed a clear internal ideological cohesion, after all, while on the 
other hand Trump and his acolytes could represent a pretty concrete 
menace to all of them.

There is a direct threat to their ability to outsource labor and move 
capital and goods across borders: "Apple will need to build those damn 
computers in America" (Trump). Even a slight move in this direction 
could wreck havoc on Silicon Valley operations.

There is also a threat to their ability to profit from a global 
workforce beyond Chinese Foxconn workers, to put it bluntly. Just an 
example. No doubt, Silicon Valley companies are brutally unequal in 
terms of race and gender: no blacks, no women, although computer science 
degrees spit out graduates at much more balanced rates. Yet one group 
that is extremely overrepresented are Asians, and we already have Steve 
Bannon saying there are too many Asians working in the digital industry 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/steve-bannon-disgusted-asian-ceos-silicon-valley_us_582c5d19e4b0e39c1fa71e48

Social media and other Silicon Valley companies may try to come to terms 
with Trump. But what would be the effect on an anti-trump movement or 
upheaval, or on the Democratic Party, if digital capitalism decided to 
wage war against him? Some signs are already there for us to try to 
understand

Ciao from beyond-the-wall Canada
a


> sebastien, thanks for this brilliant explanation. i get it - no ethics
> in what they are monetizing...got that.
> 
> spin the spin for the sake of capitalist media profit, regardless. and
> i'll have to look into "games of disruption" as you mention. seems
> like its quite a bit about that...since there so much sudden activity,
> for one, across social media, but also because, I sense this is going
> to be an new era of info-war...and hacking...hacking already playing
> such a mainstream role as to suspect the russians - but, seriously,
> going to look for "said" information may wind up in pages which have
> disappeared? and then there's clone sites and other means - seems like
> we are moving in this direction - very quickly now - and cybersecurity
> may transform in meaning, privilege print?
 <...>

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