November 2020: Whistleblowers
Rebel Book: #67
Book: Mindf*ck: Inside Cambridge Analytica’s Plot to Break the World by Christopher Wylie (Profile)
Meetup: Hop In – Virtual Event Space ft. Interview with Geralyn Dreyfous
Fuel: ‘Headfuck’ - Cocktails From Your Cupboard by Mix + Muddle
Wow wow wow! What a month! [Ironically] Our social networks have been POPPING OFF with mind-bending conversation as a result of this revelation of a book.
For us at Rebel Book Club, the penny has well and truly dropped. In fact, 87% of the 200+ members who attended the event have already made changes or are seriously thinking about it. As Geralyn put so wonderfully in our fascinating interview with her:
“I don’t think people have understood the sweeping economical change that we have left the Industrial Era. We have left the Manufacturing Era. We are living in, what Shoshana Zuboff calls, Surveillance Capitalism.”
– GERALYN DREYFOUS (PRODUCER OF THE GREAT HACK)
Whatever you think of Christopher Wylie, props to him for writing so brilliantly about this globally crucial scandal and its impact on our personal privacy, our societies and terrifyingly, our democracies.
It’s clear that in being the key whistleblower in this epic Clusterf*ck of a data showdown, Wylie has given up his chance to fly under the radar for us to have a chance at ours. Here, we’ll be looking into how we go about taking that chance.
Interview with Geralyn Dreyfous – Producer of The Great Hack
Without further ado, we present to you 45 gripping minutes with the multi-award winning Producer of the BAFTA nominated Documentary, The Great Hack (The Othrs / Netflix Original), Geralyn Dreyfous.
Geralyn was also joined on stage by Rebel Book Club members Jonas, Yasmin and Elaine to talk about machine learning + ‘The Knowledge’ now being ‘Out There’, the impact of data tracking by Big Tech on healthcare, and the introduction of previously guarded psychological techniques to create the exponential growth of strategically crafted fake news and conspiracy theories.
Try explaining all of that again after a couple of Rich’s Headf#ck cocktails!
Now the whistle has been blown, how do we take action?
It wouldn’t be Rebel Book Club without a keen focus on action. We spent 20 minutes with some expert friends of the club to unpick what this might look like…
- Do we all delete our social media immediately? For what benefit and at what cost?
- Can we be curators of our own data destiny instead? Ie. If we select our inputs and our consumption carefully, can we gazump the microtargeting manipulators?
- These platforms are nothing without their consumers, so what are our consumer rights? Who is creating them and are they here yet?
- Can we come together as a kickass keyboard army and defend against hate speech, lies + attempted brain-hacking? What does this look like?
Let’s find out, with Inga Draeger (Managing Director of #IchBinHier), Jodie Jackson (RBC Member + Author of You Are What You Read) + Elaine Kasket (Author of All The Ghosts In The Machine)…
There’s also a brilliant selection of Action Ideas + Opt Out shortcuts on The Great Hack website. It’s well worth checking it out.
Who are Ich Bin Hier?
#ichbinhier is the largest counter-speech initiative in Germany. 45,000 group members post factual, constructive and discursive comments on Facebook every day to counter the pejorative and aggressive voices in the comment columns. In order to empower even more people to exercise digital civil courage, ichbinhier e.V. offers offline and online training formats.
The association informs about the causes of hate speech, its distribution and its effects. It supports people and institutions in all areas of society in arming themselves against digital attacks and in countering them. The association promotes democracy through constructive discourse.
Find out more about how to join Inga’s Army of Anti-Hate Speech Warriors here (right click on the homepage + Google Chrome to translate the website to English).
Thank you + keep us looped on your actions!
That was such a big month for us all. Thanks to everyone for your engagement and passion on this theme! Keep us posted on how you get on with your actions, I’m sure we’ll be revisiting this in the not too distant future.
If you have any questions about the organisations + guests featured in this blog, feel free to email hello@rebelbookclub.co.uk and we’ll be happy to help.
If you’re new here, welcome!
We are Rebel Book Club, a global nonfiction book club.
We’ve been reading together for 5+ years and we exist to accelerate your reading habits, connect you with like-minded thinkers + doers and take positive action in a changing world…
We have an event at the end of each month, where we hear from experts in a relevant field to the books we’re reading – which is how this blog post came about.
If you’d like to find out more, check out our website, follow us on Instagram or email our Membership Manager at hello@rebelbookclub.co.uk.
We can’t wait to welcome you aboard!
Not Your Average Book Club.
