Who All Is the Whistleblowing Calling?

Listening to Frances Haugen's testimony on the Hill today, the question came to my mind: Who is being called upon to hear the message?

There are a lot of actors in the play. The testimony was billed as if #Facebook is the only main actor when in reality there are many lead actors. We have AI #algoritms that can calculate 93 trillion calculations per second and cross-correlate everything in ways that no one apparently understands. Then, we have one company, #Facebook, which apparently understands the bottom line and maybe some of the lines of the algorithmic code in the middle. Then, we have #Congress who is asking #FrancesHaugen: "please give us our lines to speak". Then, there are the parents who can't read between the lines to know what their kids are doing on #Facebook & #Instagram until it's too late.

Then, seeing it through the lens of our book, Ethics Seen Through the Lens of the Black American Experience: How Does It Look? (www.gemsofwisdomeconsulting.com/books) , what we see and what we experience based on the results of the algorithmic calculations that can see in a blink the entire Black American experience in 1/93 trillion seconds and quickly conclude--"yup, you're in a messed up situation so maybe you are ineligible, most likely to not qualify, etc...collectively, we are at an inflection point. What can and should we control and if controls are needed how can we control what needs to be controlled? And, while we are at it, who are "we"?

When "we" are defined as the kids who are being harmed, there is a greater sense of urgency to intervene to prevent harm--while those who are equally experiencing harm are #disenfranchised, foreign in #Ethiopia and #Myanmar, and others who are being harmed by the harm we are causing to each other ( against our fellow man) are largely ignored by all but the algorithms who can oh so quickly jump in and exploit and amplify the tragedies.

The testimony today, about algorithmic harm, is only a beginning.

We need to seize this moment, however, to look more deeply into ourselves and into our entire ecosystem of being (the social media and other companies, the legislative institutions, the family structures) to ponder what we are all being called upon by the MANY whistles blowing to do better? If we fail to hear the whistles blowing then they are only blowing in the wind.

Sharon T. Freeman, Ph.D. President, Gems of Wisdom Consulting (www.gemsofwisdomeconsulting.com) and the Gemini Ethics Movement Foundation (Theethicsmovement.org) and co-author of Ethics Seen Through the Lens of the Black American Experience: How Does It Look? (Freeman & McClennon, January 2021, AASBEA Publishers)