Fear of a Black Internet? - Are changes at X (formerly Twitter) and the recent de-platforming of Internet activists a harbinger of what will come with Web 3.0?

• In Event: Reimagining the Culture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

In September 1998, Google opened a new era of opportunity for webgoers as it sought to provide its users access to the entirety of the Web's knowledge. Since that time, the Internet democratized society's ability to document and spread information. Voices traditionally left out of mainstream media have found representations of their messages and narratives centered in previously unimaginable ways. Over the last 25 years, new platforms, devices, and cultural practices have radically transformed society.
Black voices that have historically been sidelined or left out of national narratives have made their way to the front pages of the world's most influential online and print outlets. This has been especially true over the last 15 years as social media, cloud computing, and mobile devices have given almost everyone with an Internet connection a pathway to document their stories. Since the advent of Twitter and other Social Media platforms in the mid-2000s, Black stories have seemingly become more prominent. Young Black creators have had an outsized influence on the global media.
While recent scholarship on Black Americans and their impact on the Internet have underscored the potential that the Web offers in shaping a more equitable environment, the recent sale of Twitter, combined with its rebranding as X, perhaps provides scholars with an opportunity to reflect on this period and assess how society has changed, and what are the possible outcomes for the future. Perhaps more poignantly, the recent de-platforming of Internet activists Shaun King and Jamira Burley provides a moment to ponder if we are on the horizons of new technological obstacles that see Black Americans, and most especially Black youth, left voiceless, or perhaps worse yet, filtered out of the discussion.
By aggregating some of the critical social and political data stories shaping the lives of young Black Americans since the coming of Web 2.0, this paper assesses what these trends could mean as the Internet transitions to technologies like automation, AI, and social algorithms driving Web 3.0. By spotlighting key statistical changes over time related to computer usage, access to Broadband, Black labor force participation, educational attainment rates, and other factors related to the social determinants of health, this paper attempts to juxtapose the cultural capital that young Black Americans have on the Internet with their material realities. By contextualizing these social trends through the frame of technology adoption and Black Internet culture, it is hoped that this paper will highlight potential obstacles and opportunities that Black communities will likely experience in the near future as telehealth, online learning, and generative AI continue to disrupt industries dominated by Black workers. Additionally, this paper revisits some key historiographic themes related to Black Americans' access to the Web and how the discourse has shifted since President Bill Clinton first introduced the term digital divide in 2000.

Author

• Robert Baker, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee