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Google Social Networks Media The Internet United States Politics

How Google Docs Became the Social Media of the Resistance (technologyreview.com) 129

Posted by BeauHD from the winning-tools dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: In just the last week, Google Docs has emerged as a way to share everything from lists of books on racism to templates for letters to family members and representatives to lists of funds and resources that are accepting donations. Shared Google Docs that anyone can view and anyone can edit, anonymously, have become a valuable tool for grassroots organizing during both the coronavirus pandemic and the police brutality protests sweeping the US. It's not the first time. In fact, activists and campaigners have been using the word processing software for years as a more efficient and accessible protest tool than either Facebook or Twitter.

It wasn't until the 2016 elections, when misinformation campaigns were rampant, that the software came into its own as a political tool. Melissa Zimdars, an assistant professor of communication at Merrimack College, used it to create a 34-page document titled "False, Misleading, Clickbaity-y, and/or Satirical 'News' Sources.'" Zimdars inspired a slew of political Google Docs, written by academics as ad hoc ways of campaigning for Democrats for the 2018 midterm elections. By the time the election passed, Google Docs were also being used to protest immigration bans and advance the #MeToo movement. Now, in the wake of George Floyd's murder on Memorial Day weekend, communities are using the software to organize. One of the most popular Google Docs to emerge in the past week is "Resources for Accountability and Actions for Black Lives," which features clear steps people can take to support victims of police brutality. It is organized by Carlisa Johnson, a 28-year-old graduate journalism student at Georgia State University.
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How Google Docs Became the Social Media of the Resistance

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  • Really? (Score:5, Funny)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Monday July 06, 2020 @07:10PM (#60269478)

    OK, I'm Michelle Dubois from the Resistance, listen very carefully, for I shall say zis only once!

  • Editable by anyone (Score:5, Funny)

    by BringsApples ( 3418089 ) on Monday July 06, 2020 @07:13PM (#60269484)

    Sounds very harmless.

  • The 'RESISTANCE' (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jarwulf ( 530523 ) on Monday July 06, 2020 @07:28PM (#60269524)
    Consisting of a ragtag band of the vast majority of the youth generation, the vast majority of traditional media and social media influencers, almost all of corporate America, and the majority of politicians. TRULY A LONE VOICE STANDING AGAINST THE TIDES! https://ibb.co/xJJP2pH [ibb.co]

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    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Conservatives control the White House, the Senate and the Supreme Court. Yet somehow they are the oppressed and powerless ones.

      • Conservatives control the White House, the Senate and the Supreme Court. Yet somehow they are the oppressed and powerless ones.

        The problem is that conservatives generally care about things like law, order, liberty, and due process. Even if he wanted to, the president can't just order the military in to start shooting looters on sight; the supreme court will put a stop to it. Far left organisations don't have these problems; they can mobilize armies of thugs and set them loose to burn down major cities, while at the same time ordering police to stand down and rewriting procedures / revoking funding to limit their effectiveness. A

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Hmm, so when Obama tried to appoint a Supreme Court justice and the Republicans wouldn't even hold a hearing he just sat there complaining. Could have just appointed the guy anyway, sod the process, but he didn't. The Republicans ignored the due process for their own political ends.

          Then have you the illegal gerrymandering the Republicans are so fond of.

          Remind us again who is more interested in law and order, liberty and due process.

          • Remind us again who is more interested in law and order, liberty and due process.

            The ones who aren't burning down cities and defunding police. Also the ones who aren't tearing down momuments, calling for suppression of speech they disagree with, and perpetrating hate-crime hoaxes on a regular basis. Also the ones who don't lose their shit if a prosecutor doesn't press charges 5 seconds after a video hits YouTube.

            Not sure how you're confused about this, but I'm glad I could clear it up for you.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rho ( 6063 )

      They prefer the name "The Resistance" rather than the more apt "Fifth Columnists".

      It is funny to watch people, backed by every corporation listed on Wall Street, call themselves a resistance. Juggalos have more claim to the name than these morons swaddled in name brand clothing and latest-gen technology. It will be funny when these chuckleheads have children. The mental gymnastics they will have to perform to explain why their Precious Angel goes to an all white school will rival Cirque de Soliel.

      • I feel like there should be a Godwin's Law equivalent when Juggalos are mentioned in such a context, but can't quite put the correct definition together myself.

        In all honesty, it feels like my entire country (US) right now is wrapped up in trying to define themselves as "resisting" something. The left resists the right. The right resists the left. The race baiters resist coherence. The "all are one" kumbaya crowd resist. . . well, seemingly everything. Does anybody stand for anything at this point, or

        • That my friend is how it is planned by the being in control at the moment, who is sometimes called Satan, or the Devil. Those who come to kill, destroy, lie are always at his service weather they are do so in the name of 'Jesus' or 'Mohammad' or 'atheism',from the left or the right. You don't have to know what he is about to be his slave, he likes it that way. Everything is his enemy and there is only one path to defeat him, a person who is 'The way' , 'the truth' and 'the light' .... Love incarnate. Un

      • Sadly, I think I'd trust Juggalos more at this point than just about anyone else.
        At least they're not trying to force me to wear clown makeup.

  • lol wut? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SirAstral ( 1349985 ) on Monday July 06, 2020 @07:32PM (#60269532)

    "It wasn't until the 2016 elections, when misinformation campaigns were rampant, that the software came into its own as a political tool."

    Seriously? Why are people constantly this dumb?

    Year 2020... nothing is new under the sun. We still have the same number of morons thinking that some new problem is here and that times have changed.

    Nothing has changed folks, we already have, have always had, and will continue to have all manor of people spreading all sorts of misinformation. Just because we are using fancy little computers to do what our little mouths and printing presses have been doing for much longer does not change the fact that what we are doing now is what we have always done.

    No one wants the truth, they want "their truth" and they want it in an echo chamber, or else! You must support their message and you cannot speak out against it, you don't get to have a choice or think for yourself. Anyone not regurgitating the proscribed mantras are called names.

    • Re:lol wut? (Score:4, Informative)

      by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Monday July 06, 2020 @07:58PM (#60269626) Journal
      Especially since they were writing the same thing in 2008 [nytimes.com]. Quote:

      “One of the many ways that the election of Barack Obama as president has echoed that of John F. Kennedy is his use of a new medium....Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president."

    • came into being. These were sites that existed to spread fake news stories so they could run ads on them as they were shared.

      It's basically tabloid journalism, but it became very heavily politicized and the information was less bat boy & Barbra Streisand is a Space Alien and more science denial and right wing extremism.

      The left wing extremism didn't get very far because, as one purveyor of fake news pointed out, it got debunked too early to go viral and generate a lot of ad revenue.

      This left

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by malkavian ( 9512 )

        Since when did debunking stop news spread? The ultra left agenda is doing very nicely, despite it having no rational basis. Better than the far right by a long way, because more people enter the media world with a strong left bent.
        The USA is just an extreme place these days, and most of the rest of the world are looking at it, and wondering what on earth is going on, whether you honestly did that kind of madness to yourselves, or whether some external entity has successfully set a destablisation agenda on

        • It's a foreign entity aiming for the long shot. Back in the 80ties it almost won.

          https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=... [youtube.com]

          The problem with the West is you don't see the long game and your naivety about people's nature.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          As someone from the rest of the world when I look at America I mostly think it's really sad that you have had these serious, deep problems for decades, centuries even and half of you are still fighting so hard to prevent anything being done about them.

          There does seem to be a particular issue with your morons too. The UK has morons as well, people who don't want to wear masks or take reasonable safety precautions. But they are just your basic idiots, where as in the US they seem to be supercharged by bizarre

          • bizarre ideas about freedom.

            You've never had freedom so you wouldn't understand. The left says not to judge people based on culture, well, freedom is the american culture.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              I regard Europe as more free than America. If I get stick then no matter what I'll get a decent level of treatment, which I regard as an important freedom (from a slow and painful death or a life suffering from a treatable illness). We also have much stronger human rights.

              Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous Four Freedoms are

              1. Freedom of speech
              2. Freedom of worship
              3. Freedom from want
              4. Freedom from fear

              The last two seem to be lacking in the US, e.g. if you lose your job you can enter extreme poverty and fear dy

              • >"The last two seem to be lacking in the US"

                Because the last two are socialist/communist, of which Roosevelt was pretty close to being. Economists know that his "new deal" actually did nothing but make the depression LONGER and harder and set us on the road to never-ending debt and huge government. Perhaps the only worst thing ever was LBJ's "great society" which decimated the Black population for generations to come by destroying the family (the seat of morality, support, education, nurturing, and pro

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                  Roosevelt's New Deal was certainly socialist, back before people became paranoid about such things.

        • when they think something is pointless and silly.

          For whatever reason the right wing is more susceptible to outright fake news. Again this comes from people in the "industry", e.g. people who make a living off spreading it for ad revenue. They're apolitical, they just want ad money.

          The left has their share of nut jobs, but for whatever reason they won't share fake news. And according to folks who make their living from it that's because the stories get made fun of on social media before they have a c

      • >"This isn't going to end well."

        That depends on your perspective.

        >" Especially in a country like ours where so few vote and where voter suppression tends to amplify radical voices so long as their economics don't get in the way of corporate profits."

        There is zero "voter suppression." Another Leftist myth, speaking of science denial and fake news.

        >"Expect more extremism and the Overton window to shift far, far right with even more science denial.

        The window has pushed so far left, it can shift for y

      • The left wing extremism didn't get very far because, as one purveyor of fake news pointed out, it got debunked too early to go viral and generate a lot of ad revenue.

        Or maybe your perspective is skewed enough that you see left-wing extremism as just normal content. The real lie in the whole "fake news" thing is that there is any unbiased news at all. Sure, some may try to temper their biases a bit while others lean into them. But it is a constant that humans will write from and share their own perspective. Even when we try our best to be objective, the lens we each view the world through taints that picture and prevents us from seeing objectively. Add to that it s

      • major sites, like .... the national enquirer? How about the new your times, it hasn't been much better then the enquirer since they started to compete with blogging in the 90's.

    • You must support their message

      and it must be EXACTLY their message. If you deviate by one word you are canceled. For example, if you say "all black lives matter" it doesn't count because you must say the exact words "black lives matter". Its all about control, not anyone's lives.

  • Teenagers have been using it for years to circumvent social media app restrictions on their cellphones...

  • But...but...but! (Score:3)

    by Applehu Akbar ( 2968043 ) on Monday July 06, 2020 @07:56PM (#60269620)

    How would one go about social media mobbing and canceling people who disagree with you on Google Docs?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Yeah, the big problem with Google Docs, is you are sharing it all with Google who was in part funded by three letter agencies to data mine you and to manipulate you. I would not be using Google Docs for anything, let alone anything serious. Libre Office https://www.libreoffice.org/ [libreoffice.org] is definitely the better way to go and of course meeting in person. The donut munching lard arses are too lazy now and expect computers to do their work for them. Use encrypted email and have offline documents with offline applic

  • All hosted by the one Orwellian company that's well on its way to turning the entire world full-blown 1984.

    Oh the irony...

  • This is called Foldering, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] , and it's not secure.

    Every draft is saved and every draft is recoverable.

  • What a sickening, delusional joke.

  • Yet another political post?? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by katz ( 36161 ) <Email? What e-mail?> on Monday July 06, 2020 @09:39PM (#60269896)

    Seeing how many of Slashdot's daily posts these days are politically related, I feel less and less inclined to continue checking this site out. And that's a shame, since I've been following /. since the late 1990s.

    • The new owners want rage clicks itâ(TM)s what the wine moms enjoy.

      This site isnâ(TM)t made for you, bigot the /. Is female!

    • User ID checks out, for most this site is long past its intelligent user base. Discussions no longer happen between normal people and prominent figures in the tech space. The ad revenue keeps this site alive and the "disable ads" feature for some users can't hold a cookie for its life (on purpose I suppose). It's a bummer.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Nobody is forcing you to read them. You can just scroll down to the next story.

      No need to stop other people discussing these issues. They consistently get a higher than average number of comments so clearly there is demand.

    • i guess technically it's tech related, since it mentions google....

  • lol, seriously? Google is being less and less covert about its subversive nature.

    Break up the google monopoly!

  • What is the Resistance resisting exactly? World-unprecedented wealth? World-unprecedented equality? World-unprecedented freedom? What exactly?

    • World-unprecedented wealth? World-unprecedented equality? World-unprecedented freedom?

      I'm not sure any of those things are true. The US has less equalized wealth than in the 1970's. The US has less freedom than the 1970's due to big brother spying and fear of terrorism. The US GDP per capita (adjusted for inflation) is a little higher than 1970's, but not that much.

      Sure, that's US only, not the world. But "the Resistance" is a US movement.

  • talk about grandiose bullshit!

    The Resistance

    hahaha

  • Coming up with "ad hoc ways of campaigning for Democrats" that is. That sounds like they are using their position and resources for partisan purposes. Positions and resources that are most likely publicly funded - if not directly at a public university, then at least subsidized by Federal loans and grants.

    If Universities want to be seen as nothing more than political indoctrination factories, they're doing a great job.

  • Nothing says cult like a prewritten letter to your parents about why you believe things you were told to believe.

  • I understand that the police sometimes go to far, as in the George Floyd case, but if you want to see police brutality, just let the socialist take over.

  • Anyone who wants you to disconnect from your family is not your friend/ally/comerade.

    It's the MO that cults use to isolate and demoralize it's members.

    These communists are fucking monsters.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

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