The original promise of the Internet, namely a free and open space for aggregation and democratic participation, has been betrayed. This is the thesis at the heart of the essay Rebooting the System. How we broke the Internet and why it is up to us to readjust it by journalist and media and technology expert Valerio Bassan, published by Chiarelettere in 2024.
Last Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, announced the end of the fact-checking programme on Facebook and Instagram. In its place, he stated, a system of “Community Notes” will be introduced, already trialled on X (formerly Twitter) under Elon Musk’s leadership. This decision, currently limited to the United States, has immediately drawn praise from Donald Trump and his entourage, marking what many observers view as a significant ideological realignment between Meta and the newly elected American president.
Not long ago, a case brought to public attention the potential negative impact of chatbots. Two parents sued an AI company after interaction with one of their chatbots allegedly led their children to imagine and discuss plans to kill them. The incident is undoubtedly unsettling, but it’s also reasonable to assume that such behavior might reflect pre-existing family and social dynamics — a doubt that seemingly did not cross the parents’ minds.
Opening the eighth edition of Fotonica, Rome’s audio, visual and digital art festival, is an installation by Hungarian artist David Szauder, inspired by none other than an iconic work by painter, photographer, designer and constructivist theorist László Moholy-Nagy, Light Prop for an Electric Stage.
