Social media shutdown: 1-year later

Note: this week have done some news interviews for this topic and will update here with links to the recordings. Ex. ValueWalk


August 18, 2017. While responding to a New York Times editor about a Sunday print article I was referenced in, my Gmail suddenly stopped. Received an access denied screen, followed by a cold message that I violated terms of service. Appeals were unsuccessful, only verifying I was done. A decade of work gone. My blog read by millions, my university pages, all other properties that I had. Why? On a call with Google friends, they were nervous. Likely my website contents were problematic. It was the wrong “social climate”. And so an infuriating personal odyssey began. Justice against one of the most powerful technology companies. A fear that many others could also be in my plight.

There was a time technology firms (e.g., facebook, twitter, Apple, Google/YouTube) wanted everyone and their child to sign up and spend money. And 3^rd party developers, researchers, anyone. Controversial viral content was also fine, as long as it drove eyeballs, clicks, and dollars.

But over time these organizations became more left-leaning and out of touch. At the same time, the world began to elect nationalistic candidates. The fuse was lit; and open viewpoints that didn’t fit in with a liberal bias were intolerable. Like James Damore. Like thousands of others who were voiceless and shared their stories with me. Or larger figures such as Ron Paul, David Clarke, Jordan Peterson. There was a brewing undercurrent of impracticable, unfair enforcement. No transparency, no accountability, no getting ahead of this.

When my accounts were turned down, even though I had no political agenda, it was knowing collateral damage. Such as bringing Osama bin Laden to justice by dropping a bunker-busting bomb onto his home and wiping out an entire city as well.

A number of high-profile people and organizations came to my defense, making this a viral embarrassment Google wanted to minimize (as it since has from its search engine versus say Duck Duck Go). Nassim Taleb, ZeroHedge (a top 25ish article for 2017), Ann Coulter, Tucker Carlson, Tyler Cowen, American Hindu Foundation, leaders at Wall Street Journal and New York Times, board members of other prominent technology companies, etc. It reached hundreds of thousands across the largest technology firms including Google’s management who conceded none of this should have happened and my accounts were eventually restored with an apology. Of course as a cover story in Inc. magazine stated:

“Mehta was lucky. The public outcry and press attention prompted Google to manually review his case… It could have turned out differently. Without his impressive credentials and far-reaching network, Mehta never would have found out why his Google account was shut down. He wouldn't have been able to access his correspondence or restore his blog, which he says has been read by the likes of Elon Musk and Warren Buffett.”

In the year since, the social mood has continued to devolve into anger. Consider the Parkland school mass-shooting. In a single night, we started to censor what was once “fine”. Like the Confederate flag. Or discussion over whether Black Lives Matter is a hate group. Why would we ever be so quick to tell someone else they are wrong?

Over the past year, I have been restricted on both facebook and twitter as well (and once again with Google but it was eventually resolved). Not an accident but a change of the times. Accounts are flagged as all good or all bad, as opposed to individual content that might need to be removed. Hence only conservatives get quickly purged. Other times independent statisticians, historians, academics, policy makers, activists, and others are dumped on.

Artificial Intelligence methods are not solving a known problem. The tools only mask societal issues we need to consider. Why are a small number of technology people suddenly pushing everyone around? Artificially demoting them, firing Anne-Marie Slaughter’s think tank, or collectively sacking hand-picked conservatives.

I had predicted during my shut-down, a year ago, that times are increasingly stressed for technology firms. Distrust is rising. Celebrities deleting accounts. Perhaps causal; definitely irreversible. The scandals and unfair treatment across all users have overflowed. For example, live-streaming murders, inflated user and ad metrics, impermissible mining and selling of sensitive personal data, and exploiting user experiences. Instead of having the banks of 2008, we have the technology companies of 2016. Both tone-deaf to the times they were in. All eventually suffered public mutiny, a rapid decline in market value, or worse.