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https://github.com/cyphunk/wannaplay

My statement prepared for the public debate held Oct.15.2014 concerning the Wannaplay (Grindr/Tindr) art project that took place in Berlin.
https://github.com/cyphunk/wannaplay

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My statement prepared for the public debate held Oct.15.2014 concerning the Wannaplay (Grindr/Tindr) art project that took place in Berlin.

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# Statement Oct 15 2014



Prepared for the discussion in Berlin at HAU1 on the Wannaplay

project, Grindr and it's impact on the Gay community.



I was asked to speak tonight, as a hacker and activist, concerning

the assumptions we place over online environments. But I feel i

need to start with something personal first.



Last Sunday, at the last public discussion at HAU2, the first 15

minutes were consumed by one individual that could not help himself

but demand that his concerns be heard. And while the audience booed

or begged for a more ordered discussion I realised that this person

was exposing a vulnerability that went well beyond the Wannaplay

incident. It also reminded me, with a strength that I have not felt

for a very long time, that one can never assume that their own

experiences are enough to understand the experiences of others.

Something I felt with a certain experience from my childhood.



I grew up in a religious home. At 16 years old while riding in the

car with my mother and a friend of hers I made a homophobic joke.

My parents never condoned this way of behaving but I picked this

up through my environment. Later that day my mother told me in

private that I have no idea what her friend may have gone through

in her life and no matter my beliefs that I should be aware and

treat everyone with utmost respect. This had a heavy impact on me.

So I would like to thank that individual from last week for reminding

me of this event.



Concerning the vulnerability he exposed...

Living in Berlin it is easy to assume a commonly shared understanding

of equality and freedom for the Gay community. We benefit from this,

and we celebrate it. But this beautiful city also makes it easy to

forget that just 3 weeks ago the Gay Pride parade in Belgrade was

quarantined for blocks. I witnessed the exact same scenario a few

years ago in Budapest. Our experience of equality here does not

translate outside of Berlin and many living here here may be more

aware of this than we are.



Actually I need to stop here and correct myself. Early today I asked

a close friend to review my text and he reminded me that my description

of Berlin as some bastion of liberty and understanding is completely

off. Minority groups in Berlin, the Gay community included, are

continuously burdened with acts of bigotry. I've developed this

misplaced assumption because I spend most of my time within the

confines of environments that celebrate this community, Hebbel Am Ufer

being one of them. But my isolated understanding illustrates how easy

it is to assume common understanding from ones own limited experiences.



Understanding the limits of our own experience is so essential to

this topic because the virtual world lacks the physical cues and

hints that allow us to obtain common understanding and common

respect. As an example consider the cruising culture which Grindr

has largely domesticated. I am not a member of the Gay community

but I, and I'm sure many here, have had the experience of visiting

such a park. There is no Terms Of Service and no End User License

Agreement that one signs when entering. Despite this it does not

take long to adapt to the common behaviour and show the level of

respect this environment deserves. We pick this up both through

physical and unphysical cues.



The Internet lacks such cues entirely. The best we have to emulating

them are emoticons and the Emoji icon set. It is easy online,

logarithmically easier that in the physical world, to assume that

ones own understanding of a virtual community is shared by most.

This is very common and I think this can be seen in the Wannaplay

project. But this can also be seen in how we use such environments.



In august of this year someone documented, anonymously, how anyone

in the Grindr community can be physically tracked. This capability

has existed since its inception. The same issue was exposed in Tindr

in February. Tindr responded by adding a certain level of entropy,

or randomness, to the distance readings for individuals. In Tindr

you still know if someone is in your neighborhood but you will not

know who is the closest. Grindr has responded by giving their users

the option to remove accurate location readings for their profile.

However, knowing if another Grindr user is in the same building as

you is an important function utilised extensively by the community.

So by default accurate tracking remains. Despite this we still use

such services.



When we use them we sign agreements that we hardly understand. We

behave as if virtual spaces were controlled by the commons when in

fact our interaction happens instead within the private property

of corporations. And there is no Terms Of Service or End User License

Agreement that can prevent these misplaced assumptions. Assumptions

on etiquette or how we are supposed to behave with each other. But

more importantly we lack the physical tools to protect each other.

And this brings me to what I feel is one of the more import points

of discussion. That of the Internet mob and the hate directed against

the Artist, and in some cases against HAU, and I was astonished to

learn the amount of hate directed against the victim.



To explain why I find this so important we should compare how we

handle hate offline.



Berlin is still challenged with fractions of hate that reveal

themselves in sporadic moments. As residents we have become used

to attending Anti Fascist rallies when NPD or AFD would speak

publicly.  We create a buffer between the hate and the hated. Our

physical presence sends a message to the public, to the victims and

the perpetrators all at once. This action, the physicality of it,

is an essential function even when laws exist that prohibit hate

speech.



And even though many countries have enacted anti-internet-bullying

laws we still have no way to create this buffer online. For all of

human nature that the Internet has and continues to liberate this

will remain a concerning problem.



It is responsibility of everyone to be aware of this problem and

ask themselves if they are helping enable it.



The lack of physical cues to educate each other of common etiquette

online gives me a way to understand how Dries thought his project

would be received differently, as well as explain why part of the

community has responded so clearly in difference to this assumption...

It does not help me understand some of the journalists and writers

online that appear to benefit from the emancipation of hate that

is provided online. The writers that suggest that the victim responded

in a manner for personal gain are in fact they themselves the ones

whose personal gain should be examined. Because suggesting this is

only as absurd as suggesting Dries built his project with intent

to harm.



# Amendment Oct 16 2014



Someone from the audience at HAU1 on Oct 15 read a statement from the

CEO of Gindr concerning features added in a recent update and noted

that the software would now allow for location "tribes". He found

this interesting as a Gay man of color living in an environment that

accepts him partially but leaves him and others dealing with

different forms of segregation. While the features added to Grindr do

lead to interesting discussions around inclusion and segregation

within communities it also brings us to the topic of social

engineering through code.



When I describe the false safety we place on Grindr and other

location based digital communities, illustrated by the example of

recent disclosures on how to track members in the Grindr community,

I've been asked if I'm blaming the users. While this does serve as a

warning if there is any indictment it lay with developers and not the

users.



We are slowly moving the responsibility for the construction of

social behaviour and good citizenry from the hands of policy makers

to the hands of engineers. Where city planners build parks and rebuild

roads engineers devise UI models, reputation schemes and collectives.

In this environment ethics and concerns of morality are left to

market will. A place where corrections are made only after injustice

has been served. This can be seen in Grindr's response to the

Wannaplay project, in Tindr and Grindr's response to the tracking

issue. This can also be seen in the foundational protocols of the

Internet itself where, for example, the same feature used to prevent

Germans from hearing GEMA licensed music on Youtube is also utilised

to oppress people around the world, with life threatening consequences.

The engineers that build these protocols have yet to address this

injustice.



In an increasingly digital world, one built by mostly male engineers,

the question of capitalist drive of social structures seems mute.

With digital neoliberalism a given, rather than discussing

post-privacy we should be defining post-existentialism.



This work by Nathan Andrew Fain is licensed under the

Non-White-Heterosexual-Male License

.