This chapter contextualises this study of social media and contentious public demonstrations by reviewing the literature on online platforms, peacebuilding and the contact hypothesis. It introduces key ritualised social media practices, such as memes, parody accounts and wordplay that are commonly associated with digital citizenship. It concludes by providing an overview of each chapter and the qualitative research approach adopted in the book.

In Chapter 4, the focus switches to citizens’ use of social media to document the actions of the PSNI during these demonstrations. The ubiquity of smartphones has provided unprecedented opportunities for citizens to engage in ‘sousveillance’, defined broadly as the “use of technology to access and collect data about their surveillance” (Mann et al., 2003: 333). During the flag protests, loyalists accused the PSNI of engaging in ‘political policing’ and used social media to share evidence corroborating their claims that they had been ‘heavy-handed’ towards the protesters. This chapter presents the first in-depth qualitative analysis of this footage, much of which was uploaded by witnesses to YouTube, presumably with the intention of highlighting the alleged police brutality. It does so by presenting the results of a thematic analysis of 1,586 comments posted in response to 36 videos uploaded to the video-sharing site by loyalists between December 2012 and March 2013. It will explore the extent to which such ‘sousveillance’ footage elicited sympathy for loyalist claims that the PSNI had been heavy-handed, and how the views expressed in these comments sections compared with mainstream media representations of both the protesters and the policing operation.

The polysemic nature of Twitter hashtags and their capacity to mobilise ‘affective publics’ connected via affectively charged expression (Papacharissi, 2014) is examined in Chapter 3. The loyalist action dubbed ‘Operation Standstill’, announced in the first week of January 2013, was a ‘lightning rod’ for Northern Irish tweeters, who were angered by the economic and reputational harm being caused by the flag protests. Hashtags such as #backinbelfast and #takebackthecity served as conversation markers for those who wished to express opposition to the demonstrations and encourage people to support those bars, restaurants and businesses negatively impacted. Twitter also provided communicative spaces for citizens to criticise protest provocateurs such as Jamie Bryson and Willie Frazer, with some shaming loyalists for hate speech posted on pages such as LPPU and mocking their poor spelling and grammar. This chapter empirically explores the discursive affordances of Twitter during hybrid media events through a thematic analysis of 4,479 tweets hashtagged with #flegs, a supposedly comical reference to how ‘flag’ is pronounced in a working-class Belfast accent. The key influencers, type of information shared and characterisation of loyalist flag protesters in this hashtag will be analysed. Finally, it will examine the extent to which public expression on the hashtag was irreverent and innocuous, or whether such activity perpetuated negative stereotypes of loyalists as ‘uneducated bigots’.

Chapter 6 looks at the failures of educational innovation during the Covid-19 crisis. As schools scrambled to adapt to remote learning, remote proctoring technologies rapidly expanded. They implemented surveillance systems that violated student privacy and disproportionately harmed vulnerable students. Despite claims of maintaining academic integrity, remote proctoring created a stressful, punitive environment that prioritized monitoring over genuine educational support while failing to do nearly enough to address the inequalities at the heart of accessing and using digital resources. Sadly, the rush to innovate missed crucial opportunities to upgrade core educational infrastructure and truly support students during a time of unprecedented challenge. As if this wasn’t bad enough, some schools continue to use remote proctoring software. A pandemic problem has thus become the new normal.

Chapter 2 shows how when the emperor of innovation isn’t wearing any clothes, upgraders can still see the naked truth of the situation. Zuckerberg promised a metaverse, a new digital reality, that would transform human connection, interaction, and commerce. But this handwavy conception of the future lacked any clear vision, let alone consumer demand. Upgraders were able to spot the folly long before it became one of the largest corporate boondoggles in modern commerce, a shorthand for corporate disfunction. In contrast to the unbridled enthusiasm of innovators, upgraders would have started with the question of why the public would ever want this product in the first place. Instead, Meta tried to sway public opinion with overly rosy futuristic promises, trying to move the market to meet their innovation, rather than solving problems that actually mattered to the public. Like other innovations, the metaverse shows how tech companies ignore the fundamentals of human behavior and social change, dooming their grand visions.

Chapter 5, “The Failed Promise of Covid Innovation,” presents the pandemic as a crucial case study of how innovative thinking let us down at a time of great vulnerability. Simply put, the early days of massive fatalities made COVID-19 a health crisis. But those days also can be seen as a powerful lens for understanding high-tech failure. From contact tracing apps to thermal imaging cameras and digital vaccine passports, there was a fever pitch of government and corporate enthusiasm for innovative solutionism that was predestined to be unreliable and, thus, in context, dangerous. While we acknowledge remarkable breakthroughs like the rapid development of mRNA vaccines, we also make the case that additional effective responses could have come from upgrading existing systems rather than trying to do things entirely new.

Chapter 8 explains why there has been so much enthusiasm for integrating AI into multiple dimensions of the hiring process, from resume screening to interview bots, despite these endeavors being marred by fundamental flaws, including, in some cases, integrating bias, unreliable pseudoscientific methods, and dehumanizing interactions. In addition to analyzing the incentives that have motivated companies to use flawed, innovative tools, we provide a road map for how to develop and use responsible AI upgrades in the hiring process.

In Chapter 9, we argue that cybersecurity professionals embody the ideal of the careful, systematic upgrading that Move Slow and Upgrade has been advocating for. Unlike the flashy innovations that we’ve criticized in earlier chapters, cybersecurity professionals focus on making small, proven improvements through such practices as privacy by design and zero-trust architecture. Recognizing that no single change can solve complex problems, they layer multiple safeguards while acknowledging that human behavior – from falling for scams to knowingly taking risks – is often the main vulnerability. By discussing how cybersecurity teams do quality work, we aim to offer important lessons about how other industries might benefit from adopting an upgrading mindset.

Chapter 1, “Introduction,” welcomes you to day 1 of your new life as an upgrader. In this introduction we not only provide an overview of the book’s thesis for better problem solving and more effective technological advancement, we start to draw out the contours of what it means to be an Upgrader. This loosely nit cohort of changemakers has rejected both the inadequacy of the status quo and the destructiveness of innovation. Here, you’ll begin to learn what it means to solve some of the most urgent problems facing our society today through the lens of upgrades. We’ll also begin to provide examples of ways that innovations have fallen flat, or blown up completely, in the past. Crucially, upgraders aren’t just backseat drivers in the journey of social change, they are forward looking experts who are often able to see the dangers of pending innovations before they occur. In your life as an upgrader, you’ll not only be able to avoid these missteps yourself, but you’ll be able to see the innovation traps so many others are poised to fall into.

Chapter 3 dives deep into the beating heart of cryptocurrency, the paradoxical technology that has made early adherents billions, while adding nothing of real value to society. By any measure, crypto has failed at its stated goal: creating a better financial system. Looking to Bitcoin, we show how the core innovation – a distributed encrypted database – makes a terrible payment system, with slow, expensive, uncorrectable transactions. But crypto enthusiasts ignore more than a decade of failure, doubling down on grandiose claims about solving everything from financial inclusion to corporate governance while ignoring the far easier, low-tech solutions to these very real needs. We include an interview with an early supporter of the massive crypto currency Ethereum, who came to see how crypto became “just a tool for the wealthy to become wealthier” rather than fulfilling its promise of financial inclusion for the world’s 1.7 billion unbanked people.

Chapter 4 critically examines the fact that sometimes innovations not only fail to solve crucial problems, but are the problem itself. Specifically, it explains why Ring doorbell exemplifies the threat of home surveillance innovation. The billion-dollar Amazon subsidiary sold millions of Americans on the promise of security via surveillance without any credible evidence that its system works. But rather than encouraging people to adopt proven security upgrades, such as better locks and secure package drops, Ring wins customers by making its digital innovation seem essential amid a climate of rising fear. By fighting against boring yet effective alternatives, Ring’s anxiety-inducing features have further normalized intensive networked surveillance and helped turn innocuous neighborly interactions into potential threats.