In 2016 Snapchat introduced a face-morphing filter ostensibly “inspired by anime," and the white boys of Silicon Valley were surprised when Asians found it rooted instead in centuries of racist stereotyping. Web consultant Sara Wachter-Boettcher doesn’t call it a random oversight but part of “a clear pattern." In Technically Wrong , Wachter-Boettcher attacks the sort of techies whose “disruption" seems aimed as much at common sense and decency as anything else. Designers of search engines and software algorithms construct not only our primary portal to the world but the way that millions understand that world. Techie biases and agendas have become definitive, yet sometimes include sexism, racism, stupidity (auto-generated peppy messages from dead relatives?) and disdain for fact-based reality. “Tech has spent too long being treated as a marvel, getting a free pass on ethics, by promising us convenience wrapped in a slickly designed package," Wachter-Boettcher concludes. She urges activism, not passivity: Know your products, demand the best, change brands if need be, complain until the Silicon boys get it right.
