AN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF FACEBOOK

我的博士研究将研究在2007年至2018年期间，隐含或明确地塑造Facebook决策过程和行动的政治和哲学思想。我将首先探讨Facebook兴起的知识背景，首先关注21世纪世纪初美国有影响力的知识潮流，包括新自由主义的兴起，“历史终结”的概念，以及9/11事件后隐私和监视的变化;其次，关注计算机历史上的知识趋势。然后，我将识别、绘制和分析支撑Facebook决策的想法。我设想了四个主题：i）Facebook在言论自由方面的准自由主义立场，这是该公司最明确的哲学和政治立场。ii）Facebook对政治变革的看法，特别是因为该社交网络推销自己预测和影响用户行为的能力，实际上是将自己推销为社会和政治变革的关键媒介和渠道。Facebook对个人隐私的处理方法以及Facebook对用户数据的广泛挖掘告诉我们该公司如何理解个人的概念。Facebook对民族国家的看法，以及社交网络接受一个国家的合法性及其规范信息流动的行为的程度。

My doctoral research will examine the political and philosophical ideas that have, implicitly or explicitly, shaped Facebook's decision-making process and actions between 2007 and 2018. I will initially explore the intellectual context out of which Facebook arose, focusing firstly on the influential intellectual currents of early 21st century America, including the rise of Neoliberalism, the notion of the 'End of History', and the changing perspectives of privacy and surveillance post 9/11; secondly, on the intellectual trends in the history of the computer. I will then identify, map and analyse the ideas which underpinned Facebook's decision-making. I envisage four themes: i) Facebook's quasi-libertarian stance on freedom of speech, which is the company's clearest philosophical and political standpoint.ii) Facebook conception of political change especially since the social network markets its own ability to predict and influence user behaviour in effect selling itself as a key medium for and a conduit of social and political change.iii) Facebook's approach to individual privacy and what Facebook's widespread mining of user data tells us about how the company understands the concept of the individual.iv) Facebook's perspective of the nation state and the extent to which the social network accepts the legitimacy of a nation and its actions to regulate the flow of information.