Manipulation doesn’t really require much. It’s pretty easy to manipulate or be manipulated, and despite the negative connotations, manipulation doesn’t always have to be bad.

What differentiates good and bad as far as manipulation is subjective. Being volunteered for a ‘greater good’ is usually seen as ‘good’, but being manipulated against one’s own interests for a ‘greater good’ that doesn’t include you doesn’t seem very good.

An example: WordPress and Tumblr users were volunteered rather than asked to volunteer information being sold to artificial intelligence companies. If they were actually volunteering, the default setting that was set up for 3rd parties being allowed to use the data would have been off. It wasn’t. The manipulation here was, “Hey, we told you to go in and do this if you don’t want to do it.”

That’s not voluntary in most stretches of the imagination except the unimaginative: Law. It was a manipulation, and I’d offer that it wasn’t fair to people.

If WordPress.com and Tumblr users were paid for it, maybe I’d think it was worth doing. Instead, the owner of the platform decides. It’s not in the interest of the users.

It’s only in the interest of those that own the platform.