Is Clubhouse a safe space or a modern day auction block?
A speculative look at the fast growing audio-only social media platform.
The story of how I got on Clubhouse is probably very similar to yours…and that scares me.
In late October I was talking to a friend of mine and before long he began raving about this new app, Clubhouse. He told me that it was the next level in building and engaging with an audience. What he described was a social media app without advertisements, comment sections, or DMs where abusers can share a new racist trick they learned.
All of this was intriguing, but what really got me was when he said I needed an invite to open a profile and he didn’t have anymore to offer me. This app is exclusive.
I stroked my chin, friends… I squinted my eyes and stroked my chin.
About a week later I was visiting my family and, again, Clubhouse found its way into the conversation. My sister had a spare invite to share with me, and I was in. The following hour was spent hopping in and out of rooms, listening to conversations and engaging in very real ways with very real people, many of whom I knew and were happy to see on the platform. My network was here waiting for me.
They got us.
WHAT IS CLUBHOUSE?
Clubhouse is still fairly new so there is a chance you don’t know what it is, especially if you’re not Black (more on that later). Let me explain in brief:
Clubhouse is a social network where once you log in, you are shown a list of virtual “rooms” where conversations are happening. The conversations are audio-only and the topic is usually made clear in the name of the room.
Each room has three tiers:
- Speakers and Moderators: These are the only people who are able to speak in the conversation. Moderators are indicated by a green star icon and only they can give others in the room the ability to speak.
- Followed by the speakers: These are listeners who are followed by the people on the first tier. If you go into a room and one of the speakers follows you, then you are automatically placed here.
- Others in the room: These are people who are listening to the conversation, but are not followed by anyone speaking.
The setup is ingenious.
There is no way to chat or DM anyone on the app. If you are in a room you are either engaged in the conversation or listening to it. This isn’t a place for trolls unless they are deliberately invited by the moderators, and even then I believe the moderators can remove them from the conversation. Thus, you are only exposed to real people having real conversations about topics you are definitely interested in (otherwise, why did you go into the room in the first place). This is especially enticing for those of us who are exhausted by the superficiality of other social media platforms.
More importantly, while you’re in a room you can visit people’s profiles and link to their other social media, without having to leave the room. So, if we’re in a Clubhouse together and I like the cut of your jib, I can click your avatar, check out your full Clubhouse profile, then link to your other social media with full functionality on those platforms without having to leave Clubhouse or the conversation.
It’s fucking ingenious.
But remember what I said a few paragraphs ago, “If you’re not Black there’s a chance you don’t know what Clubhouse is.” That’s because most of the people on Clubhouse are Black. At first I thought that was just my experience due to some algorithmic blah blah blah science reasons, but as I spoke to others I found that they were seeing the same thing.
I stroked my chin, friends… I squinted my eyes and stroked my chin.
THE SHEPARDS
I began to feel like Black users are being targeted to join Clubhouse, so I did some surface level Googling. The founders of the app are Paul Davidson and Rohan Seth. The app is bankrolled by Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm owned by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
None of these people are Black.
Of course, that’s not to imply that a diabolical scheme is afoot. The fact is that very few people of color are in the tech and venture capitalism industries. For all I know — and I want to stress, I don’t know — these guys could be hella woke and have noticed the void in digital spaces for Black voices and created a platform to fill it. Furthermore, it’s entirely possible that Black users were not targeted, per se, and the abundance of Black and Brown users is purely coincidental. But, statistically that doesn’t seem possible to me, so it feels like Black people were aggressively targeted as the initial users of Clubhouse.
I’ll spare you the history lesson of what usually happens when a deliberately defined demographic of people are targeted and assembled in a specific location. SPOILER ALERT: It never works out well for the defined demographic.
I’ll also spare you an exhaustive breakdown of the zeitgeist and how it evolves over time, but a little research will illuminate the fact that Black and Brown people are typically at the innovative forefront of popular culture.
My guess (and it is just that) is the founders and financiers of Clubhouse understand this fact and see an enormous opportunity.
THE EXCHANGE
Clubhouse is free for its users and there are no perceivable ads on the platform. Elementary economics tells us that in order to survive in any market, companies (and people) had better be offering goods and/or services. Clubhouse offers its users neither. One could argue that a “service” is being provided via the platform itself, but you must understand that with social media the users are not the customer, we are the product. We are not paying for the platform, so there is no incentive for the platform to exist for our benefit.
So who are the benefactors of Clubhouse?
Every social media platform is set up so our profiles, information, and lives can be sold to ad buyers. There’s a really good documentary on Netflix called THE SOCIAL DILEMMA that dives into how this works, but you see it manifest everyday.
Let’s say you’re online and you search for a product. Before long you may start to see advertisements for that same product on your social media timelines or embedded in articles that you read on news sites. That is not an accident. Let’s go a step further and say you’re in your house within proximity of some voice activated tech from Amazon, Google, or what have you. Something you mention passively may somehow find its way on your timeline. That is not an accident. Social media wants to know what you’re talking about, what you do, what you like, and what you hate so that they can sell that information to corporations.
Now, imagine there is a platform that can offer a corporation hours upon hours of audio where users are talking exclusively about things that interest them. That type of knowledge is not just power, it is absolute rule over those people.
Enter: Clubhouse
There is no such thing as a free lunch, my friends. We are giving Clubhouse something that it plans to commoditize. We are giving it for free and we are giving it in abundance.
What’s more, if Black and Brown people were targeted as the initial users of the application, it begs the question, what do Black and Brown people specifically offer the platform that it will sell? My speculation is that Clubhouse is gathering us together and getting us talking about what matters to us so that they can sell our conversations and our individual profiles (which easily links to our other social media) to corporations.
Clubhouse is not a social media platform where communities can gather in safe spaces and exchange ideas. It is a market research company.
Assuming this while also speculating that Black people are the specific target of this market research gives me pause. Also, for you conspiracy theorists out there, it’s perfectly within the realm of possibility that law enforcement or government agencies can create profiles on Clubhouse to listen to or initiate conversations with our community.
Is it possible that we are being led to the auction block (again)?
NOW WHAT?
Who knows? All of what I’ve said here is speculation based on what I know about the business of social media and how it works. Also, everything good I said about Clubhouse is true to my opinion. I enjoy being on the app. I love hearing people exchange ideas and being vulnerable with each other.
My concern is that we’re doing it in a space that will almost certainly be sold to people and corporations who, historically, have not had our best interests in mind.
Go forth and govern yourselves accordingly.
