GAME OF DRONES
GAME OF DRONES Is a WEB-BASED PROJECT that examines FACEBOOK'S EXPANSION INTO SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA.
Visit the Game of Drones Project Site
In June 2016, the first major test flight of Facebook’s Aquila drone took place in Arizona, located in the northwest of the United States. Although the project is still years away from completion, the goal for Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, is to operate Aquila and replica drones a few thousand miles east of Arizona. The Aquila drone, which intends to beam down the internet via laser while flying at 60,000 feet, is part of Facebook's highly publicized, multiple-entry initiative to provide free internet access all over the world. However, for the billion active Facebook users across the globe the notion of “free” service comes with a slight caveat since the company’s business model relies on the collection and monetization of user data.
According to statistics, the continent of Africa has an estimated population of 1.2 billion (1) with an estimated 340 million people online (2) of which 100 million are monthly users of Facebook (3).
With this project I attempt to critically examine Facebook's initiative by visually representing the aerial view of the Aquila drone as it flies across two specific countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
I stated my critical examination by investigating a specific question: What assumptions have Facebook made via their drone initiative?
Through the process of trying to answer this question, I started to think about the lens that Facebook as a company sees the world and also the lens that Facebook provides to the world via it’s vast collection of data. I asked myself, if a viewer looked at a topographical map of the city of Accra and then wanted to enhance that map using Facebook data about the people and places that occupy the physical spaces, how would this data represent or misrepresent Accra? Who would be included or excluded, visible or invisible? Would it be safe to say that those who were “unconnected” to Facebook would be invisible?
I argue through this project that what is assumed by Facebook is an ideology which is pushed out by the company to the public through technological deterministic rhetoric (4). Facebook is promoting an idea that you are deprived of representation or simply don't exist until you are "connected" to their social networking service (5).
The project consists of web-based interactive maps of Ghana and Ethiopia which have been altered based on Facebook data. I decided to work with Google Earth maps because of the signifigance that map imagery inherently carry, but also because maps play a significant role in the way Facebook visually communicates and quantifies their global presence (6). I was particularly interested in using Google Earth map imagery and I wanted the project to touch upon some of the nuances which affect the Google Earth map details. In his essay, "On Google Earth", Mark Dorrian discusses these nuances giving examples of the blurring out of locations such as military bases or the pronunciation of locations with "high real estate value" (7). These nuanced alterations highlight how locations are being represented or misrepresented and who is in control of those representations.
The project uses video game imagery drawing on ideas of power, control and gamification. The drone, laser beam, emojicons, and sounds used on the maps evoke the feeling of playing a game in order to "poke fun” or "make light" of a serious action. Common video game tropes such as "the hero’s journey", "rescue mission", and the claiming of "unchartered territory" are relevant threads in regards to the premise and promises of the Facebook initiative.
1. Wikipedia, Africa, URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa, (accessed January 2017)
2. Internet World Stats, URL: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm, (accessed February 2017)
3. Facebook, URL: http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/ (accessed February 2017)
4. Mark Zuckerberg. Is Connectivity A Human Right?, August 2013,
URL: https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.2365-6/12057105_1001874746531417_622371037_n.pdf?oh=c48560ed5069e25215fd03451243fccf&oe=59019B27 , (accessed February 2017)
5.1 Mark Zuckerberg. "This is a map of all the friendships formed on Facebook across the world", Facebook post September 24, 2013, URL: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10101026493146301&set=a.941146602501.2418915.4&type=1&theater (accessed January 2017)
5.2 Facebook Live Map, URL: https://www.facebook.com/livemap/#@26.03704188651584,28.4326171875,4z (accessed February 2017)
5.3 Robinson Meyer. Facebook is Making a Map of Everyone in the World, February 23, 2016, URL:https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/02/facebook-makes-a-new-map-of-everyone-in-the-world/470487/ , (accessed January 2017)
6. Jim Edwards. This Map Shows How Mark Zuckerberg Thinks About Poor People, March 31, 2014, URL: http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerbergs-map-of-poor-people-2014-3?IR=T , (accessed January 2017)
7. Dorrian, M. and Pousin F. (2013) chapter 16 Seeing From Above: The Aerial View in Visual Culture . New York, N.Y.: I.B Tauris and Co. Ltd (2013)
DISCLAIMER: This was a student project for my MA in Digital Media- it was created for non-commercial use. I do not own any of the logos or sounds used in this project.
The Game of Drones project can be experienced HERE.