We've got a 2020 government technology and its impact on humans update for you:

Twitter just banned all political advertising around the world. Facebook did not. Here’s what it means.

Twitter just announced that they are not allowing ads for political purposes, while Facebook just widely defended its use of them. Democrats and Republicans are having intense feelings about this, with Republicans accusing Twitter of blocking Trump’s re-election campaign, and Democrats praising the choice to do it.

“We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought.” — Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter

We’re all familiar with the cringe-worthy and ubiquitous grammar of the President these past few years. We’ve all wondered why. We’ve all asked ourselves—how could this possible keep going like this? What makes this hamster-wheel keep turning?

But we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t look passed our own bias to ask to ourselves—what’s happening underneath all the noise here?

In Inside Higher Ed, Maurice Hall breaks down a key shift—Trump, instead of anchoring his digital leadership around a middle ground, used his flawed, yet powerful rhetoric to engage a niche audience, encouraging its capacity for unyielding devotion. Basically, he stokes a fire. It might not be a fire we like. It IS a fire to watch out for.

“He routinely uses repetition (“fake news”), idiosyncratic language (“the swamp”), strategic phrasing (“witch hunt”) and punctuation (abundant exclamation points) to speak directly and viscerally to his base on Twitter. Because his use of framing is so highly affective, it is very difficult to challenge his public communication through reasoned, rational analysis that focuses on factual rebuttals.” — Maurice Hall

Before we could even blink, our political-digital landscape shifted from moderation to passionate intensity. This is not language that’s meant for the people, it’s language meant for some people. 

And it’s not exclusive to Trump, though it is fueled by the digital fire all around him. 

In Trick Mirror, Jia Tolentino breaks down exactly what it feels like to be entirely overwhelmed by the polarized civic landscape all around us.

“Facebook’s goal of showing people only what they were interested in seeing resulted, within a decade, in the effective end of shared civic reality. And this choice, combined with the company’s financial incentive to continually trigger heightened emotional responses in its users, ultimately solidified the current norm in news media consumption: today we mostly consume news that corresponds with our ideological alignment, which has been fine-tuned to make us feel self-righteous and also mad.” ― Jia Tolentino

Our platforms are engineered to show us a biased viewpoint. If we never see what the other side is doing, how to we ensure that we’re making the changes we need to see?

Ain't nothin' like the real thing, baby. We've got the original government technology post right here:

The President of the United States is sitting down today with Buzzfeed for an interview. Whether he will comment on which funky little baby matches his zodiac sign or if he has any additions to the comprehensive “53 Lessons You Learned From Watching HGTV,” we can only speculate. What we do know for a fact is that this is a BIG DEAL. A really big deal, actually.

To lead people, you have to be able to reach people where they are. Now more than ever, people look online for information, news and connection to their community—it’s only natural that government would use tools like websites, blogs and social media to communicate. While those tools aren’t new, the methods they’re using to approach them are. Barack Obama’s Buzzfeed interview is the first of any sitting president in United States history, but it’s not his first first: He’s the first president to participate in an AMA on Reddit, the first to include YouTube in his State of the Union media outreach and also the first to dance on Ellen.

This may seem like a lot of internet-ing just for the sake of LOLZ, but it’s not. Seeing the leader of the free world in YOUR world is headline news. Technology is now a conduit to the people. Savvy government agencies are using social channels to get them the news they need and gather their input to create change.

Here are 3 ways government is using technology to connect with citizens in the United States:

1. We The People becomes more than a battle cry
The White House launched We The People in 2011 to give the public an easier way to petition their government on important issues. In the early days of this project, any petition with 5,000 or more signatures was guaranteed a response from the White House. Now that threshold is 100,000 signatures because the Internet. And the Death Star. We The People is meant to offer more transparency and more interaction with government. To date, 168 petitions have warranted responses on issues such as reforming the postal service and tightening the rules on purchasing firearms.

2. New York finds a new way to communicate with citizens
Rachel Haotwants to “democratize technology and give everyone a voice. "As the Chief Digital Officer for the state of New York, she’s responsible for changing the way constituents communicate with the state government and how departments work together online. Formerly the Chief Digital Officer for New York City, she was responsible for implementing a citywide “Digital Roadmap” that made the city more accessible for those in low-income communities, created 50 wi-fi hotspots across the city, expanded 311 on social media and completely revamped nyc.gov, making it more user friendly.

3. Houston launched By You City, an online forum for citizens
With a large-scale planning effort underway, the City of Houston wanted to make sure that all citizens had opportunities to engage on matters that would affect them most and have their unique story heard. In addition to face-to-face initiatives, officials wanted to bring an option for those who wanted to interact online. By You City, Houston’s first digital forum for citizens, went online in the fall of 2014 and currently hosts a variety of topics covering issues of arts and culture, neighborhood growth and community development.

When citizens have the power to interact with their leaders, they can affect real change on a local, state and national level. Technology and government aren’t really that different, if you think about it. Both are vehicles for change, both attract people who are about their community and want to see it made better, and both are means for people to straight up get stuff done. If we allow opportunities for those who lead to better communicate with their constituents, we can create the future we all hope for. That, and we can collect some pretty great gifs.