ETHOS: Ethics, Technology, and Solidarity
ETHOS is “a search engine made to stand against genocide.”
In 2020, the summer of black squares, a global pandemic, mass protests, and side-eyeing celebrities, a new bombshell entered the villa, “allyship fatigue.” This is best exemplified by Vanessa Hudgens’ viral soundbite on the pandemic, “Yeah, people are going to die, which is terrible but like, inevitable?” Allyship fatigue is the quiet walk-back of pledges and initiatives to combat and acknowledge racism, the disappearance of black squares on Instagram grids, and stays ever-present today in the wave of repealed laws like the landmark ruling on affirmative action. Allyship fatigue was white people being tired of caring about Black lives. In the four years since then, the phrase has evolved to encompass the waxing and waning of support for causes in the West and the Global South.
A 2010 NPR article noted “mounting evidence that [screen time is] a risk factor” in the attention span of children between the ages of 6 and 12. With increased capabilities for tech from touchscreen fridges to subscription based printers, we’re inundated with distractions that aim to deter us from the factors that contribute to this general feeling of weariness. Annual Apple releases cannot hide the truth of child labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the same way, the explosion of AI is key to both the reading and climate crisis. Numerous educators have been transparent about the current state of learning. Students from grade school through to university levels are struggling to pay attention for minimal periods of time and interact with core texts, and then there’s the threat of AI to students already at a lower comprehension level than they should. Tristan Harris, a former design ethicist for Google, believes a design equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath ‘should be true of designers of these kinds of platforms; that people who design tech, people who design social media platforms, should be forced to obey the same rules — do no harm.’ If reading is out and being chronically online is in, how can we use tech to do no harm and show up for others? This is a premise that Nabihah Ahmad co-opts in the launch of her e-commerce platform, ETHOS.
ETHOS is “a search engine made to stand against genocide.” As an e-commerce marketplace, it spotlights independent and minority-owned businesses that are anti-genocide and collates this information in one place. ETHOS is the first brainchild of Ahmad’s SSQRD, an open-source community-built resource that highlights ethical ways of engaging with the fashion industry as a worker and consumer. A response to Ahmad’s familial experiences with garment work in Bangladesh, SSQRD encompasses brands across skincare, makeup, fashion, and fragrance to support acts of solidarity. Ahmad’s ETHOS is relevant for a number of reasons. It recognizes the reality of people’s habits and our current relationship with retail. As such, ETHOS becomes a resource that weeds out the ‘fatigue’ of support - namely, finding organizations not linked to genocide and arms deals - while also linking consumers to ethical retailers and vice versa. This has been a key issue in the solidarity debate around global causes - the interconnectedness of struggle. How fast fashion is linked to issues of migration, genocide, capitalism, and white supremacy, and how we’re meant to consciously engage with causes without simply playing directly into these systems.
ETHOS does not negate learning, but instead joins the ranks of newer platforms built on communal frameworks that support learning and solidarity but in a different way. The reading crisis can be facilitated by the advancements in tech. For example, Decolonial Thoughts is a volunteer-led website committed to mapping out the intersection of all our struggles. All struggle is part and parcel, threaded together by the same systems which benefit the few at the expense of the many. One of the key issues with learning, then, is understanding how this translates to our everyday habits. Decolonial Thoughts as an active educational tool, complements ETHOS, which uses these histories to dictate how we can show up in our daily lives.
Communal shows of solidarity are supported by the reach of the internet. Boycott lists are paired with infographics to provide visual aids on ways to support different causes and why. For many, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions list is a baseline document on targeted ways of showing up for the people of Palestine. This list of corporations “focuses on a relatively smaller number of carefully selected companies and products for maximum impact.” And it works. McDonald’s, an organic boycott target on the BDS list, reported its first sales drop in four years.
Similar and extensive lists that go beyond BDS’ targets that continue to circulate “do the exact opposite of this strategic and impactful approach” and instead birth this new chapter of allyship fatigue. The phrase “no ethical consumption under capitalism” is now a lazy retort that presents allyship fatigue in a different font. Simply put, people are tired of disrupting their ease for systems that are too big to change.
This is why ETHOS is so important; As a communal marketplace that displays the ways in which technology serves as a hub for global rallying calls. Ahmad’s site redirects users directly to the business’ own website, platforming Muslim-owned sites, brands against genocide, sustainable products, and more across multiple industries of skincare, fashion. and beauty. An impressive feat for a student to develop - Nabihah Ahmad is a third-year computer science student. For something so new, ETHOS is already making an impact in the ways we engage with technology and, in itself, redirects users to learn more about the businesses they patronize and think deeply about the systems that have gathered to bring us to this point.
