“Broke the algorithms of the machines”
Howling!
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Who the hell are all these nutjobs?
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That’s not the point. We should use and embrace modern communication, not stifle it.
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Which is the price you pay for a free service. I have no issue with it. I do have a problem when people want things banned / broken up / cancelled because they don’t like them*. A dangerous road. What gives you the right to decide what I can and can’t do / look at on the internet? Unless you personally own / moderate a platform (exactly like here) where you can. Because it’s yours and offered freely to us.
*Except dogs and horses obviously, I’d ban them in a heartbeat
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Not entitled at all.
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People are entitled to protection from services actively harmful to themselves and others. Society is entitled to regulate and control services damaging to society.
Social media is not normal discourse and I don’t believe democracy can survive it. But don’t take my word for it. Watch The Social Dilemma, and see scores of ex-social media developers, execs and staffers saying that social media is out of control and or societies are at extreme threat.
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You’ll also find videos from Apollo deniers, flat earthers and those whole believe in a celestial dictator who wants you to kill gay people and witches.
Ultimately, nobody is forced to access the internet (OK, maybe somebody somewhere) but the final web filter is the off button. That’s what should be used way before the ban/cancel/remove strategy. If you can’t deal with it turn it off. Takes me as ever to Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Once you start to ban and censor, who judges what should stay and what should go? You and I would be absolutely in agreement (I think) that neither of us would like the other anywhere near that decision. Viva freedom of thought, expression and difference. Otherwise it’s Orwell and grey jumpsuits for everybody.
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You’ve gone straight for the freedom of speech angle, but this much more complicated than that. In my opinion, Social Media is not a free speech issue. It’s a matter of public health.
Again, I can’t express the problem better than the Social Dilemma. I’d urge everyone to watch it.
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Social media is a public health problem? Only to those who are already susceptible to bullshit. I give you red top newspapers. Been peddling it for decades. Pretty sure Diana is still on the front page of every edition of the Express too.
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The more they protest this result, and especially the more they use the “Biden only got 68m votes” line, makes me feel like they are so incredulous because they know they tried to cheat and can’t believe they were beaten.
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If only I was just talking about peddling bullshit.
It’s so much more scary than this. Again, this is essential viewing, and I’d advise you to watch it before being dismissive. It’s terrifying. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt11464826/
There are two fundamental problems with social media.
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Everyone who uses social media are the product that the tech companies are cultivating to sell to advertisers. Because social media is very good at building very sophisticated profiles of you based on your actions on the site, adverts can be tailored to you that are incredibly predatory - case in point is the AI systems that can track when a teenage girl‘s self esteem is low, and push make-up ads at her. This is actually the lesser of the two evils.
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But because of 1 it is in the interests of the tech companies to keep you active on their sites as much as possible, and so they deploy incredibly aggressive AI to analyse your behaviour, your triggers, what is likely to draw you to the platform, what will keep you there, and what will deepen your engagement. Because the AI systems are basically amoral, they don’t care if they are pushing you towards flat earth stuff, stick weaving groups, or scary fascism. And the human side of the tech companies have no control over the AI.
This problem is dividing our societies and representing a fundamental threat to democracy. There are stats posted up thread about how many republican voters are now fucking crazy. That hasn’t just happened by itself. It’s happened because people have replaced traditional news sources with social media, which only confirms to them what they already believe and pulls them further and further into their delusions.
Look at what’s happened to the world over the last fifteen years. Look at what’s happened to us at the same time at social media has embedded itself into people’s lives. Look at how fractured society has become. Look at the transparent bullshit huge numbers of people believe - whether it’s QAnon, flat earth, 9/11 stuff, etc etc. It’s not a coincidence.
I’d really, really recommend watching the documentary.
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I think it’s important to make the distinction between the commoners that believe all the conspiracy theories and people like this Mike Lindell who are clearly trying to stoke the fire, either because he’s a diehard republican, or because a Trump presidency supports his business interests, or both. People like him are the real problem. They know it’s all BS but will perpetuate the lie for their own interest.
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Russian State perspective on the upshot of electoral change in the US, and what this means for the rest of the world (Russia actually).
I never read anything that comes out of Russia as anything less than propaganda.
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Hunanity always had to find ways to stifle new technologies while embracing them, for good reasons.And btw your point was explicitely about free speech.
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I’ll watch it. You might know I work in IT and know a bit about it. My FB feed is full of targeted ads. Love it when my phone picks up on an audio conversation and shows me an add. Google something on my work PC and the add shows up on my phone. I know this works and personally it doesn’t bother me at all. Advertising and marketing have been targeted since the dawn of time, now it’s done using big data and social media. We advertise directly to a certain demographic in certain areas as we’ve spent years working on where our highest spending customers come from. That’s good business.
If you look for the worst of something, you’ll find it. I’m sure there are studies that show schools are terrible and the catholic church is a force for good. Not strictly relevant but this always springs to mind when it comes to how easy it all is to manipulate:
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There’s nothing new in technology. Give me one example of something you can buy or do that you couldn’t (technically) in the late 70s. It’s how that technology is packaged that’s progresses.
I see social media as freedom of speech. Long may it continue. As per my point to Mascot, who decided what I can and can’t view or do online?
With the obvious exceptions of those things which are illegal. You don’t need examples.
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Nothing should be illegal. That’s stifling technology and totalitarian.
And a nuclear bomb for anyone who can aford it, the market is good, let’s embrace progress. 
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Fucking Bitcoin.
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