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The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

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Re: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

#41

Post by guuz »

jorgec wrote: post #39

It starts censoring topics that are illegal, then topics that aren't family friendly and finally, it will end censoring point of view and free speech. Its 1984 all over. Im not an anarchist however, if something is illegal then go ahead and cut it but, censoring without a legal cause is a crime.

Facebook is a private company and it has the right to regulate speech in its digital properties (at least it seems the case in the US). You also are not bound to it, theoretically, so you can go elsewhere and say what you wanna say. I write theoretically because Facebook is so pervasive where I live that we cannot simply ignore it.

Re: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

#42

Post by stuntkite »

jorgec wrote: post #39

It starts censoring topics that are illegal, then topics that aren't family friendly and finally, it will end censoring point of view and free speech. Its 1984 all over. Im not an anarchist however, if something is illegal then go ahead and cut it but, censoring without a legal cause is a crime.

Social media platforms are owned by privately held companies. Their moderation is up to their discretion. Sure there's a larger conversation about their ubiquity and how social media posts relate to free speech, but as things work now in the US, Facebook isn't breaking any rules by censoring anything for the most part.

If you want to collect pictures of horrible crap and start a website, as long as it's not illegal you can host it on your own.

Re: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

#46

Post by saas_co_de »

rpmcmurphy wrote: post #27

The internet really is an incredible cesspool. It would be interesting to see how the public reacted if YouTube and Facebook turned off their content moderation for a week. It would make the goatse meme look like a Sunday school picnic.

Yes, but really, humanity is the incredible cesspool. Facebook is just mirror.

The interesting thing is that instead of trying to prosecute the criminals behind this content we would rather just censor it so we can pretend it doesn't exist.

Re: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

#49

Post by quantummkv »

The real problem is not that such content exists, the problem is that Facebook makes it horrifically easy to distribute such content. Back when Facebook was more of interacting with people rather that liking and subscribing to whatever these content and joke pages shoved down these concerns where not present much. Clickbait, etc is just a natural progression of like and subscribing culture.

My Facebook feed about a year ago, when i last opened facebook was filled with the same memes and "inspirational messages" shoved down by a handful of pages being shared by dumb idiots. I had to search and go directly to a person's profile to see what they were up to.

The real problem is that Facebook started behaving like a TV channel that a social network.

If Facebook goes to only keeping profiles of real persons and removes any and all of these pages and blogs and news agencies and the lot, a lot of its woes with regard to content will be solved.

These pages give a sense of anonymity to the people behind them. Take that anonymity away. Once you know that your personal image will be directly tied to whatever you post and held responsible by everyone in your friend list, you will begin to curb your tendencies in public.

Re: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

#50

Post by lyra_comms »

One of our team members used to do this job; luckily, she managed to do it with deep learning, so didn't have to spend too much time looking at unpleasant images.

This experience is one of the main drivers that pushes our team to develop an open, nonprofit conversation platform on which harrassment is difficult by design.

www.hellolyra.com/introduction

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