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The platforms have acted, raising hard questions about technology and democracy

newyorker.com

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Re: The platforms have acted, raising hard questions about technology and democracy

#11

Post by paganel »

cm2187 wrote: post #7
koolk3ychain wrote: post #2

Someone really needs to give the New Yorker some serious credit for publishing what can genuinely be described as a thoughtful, well written, and objective article on social media and big tech. Bravo. I'm honestly convinced that at some point this kind of big tech social media witch burning will eventually lead to private lawsuits aimed at non-combatants like Signal and Wickr. Please leave a comment if you disagree -…

Though the article doesn’t mention the coordinated and active censoring of the NY Post story, even in private conversations, which was already a heavy stroke of interference in the elections. It’s a lot of precedents. And there is nothing that suggests the temperature will cool down in the short term. I agree that big tech companies may do a lot more collateral damage but in my opinion they also already painted thems…

> Republicans will get back to power sooner or later and I think we should expect a regulatory backlash.

It depends which type of Republicans, right now it looks like the party is de facto split in two. Even though today's vote showed that they still think the Trump side will win out in the medium to long term, otherwise I can't explain why they chose to face the media storm directly and voted against impeachment.

Re: The platforms have acted, raising hard questions about technology and democracy

#12

Post by Animats »

fortran77 wrote: post #3
koolk3ychain wrote: post #2

Someone really needs to give the New Yorker some serious credit for publishing what can genuinely be described as a thoughtful, well written, and objective article on social media and big tech. Bravo. I'm honestly convinced that at some point this kind of big tech social media witch burning will eventually lead to private lawsuits aimed at non-combatants like Signal and Wickr. Please leave a comment if you disagree -…

The best sources of news seem to be the ones I pay for: New Yorker, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post

They have actual reporters. The number of US news sources with a sizable reporting staff is rather small.

Weirdly, Fox News recently exited primetime news. Their 7 PM news hour is being replaced with another opinion show.[1] This was before the riot; it was a decision based on ratings. It's a concern in that it disconnects a sizable fraction of the US population from any source of information about real-world events. Fox will still have a hard news show, but at 3 PM.

[1] https://keyt.com/news/money-and-business/2021/01/11/fox-news...

Re: The platforms have acted, raising hard questions about technology and democracy

#15

Post by cm2187 »

paganel wrote: post #11
cm2187 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though the article doesn’t mention the coordinated and active censoring of the NY Post story, even in private conversations, which was already a heavy stroke of interference in the elections. It’s a lot of precedents. And there is nothing that suggests the temperature will cool down in the short term. I agree that big tech companies may do a lot more collateral damage but in my opinion they also already painted thems…

> Republicans will get back to power sooner or later and I think we should expect a regulatory backlash. It depends which type of Republicans, right now it looks like the party is de facto split in two. Even though today's vote showed that they still think the Trump side will win out in the medium to long term, otherwise I can't explain why they chose to face the media storm directly and voted against impeachment.

I think Trump has become radioactive, even within the republican party. They may not want to impeach (and I am not sure what is the point of impeaching a president after he left office) but I doubt a come back is on anyone’s mind at this stage. But Trump’s electorate will remain however.

Re: The platforms have acted, raising hard questions about technology and democracy

#16

Post by Grustaf »

ghaff wrote: post #10
koolk3ychain wrote: post #2

Someone really needs to give the New Yorker some serious credit for publishing what can genuinely be described as a thoughtful, well written, and objective article on social media and big tech. Bravo. I'm honestly convinced that at some point this kind of big tech social media witch burning will eventually lead to private lawsuits aimed at non-combatants like Signal and Wickr. Please leave a comment if you disagree -…

One can simultaneously roll their eyes about slippery slopes, argue that this is simply banning obvious illegal activities, etc.--and be at least a little bit discomfited that a bunch of private companies can basically disappear someone from public discourse if they want to. Mind you. Historically most people didn't have access to a platform anyway. And the record from at least some players like AWS is that their ban…

Well, people didn’t use to have a lot of things, it’s still a big problem if you ban certain people from a platform but not others. Those that are allowed gain a huge advantage.

It’s especially problematic if these de facto monopolies take sides in elections.

Re: The platforms have acted, raising hard questions about technology and democracy

#18

Post by loceng »

beefee wrote: post #14

Are there any companies or organizations working to protect Internet freedom?

That want to allow inciting of violence on platforms? Serious question.

Edit to add: anyone going to answer or just downvote and ignore the question?

Re: The platforms have acted, raising hard questions about technology and democracy

#19

Post by Grustaf »

cm2187 wrote: post #7
koolk3ychain wrote: post #2

Someone really needs to give the New Yorker some serious credit for publishing what can genuinely be described as a thoughtful, well written, and objective article on social media and big tech. Bravo. I'm honestly convinced that at some point this kind of big tech social media witch burning will eventually lead to private lawsuits aimed at non-combatants like Signal and Wickr. Please leave a comment if you disagree -…

Though the article doesn’t mention the coordinated and active censoring of the NY Post story, even in private conversations, which was already a heavy stroke of interference in the elections. It’s a lot of precedents. And there is nothing that suggests the temperature will cool down in the short term. I agree that big tech companies may do a lot more collateral damage but in my opinion they also already painted thems…

I think it’s exceedingly unlikely they will get back into power in anything like their current form. We will now see a democratic government that is fully aligned, and has deep ties with, silicon valley. The big tech industrial complex has infinitely more control over our thoughts and proclivities than any previous power center.

Re: The platforms have acted, raising hard questions about technology and democracy

#20

Post by flyinglizard »

fortran77 wrote: post #3
koolk3ychain wrote: post #2

Someone really needs to give the New Yorker some serious credit for publishing what can genuinely be described as a thoughtful, well written, and objective article on social media and big tech. Bravo. I'm honestly convinced that at some point this kind of big tech social media witch burning will eventually lead to private lawsuits aimed at non-combatants like Signal and Wickr. Please leave a comment if you disagree -…

The best sources of news seem to be the ones I pay for: New Yorker, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post

Do these newspapers provide thought provoking articles, or just fuel confirmation bias for their readers? I was a subscriber of NYT for a few years, and the one time there was a dissenting opinion - that of Tom Cotton - it led to editors being fired. WSJ seems better, maybe because business reporting tends to be somewhat less opinionated.
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