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I built ByteDance's censorship machine

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Re: I built ByteDance's censorship machine

#101

Post by thewarrior »

malloreon wrote: post #98
KDJohnBrown wrote: post #91

Don’t feel bad. It is nearly impossible to become wealthy in software without increasing the suffering of others.

I’m at a loss to understand why your statement means this person, or anyone who increases the suffering of others in the pursuit of their own personal wealth, shouldn’t feel bad about doing so.

What do you do afterwards ? All good jobs eventually end up in a handful of mega corporations. The startups will either be acquired by one or become one.

Re: I built ByteDance's censorship machine

#102

Post by WoahNoun »

cwkoss wrote: post #100
WoahNoun wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have yet to witness MSNBC pour their efforts into deliberate misinformation. They clearly have a bias, but they are at least peddling correct information.

I think "deliberate" is a hard thing to determine with available information, and Politifact has certainly has selection bias is what they check and some ratings are questionable, but I think this demonstrates that they don't always 'peddle correct information': https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/list/?speaker=rachel-m... I do think MSNBC's MO tends towards bending truth to make emotional appeals against ideologic…

The latest "False" fact check on that page is from 2015. Meaning that she went through the 2016 primary, 2016 election, the entire Trump presidency, and the 2020 election since the last time Polifact rated one of her claims false. And the claim was sourced from Pew Research but mistakenly interpreted.

Meanwhile on Fox News, Tucker Carlson had a "pants on fire" just last week. https://www.politifact.com/personalities/tucker-carlson/

Re: I built ByteDance's censorship machine

#103

Post by KDJohnBrown »

malloreon wrote: post #98
KDJohnBrown wrote: post #91

Don’t feel bad. It is nearly impossible to become wealthy in software without increasing the suffering of others.

I’m at a loss to understand why your statement means this person, or anyone who increases the suffering of others in the pursuit of their own personal wealth, shouldn’t feel bad about doing so.

Because that is how capitalism works in practice, and that’s where the true wealth comes from on the internet: sociopathic detachment.

Re: I built ByteDance's censorship machine

#105

Post by KDJohnBrown »

ehsankia wrote: post #104
KDJohnBrown wrote: post #91

Don’t feel bad. It is nearly impossible to become wealthy in software without increasing the suffering of others.

Do you think that as a whole, something like Youtube has overall increased suffering?

A television which spies on you and can be with you 24/7/365? Every parent I know gives up by age 10 and YouTube becomes their childrens’ babysitters. No more childhood, just consumption until the day we die.

Re: I built ByteDance's censorship machine

#106

Post by lostmsu »

nomay wrote: post #12

Censorship is imo Bytedance's lesser evil. The way this company destroys journalism is its biggest crime. Algorithm-driven "self-media" that ByteDance popularised (with Toutiao) has essentially wiped out news in China, anyone can write sensationalized and fabricated news-style stories on its platforms and compete with "mundane and boring" serious news，AND GET PAID, these self-media are so prevalent and low-brow that…

I have a novel idea on that front: What if to combat ad-driven fake news we will deprive people spreading them from money, so that it would not be profitable to show them ads. That money can instead be directed to subsidizing education for those same people in formal logic and critical thinking.

Re: I built ByteDance's censorship machine

#107

Post by ehsankia »

KDJohnBrown wrote: post #105
ehsankia wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think that as a whole, something like Youtube has overall increased suffering?

A television which spies on you and can be with you 24/7/365? Every parent I know gives up by age 10 and YouTube becomes their childrens’ babysitters. No more childhood, just consumption until the day we die.

I've learned hundreds of skills on Youtube. I fixed my toilet last week for 15$, instead of the usual 150$ it would cost to get a plumber. Millions of people around the world can learn and solve things by themselves and get help with the tap of a button. That's not valuable?
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