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Whistleblower to Congress: Facebook products harm kids and democracy

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Re: Whistleblower to Congress: Facebook products harm kids and democracy

#11

Post by hunterb123 »

Joker_vD wrote: post #5

Wow, what a headline, "can someone please think of the children?" and "we must protect our democracy!" combined into one. Well, I guess it's a good tactics to say something like that to the Congress to kinda force them to do something.

Should have heard the "whistleblower" on 60 minutes. Facebook is causing ethnic cleansing she said, lol.

I didn't realize Facebook was so popular in China, that's the only place I know of ethnic cleansing being carried out.

This is clearly orchestrated to get FB to censor more. Twitter has already fallen in line completely, that's why they are off the radar even though they are 1000% more toxic and teenagers are more likely to be on Twitter than FB nowadays.

Re: Whistleblower to Congress: Facebook products harm kids and democracy

#12

Post by fighterpilot »

The two best ideas I've heard:

- Require age verification by law and ban kids from using it. We ban kids from alcohol we should ban them from this.

- Require ID verification by law but allow people to use a fake name.

Fixes the bots issue and the kid depression issue.

The market isn't going to get there by itself because of competition. If insta implements this then they lose market share to snap. So there's a strong incentive to attract as many kids as possible. Need a govt intervention.

This also isn't negative for free speech as a value, since people can still post under a fake name. It just kills the bots. And without the bot assisted fake news, there will be less pressure and need to censor, so it's actually a win for free speech.

Re: Whistleblower to Congress: Facebook products harm kids and democracy

#14

Post by ReptileMan »

Joker_vD wrote: post #5

Wow, what a headline, "can someone please think of the children?" and "we must protect our democracy!" combined into one. Well, I guess it's a good tactics to say something like that to the Congress to kinda force them to do something.

Throw in terrorism and you got bingo.

Re: Whistleblower to Congress: Facebook products harm kids and democracy

#15

Post by wayoutthere »

endisneigh wrote: post #7

What's the solution tho?

I’m starting to think that a Balkanized Internet isn’t necessarily the worst thing. Different countries have different standards of censorship and right now we have the worst of both worlds where actual meaningful speech is still suppressed while empowering people who just like to stir the pot (err, “drive engagement”).

Re: Whistleblower to Congress: Facebook products harm kids and democracy

#16

Post by endisneigh »

fighterpilot wrote: post #12

The two best ideas I've heard: - Require age verification by law and ban kids from using it. We ban kids from alcohol we should ban them from this. - Require ID verification by law but allow people to use a fake name. Fixes the bots issue and the kid depression issue. The market isn't going to get there by itself because of competition. If insta implements this then they lose market share to snap. So there's a strong…

How would you prevent kids from just going on some other, new site? What's the distinction between the internet and social media?

Ignoring whether or not what you're describing is technically feasible (I don't think it is) - ultimately as long as children can use the internet the issues at hand will exist. Furthermore, why give social media entities more data in the form of government backed authentication?

Re: Whistleblower to Congress: Facebook products harm kids and democracy

#18

Post by mc32 »

endisneigh wrote: post #7

What's the solution tho?

Turn off the algos and do chronology with proximity (geographic and social graph) instead of oh, we see you clicked on an article about Bernie Sanders, have a look at this article about taxing rich people 95%!! Or you read about hotdogs, here’s an article about additives in foods and their impact on mental health!!

Re: Whistleblower to Congress: Facebook products harm kids and democracy

#19

Post by option »

deft wrote: post #8
option wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this isn’t about censorship. It is about newsfeed algorithms which optimize “engagement”. As it turns out negative, controversial and divisive stuff is more engaging.

It is about censorship. The Biden admin has repeatedly made it obvious they don't think FB etc are deleting enough and the feds will have to step in soon.

I agree that Biden admin is all about censorship. But, after watching her interview, it doesn’t look to me that this whistleblower is.

Re: Whistleblower to Congress: Facebook products harm kids and democracy

#20

Post by incahoots »

endisneigh wrote: post #7

What's the solution tho?

Dismantle social media entirely. Last few years have proven that we cannot function as a forward thinking society when memes are believed over proper sourced science.

Warning labels are proof enough that folks cannot be left to their own devices.

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