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Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

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Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#111

Post by anjbe »

toss1 wrote: post #94
dragonwriter wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sure yellow journalism existed. But it had anything resembling the scale, scope, reach, and speed as current technology As a share of current events information , it was greater, often virtually monopolistic, for not just “yellow journalism” generally but often a fairly unified single viewpoint of yellow journalism. (In terms of divisiveness, the actual problem today isn't greater proportional influence of yellow j…

I don't see how arguing that how bad yellow journalism was in the past is an argument for continuing it now. Seems a bit like saying 'slavery was bad before, so discrimination is ok now'. Both are unacceptable in sustainable society. Perhaps a particular case was overturned, but the principle still rings true. Or, are you saying that it should really be OK for people to deliberately make verbal actions that directly…

The point of bringing up Schenck is that reasonable ideas can be and have been used to justify great wrongs, and thus that we shouldn’t rush into action whenever we see a problem, even if there’s a principle that rings true.

“We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.”

What killed the yellow journalism of the past? Was it added restrictions on speech? Or was it something else that we could consider before taking the drastic step of reducing freedom of speech?

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#112

Post by dionidium »

philjohn wrote: post #49
chroem- wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Systemic lopsided moderation (i.e. censorship) of one political viewpoint is absolutely denying people the right to participate in the democratic process. Just because we disagree with their viewpoint does not make censorship justified, nor does it take away from the fact that it is currently happening.

Can you plese define what that political viewpoint is you're talking about? Is it saying that the government should be smaller and not involved in everyday life, or is it doing things like claiming an election was stolen, which has led to real world harm (poll workers receiving death threats), or calling for violence?

Clearly, in a democracy you should be allowed to argue that an election was stolen, even if the evidence for your case isn’t strong. You can also argue for astrology or homeopathy or natural cures or any other in a long list of things that I think are pretty obviously untrue and harmful if propagated.

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#113

Post by fareesh »

The Nobel Peace Prize awarded Barack Obama, Yasser Arafat and Henry Kissinger. It is a joke relic of an organization that deserves nothing but mockery.

I don't know much about this year's recipients but, per article, they seem to think that the tech companies can engage in more censorship in order to fight misinformation, and somehow this fights authoritarianism. Truly incredible stuff. If it's a true and complete representation of their views, it amplifies the need for more mockery. Who are these folks? Have they ever worked on any kind of complex system?

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#114

Post by [deleted] »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #101
gorwell wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define `hateful` or `harmful`. And would your definition reflect Instagram's definition, as seen in the following example? https://twitter.com/GaiaRiot10/status/1468787960216797190

Instagram can do whatever it wants.

[deleted]

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#115

Post by krapp »

lostmsu wrote: post #103
krapp wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Systemic lopsided moderation (i.e. censorship) of one political viewpoint is absolutely denying people the right to participate in the democratic process. I still see plenty of content from various political viewpoints, far left to far right, on every forum and social media platform I visit. This "systemic lopsided moderation of one political viewpoint" you're referring to doesn't really exist apart from right-wing…

You are quite naive or selectively blind. Someone just posted this in another comment thread: https://twitter.com/GaiaRiot10/status/1468787960216797190

And yet oddly, the entire Twitter thread that agrees with Gaea Opines, and presumably their politics, hasn't been banned. Gaea Opines, themselves, hasn't been banned. Other Instagram posts and comments more extreme than that one haven't been banned. Other Twitter comments more extreme than that one haven't been banned.

One removed comment does not an all-encompassing, democracy threatening conspiracy against a specific political side make.

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#116

Post by EGreg »

We need to move from Feudalism to a Free Market: https://qbix.com/blog/2021/01/15/open-source-communities/

Nobel Committee and Governments are too centralized. It's a lot of elites and their propositions are all the same.

I discuss this with Noam Chomsky earlier this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv5mI6ClPGc

And a few months before that, Noam and I had another conversation about this same topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUPZ8rSESZo

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#117

Post by systemvoltage »

christophilus wrote: post #76
rubicon33 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

who gets to decide what is "hateful shit" ?

dang. I wish every platform had a dang. The world would be a much better place.

I love dang and this also sounds very authoritarian.

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#118

Post by markvdb »

karl11 wrote: post #3

Just to make sure I understand this — the argument is that in order to combat authoritarianism, Silicon Valley companies should censor more content?

I have a friendlier reading.

Social media algorithms amplify whatever is most profitable to amplify. Unfortunately, amplifying sht flinging turns out to be the most profitable. Social media companies have encoded this preference into their algorithms from the very beginning and optimised - a/b tested- for profitability along the way.

Social media are deliberately hiding gems under piles of - pardon my french- sht. How do we call this? Censorship, a specific subset of censorship, or something not quite censorship but very similar? We need to know, because fighting an enemy with no name is difficult! Are there any existing words? What about "deluging"? Any other suggestions?

How do we help people survive the drowning-in-sht effect of this social media deluge? That is the key question! Agency for the social media consumer will be a key part of the answer. In human-speak: "no sht in my feed!".

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#119

Post by gentleman11 »

karl11 wrote: post #3

Just to make sure I understand this — the argument is that in order to combat authoritarianism, Silicon Valley companies should censor more content?

If, hypothetically, there were 1/3 people who are legitimately easy to manipulate online, then in that hypothetical scenario, what would be a good response that didn’t involve censorship?

What comes to my mind is that it’s largely the algorithms fault. They hyper optimize for strong emotional reactions and not at all for truth or value. It’s the social media companies that are forcing this insane content down peoples throats, it’s not like you can hide the YouTube recommendations panel. Every time I turn off auto play, it turns itself back on (Firefox fixes this). When I turn on my vpn, the things I get targeted with are bonkers

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#120

Post by seany »

markvdb wrote: post #118
karl11 wrote: post #3

Just to make sure I understand this — the argument is that in order to combat authoritarianism, Silicon Valley companies should censor more content?

I have a friendlier reading. Social media algorithms amplify whatever is most profitable to amplify. Unfortunately, amplifying sh t flinging turns out to be the most profitable. Social media companies have encoded this preference into their algorithms from the very beginning and optimised - a/b tested- for profitability along the way. Social media are deliberately hiding gems under piles of - pardon my french- sh t.…

You can say shit on the internet...
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