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Brazil's Supreme Court makes social media liable for user content

economictimes.indiatimes.com

41–50 of 145 posts

Re: Brazil's Supreme Court makes social media liable for user content

#41

Who decides what you are allowed to say or see?

They already have their finger on the scale with this due to their algorithms. They're pushing these posts to people, not just letting people see posts from communities they have chosen to join. To me the algorithmic nature of post visibility is what muddies the water here and puts them in the place of promoter of speech vs. neutral platform for speech.

No, I don't have a proposal or solution, I'm ultimately out of my depth here. But I do think it's a little more complex than it is sometimes made out to be.

Re: Brazil's Supreme Court makes social media liable for user content

#42

It will be really interesting to watch how this unfolds. My hypothesis: Meta, X et al. will threaten to just wholesale IP-block the country (not worth the risk), and it will become a game of Chicken. Side note: The density of ads on that page is almost impressive.

That reaction would be glorious but I doubt it's going to happen. Too much money at stake. They're likely to just accept it, just like they accept chinese control. Brazil wants to become like China. One of the judge-kings even declared his admiration for the chinese and their control of communications. It's quite terrifying. Donald Trump has been threatening sanctions against these people for a while now. What's he w…

> Brazil wants to become like China.

Here's a clear sign of a typical "Bozotário" paranoia: reduce every sensible discussion to a leftist conspiracy.

> One of the judge-kings even declared his admiration for the chinese and their control of communications.

Sure. And since you found that in your WhatsApp group then it has to be true. Because no one lies in WhatsApp, right?

Re: Brazil's Supreme Court makes social media liable for user content

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USPS profits from advertising inserted into mail. https://www.usps.com/business/every-door-direct-mail.htm

Sorry, I was imprecise with my comparison. A better analogy would be that the USPS doesn't scan your post to figure out which pieces of mail you are likely to actually look at and then affix stickers to those letters advertising related products.

USPS scans your mails and then includes advertising with this scans when you get the feed in informed delivery.

Re: Brazil's Supreme Court makes social media liable for user content

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> who knows how the execution of this judgement will look like Persecution of political enemies, of course.

Tell me a country where this does not happen.

Perhaps it happens in every country. Still, laws that make it easier to do are a bad thing.

Re: Brazil's Supreme Court makes social media liable for user content

#45
I always like going to the source for things like that. As the article mentioned, the voting hasn't concluded yet. This article has a link to the seven votes so far, with the full explanation for each one: https://noticias.stf.jus.br/postsnoticias/stf-avanca-em-anal...

Re: Brazil's Supreme Court makes social media liable for user content

#46

Who decides what you are allowed to say or see?

You are confusing "being liable" with censorship.

They're not the same thing, if you care to know.

The first is about accountability, about being responsible for the consequences of one's acts.

The second is preemptive coercion and is indeed a tyrant's basic tool.

Re: Brazil's Supreme Court makes social media liable for user content

#47

Personally I think that social media companies should be at least in part liable for content posted by their users. There is a tendency to treat social media as a mere conduit, like the post office, that should not be responsible for content but the post office doesn't decide who sees what or profits from advertising inserted into mail. I thought about this a few months ago and came up with this rant completely reaso…

USPS profits from advertising inserted into mail. https://www.usps.com/business/every-door-direct-mail.htm

Sure, but it's the same business model for everyone. Give USPS money, get it delivered to a door.

Social media companies are actively curating what you see, or don't see which is the stem of all their problems.

Re: Brazil's Supreme Court makes social media liable for user content

#49
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I was imprecise with my comparison. A better analogy would be that the USPS doesn't scan your post to figure out which pieces of mail you are likely to actually look at and then affix stickers to those letters advertising related products.

USPS scans your mails and then includes advertising with this scans when you get the feed in informed delivery.

Yes, but the advertising images are directly related (a T-mobile mailpiece gets a T-mobile png)

Re: Brazil's Supreme Court makes social media liable for user content

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why would social media companies only make money from what users do on their platform but be spared any accountability? Here's the thing that confuses me. In every country I know, TV and radio stations are liable for the content they broadcast. Both in terms of programs and also ads. I've seen several fines being issued for such breaches, and my country is very liberal and loosely regulated here. So then why do we l…

There is a legitimate argument social media can for being treated differently given their content is user generated. But that argument falls to pieces given algorithmic boosting, which is clearly an editorial slant.

Think about how this would apply to hacker news? Not all algorithmic bias is evil. If you want to avoid an echo chamber, design an algorithm to boost interesting content that missed the front page. That shouldn't render you vulnerable to legislation.

And would this allow Brazil to prosecute hacker news for cyber security violations if a user posts content regarding Flipper Zero or Japanese IC cards, or data breaches of Brazilian companies...

I think the line should be drawn at ads... and maybe even all profit centers of social media companies.

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