FYI Apollo News isn't really known for its factual accuracy plus they don't disclose the document they're basing their claim on.
Germany Law to Force Algorithm Boost for State-Approved News
11–20 of 62 posts
Re: Germany Law to Force Algorithm Boost for State-Approved News
#12Before this blows up:
- The world has very diverse ideas about how media regulation works. Germany has a strong public service broadcast tradition that is constitutionally anchored. You may not like it, but that's the cultural and legal tradition and changing it is not easily done. Please respect that especially coming from a country with a more liberal tradition (and perhaps a less functional media system, e.g. in the US).
- The source is a fringe right-wing outlet that most Germans would consider a bit suspicious (not necessarily factually wrong, but tasteless and a bit hysteric perhaps?)
- Public service broadcasting in Germany is not influenced by the state (note this says state, not politics or politicians) by design.
- Prioritizing public service broadcasters is a pretty logical conclusion from a certain tradition of media regulation and has precedent, e.g. in must carry rules for cable, EPGs etc.
So sure, debatable whether this is sensible, but it's at least neither surprising nor evidently nonsensical.
Source: Was a tiny bit of an expert on this for a short while.
Re: Germany Law to Force Algorithm Boost for State-Approved News
#13This is not only undemocratic, but it’s essentially a mild form of censorship.
It would be, if you had any control over what the algorithm feeds you. But you don't, so what does really change?
Re: Germany Law to Force Algorithm Boost for State-Approved News
#14[flagged]
Re: Germany Law to Force Algorithm Boost for State-Approved News
#15Well intentioned but hard to do.
I’d posit that even if you somehow do this in a neutral way, consumer adoption will fall in three buckets: (1) largely supportive, (2) largely unsupportive, (3) ambivalent/silent majority.
People who are largely supportive are already seeking out additional data points in their news consumption. Similarly, people who are largely unsupportive will gravitate towards their chosen echo chamber. The silent majority will remain largely ambivalent and, if they vote, will remain single issue voters.
The risk is that the government doesn’t find an effective neutral way for deciding what’s included and what’s not.
Re: Germany Law to Force Algorithm Boost for State-Approved News
#16If you are concerned about the AfD remember that they would get this power if they win.
Re: Germany Law to Force Algorithm Boost for State-Approved News
#17Before this blows up: - The world has very diverse ideas about how media regulation works. Germany has a strong public service broadcast tradition that is constitutionally anchored. You may not like it, but that's the cultural and legal tradition and changing it is not easily done. Please respect that especially coming from a country with a more liberal tradition (and perhaps a less functional media system, e.g. in t…
How is it guaranteed that public service broadcasting in Germany is not influenced by government?
To me this seems like a gross intervention in the media so I'm struggling not to be critical here. Just because different cultures have different values does not make them equal.
Re: Germany Law to Force Algorithm Boost for State-Approved News
#18Time and again Europe makes me appreciate the First Amendment.
Re: Germany Law to Force Algorithm Boost for State-Approved News
#19Before this blows up: - The world has very diverse ideas about how media regulation works. Germany has a strong public service broadcast tradition that is constitutionally anchored. You may not like it, but that's the cultural and legal tradition and changing it is not easily done. Please respect that especially coming from a country with a more liberal tradition (and perhaps a less functional media system, e.g. in t…
To back up your third point, here is a study of the political bias in the German public service broadcasters (in German):
https://web.archive.org/web/20240207032743/https://polkom.if...
Re: Germany Law to Force Algorithm Boost for State-Approved News
#20I would take this with a very huge grain of salt.
The only source seems to be a fringe right-wing news webpage (Apollo News) citing from an internal paper (which, it sounds to me, is just a vague proposal from a media oversight body). I have not seen any reports in major news publications, and would assume there's a lot of context missing in this reporting.