Yes, 'The Algorithm' REALLY IS Like That

[TheSword]

If you want to block children from the entire internet, that's certainly a goal. It doesn't match with the claim that specifically social apps with toxic algorithms should be restricted.

No one is trying to block someone from the whole internet. Just the clearly harmful parts. Worth noting that suicide isn't the only negative aspect of social media. Its just the most obvious and final impact. There are a host of other negative effects.

This is now being proved over and over on an evidentiary basis in the courts.

The cigarette companies reacted the same way. Big fines and legislation required. These companies clearly and patently can't self regulate.

 

[MoonSong]

No one is trying to block someone from the whole internet. Just the clearly harmful parts. Worth noting that suicide isn't the only negative aspect of social media. Its just the most obvious and final impact. There are a host of other negative effects.

This is now being proved over and over on an evidentiary basis in the courts.

The cigarette companies reacted the same way. Big fines and legislation required. These companies clearly and patently can't self regulate.

Maybe the solution is to cut/regulate the obviously harmful parts of the internet instead of just letting them be in exchange for intrusive mass surveillance that does nothing to stop the predatory behaviors.

 

[Umbran]

Maybe the solution is to cut/regulate the obviously harmful parts of the internet instead of just letting them be in exchange for intrusive mass surveillance that does nothing to stop the predatory behaviors.

For Constitutional reasons, that's very difficult to do in the US.
We talk about restricting access to minors because that it known to be acceptable in case law in the US, where government restriction of what adults say is usually not.

 

[TheSword]

For Constitutional reasons, that's very difficult to do in the US.
We talk about restricting access to minors because that it known to be acceptable in case law in the US, where government restriction of what adults say is usually not.

I mean this with all respect for your constitution - but that is a US problem. Your tech-entrepreneurs created this tech-Frankenstein’s monster and the rest of the world isn’t going to sit by and watch it devour society from the kids upwards.

The rest of the world that suffers the consequences of unregulated tech bros, doesn’t have the same constitutional mores. Maybe the constitution needs an amendment. You haven’t had one for a few decades so you’re definitely overdue.

 

[jian]

I mean this with all respect for your constitution - but that is a US problem. Your tech-entrepreneurs created this tech-Frankenstein’s monster and the rest of the world isn’t going to sit by and watch it devour society from the kids upwards.

The rest of the world that suffers the consequences of unregulated tech bros, doesn’t have the same constitutional mores. Maybe the constitution needs an amendment. You haven’t had one for a few decades so you’re definitely overdue.

Certainly all the other countries can look at their own laws and legal systems and take steps to curtail social media and other online harms. If Meta can be effectively sued or prosecuted for not moderating content (or retaining and selling personal data, etc) in a given country, they’ll stop operating there soon enough. Once that spreads to enough countries that will damage their business model. Soon, having unregulated social media will be seen as a sign of having a poorly run country that you don’t want to live in or visit.

That also goes for content creators. If you can be sued or prosecuted for producing some forms of content - as Johnny Somali found out in Korea recently - then you stop producing that content.

 

[Scribe]

There is a group that lives and thrives in Discords, Minecraft, and Roblox, that is one of the more horrific things I've had the regret to read about.

That this is possible, and not crushed by our governments, is a failure of staggering proportion.

Do I want full on police state? Obviously not, we don't have to look back very far to see what happens.

Do I want the companies profiting from and enabling the life long suffering of children to feel the weight of some justice?

Absolutely.

 

[Ryujin]

Certainly all the other countries can look at their own laws and legal systems and take steps to curtail social media and other online harms. If Meta can be effectively sued or prosecuted for not moderating content (or retaining and selling personal data, etc) in a given country, they’ll stop operating there soon enough. Once that spreads to enough countries that will damage their business model. Soon, having unregulated social media will be seen as a sign of having a poorly run country that you don’t want to live in or visit.

That also goes for content creators. If you can be sued or prosecuted for producing some forms of content - as Johnny Somali found out in Korea recently - then you stop producing that content.

Social media companies have been on a program of eliminating warm bodies for years, to the detriment of real social interaction. They aren't likely to change anytime soon, because it affects their bottom line (personal income).

Johnny Somali is a quite different case. I can't think of anywhere that would consider what he does to be legal. The only variable is the penalty, and he just hit a country that takes such things very seriously. First 6 months then, because of his own appeal, more like a year. With the appeal by the prosecution, he's likely to get more like 3-4 years from a higher court.

 

[Umbran]

a I mean this with all respect for your constitution - but that is a US problem.

Yep. I don't believe I suggested otherwise.

Your tech-entrepreneurs created this tech-Frankenstein’s monster and the rest of the world isn’t going to sit by and watch it devour society from the kids upwards.

shrug - Look, I don't actually give a fetid dingo's kidney about the tech entrepreneurs. I am not defending them. If you wanted your country to regulate, or even block all, social media, that'd be no skin of my nose. I mean, EN World might cease to be, but c'est la vie.

The rest of the world that suffers the consequences of unregulated tech bros, doesn’t have the same constitutional mores.

Um, you fail to grasp something here - Due to the fact that our world is structured as nation states, it doesn't matter whose tech bros they are. Even if we regulated them here, those regulations would hold HERE, not where you are. We do not have the right to regulate them within your nation.

You were always going to have to figure out your own rules, so don't blame us for that.

Maybe the constitution needs an amendment. You haven’t had one for a few decades so you’re definitely overdue.

Thanks, but no thanks. Not taking the politics bait.

Trying to assert that you should be allowed to have your own regulations (which I don't argue with), while also trying to tell others how they should govern themselves is... an interesting flex. Maybe not quite as self-consistent as it ought to be, but whatever.

 

[Morrus]

I mean, EN World might cease to be, but c'est la vie.

I mean, I'd probably lose my home and my livelihood, but c'est la vie.

Weirdly for me (specifically me, not any country or demographic--this is me uniquely) the optimal situation is all social media gets cancelled, except for mine. But that's not gonna happen!

 

[MoonSong]

I mean this with all respect for your constitution - but that is a US problem. Your tech-entrepreneurs created this tech-Frankenstein’s monster and the rest of the world isn’t going to sit by and watch it devour society from the kids upwards.

The rest of the world that suffers the consequences of unregulated tech bros, doesn’t have the same constitutional mores. Maybe the constitution needs an amendment. You haven’t had one for a few decades so you’re definitely overdue.

Now you're going fully to the other way around. Freedom of Speech sucks until you get judicially persecuted by something you said on a private chat (and no, not even a group chat)...