Yes, 'The Algorithm' REALLY IS Like That

[Morrus]

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)...

Folks, this is veering far too hard into the ‘no politics’ rule. Let’s drop this, please. Thank you!

 

[jian]

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.

While Somali was convicted of public order violations and obstruction of business (which are generally illegal in many countries) and making sexually explicit deepfakes (which aren’t always), he received a prison sentence because he was doing so for social media benefit and personal profit, which carries a much harsher sentence in Korea. If he’d just been harassing an ex with deepfakes or seen kissing the Comfort Women Memorial but hadn’t tried to monetise them, he probably would just have been fined (the usual outcome for sexually explicit deepfakes in Korea, which remains very patriarchal). Thus, this is commonly seen as an example of someone going to jail for being an obnoxious influencer, though of course it’s more complicated than that. And yeah, his being foreign and black probably play a part in xenophobic Korea, his defence attorneys have definitely noted that and IIRC it’s part of his appeal.

 

[Umbran]

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

Well, the news portion of the site could remain. It is the messageboards that'd have to go. I had gotten the impression that the news and publishing were where the money was, not in the nonsense chatter of us yahoos.

 

[FrogReaver]

While Somali was convicted of public order violations and obstruction of business (which are generally illegal in many countries) and making sexually explicit deepfakes (which aren’t always), he received a prison sentence because he was doing so for social media benefit and personal profit, which carries a much harsher sentence in Korea. If he’d just been harassing an ex with deepfakes or seen kissing the Comfort Women Memorial but hadn’t tried to monetise them, he probably would just have been fined (the usual outcome for sexually explicit deepfakes in Korea, which remains very patriarchal). Thus, this is commonly seen as an example of someone going to jail for being an obnoxious influencer, though of course it’s more complicated than that. And yeah, his being foreign and black probably play a part in xenophobic Korea, his defence attorneys have definitely noted that and IIRC it’s part of his appeal.

Somali’s initial sentence was actually very lenient considering the fact pattern for Korean law. So lenient the prosecutor was wanting to appeal.