I think there is way more human in this equation than the article suggests, but some valid points.
First off, the whole "selling narratives" thing has been with us a very long time. Anyone who watched reporting on race or crime or gun control 40 years ago could tell you that nothing has really changed in terms of narratives. The publishing industry, the movie industry, the news industry have all been pushing narratives for decades.
What you're seeing now is that the big tech companies have gotten to the second major generation of algorithms- instead of just optimizing for eyeballs and advertising effectiveness, they also optimize for narrative promotion- so clickbait that supports the chosen narrative of google will do way better than clickbait that pushes against the narrative.
It's really that simple. This is google/fb switching from being the advertising of the internet to becoming the yellow press of the internet. All this other stuff is people seeing patterns and not understanding how things work.
get SCOTUS to revisit New York Times Co. v. Sullivan- there are already several who want to do this because libel law is currently completely broken and it's really obvious
fix the current safe harbor bullshit that treats all internet companies as non-publishers with blanket immunity. Any engine or service that isn't content neutral is liable for any content they serve or link to. The only safe harbor is for content neutrality.
Results:
since google isn't a content neutral search engine, any search results that libels someone is a source of liability for google
since facebook news feed isn't content neutral, they are liable for any libelous items that appear on any news feed
see where this is going?
This is really fucking easy, just need a simple majority in congress and a president that hates google/fb.Republicans are like a dozen representatives and one supreme court nomination away from being able to do this.
You are not the products you use, the opinions you carry, or the people you know.
Solid read - thx
Holy frickin mind bender. Hell of a read.
Excellent analysis, wiah more people paid attention to the AI and algos behind the scenes
Excellent post. Thanks for posting this!
God, I love Deus Ex.
I think there is way more human in this equation than the article suggests, but some valid points.
First off, the whole "selling narratives" thing has been with us a very long time. Anyone who watched reporting on race or crime or gun control 40 years ago could tell you that nothing has really changed in terms of narratives. The publishing industry, the movie industry, the news industry have all been pushing narratives for decades.
What you're seeing now is that the big tech companies have gotten to the second major generation of algorithms- instead of just optimizing for eyeballs and advertising effectiveness, they also optimize for narrative promotion- so clickbait that supports the chosen narrative of google will do way better than clickbait that pushes against the narrative.
It's really that simple. This is google/fb switching from being the advertising of the internet to becoming the yellow press of the internet. All this other stuff is people seeing patterns and not understanding how things work.
Good points. Still, none of this stuff is constructive. WE (humanity) need to stop.
The only laws you need to change to fix this are:
Results:
This is really fucking easy, just need a simple majority in congress and a president that hates google/fb.Republicans are like a dozen representatives and one supreme court nomination away from being able to do this.