#Toldyouso: Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes calls for the company to be broken up … :
“Facebook isn’t afraid of a few more rules. It’s afraid of an antitrust case and of the kind of accountability that real government oversight would bring.” Hughes called the FTC’s decision to let Facebook acquire Instagram and WhatsApp in the first place the regulator’s “biggest mistake” and said the three entities should be broken into separate companies before Facebook weaves them together.“
I’m just digging in Tristan Harris’ Videos. There are some interesting ones that I’d like to spread to make people more aware about how much life quality they loose by the hours they spend online every day. “I don’t know a more urgent problem these days.”, he says. I may do, but this is really scary. “Sometimes the most important problems are right underneath our noses.”
Tristan used to work for Google and later founded the Center for Humane Technology and Truth about Tech.
1) Tristan Harris – How Social Media and AI Hijack Your Brain – YouTube
“Tristan Harris, founder of the Center for Humane Technology and pioneer of the Time Well Spent movement, is here to address the controversial topic of how our minds are being swindled into rampant screen and social media addiction, and to expose the intelligent forces behind the scenes that have intentionally served up the internet’s most addictive drug in an effort to get rich.”
2) Tristan Harris: How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day | TED Talk
“A handful of people working at a handful of tech companies steer the thoughts of billions of people every day, says design thinker Tristan Harris. From Facebook notifications to Snapstreaks to YouTube autoplays, they’re all competing for one thing: your attention. Harris shares how these companies prey on our psychology for their own profit and calls for a design renaissance in which our tech instead encourages us to live out the timeline we want.”
3) Tristan Harris Says Tech Companies Have Opened Pandora’s Box – YouTube
“Tristan Harris, former Google design ethicist, discusses changing Silicon Valley’s culture and the fight against online extremism with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang on “Bloomberg Technology.””
Disclaimer: I’m still watching, I only came across his stuff this morning, but so far I really like it.
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/11/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-zuckerberg-empire.html
“A 6,000-word report published in the New York Times last week disclosed in humiliating detailthe lengths to which Facebook has gone to protect its dominance and attack its critics. As various interlocking crises concerning hate speech, misinformation, and data privacy widened, top executives ignored, and then kept secret, evidence that the platform had become a vector for misinformation campaigns…
(…)
Over the past year, I’ve spent time trying to wean myself off tech mega-platforms, generally with little success. Google’s search, for all my complaints, is still the best way for me to navigate the internet; Amazon is still so unbelievably convenient that the thought of quitting it exhausts me. But I logged out of Facebook more than a year ago and have logged back in fewer than a dozen times since. Checking Facebook had been a daily habit, but it also hadn’t improved my life or made itself necessary. Not many Roman plebes would have said that about the Pax Romana. Some empires fall because they’re invaded from the outside or rot from within. Zuckerberg’s could be the first in history to collapse simply because its citizens logged out.“
Social Media Algorithm Pops Filter Bubbles By Presenting Diverging Ideas | Digital Trends … :
“Developed as a collaboration between researchers from Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland and University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy, the algorithm is designed to make sure that social media users are presented with views that don’t necessarily conform with their own, as a way of helping to “solve” the increasingly polarized nature of discussions around controversial topics.”
… and here’s a similar browser plugin: Be More Accepting of Others – EscapeYourBubble … :
“Escape Your Bubble
Tell us who you’d like to understand better.
You could be a Democrat looking to better understand and accept Republicans or vice-versa.
We’ll insert curated, positive posts in your Facebook feed.
These posts will highlight the positive aspects of those you wish to understand and be more accepting of.
You’ll learn to understand and accept thy fellow countrymen.
As you learn more about those different from you, you’ll come to understand their positive qualities. It’s akin to “brainwashing for good”.“
Reality update: America’s Troll Farm Media … Especially regarding:
“The quality of a democracy is only as good as the information people have to make informed judgements about public policy and politicians.“
Good intentions and their real life effects – that’s sometimes a whole other story.
In Germany NetzDG, a new law, passed the legislative process with best intentions: against cyber bullying, against hate speech, against fake news. Website owners and companies such as Twitter and Facebook are to be held responsible for what is published under their watch. At least, that was the idea.
Only three weeks into its existence the law, however, has had several severe impacts on free speech. Afraid of being punished social media platforms started to delete numerous postings and content..
More: https://netzpolitik.org/2018/csunet-netzdg-verstoesst-gegen-die-verfassung/