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PoliticallyIncorrect , (edited )

What about shutting down the whole internet?

TropicalDingdong ,

I don't understand how a social media company can face liability in this circumstance but a weapons manufacturer doesn't.

gum_dragon ,

Or individuals who repeatedly spreading the specific hateful ideology that radicalize people and also encourages them to act on it

iquanyin ,
@iquanyin@lemmy.world avatar

anything but gun regulation, i guess.

ItsMeSpez ,

As much as I believe it is a breeding ground for right wing extremism, it's a little strange that 4chan is being lumped in with these other sites for a suit like this. As far as I know, 4chan just promotes topics based on the number of people posting to it, and otherwise doesn't employ an algorithm at all. Kind of a different beast to the others, who have active algorithms trying to drive engagement at any cost.

casual_turtle_stew_enjoyer ,

I will testify under oath with evidence that Reddit, the company, has not only turned a blind eye to but also encouraged and intentfully enabled radicalization on their platform. It is the entire reason I am on Lemmy. It is the entire reason for my username. It is the reason I questioned my allyship with certain marginalized communities. It is the reason I tense up at the mention of turtles.

Fedizen ,

media: Video games cause violence

media: Weird music causes violence.

media: Social media could never cause violence this is censorship (also we don't want to pay moderators)

Eximius ,

Since media (that you define by the trophes of unsubtantiated news outlets) couldnt sensibly refer to a forum like reddit or even facebook, this makes no sense.

whoreticulture ,

How does Lemmy pick which articles are at the top of my feed? Does anyone know how All is sorted?

realbadat ,

Same as sort settings for subscribed.

Active, top for the past x hours/days/month/all, new, etc. You pick, Lemmy doesn't.

UsernamesAreDifficult ,

Honestly, good, they should be held accountable. They shouldn't be offering extremist content recommendations in the first place.

charonn0 ,
@charonn0@startrek.website avatar

I think there's definitely a case to be made that recommendation algorithms, etc. constitute editorial control and thus the platform may not be immune to lawsuits based on user posts.

porksoda , (edited )

Back when I was on reddit, I subscribed to about 120 subreddits. Starting a couple years ago though, I noticed that my front page really only showed content for 15-20 subreddits at a time and it was heavily weighted towards recent visits and interactions.

For example, if I hadn't visited r/3DPrinting in a couple weeks, it slowly faded from my front page until it disappeared all together. It was so bad that I ended up writing a browser automation script to visit all 120 of my subreddits at night and click the top link. This ended up giving me a more balanced front page that mixed in all of my subreddits and interests.

My point is these algorithms are fucking toxic. They're focused 100% on increasing time on page and interaction with zero consideration for side effects. I would love to see social media algorithms required by law to be open source. We have a public interest in knowing how we're being manipulated.

CaptPretentious ,

YouTube does the exact same thing.

Smokeless7048 ,

thats why i always use youtube by subscribed first, then only delve into regular front page if theres nothing interesting in my subscriptions

Carlo ,

Yeah, social media algorithms are doing a lot of damage. I wish there was more general awareness of this. Based on personal experience, I think many people actually like being fed relevant content, and are blind to the consequences. I think Lemmy is great, because you have to curate your own feed, but many people would never use it for that very reason. I don't know what the solution is.

Fedizen ,

I used google news phone widget years ago and clicked on a giant asteroid article, and for whatever reason my entire feed became asteroid/meteor articles. Its also just such a dumb way to populate feeds.

TopRamenBinLaden , (edited )

https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/19ef08be-3669-474a-86a9-d533b199d714.jpeg

Yo dawg, I heard you like asteroids. So I populated your entire feed with articles about asteroids.

r3df0x ,

I agree. It's important to remember the only "conspiracy" is making money and keeping people on the platform. That said, it will cause people to go down rabbit holes. The solution isn't as simple as "show people content they disagree with" because they either ignore it or it creates another rabbit hole. For example, it would mean that progressives start getting bombarded with Tim Pool videos. I don't believe Tim is intentionally "alt right" but that's exactly why his videos are the most dangerous. They consist of nothing but conservative rage bait with a veneer of progressiveness that allows his viewers to believe they aren't being manipulated.

Krudler , (edited )

I just would like to show something about Reddit. Below is a post I made about how Reddit was literally harassing and specifically targeting me, after I let slip in a comment one day that I was sober - I had previously never made such a comment because my sobriety journey was personal, and I never wanted to define myself or pigeonhole myself as a "recovering person".

I reported the recommended subs and ads to Reddit Admins multiple times and was told there was nothing they could do about it.

I posted a screenshot to DangerousDesign and it flew up to like 5K+ votes in like 30 minutes before admins removed it. I later reposted it to AssholeDesign where it nestled into 2K+ votes before shadow-vanishing.

Yes, Reddit and similar are definitely responsible for a lot of suffering and pain at the expense of humans in the pursuit of profit. After it blew up and front-paged, "magically" my home page didn't have booze related ads/subs/recs any more! What a totally mystery how that happened /s

The post in question, and a perfect "outing" of how Reddit continually tracks and tailors the User Experience specifically to exploit human frailty for their own gains.

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/a54c9b72-b466-4cf6-891a-6f0d7487bbc0.png

Edit: Oh and the hilarious part that many people won't let go (when shown this) is that it says it's based on my activity in the Drunk reddit which I had never once been to, commented in, posted in, or was even aware of. So that just makes it worse.

mlg ,
@mlg@lemmy.world avatar

Its not reddit if posts don't get nuked or shadowbanned by literal sitewide admins

Krudler ,

Yes I was advised in the removal notice that it had been removed by the Reddit Administrators so that they could keep Reddit "safe".

I guess their idea of "safe" isn't 4+ million users going into their privacy panel and turning off exploitative sub recommendations.

Idk though I'm just a humble bird lawyer.

KairuByte , (edited )
@KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Yeah this happens a lot more than people think. I used to work at a hotel, and when the large sobriety group got together yearly, they changed bar hours from the normal hours, to as close to 24/7 as they could legally get. They also raised the prices on alcohol.

Canyon201 ,
@Canyon201@lemmy.world avatar

Right in the IPO price!

EmperorHenry ,
@EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

So now anyone who says things is going to be held accountable for crazy people being crazy?

What a lovely world we live in. That's worse than what CNN kept saying about the joker after that one mass shooting at the theater that happened to be showing "The Dark Knight" at the same time.

PoliticalAgitator ,

So now anyone who says things is going to be held accountable for crazy people being crazy

Nope, that's just you being melodramatic. The judge has acknowledged there is grounds for the case to be argued so it won't he dismissed. That's all. They haven't been found guilty of anything. They're not being lined up and shot.

What would you prefer we did to determine if a company is culpable? Just ask you because you read a headline?

blazera ,
@blazera@lemmy.world avatar

Personally I believe in free will. Nothing should take any responsibility away from the one that chose to kill.

BreakDecks ,

Justice isn't a zero sum game. More than one person can contribute to the same crime.

blazera ,
@blazera@lemmy.world avatar

sure, if there were multiple shooters

FiniteBanjo ,

Maybe this will lead to a future where Stochastic Terrorism isn't a protected activity?

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