Random News Stories

[#26]

^No. I posted about something else and decided to remove it. I wasn't responding to your post.

[Pies4shaw]

I'm sure that was a disappointment for all concerned.

[pietillidie]

I'm not sure if BBC Panorama is accessible in Oz or if one of the channels carries it, but the Post Office Scandal here was despicable. Hundreds of people's lives wrecked by ba$tards protecting their ambitions, led by a pompous, arrogant tool who was also an Anglican priest and was awarded a CBE just to rub salt into the wounds.

If it's available somewhere, watch the Panorama episode first. But beware, it will leave you fuming.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000gpbv

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Post_Office_scandal

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Vennells

[stui magpie]

In other news, Elon Musk has bought Twitter with the promise to make free speech and make the alogrithm's open source.

https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/musk-s-twitter-town-square-gamble-20220426-p5ag2f.html

Some of the possibilities already has heads spinning, will people previously banned be allowed back under the banner of free speech? How free is free speech if people tweet blatant lies and hate posts?

Watch this space

[David]

Musk is an A-grade jackass who probably already wields way too much power in the world, but in isolation this may not be a bad thing. At this point it's hard to imagine Twitter being any worse than it currently is, so a shake-up probably can't hurt, and it's kind of hard to imagine what a worst-case scenario would be.

[stui magpie]

Probably a good summary of Musk.

[stui magpie]

Really good article, I think, about Twitter, free speech and how the algorithms that drive what people see should be changed.

https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/elon-musk-must-realise-free-speech-is-more-than-just-saying-what-you-want-20220427-p5agkh.html

[pietillidie]

^Bumped into this just now:

[stui magpie]

^

That gets really murky doesn't it?

The Twitter servers that host the platform and content are (I think) located in the USA, so US laws apply to the data largely.

But the content is available to be accessed internationally. So if someone in the EU considers something that someone in the USA has tweeted breaches the EU legislation, even though it may be perfectly legal in the country it was Tweeted, it has to be taken down?

If that's the case, you'd have to set the bar for moderation across the whole platform at the equivalent of the strictest set of laws in any country that has access to it?

[pietillidie]

^Twitter can mod regionally as it already does and for instance Google does with GDPR and the Right to be Forgotten in the EU. But social media is a little different in that time is of the essence and it surfaces content very differently to Google. Most people don't look on page 56 of Google search results, and Google effectively has a lot of time before something gets popular enough after being crawled, ranked and surfaces even on page 56 of search results.

But on Twitter you can see the rule-breaking tweet of someone you follow instantly, and with time being of the essence in social, modding is much more intensive and presumably expensive. So, loosening Twitter's rules just as the EU tightens its rules makes no sense.

And they can't pull out of the EU without losing, say, 20% of their revenue, because someone in the EU will have to pay for the service there sometime, whether be advertisers or subscribers if he changes the model. (Not to mention I think they might run their accounts via Ireland to take advantage of its generous tax regime, though of course they can restructure, but that's a still further financial hit).

They could take the penalty, but the EU has just made that a massive 6% of revenue. And at some point the EU will simply block them under any number of laws, as many EU countries have just done with RT for being Putin's mouthpiece.

So, they would have to exit the EU, incentivising the rise of alternatives to what is pretty basic technology which is only dominant in its segment due to historical timing, much like Facebook, not because anyone actually loves the brand and what it offers.

Not to mention society itself has turned on extremism and has social media in its sights, and Musk's fantastical 'free speech absolutism' would turn Twitter into an alt right cesspit of hate, porn and racism in five minutes, causing users and advertisers to flee.

So, it would end up being hammered everywhere.

[stui magpie]

^

Good answer, however ole Musky may be off the reservation.

[pietillidie]

Just noticed this NYT article, which may be worth a read if it's really pointing to a growing phenomenon. I've been wondering if/when something like this might happen. (No time to read it, but wanted to share).

[swoop42]

Western democracy is already under threat and society has never been more divided so what could possibly go wrong giving another single billionaire the ability to manipulate the hearts and minds of a billion people via their media platform?

[roar]

Storm in a tea-cup, though I did love his comment about buying coca-cola.

[think positive]

yep the coke one is funny!!

social media, so many people seem to get really sucked in, its fricken sad!!! i joined twitter only to see what swanny posts! dont use it!