This whole thing brought up an interesting question. At what point should social media no longer be considered viable for human beings looking to at least commensally communicate with one another*? I personally feel we’ve already reached that point.
i’ve said before that we’re faced with two options:
either introduce a system that can tell you what account is run by an actual human being and which account is not. that could be done in an anonymity-preserving way with codes that you have to get in person (like, from a local library) and then use as a cryptographic signature for online accounts. it’s a bit techy, but doable.
or we accept that machines casually pass the Turing Test and we’re probably talking to AIs online.
On point 1. Every time stuff like this comes up in policy discussions there is pushback maybe because the narrative is too vague I don’t know. The gist is the requirement for named users online not aliases, or a way to tie those aliases easily to named users if required.
People don’t like this. I would argue it’s too late to get a consensus and stuff like Facebook tying your phone and name to an account is needed.
The nuance is how companies and governments use that information and in that we continue to fail hard. My name and my number is my data to decide how to share NOT for Facebook or anyone else.
Penny arcade provided decades ago the internet anonymity problem and it’s growing alarmingly fast.
We all are or have been that person to yell shitcock! at times.
Edit - there’s a larger issue at play too that our systems have not caught up with globalization. Facebook is multinational how does any one government hold them to account? I’d argue our governments around the world are stuck in 19th century governance styles while the world is rapidly moving to the 22nd century.
It’s gonna get far worse before it gets better IMHO.
It’s like I’ve said before. Climate change won’t be an issue until a city like New York is buried by the ocean. Those in power need to feel the pain whereas right now all we are getting is lip service or the bare minimum at best.
This whole thing brought up an interesting question. At what point should social media no longer be considered viable for human beings looking to at least commensally communicate with one another*? I personally feel we’ve already reached that point.
They should ban big tech from running social media platforms. Would be a huge plus for humanity.
When the social communication platform distorts the truth.
So, like 15 years ago.
Twitter peaked around 2012 I think.
so did youtube
i’ve said before that we’re faced with two options:
On point 1. Every time stuff like this comes up in policy discussions there is pushback maybe because the narrative is too vague I don’t know. The gist is the requirement for named users online not aliases, or a way to tie those aliases easily to named users if required.
People don’t like this. I would argue it’s too late to get a consensus and stuff like Facebook tying your phone and name to an account is needed.
The nuance is how companies and governments use that information and in that we continue to fail hard. My name and my number is my data to decide how to share NOT for Facebook or anyone else.
Penny arcade provided decades ago the internet anonymity problem and it’s growing alarmingly fast.
We all are or have been that person to yell shitcock! at times.
Edit - there’s a larger issue at play too that our systems have not caught up with globalization. Facebook is multinational how does any one government hold them to account? I’d argue our governments around the world are stuck in 19th century governance styles while the world is rapidly moving to the 22nd century.
It’s gonna get far worse before it gets better IMHO.
It’s like I’ve said before. Climate change won’t be an issue until a city like New York is buried by the ocean. Those in power need to feel the pain whereas right now all we are getting is lip service or the bare minimum at best.