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> under existential threat You mean government regulation a la China because some memes really are dangerous? If you increase the velocity of transmission, the
by ethbro 10y ago
> under existential threat
You mean government regulation a la China because some memes really are dangerous? If you increase the velocity of transmission, then even in a free system there are some dangerously infectious falsehoods that it might be in the public good to slow. Think War of the World on Facebook.
- ThrustVectoring 10y agoThat, or a public reaction to their product (ie, clickbait fatigue - Facebook gets really good at local optimization for the most engaging news posts but creates a news feed that convinces people that Facebook as a whole isn't worthwhile). It basically needs to be serious enough to overwhelm the internal incentives of maximizing key performance indicators.
- ethbro 10y agoI think there's the global maximum vs local maxima argument in favor of doing something too. Why do people ultimately spend time on Facebook? I would say they don't do so because of micro-optimized KPI targeting: they do so because they feel time on Facebook is valuable and makes them happy. If Facebook can't deliver increases in that, then optimizations only take them so far.
- ThrustVectoring 10y agoYup. There's definitely some Goodhart's Law going on here as well. Micro-optimized KPI targeting is an inexact measure of feeling like ones time on Facebook is valuable.
- btown 10y agoAh, but herein lies the difference. Memes seem to universally promote freedom of communication, communication about freedom, and a way to react to the oppression of the status quo. In China, this is counter to the powers that be, but in America, this is fully aligned with the anti-regulation party that is sweeping through all branches of government. Memes play into their hands, and so Facebook would never be under existential threat.