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>primary concern is maximizing engagement, makes perverse sense. I agree. But considering online platforms have, more or less, become de facto town squares, it
by abhiminator 8y ago
>primary concern is maximizing engagement, makes perverse sense.
I agree. But considering online platforms have, more or less, become de facto town squares, it's no longer responsible for a tech company to ruthlessly optimize for user engagement at the cost of stability of democracy.
- krapp 8y agoThere appears a conflict of interest for those platforms because they don't intend to act as de facto town squares... they are businesses, and arguably don't have an obligation to anything but profit, regardless of their popularity or ubiquity. Despite this, their nature as "town squares" affects the market whether they want it to or not. If enough viewers disengage because of their their ruthless tactics, or change their behavior in ways that don't fit their algorithm, that creates a business case for more ethical behavior... which would probably be more compelling to them than an argument for preserving the social fabric or democracy.