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Sorry Barack, but I think you mean: “Advertising models on the internet are the biggest threat to our democracy” The internet, if anything has promoted democra

Sorry Barack, but I think you mean: “Advertising models on the internet are the biggest threat to our democracy” The internet, if anything has promoted democratic practice around the world, which is why China wants to shut it out. It has done more for knowledge sharing than any medium in history. Unfortunately, advertising is one of the the only model big enough to sustain the purchase of massive amounts of hardware which grow the internet, that and movie subscriptions. But it will die as a model in the next decade I’m sure. When the AI overlords take over, there will be no need for money.

newacct583 6y ago
Advertising models didn't drive belief in Pizzagate, Qanon, adrenochrome, Covid-is-fake or Dominion-ate-my-ballot. They just didn't. That was a bunch of people voluntarily sharing a bunch of content created by people who never monetized it in any way. It's true that it was done on a bunch of ad-supported platforms with elaborate "engagement" metrics who want to keep eyeballs. So I guess in a sideways sense you can argue that "advertising" created viral content. But then "advertising" created the good content too. It's just specious. No, there's something about the way that completely unmoderated discourse on the internet has evolved that is new and dangerous in ways that we hadn't expected. You aren't going to fix this by forcing people off the ads.
- merpnderp 6y ago
  You can't with a straight face say algorithms that drive people to ever more outrageous content so that they view the force fed adverts, aren't a significant part of the problem.
  - newacct583 6y ago
    Again, this stuff spread on Fox and 4chan and 8kun just as well or better than it did on Facebook and Twitter. Advertising models and engagement algorithms aren't the issue.
    - loopz 6y ago
      The comments on Fox News articles, if they're not bots, says the issue is rampant and non-selfcorrecting. People are entitled opinions, but policy must be governed by facts and science too.

newacct583 6y ago

Advertising models didn't drive belief in Pizzagate, Qanon, adrenochrome, Covid-is-fake or Dominion-ate-my-ballot. They just didn't. That was a bunch of people voluntarily sharing a bunch of content created by people who never monetized it in any way. It's true that it was done on a bunch of ad-supported platforms with elaborate "engagement" metrics who want to keep eyeballs. So I guess in a sideways sense you can argue that "advertising" created viral content. But then "advertising" created the good content too. It's just specious. No, there's something about the way that completely unmoderated discourse on the internet has evolved that is new and dangerous in ways that we hadn't expected. You aren't going to fix this by forcing people off the ads.

merpnderp 6y ago
You can't with a straight face say algorithms that drive people to ever more outrageous content so that they view the force fed adverts, aren't a significant part of the problem.
- newacct583 6y ago
  Again, this stuff spread on Fox and 4chan and 8kun just as well or better than it did on Facebook and Twitter. Advertising models and engagement algorithms aren't the issue.
  - loopz 6y ago
    The comments on Fox News articles, if they're not bots, says the issue is rampant and non-selfcorrecting. People are entitled opinions, but policy must be governed by facts and science too.