5 ms·

Pornography is legal. If Facebook allowed pornography, it would quickly overwhelm the platform due to engagement metrics. It would make the platform unusable.

Pornography is legal. If Facebook allowed pornography, it would quickly overwhelm the platform due to engagement metrics. It would make the platform unusable. Vile hate speech? Completely legal. But its mere presence would turn away huge numbers of users. It would make the platform unattractive and hurt the business. It is in the platform's best interest to block otherwise legal things.

fallingknife 4y ago
But this isn't true. Social media was pretty much a free for all (except for porn) until 2015ish and it was growing rapidly the whole time. The whole argument that this type of content will drive away users is completely contradicted by history.
- etchalon 4y ago
  Social media was not a free for all before 2015. I … don't know why you think that is true. This story is from 2013: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/classroom/2013/06/facebook-and-twitter-crack-down-on-hate-speech/ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/classroom/2013/06/facebook-and-... Maybe super early it was a free for all, but it had a lot less users then. The impacts mattered less. These interventions became important as the companies grew, and needed to attract the largest possible number of users. There are places with VERY open content policies. You can join them today. Those places attract a niche audience and I'd wager always will.
xdennis 4y ago
> If Facebook allowed pornography, it would quickly overwhelm the platform due to engagement metrics. You're arguing with hypotheticals even through real world examples exist. Reddit has lots of porn and it's nowhere to be seen on the frontpage. Allowing something doesn't mean you shouldn't classify it and filter it.
- etchalon 4y ago
  I specifically mentioned Facebook because of how Facebook's news feed algorithm works. It's engagement based, and those algorithms are easy to saturate to specific types of content. Reddit has a fundamentally different approach to front-page content and discovery, and moderation in general. But even on Reddit, which is fairly permissive, they have hard boundaries which have little, if anything, to do with the "law".

fallingknife 4y ago

But this isn't true. Social media was pretty much a free for all (except for porn) until 2015ish and it was growing rapidly the whole time. The whole argument that this type of content will drive away users is completely contradicted by history.

etchalon 4y ago
Social media was not a free for all before 2015. I … don't know why you think that is true. This story is from 2013: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/classroom/2013/06/facebook-and-twitter-crack-down-on-hate-speech/ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/classroom/2013/06/facebook-and-... Maybe super early it was a free for all, but it had a lot less users then. The impacts mattered less. These interventions became important as the companies grew, and needed to attract the largest possible number of users. There are places with VERY open content policies. You can join them today. Those places attract a niche audience and I'd wager always will.

xdennis 4y ago

> If Facebook allowed pornography, it would quickly overwhelm the platform due to engagement metrics. You're arguing with hypotheticals even through real world examples exist. Reddit has lots of porn and it's nowhere to be seen on the frontpage. Allowing something doesn't mean you shouldn't classify it and filter it.

etchalon 4y ago
I specifically mentioned Facebook because of how Facebook's news feed algorithm works. It's engagement based, and those algorithms are easy to saturate to specific types of content. Reddit has a fundamentally different approach to front-page content and discovery, and moderation in general. But even on Reddit, which is fairly permissive, they have hard boundaries which have little, if anything, to do with the "law".