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You keep missing that the problem is engagement optimization, not political divisive/disinformation per se. A site that optimizes for content that people heavi
by swatcoder 4y ago
You keep missing that the problem is engagement optimization, not political divisive/disinformation per se.
A site that optimizes for content that people heavily interact with (engagement) is different than a site that prioritizes the relationship type between users (friends original content > public figure OC > shares > etc) or positive response (upvotes), etc
None of these many other systems rely on discerning the specific nature of content or making sure it’s of some certain arbitrary moral character. But they each lead the network as a whole to favor different kinds of content and so the experience for users ends up different. And it’s already known that social media sites can be successful using these other techniques.
- c23gooey 4y ago> A site that optimizes for content that people heavily interact with (engagement) is different than a site that prioritizes the relationship type between users I think that's hit the nail on the head. In a neutral environment, a user would be shown a feed of friends posts with ads mixed in for their demographic. In an optimised for engagement environment, a user is shown posts that are known to increase engagement and quite often those posts are inflammatory. This engagement environment is much more likely to expose people to extreme views