4 ms·

I agree all the socials are full of memetic hazards and nonsense. Data plane issue. The platforms obviously bear major responsibility for this but to an extent

I agree all the socials are full of memetic hazards and nonsense. Data plane issue. The platforms obviously bear major responsibility for this but to an extent their hands are tied by dispute about what constitutes "valid" speech. My perspective is that if this had been an "organic" protest it would have been fine. What TikTok demonstrated is that the platform is willing to directly spread misinformation to users through system messages with custom UX flows to magnify the impact. Devs at TikTok worked on this, they had meetings about it, they tracked progress until the work was done etc. That's a CONTROL PLANE issue.

krapp 3y ago
What does "organic" even mean in this context? Of course TikTok tried to get their userbase to protest Congress if Congress was trying to regulate them. That is entirely within their rights, and just about any American platform would have done the same, including distorting the message as much in their favor as possible. That's politics as it's meant to be played.
- xyzzy123 3y ago
  To me, "organic" means people organising via messaging within the data plane of the platform, exercising their rights to free speech and political organisation. Can you name a prior instance where a social platform has added custom UX to "contact your congressman" or similar? (Bonus points if it is also about something actually untrue like "the service will be shut down").
  - krapp 3y ago
    I don't know, I haven't been keeping track of the specific UI of every social platform to correlate design changes with instances of attempted political action. Why is it relevant?
  - __derek__ 3y ago
    The protests against SOPA and PIPA.[1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_SOPA_and_PIPA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_SOPA_and_PIPA
    - xyzzy123 3y ago
      TRUE! Acknowledged. I have some weak arguments for why I feel that case was different but I agree you refuted my point.

krapp 3y ago

What does "organic" even mean in this context? Of course TikTok tried to get their userbase to protest Congress if Congress was trying to regulate them. That is entirely within their rights, and just about any American platform would have done the same, including distorting the message as much in their favor as possible. That's politics as it's meant to be played.

xyzzy123 3y ago
To me, "organic" means people organising via messaging within the data plane of the platform, exercising their rights to free speech and political organisation. Can you name a prior instance where a social platform has added custom UX to "contact your congressman" or similar? (Bonus points if it is also about something actually untrue like "the service will be shut down").
- krapp 3y ago
  I don't know, I haven't been keeping track of the specific UI of every social platform to correlate design changes with instances of attempted political action. Why is it relevant?
- __derek__ 3y ago
  The protests against SOPA and PIPA.[1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_SOPA_and_PIPA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_SOPA_and_PIPA
  - xyzzy123 3y ago
    TRUE! Acknowledged. I have some weak arguments for why I feel that case was different but I agree you refuted my point.