Discussion
"But no one will ever know that the factory is polluting the water. The factory is owned by David Dollars and his brother Bingsbly Dollars owns both of the town newspapers!"
If you saw this in a movie or read it in a book you'd understand the plot point. Conflict of interest, control of information. Or do I need to explain "You see, Bingsbly will want to help his brother stay rich and so he won't publish any unflattering stories about the factory."
We get it, right??
1/
IMHO a great primer about all of this and why it is the way it is can be found in the book Nudge, by R Thaler & C Sunstein.
Interestingly the authors of the book discuss the concept of how advocates can use the sociological principles of "nudging" people in a direction that benefits themselves and society as a whole.
The reality is that the lessons learned and exemplified in it are used far more often to push people into the types of directions and decisions you touch on here.
Social media creates the illusion of ultimate free speech. You can post anything! And if what you say is popular it will spread far and wide. It seems like a free market place of ideas.
But in some ways it's a bit more like a newspaper: a collection of information filtered by and editorial board. This can vary a great deal by topic and by platform.
The claim the social media was free and open ended when "timelines" or the selection of posts that users see were subjected to an algorithm.
2/
The first job of most algorithms is to keep us looking at social media. This means showing posts we are more likely to engage with by liking or commenting. This means showing posts that cause us to click through and look at further posts. The longer a user spends on social media the more ad revenue they generate.
Most algorithms are centered around creating this kind of addictive engagement. (Including things such as offering scary stories late at night and news segments in the morning.)
3/
Everyone has a slightly different feed geared towards maximum engagement for users in your demographic.
But, engagement isn't the only way that one might wish to manipulate the content of social media: you could produce political or social pressure (just like Bingsbly Dollars who owns the newspapers.)
This could be as much about what you choose to show as what you choose NOT to show.
4/
This kind of manipulation is not illegal, and some of the people running platforms have said it is their goal.
You won't be able to notice this manipulation because it is only a little different from your usual feed. It's just that, for example, any tikToks about factories polluting the river never show up.
It need not take the form of anything obvious such as someone gushing that they think factories are amazing and good for the town.
5/
In fact, if you are someone who cares about pollution you might even see SOME of the stories about the factory, just fewer of them, and those that are less alarming.
In a way it is harder to detect bias in a social media algorithm than in a newspaper. It's much harder to prove since everyone is seeing a different collection of stories.
That doesn't mean the situation isn't the same.
6/
I realize this might all sound very basic and obvious, but I think about it a lot, and I've run into people who haven't really connected all of these things into a familiar image.
I apologize if it's all too obvious.
7/7
@futurebird it reminds me of selective pricing, if stores could decide product pricing to perfectly match the maximum amount each individual would pay, they would... but we have rules against selective pricing. We don't have rules against selective information that perfectly curates the exactly what keeps each individual docile or enraged (depending on intent).
In fact, stores are increasingly setting product pricing to match the maximum amount each individual will pay ... and it's not currently illegal. https://groundworkcollaborative.org/work/instacart is a fascinating study of Instacart's surveillance pricing last year.
We're just starting to see laws to prohibit this kind of "surveillance pricing". https://thenexusofprivacy.net/seattle-surveillance-pricing/ has more
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