Technology

On the other hand, Stewarts is also right. An Instagram feed is not free speech, it's brain rot and propaganda and ruins society and lives. It needs to be regulated. Just letting then go on as they are while promoting alternatives misses the mark as to the threat posed by these platforms. Cohn seems to have a blind spot here.

I don't think so. She said she wants to make them unable to continue with their business like they did before, with regulations. Just not outright censorship, but instead go fight their data harvesting, decapitating their business strategy.

Not just a spokesperson. Cindy Cohn is a warrior queen. She's retiring as Executive Director of the EFF this year after serving for over 10 years. She's a lawyer who has been fighting for our civil liberties for over 20 years. Maximum respect.

I had a lot of hopes for Jon, and he's kind of letting me down here. Not the guy we need, he lacks the killer instinct we need. To take the nomination from the dems establishment and challenge the r's that is. He trusts the establishment too much.

He could win though, if he tried.

I guess they had the opposite development of Twitter, banning hateful content and trying to keep their house clean. Compared to Zuck and Musk whoever runs Reddit can probably be argued to be a great humanist.

Not saying it's a good platform. It's still a cesspool in my experience, and their approach to moderation produces a wild amount of false positives while bots are roaming free. It seems to me very far from a place for genuine human connection.

Nevertheless, for someone who sees social media as being Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, Reddit, and Snapchat, I can see how Reddit stands out as the better option.

It's too bad Cohn didn't get to talk more about Mastodon.

While Jon comes across as a white knight, and I really enjoy his satirical personna, I sometimes find his lukewarm condemnation of the Gaza genocide, and take on other subjects, a bit suspicious.

I guess age makes me more cautious.

probably because its astroturfing/supressing anti-zionist content. i notice hes pretty much pro-zionist, not as much as someone like SEINFELD though.

Just checked them out after the video. Thinking about signing up to volunteer.

Goddammit, I think you just described my relationship with Lemmy.

with the constant AI slop propaganda as well.

it used to be just for nice social bubbles

now it's for political disinformation bubbles and the two cannot be untangled. users will not do it voluntarily

real identities and moderation in the form of fact checking are the only way on all social media

So Cohn did mention comprehensive privacy laws and the ability to leave platforms. These are absolutely things that need to happen.

However as an individual there are still things you can do. Cohn mentions Bluesky because it has no algorithm (except the "Discovery" feed). Cohn also mentions (in the video) Mastodon. And the truth is you don't need to switch fully, just don't only slurp down the concentrated hate machine(s).

Look at Lemmy. Reddit decided to be pricks and a bunch of individuals jumped over here to create what I think is a pretty good community. That doesn't mean the problem is solved. That doesn't mean Reddit isn't still a problem. That doesn't mean Lemmy is perfect. But that is a win and something individuals can do.

Additionally, those are things you can do now. You don't need to wait for some law to be passed to fix things. You can make the move now. (While still advocating for laws to fix things.)

I get a lot of my business for my company from facebook marketplace and my facebook reviews. It enrages me that I have to use facebook to succeed, at least at this point in my business.

In terms of analysis, I'm annoyed at Cohn here. This isn't something we as individuals have control of. Her saying people individually have to make the difference is like saying you individually have to make the difference regarding climate change by making different choices, like recycling.

I understood her differently. I understood that she advocated into making it possible to leave platforms, saying that it currently isn't. She said the people are the victims here and often don't have a choice.

People cannot leave platforms because each platform is like an isle, and leaving it means losing connections to other people. It that sense they are locked-in, by social pressure.

This is is a natural monopoly which, gives social media companies so much power and prevents newcomers (like the fediverse) from joining the market.

Making the current social media companies less important, for instance via privacy laws, means people can connect and stay connected to other people via other means. It makes it easier to just leave twitter or meta, if they don't like it there. Instead of being peer pressured into right extreme politics, because the algorithm decided that it gets more engagement when surrounding thrm with nazis.

She made it clear that replacing an dictator with another dictator that censors differently is bad, so she made a point against bluesky and for Mastodon and the fediverse.

(Sadly ehe wasn't given the opportunity to fully complete her arguments though.)

at one time, Twitter was amazing

if you could catch the attention of someone you wanted and they replied, it was amazing

i found that moment a few times

talking to The artist you had wondered about for years answering the question you had

it was fucking special

and that is over. it is something that I am saddened by

This isn't something we as individuals have control of.

Absolute nonsense.