"I think the defining economic reality of the modern platform media world is that all the platforms realized that an infinite supply of teenage creators are cheaper to deal with than media companies or groups of media individuals or powerful creators."
#SocialMedia#AdTech#Platforms#BigTech#SiliconValley: "This is the state of the modern internet — ultra-profitable platforms outright abdicating any responsibility toward the customer, offering not a "service" or a "portal," but cramming as many ways to interrupt the user and push them into doing things that make the company money. The greatest lie in tech is that Facebook and Instagram are for "catching up with your friends," because that's no longer what they do. These platforms are now pathways for the nebulous concept of "content discovery," a barely-personalized entertainment network that occasionally drizzles people or things you choose to see on top of sponsored content and groups that a relational database has decided are "good for you."
On some level, it's hard to even suggest we use these apps. The term "use" suggests a level of user control that Meta has spent over a decade destroying, turning Instagram and Facebook into tubes to funnel human beings in front of those who either pay for the privilege of visibility or have found ways to trick the algorithms into showing you their stuff.
It's the direct result of The Rot Economy, a growth-at-all-costs mindset built off the back of immovable monopolies where tech companies profitably punish users as a means of showing the markets eternal growth. In practice, this means twisting platforms from offering a service to driving engagement, which, in Facebook and Instagram's case, meant finding the maximum amount of interruptions that a user will tolerate before they close the app." https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-great-looting-of-the-internet/
Other #NBC & #MSNBC hosts & contributors will undoubtedly now be under pressure to speak their minds as well. MSNBC’s prime-time lineup today will be worth watching.
The on-air #protests may be a seminal moment in #PoliticalMedia as #news orgs continue to grapple w/how to responsibly represent voices from the #Trump#RightWing on their screens & in their pages w/o handing their #platforms over to #ElectionDeniers or #BadFaith actors who have attacked & attempted to discredit their own reporters.
Next was a timely talk by @rg and @mikarv (👋) on moderating AI model marketplaces at @bkc. This is an extremely important area that has mostly flown under the radar in academia and in the popular press, and this is the first serious treatment of these platforms that I've seen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4gfeBFUshI (8/14) #AI#platforms
"This work shows that a #decentralized approach to #moderation can lead to higher content reliability on #socialmedia. This approach is also more efficient and scalable than centralized moderation schemes, and may appeal to users who mistrust #platforms.
“A lot of research into #misinformation assumes that users can’t decide what is true and what is not, and so we have to help them. We didn’t see that at all."
Today was pretty hectic, and while I was more enticed by this sign than repelled, I did successfully resist the urge to investigate with some help from talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!