"Meta, the global behemoth that owns Facebook and Instagram, is putting a stranglehold on recommendations in user feeds that contain political content.
The move, signalled in February, applies to Instagram and Threads, and will eventually extend to Facebook."
#DataFarms like FarceBook or Xitter are like one-party states. Like the rise of Weibo and WeChat in China, they enhance people's ability to express themselves, but only within the limits set by a single, centralised leadership.
The fediverse is more like a multi-party Parliament. People's freedom to express themselves still has limits, but they can choose a leadership (admins and mods) that reflects their values and beliefs.
I've been picking on #CaseyNewton a lot recently over his coverage of SubStack's recent freedom of expression controversy. So it's only fair to point out that Platformer is generally a good publication, to which I still subscribe. His article on the shuttering of iconic music magazine Pitchfork, for example, is timely and insightful;
#CaseyNewton also has some valid criticisms of the generative #AI trend;
"... its rise has led to a flood of AI-generated spam that researchers say now outperforms human-written stories in Google search results. The resulting decline in advertising revenue is a key reason that the journalism industry has been devastated by layoffs over the past year."
"If you believe in freedom of speech, you believe in freedom of speech for views you don’t like. Goebbels was in favor of freedom of speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re in favor of freedom of speech, that means you’re in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of freedom of speech."
This distinction between "recommendation media" (ie the #DataFarms) and "social media" (eg the fediverse) is a useful one. But I find it weird that in mid-2022 this guy is praising DataFarming algorithms as a good thing. I suspect this might be an industry puff piece, rather than genuine opinion.
... they want a handful of transnational corporate DataFarmers to subsidise it instead. Through government-imposed mandates to pay for commercial license on uses like linking and quoting, which don't violate copyright (or they could take legal action on those grounds).
This is kind of intriguing, if a bit rambly. Published in late 2020, it's one average dude's reflections on YouTube, after 5 years of daily vlogging, and a one month break from having anything anything to do with it:
"Our Twitter Account TheDailyBlogNZ has been locked down after a complaint was made and despite numerous attempts to contact Twitter to resolve it, we are still shut down.
It’s ironic because they recently posted their commitment to fair elections…"
Wow, the #DataFarms are really circling the wagons bigtime. First Titter closing down API access, and then anonymous web access. Then cRedit closing down API access. ThemTube have been wriggling and kicking to stop instances of Invidious and Piped from working. Now they're hammering the devs of youtube-dl:
"Access denied... Due to a ruling of the Hamburg Regional Court, access to this website is blocked."
"FaceBook decides which news your see and which news you don't. If FB or InstaGram or WhatsApp kicks you off their platform, it can cost you your artistic career... Or contact with your distant family... Microsoft, AirBnB, Uber, LinkedIn, the largest tech firms structure our lives in myriad ways, without regard to our wellbeing, without fear of competition, and largely without regulation. For now."
Amazing how much the social media landscape has changed in recent years. Just 3 years ago, a media activist could make a statement like this, without being sarcastic:
"Twitter has been relatively more responsive to demands for Big Tech to take a stand against disinformation and even against glorifying violence."
If people excommunicate me because they don't like my political hot takes, the worst consequence for me is that I don't have to see their miserable carping in my @mentions or feeds. That's a boon not a punishment! The worst consequence for them is that they miss out on all the useful stuff that goes into my feed, along with the hot takes.
But hey, if people want to cut off their nose to spite their face, I have full respect for the bodily autonomy of the noseless. It's no skin off mine ; )
No doubt this has kicked off yet another wave of immigration into the verse from the dying blue bird. Which makes the atmosphere here a bit twitchy for a while, until all the newbies start to calm down and settle in. But still, I can't help but sit back and enjoy yet another round of schadenfreude ; )
Sorry to hear #Oracle treated the YewTube maintainer so badly, but not surprised. There need to be laws against ISPs terminating paid services with no warning, and no opportunity for data recovery. Laws with teeth.
But it's a good reminder to avoid corporate platforms run by DataFarms, even as a paying customer. We don't matter to them, and that will never change. They must be replaced.
"What was painted by Reddit management, initially, as an attempt to force the deep-pocketed developers of large language model AI programs to pay for access to a massive trove of precious natural language now looks more like a grubby attempt to kill off third-party apps, and force all Reddit users into official, and more easily monetizable, channels."
I totally support this petition to establish a NZ Anti-Corruption Commission. But to sign it, I'm asked to put my name, email address and phone number into a web form that is infested with third-party JavaScript. Much of it from corporations known for DataFarming (including Goggle, FB and Titter). Ironically, this anti-corruption petition has been corrupted.