I've been speaking and writing lately about how tech companies try to shift the discussion on misinformation, polarization, harassment, etc., away from the systems and structures that are inherently toxic and toward questions of individual behavior.
This way they can blame their own users for any pathology and steer clear of calls for systemic change.
Today Elon Musk has come through with a perfect illustration for my future talks.
This should be obvious, but having an algorithm that behaves that way is a DELIBERATE CHOICE.
It would be easy enough, for example, to implement basic sentiment analysis so that the algorithm doesn't boost content that you have reacted negatively to in the future.
Musk is playing it both ways. He keeps the algorithm that boosts inflammatory content and drives the online conflicts that draw views and clicks, while pushing the blame for this off onto the individuals involved.
That sucks.
I've posted a slightly longer version of this thread to post.news. For those who are interested, here's the link. I've also attached the text below.
@ct_bergstrom he clearly understands the dynamic, and advocated for people to use the “Latest” view back in May 2022, yet now they’ve removed the ability to default to, and stay on, “Latest”
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1525612988115320838?s=46&t=-gmScMCVfQWgIDdwjiklVQ
Carl T. Bergstrom
Mike Pozar