Mastodawn

BBC Research & Development Jul 31, 2023

We do all of this to bring audiences new, immersive and accessible experiences.

We also look at how technology can help the production process. We prototype and test new tools, create datasets, open-source our work, work with partners in the industry and publish our research so that everyone can benefit.

Find out more about all this on our website https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd

We’re now exploring Mastodon, so please follow us - we’ll update you with what we are working on in our labs.

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David Gerard Jul 31, 2023

@BBCRD hi! Be sure to let your broadcasters know that transphobia is against the rules of most of the Fediverse, and if they talk the way they do in broadcast then your server may not be federated as long as you may hope. That also applies to "just asking questions" rhetoric about trans people or racism, 'cos we weren't born yesterday. Cheers and good luck keeping the stars behaving!

Mike Knell Jul 31, 2023

@davidgerard @BBCRD There always has to be one, doesn’t there?

⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe Jul 31, 2023

@m @davidgerard @BBCRD There's probably more than one person that doesn't like transphobia, Mike. Might be as many as a dozen. Who knows, maybe more?

Mike Knell

@fishidwardrobe @davidgerard @BBCRD I don't like transphobia either, but claiming the BBC is editorially transphobic because it's occasionally included (intentionally or unintentionally) transphobic voices in its millions of hours of broadcast output is like claiming it's pro-armageddon because some people on the news supported renewing Trident. No media outlet with a decent amount of editorial independence gets everything right every time and there are a couple of real clangers on the Beeb's record as far as transphobic stuff goes, but that doesn't mean it's somehow policy. That's conspiracy theory stuff.

I'm not getting into what is and isn't transphobic - that is far above my pay grade, it's for trans people to decide and certainly not me (although I appreciate help understanding what and why because whew, when it comes to privilege I tick almost all of the boxes except the mental health one) and I'm certainly not interested in policing other peoples' responses. That's not an interesting conversation. But at the same time, this kind of 1+1=20 approach doesn't seem to help at all.

⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe Jul 31, 2023

@m @davidgerard @BBCRD The key word here is "editorial". Someone chose to air those voices. That was a bad choice. The BBC has a history of "both-sides"ing things that it really, really should not.

It has a duty to address that in a grown-up way and not duck the issue. We have a duty to hold them to account – again, in a grown-up way.

@fishidwardrobe @davidgerard

Mike Knell Jul 31, 2023

-BBCRD

We both agree on that, for sure. What I don’t see as holding anyone to account, though, is the idea that you hold people to account in a community by being weirdly confrontational at them the moment they appear, especially when the people you’re doing that at have no link to what you’re talking about. Hence my response to things like immediate demands for social.bbc to be fediblocked.

Trust but verify remains a great rule of thumb. Sure, there are certain individuals and organisations who’ve shown that they can’t be trusted not to say horrible things at all. If garbage people like Andrew Tate show up here my tiny instance will block them on sight and probably the instance that was unwise enough to give them an account as well. But I don’t think I’d put the Beeb in that bucket and certainly not their R&D department who are a bunch of nerds with a huge record of inventing some of the core technologies driving broadcasting and none at all of saying contentious things on the news.

⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe Jul 31, 2023

@m @davidgerard Oh lets not fediblock them. But let's not dismiss folks who raise concerns, even right off the bat, with crap like "there's always one".

David Gerard Jul 31, 2023

@fishidwardrobe @m @BBCRD i know *many* trans people the editorial side of the BBC has treated atrociously, all the way up to Newsnight. There are massive piles of behavioural evidence. I have no hesitation in calling the BBC institutionally transphobic. I do so on the evidence. Mike is in Austria so may not be aware of how appalling the BBC is of late.

quixote Jul 31, 2023

@m @fishidwardrobe @davidgerard @BBCRD Thank you, Mike, for saying this! I was trying to figure out how to say the same thing.

Faith

@fishidwardrobe @davidgerard @BBCRD

If, even just for one moment, you listen to trans people, many of us are going to tell you that the BBC is institutionally transphobic at this point in time.

Sure, there are well meaning people there, but their overall policy is not in a good place.

It isn't a case of "the odd clanger" - it's the whole approach, and the language used to discuss us.

David Gerard Aug 1, 2023

@JustFaith @m @fishidwardrobe @BBCRD yes. anyone denying this either (a) doesn't know what they're talking about or (b) is a fan of it

Krankenbrüder Aug 1, 2023

@JustFaith @m @fishidwardrobe @davidgerard @BBCRD

The BBC, Guardian, Labour Party, and UK appear to be institutionally transphobic.

We expect the right to be transphobic in the US. The TERF Island difference is the center-left also being majority transphobe.

@JustFaith @m @fishidwardrobe @davidgerard @BBCRD is it better to let them carry on in isolation or to actively give negative feedback? Feels like a block deprives us of the ability to call out bad behavior. I'm open to being wrong, but please explain why?

David Gerard Aug 1, 2023

@samthurston @JustFaith @m @fishidwardrobe @BBCRD you could certainly argue the concept of a federation with social rules that it enforces by shunning repeat bad actors from first principles here, indeed you could just federate with gab.ai in the hope of converting them through logic and reason

or the rest of us could not do that

@davidgerard @JustFaith @m @fishidwardrobe @BBCRD gab is explicitly bad actors whereas BBC probably just responds to market forces. On Twitter and Facebook the clickbait rage machine fuels "reporting the controversy" but that incentive is gone here? Then again bbc has been getting a lot of "hate coverage" here the last few days so maybe not.

@samthurston @JustFaith @m @fishidwardrobe @BBCRD

David Gerard Aug 1, 2023

> BC probably just responds to market forces.

if you are literally claiming that the BBC's editorial transphobia is "market forces", then you are an idiot or a liar.

@davidgerard @m @fishidwardrobe @BBCRD

@davidgerard @JustFaith @m @fishidwardrobe @BBCRD tldr I see your point. Equating BBC with gab seems extreme but I admit to falling in the "do not know what I am talking about" category

That's one of the biggest challenges in talking about the impact of institutional transphobia - lots of people who aren't impacted by it, wanting to make their thoughts and opinions known.

While nobody listens to the trans people who are directly impacted.