This article is absolutely fantastic. Excellently written.
I've always maintained Facebook made a mistake when they took responsibility for misinformation posted on their platform. Now, four years later, they're continuing to double down on this stance, and forming "ministries of truth".
Freedom of speech is a powerful concept, and does not like to be stifled by types that argue it should only apply to the government. When you fight against that principle, you win in the short term, and lose in the long term. We are now starting to see those ugly realities of the long term losses, four years later.
The author is touching on something prescient here, but I disagree with some of his observations. For example, that the solution to "virus scanners" playing whack a mole was to move to cloud computing. (The solution was clearly to improve software, with things like memory safe programming langauges. Moving to cloud computing reduces freedom, not enhances it, and centralizes all the valuables in a single location a la Tower of Babel.)
If you remove the "algorithmic feed" mechanic, much of the abuse vanishes instantly. I am shown what came latest. Not this weird algorithmic mash of content that has been gamified for my attention. RSS is the way to go.
I've always maintained Facebook made a mistake when they took responsibility for misinformation posted on their platform. Now, four years later, they're continuing to double down on this stance, and forming "ministries of truth".
Freedom of speech is a powerful concept, and does not like to be stifled by types that argue it should only apply to the government. When you fight against that principle, you win in the short term, and lose in the long term. We are now starting to see those ugly realities of the long term losses, four years later.
The author is touching on something prescient here, but I disagree with some of his observations. For example, that the solution to "virus scanners" playing whack a mole was to move to cloud computing. (The solution was clearly to improve software, with things like memory safe programming langauges. Moving to cloud computing reduces freedom, not enhances it, and centralizes all the valuables in a single location a la Tower of Babel.)
If you remove the "algorithmic feed" mechanic, much of the abuse vanishes instantly. I am shown what came latest. Not this weird algorithmic mash of content that has been gamified for my attention. RSS is the way to go.