From: mk_thisisit
Journalist Max Fisher, who investigated how social media algorithms affect global events, highlights a growing consensus that regulation is needed for social media platforms, especially concerning their impact on violence and political polarization [01:08:08].
Perceived Harms of Social Media
Fisher argues that social media can indirectly lead to death [01:54:26]. While the effect on an individual may seem small, its operation on a scale of billions of people daily can move politics in “dangerously divisive or hateful” directions [02:31:52]. Examples include genocide in Myanmar, violence in Sri Lanka, and communal violence in India, where significant numbers of people died due to racist or other violence triggered on these platforms [02:42:07]. Some platforms have even admitted to their role in extreme cases [03:01:42].
Companies like Facebook had evidence from their own researchers repeatedly warning that their platforms trigger behaviors with real-world impact, leading to violence and death [03:42:15]. Mark Zuckerberg, for instance, knew about these warnings, including specific cases predicting thousands of deaths, yet took no action [06:01:31]. While this doesn’t make him a murderer, it makes the companies responsible for the deaths they “didn’t save” [06:13:28].
The core issue lies with algorithms designed to maximize user time on platforms for profit [05:08:00]. Human nature dictates that what is most stimulating, leading to more time spent, includes fear of others, “us vs. them” narratives, conspiracy theories, hate, and collective outrage [05:28:04]. This means platforms, through their algorithms, inadvertently promote content that leads to racist hatred and violence [05:51:30].
Existing and Proposed Regulations
Europe has already introduced regulations such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), focusing on data processing [08:08:24] [21:05:43]. The European Union is also working on regulations regarding artificial intelligence [21:10:48]. In contrast, there is currently no specific regulation on social media in the United States [21:14:14].
The Debate on Regulation Focus: Content vs. Design
There’s a growing consensus that existing regulations, which often focus on content moderation, are regulating the “wrong area of the system” [21:33:04]. Content moderation laws, like Germany’s, restrict certain types of content [21:40:48]. However, the problem is that platforms are designed to artificially promote divisive and hateful content [21:58:00].
The emerging belief is that the only effective way to regulate is to introduce laws that address the “design of the systems themselves” and specifically affect algorithms and content promotion [22:08:26]. This approach would target the root cause of the problem rather than just trying to manage the symptoms.
AI and Content Creation
The Writers Guild of America, a writers’ union in Los Angeles, went on strike with one of their main demands being the introduction of rules prohibiting the use of artificial intelligence in creating any content for television programs or movies [26:53:14]. Studios oppose this, arguing that AI currently cannot replace human creativity in scriptwriting [27:09:00].
While AI is good at processing existing text and large amounts of information, it is not yet capable of original creation; it can only copy and process existing ideas [27:42:04]. However, it’s plausible that in the future, media could use AI to generate raw article drafts, with humans then refining them [28:06:58].