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Former Reddit CEO Decries 'Rage-Induced Interactions' on Facebook and Twitter (wired.com)
Were the creators of Facebook and Twitter oblivious to how social networks could be abused? "I struggle to believe that these brilliant product CEOs, who have created social media services used by millions of people worldwide, are actually naive," writes Ellen Pao, the former CEO of Reddit. "It's a lot more likely that they simply don't care."
[S]ocial media companies and the leaders who run them are rewarded for focusing on reach and engagement, not for positive impact or for protecting subsets of users from harm. They're rewarded for keeping costs down, which encourages the free-for-all, anything-goes approach misnomered "free speech." If they don't need to monitor their platforms, they don't need to come up with real policies -- and avoid paying for all the people and tools required to implement them....
In the earliest days, it wasn't always obvious what these platforms were doing and what they would become -- even to insiders. But at a certain point, it became clear that money was the driving factor, and dopamine- or rage-induced interactions meant more money.... CEOs should just forget about hiding behind "naivete" and "free speech," and instead remind themselves they can take actions that will meaningfully change the direction of the future. The first step is acknowledging the problem... You've solved for increasing engagement; now it's time to make real, positive interactions a priority.
The next time a CEO claims ignorance, "we must hold them accountable," the essay argues, complaining that right now there's a vacuum of leadership.
So instead, "Everyone's holding hands on the road to hell."
In the earliest days, it wasn't always obvious what these platforms were doing and what they would become -- even to insiders. But at a certain point, it became clear that money was the driving factor, and dopamine- or rage-induced interactions meant more money.... CEOs should just forget about hiding behind "naivete" and "free speech," and instead remind themselves they can take actions that will meaningfully change the direction of the future. The first step is acknowledging the problem... You've solved for increasing engagement; now it's time to make real, positive interactions a priority.
The next time a CEO claims ignorance, "we must hold them accountable," the essay argues, complaining that right now there's a vacuum of leadership.
So instead, "Everyone's holding hands on the road to hell."
Failing to mention that the author is Ellen Pao and just saying "former CEO of Reddit"
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don't know why.
Zuck: They "trust me"
Zuck: Dumb fucks
Stay on Breitbard and Der Sturmer, nazi scumbags. You have 100% right to speak your mind there within the confines of law. You have 0% of a right to be a nazi on anyone's platform. That's how this works, they own their platform. Blow.
Deal with it snowflake nazis, scatter back behind the fridge where you belong, deplorable cockroaches. America doesn't censor you, society does - for good reason, you are un-American uneducated scumbags of no value to society.
"CEO of Reddit"
No point in reading any further.
He should donate all the money he made from the rage-fest that is Reddit, then. I'd suggest a charity that assists victims of the poison reddit has spread.
Hate speech is not free speech. This has been decided in the courts. Other speech has consequences. For example shouting "FIRE!" in a crowded theater. Or speech that incites others to violent acts or riot.
It is clear that the CEOs of Fakebook and TWITter among others do not care about trying to eliminate hate speech and speech that incites to violence, any more than they care about trying to eliminate fake news from their platforms. All that they really care about is how much personal info that they can collect and sell, and how many ads they can sell. In other words, its all about the money!!
I'm guessing chairman Pao would be much happier with the Chinese model. They do after all censor all the social media for "positive impact" and "protecting a small subset of users".
It must be difficult to be so smart that you feel a responsibility of governing the lives of every human being on the planet.
Article summary doesn't even mention the name of the former Reddit CEO, but I'm guessing its Ellen Pao, right?
You can just mouse over the link and the URL tells you it's Ellen Pao
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Pao
She's controversial outside of anything Reddit related, especially her gender discrimination suit against another former employer that to an outside observer looked a lot like extortion.
"People who hate government hate themselves" - George Carlin.
That is true in countries that elect their government.
You don't like you politicians? elect different ones!
Remember, politicians are only slightly smarter than the people who elected them.
Corollary, if you have an Idiots at the helm, it already tells you something about the voters.
It's nice to be able to blame others when you no longer have any influence or financial interest on social media.
It would also be very beneficial for users of social media to never be passionate about issues because a sedated, non-controversial flock are very cheap and easy to wrangle.
Financial interests are all that matters to the owners of social media sites. If it didn't cause an outcry (more work) they probably would be running Trump/Nazi/Erectile Medication ads on every page of their sites.
You do realize that the number of actual Nazis in the US is barely measurable? What we do have is a bunch of hateful people that decide to just label people as Nazis as a way to claim the moral high ground and suppress those with ideological, but mainstream differences. Oddly enough, it was the Nazis who used the tactic of calling their opponents less than human, deplorable, cockroaches who were the root for all that was wrong in order to get the general populace to go along with treating them as scum who should not be associated with and ultimately to purge. Very much like the far left is currently doing to conservatives. There may be some dictionary differences between Nazis and the groups of antifa, democratic socialists and progressives, but the tactics to usurp power have very common traits.
Let's see...you can make threats all you want about Trump, conservatives, republicans, Christians, traditional values, and no one bats an eye on social media. But, say one thing about liberals, homosexuals, blacks, illegal aliens and you get banned. That sound about right? Freedom...ain't it great? Granted, Fakebook, twitter et al, are technically a private business, and they can have a TOS as they see fit, but they better watch out banning this or that, or the long arm of the federal government will come down on them and destroy their profitable business. Because, we all know when government gets involved, it turns into a cluster f*ck!
Meanwhile people keep telling me she should just be a welder a few make $26/hr ignoring that's only the top 10% and they're doing dangerous work.
Welding is not dangerous, and $26/hr is way less than the top 10% make. Pay is proportional to skill. If all you know how to do is stick welding from your high school shop class, you may not make much. But if you learn MIG, TIG, or acetylene welding, and are good at it, you can earn $50/hr or more even in flyover country.
Disclaimer: I am not a very good welder.
"To you, there is no debate" True, the facts are what they are despite Trump's bullshit denials that retarded deplorable faggots defend KNOWING it's untrue. The Witch Hunt -TM keeps catching witches and getting them to confess.
Deal with it. Trump is guilty of crimes. There's no two ways about it. If you want civility you have to admit the honest facts of the matter. Then you earn my respect as a Republican, not before. Not while defending an obvious fraud.
The fact that the GOP has gotten behind him and undermined America's norms "to fit" is entirely factual and a separate point, but I'll entertain your rebuttal after you admit Trump is without any question guilty of several provable crimes.
You will never catch me defending a traitor, knowingly or otherwise. Check yourself. Until you do, you can't be worthy of respect or even civility.
You're absolute correct, but you forgot to apply the other slices of bread to the shit sandwich, the "Christian conservative" far right.
Seriously... It's really, really sad listening to the two parties argue over who's the biggest victim. Part of me wishes you'd just kiss and make up and another part wants to give you all a broken bottle and watch you kill each other off, but that'd never happen because you're just too goddamn pathetic.
What you'll do is lobby your representatives to pass limp, symbolic legislation targeted at your adversaries that'll just be overturned in 4-8 years...
Of late, Reddit has just banned a bunch of random accounts because they're Iranian bots, apparently, colluding to drive narratives to specific ends.
They were clearly successful, given the accounts (before being wiped) had histories of posting literally all over the political spectrum, on a wide variety of topics, the majority of which had nothing to do whatsoever with politics or geopolitical issues.
Meanwhile, of course, any Redditor can tell you of the massive and weird shift of one of Reddit's most popular subreddits, politics, underwent: before Bernie bro'd out, the sub made even diehard Trumpers look like saints in terms of vitriol spewed towards Clinton. As Bernie was being knocked out? Might've been the second coming of Jeebus, given the amount of inane fanfare for Clinton. What happened? Simple. A group (several, actually) worked in concert to take over the subreddit and drive their narrative.
I have no problem with that in itself; what's damning is the fact that some people get a pass, while others get a, "REEEEEEEEEEE BOTS NARRATIVE PROPAGANDA!"
But of course, silencing political foes while letting your friends do as they wish is what the Party is all about. Pao wasn't the originator of the Reddit Thought Police, but she moved them along briskly, and they're still picking up speed - one only needs to listen, not even carefully, and the intermission between jackboots hitting pavement is ever decreasing.
The problem with social media, and all internet discussion, is people like you who can't stay on topic and want to turn everything into a discussion about politics. Rather than being about social media, your post is about college costs, medical costs and Nancy Pelosi. You try to loosely associate it with the topic with the first and last sentence, but really it's just an off-topic rant. Then some people who agree with your opinion come and upvote your post, making it the most prominent on the page, so the discussion becomes completely derailed.
People like you ruin internet discussion for others. When every topic turns into a discussion about politics, people simply give up and stop participating.
You are the problem. Please stop.
It seems to me like this problem of allowing free speech while keeping the general public away from toxic posts was solved ages ago by Slashdot and it's system of moderation and meta-moderation. If only other sites would adopt the system.....
Underwater welding is actually EXTREMELY dangerous. Its one of the most dangerous professions on the planet.
> You have 0% of a right to be a nazi on anyone's platform. That's how this works, they own their platform. Blow.
Looking forward to revisiting this gem of a post in another decade or two when China and India control the major platforms and decide to ban things insulting to Hindus or deemed subversive to the state.
the stuff that makes the median income look good is underwater welding. It's crazy dangerous. Do it wrong and you blow up.
$50k year isn't a lot of money any more. And you'll live in the middle of nowhere on oil fields to get it. That's fine when you're 18 and drive 3 hours into town every weekend. Not when you're 25 and want kids (and schools for said kids).
Also, wages for welders aren't going up but inflation _is_. The only people who's livelihoods aren't being eaten alive by inflation are folks with STEM degrees, especially Medical.
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and the high pay for underwater welding skews the figures on income for welders. Most welders make $15-$18/hr. In 2018 that's not a middle class life. That's a bare minimum living wage and you better hope you never get sick or injured...
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an author puts "free speech" in quotes.
I never did say Hillary was "clean" nor did I vote for her. She is guilty of violations of statutes, but evidence of intent to disseminate classified info was not found. Further the issue was the 14th Amendment's "equal enforcement" clause requiring similar crimes to have been prosecuted equally prior to HRC's violations, which in literally thousands of cases from Colin Powell to Jeb Bush and beyond was never sought and never pursued. I found her to be corrupt and dishonest, but she did at the very least release her tax records and hasn't lied (repeatedly, recursively) about contacts with foreign nationals as far as we can prove. She also is not in power, nor is there any credible threat of her returning to it. She does not represent the US Government right now, she is not continuing to commit provable crimes like Donald Trump's emoluments or tax frauds or lies to investigators - or anything else. I do think her charity situation should and will be investigated for thorough fairness, and I think any violations that she covered up there ought to be met with the full force of applicable law. Try to find a Trump defender saying anything resembling any of that about the proven liar spinning a bullshit narrative he self-contradicts daily about a very, very serious crime that may in fact be rhetorically akin to treason were the US to declare war on Russia for WMD attacks or election hacks or anything else. It's serious to defend a traitor, casually or otherwise.
Anything there you'd like to debate, I'm happy to - as soon as you admit that Trump is guilty of provable crimes as I have also insinuated is possible with HRC. Until then you're blinded by partisanship and not accepting reality.
I mean that in the proverbial "you" not you personally, who I do not know and haven't debated this with at length.
welders often have a ton of nasty health problems in their 50s and 60s from decades of breathing vaporized metal. There are ways to alleviate the problem but, well, the mostly require gov't intervention or companies don't bother and we just put a party in charge that's deeply opposed to gov't intervention...
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Tolerating Nazis is known as an appeasement. I am not for that. My grandfather murdered nazi scum by hand and I hope to be given the chance to follow in his patriotic and life-loving footsteps. Nazism is the enemy of America.
If you support it expect to die. Don't be confused thinking my liberal social values extend to treasonous nazi faggot scumbags. You will die.
>> So yeah, I rage a lot.
This can be treated with drugs, but until then, I suggest you stay off of social media.
http://www.mrbrklyn.com/amsterdam.html http://www.brooklyn-living.com
>>Remember, politicians are only slightly smarter than the people who elected them.
not likely and what a weird thing to say.
http://www.mrbrklyn.com/amsterdam.html http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Good luck scraping the shit off either of those.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
The title pretty much sums it up, Ellen Pao trying to shit on other social media CEOs is possibly the most hypocritical thing I've ever seen. She is not only part of the problem but a prime source of it.
She wasn't "controversial". She was straight up bigoted and consistently lied and extorted people as a matter of policy. On reddit and off reddit.
What's the main problem? Trolls having twisted fun? The borderline-insane who make death threats against women and minorities? Far right/left? I'd rather the extremists were out in the open, so that their ill-considered arguments could be shot down. If anyone crosses a line then they get the full force of the law or the site... same as they would in real life - call that censorship but I prefer the word 'responsibility'. As for trolls - I'd rather they were mucking about on the web than setting fire to bus-stops and shooting cats.
Ahh, so you were only a Nazi when Obama was in office. I got what you're saying now. By the way, if you grandfather saw this side of you he would probably disown you.
I'm angry for a reason. I'm not just raging to rage. I'm not some 20 year old with too much testosterone.
My point is the rage of the working class is being largely ignored. It's how we got a proto-dictator like Trump (and yes, I will call him a proto-dictator. He praised Kim Jon Un's people standing in attention and President Xi of China granting himself the presidency for life). I call out Pelosi because she's one of the ones ignoring me.
Everything _is_ politics. Everything we do and think has broad implications on society as a whole, even the really stupid stuff, when it's scaled up to a national level. When you ignore the working class getting the crap beaten out of them sooner or later they're going to do something to fix that. If we're lucky we get sound policy (hey, it happened in Europe). If we're not we get dictatorships and war. Now's the time to choose which one.
But Hey, go right on dismissing all this as "just politics" like it doesn't matter. Right up until it bites us all in the ass, hard.
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that was the entire point.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
And there is precedent...
Remember newspapers, when they were not merely cage lining or, now, superseded by online whatever?
Remember the editorial page? Letters to the Editor?
There was a time when editors and/or their staff did indeed read those letters. All of them, even the rants and threats. But they would not publish them if these writers crossed a line. Editorial staff might even let the police know.
So, Twitter etc, somewhat the modern, Internet version of Letters to the Editor, permits this spew. Maybe they should not. Maybe they should do what newspapers did, back when we more successfully pretended to be a civil society, and simply drop these upon inspection.
Certainly a reasonable filter would include spotting posts with plain physical threats, for instance, and discard them. Those old Letters to the Editor did that, and no one was the wiser.
And if these sad individuals demand a forum, they can do what they did back then, when newspapers ruled, and publish themselves. Some did.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.