5 minute summaries
1 quote, 3 ideas & 1 question from each episode
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31 Mar 2021
49mins
Quote
"'People don't realise that facebook's incentives are to have people using them for the next 10 or 20 years, not an additional 10 or 20 more seconds now."
Ideas
1
Promoting individual agency over what they see in their feed is easy, he also thinks that identifying harmful content and keeping it off Facebook is challenging but doable.
The thing that's really tough, because it's the the subject of so many differing opinions, is what is the collective good. What constitutes the collective good, who should determine it and how should it be reflected on social media, because in many ways, it's become the public square discussion place for a lot of these things.
Because there really isn't a general consensus on what constitutes good content, for one school of though is bad and unacceptable content, is for another school of thought the right to free expression.
Because there really isn't a general consensus on what constitutes good content, for one school of though is bad and unacceptable content, is for another school of thought the right to free expression.
2
You're never going to create a healthy information eco-system on really difficult issues like public health and the pandemic, simply by playing whack-a-mole on misinformation.
For billions of people, messaging apps are their primary source of communication which is without algorithms, but it's still a source of unpleasant, polarizing content is spread. The reality is that algorithms play a huge role in much of the content we see, but there's also more than just the algorithms.
Ultimately, pro-actively empowering people with the right information, is as important, if not more important, than that in which you remove or demote misinformation.
Removing bad content isn't enough for good, you need to surface good content as well.
Ultimately, pro-actively empowering people with the right information, is as important, if not more important, than that in which you remove or demote misinformation.
Removing bad content isn't enough for good, you need to surface good content as well.
3
It shouldn't be private companies that determine what is fundamentally societal and political judgements about where the collective good lies.
There are obvious situations where Facebook can take a moral stance and choose to draw the line in certain places, and they're doing this deliberately as they can. They're working alongside academics and researchers, they publish their work and get community feedback.
This gets difficult, when the very people and content you're passing judgement on are democratic leaders, such as Donald Trump and the president of Venezuela. At this point, Nick believes that it's reasonable for us to acknowledge that we're entering into pretty tricky territory, and placing all the responsibility on a private company like Facebook isn't what's going to help us move forward.
This gets difficult, when the very people and content you're passing judgement on are democratic leaders, such as Donald Trump and the president of Venezuela. At this point, Nick believes that it's reasonable for us to acknowledge that we're entering into pretty tricky territory, and placing all the responsibility on a private company like Facebook isn't what's going to help us move forward.
Questions
1
Can you think of something where just removing bad isn't enough for good?
What else is in the episode
1
ome of the latest features that Facebook is rolling out to give users more control of the content in their feeds.
2
How what we're seeing with social medias has already been a problem long before social media, and is so much more than just social media.
3
More details, data and rebuttal points on some of the public conversations around Facebook intentionally trying to surface outrage content
1
Former UK Deputy PM, leader of the Liberal Democrats
- VP of Global Affairs at Facebok
- Author of multiple books on politics
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