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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 24th, 2023

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  • I participated in a discussion similar to this recently here on the German-language community: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/28281369/15510510

    Topics that were raised there by various people, some by me (read the full discussion if you can read German):

    • an “algorithm” is really just a way of manipulating data, it’s meaningless to say you are banning “algorithms” because all software is based on “algorithms”, even reverse-chronological sorting of things you’re subscribed to is an algorithm
    • algorithms are mainly intended to keep people on the platform for as long as possible (but I raised the issue that I actually found old web forums more engaging than today’s Facebook)
    • how do you define “an algorithm” legally? I suggested a definition based on transparency and objectivity, others raised the issue that this would mean that misinformation could be easily manipulated to be shown at the top, and that if you require “transparency”, the platforms will just disclose how their algorithms work instead of abolishing them

    One important aspect that nobody raised in that discussion is that moderation is different from censorship.



  • Moderation = not showing things to people who do not want to see these things. If you are an LGBT person and do not want to ever see people calling you and people like you mentally ill, then hiding those things from you is moderation, completely legitimate, an important part of making the platform a more welcoming place. I don’t usually want to see people doing that either in my feed (and in fact I don’t, because I follow entirely different things on Facebook).

    Censorship = not showing things to people even though they want to see these things. If a group of people who believe that LGBT people are mentally ill are talking to each other about these beliefs, then preventing them from doing so is censorship, it doesn’t make the platform a more welcoming place because the people it would make feel unwelcome weren’t seeing it anyway.

    That is what I (and the linked blog post) am trying to say. You may still think censorship is in some cases a good thing, but I think it’s important to make the distinction.









  • I mean in the 2000s a European political party made up of anti-immigration parties did fall apart because it turned out an international alliance of nationalist parties doesn’t always work that well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity,_Tradition,_Sovereignty

    But nowadays they work together quite well because they see the main enemy as being Islam.

    Nobody in Austria, least of all Kickl (the leader of a historically pan-German party) has serious ambitions to annex any part of Hungary, and I think in Hungary too the irredentist movements are more interested in places where there are still significant numbers of ethnic Hungarians (e.g. southern Slovakia) and not so much Burgenland or any other part of Austria; so that is the problem with that idea.













  • An even higher percentage — 82% — were “absolutely certain” or “somewhat certain” that social media use is in some way bad for children and teenagers.

    What’s the percentage of those who are “absolutely certain” or “somewhat certain” that authoritarian adults wanting to control teenagers’ lives out of a belief that the former know what’s actually best for the latter is “in some way bad” for children and teenagers?

    Whatever it is, it certainly includes me.