By "social media" we mean any large computer network that allows people to interact in shared communities. The big ones of course are Facebook, Twitter (X), and Instagram, but we can't forget newer platforms like Discord and Slack.
Dedicated video sites are off-topic here and YouTube has its own separate thread
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What we should discuss in this OTC topic are news items, business operations, and activities by the networks themselves, not specific things posted by users. Those should go into threads appropriate to the subjects of those posts. For example, if an actor tweets about a film, we'd discuss that in the Media forum topic for the film, not here. If Facebook changes its policies, that could be discussed here.
The politics, motives, competency and wider business activities of the owners and leaders of social media companies (e.g. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg) are also off-topic — except in situations where they are directly making specific policy for the platform.
Talking about a particular Instagram policy change (or a high-profile ban on a specific user) directly announced by Mark Zuckerberg would be acceptable in this thread, speculating about Zuckerberg's wider motivations wouldn't be.
The thread's also not about "dumb thing [public figure] said on [social media platform]". If there isn't a specific thread related to the subject of the statement (e.g. US Politics), then it's probably gossip and not worth talking about.
created back in 2020 that we never opened. Unfortunately, it's a little stale, so bumping it isn't going to work very well, but I would like to restart it. The reason I'm doing so is that the Computer Thread seems to have become the de facto place for this sort of talk, and it's a big tonal clash with talking about computer tech.
The hot topic of the day is Elon Musk's bid to acquire Twitter. We first discussed it in the Computer Thread, starting roughly here, and I am not going to rehash the entire discussion. Instead, I am going to resume from the last post:
CNBC: Twitter is reportedly taking another look at Musk takeover bid
Twitter's board is reportedly meeting with Elon Musk and may seek to negotiate on his buyout offer. Musk claims to have secured $46 billion in funding to buy the company at a valuation of $43 billion and is preparing to make a tender offer to its shareholders.
While the board has passed a poison pill, it could be facing resistance to that from groups of shareholders and will want to talk things out rather than face a hostile takeover. It's also possible that Twitter's stock could crash if the offer fails to go through.
Another possible topic was originally posted here.
Ars Technica: EU to unveil landmark law to force Big Tech to police illegal content
Following on from the recently passed Digital Markets Act, which requires large tech companies to unbundle first-party software from hardware platforms, the proposed Digital Services Act will require medium and large social media platforms and search engines to police hate speech and disinformation while adding additional protections for children against targeted marketing.
It also bans "dark patterns", which manipulate or trick people into clicking on ads or other content. The article doesn't explicitly say what that means, but I assume it includes things like disguising ads to look like parts of a site's user interface, hiding "close" buttons, and such.
For large companies, the requirements would go into effect immediately. For medium companies, they would have a grace period to implement the changes.
Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, has warned that Big Tech has become “too big to care.”
This phrase, "too big to care", intrigues me. It's an indictment of the idea that these companies have decided that growth and engagement metrics overwhelm any sense of social responsibility.
In my opinion, a law like this would be impossible in the United States, since it would be challenged (likely successfully) on First Amendment grounds.
Edited by Mrph1 on Dec 12th 2023 at 11:24:56 AM
Disasturbator
Money,hope (for massive profits) and dreams (even more money)
New theme music also a box
Figure of Hourai
I see the Right is still really into making every law they want to weaponise one that has a bounty attached to try to run around federal oversight or any pesky thing like "not actually under our jurisdiction".
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So, wait, if a minor makes an account, which is illegal, they can sue the company that allowed them to make an account, and get awarded ten grand?
And I assume that simply making them tick a box that says "I am over 18 years old" isn't going to be enough to avoid this?
Then how does anybody get to make an account without having to submit a government issued ID?
Surrounded by weirdoes
Who knows? The red menace keeps making laws that overreach and are mindboggling on how to enforce them. They are incompetent wannabe dictators.
Wake me up at your own risk.
They're supposed to use some economically accessible 3rd party service that provides that form of verification. What is considered a valid service, that's for the lawyers to figure out. But yes, if a minor manages to get an account in a way where the companies asses aren't covered, an adult can sue on the child's behalf to get money, according to the law. That seems like it has a bit of perverse incentive, because that seems like it's asking kids to actively try to break the law and get a pay day for it.
Edited by HeyMikey on Mar 26th 2024 at 10:51:11 AM
A procrastination in of itself
With Truth Social I’m not sure Trump has to cash out, we’ve discussed how the asset wealthy can leverage their asset wealth into cash before and my memory is that Trump should be able to take out a loan using his Truth Social shares as collateral and generate the cash that way.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Figure of Hourai
The rub there is finding anyone still willing to loan to Trump, especially when the share price of the collateral is going to be so blatantly tied to Trump's particular financial perception.
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Visiting from the Hoag Galaxy
Yeah, in this case, Trump is a known extremely bad borrower. Only a complete idiot would think that him having this stock actually makes him more likely to pay anything back.
Not Three Laws compliant.
Lost in Space
As I've said in the past, I'm not against identity verification for online accounts in principle. Heck, my bank does it. What concerns me is whether social media sites can manage it in a way that (a) isn't easily bypassed, (b) maintains privacy — especially given how they love to trade in their users' data, (c) actually serves the intended purpose.
For example, what's to stop parents from creating accounts for their kids?
Whether it's psychologically sound to keep children off of social media is a matter I'll leave for professionals to debate, but the cutoff point here — 13 years old — seems reasonable enough, and in keeping with other laws about protecting children online. I don't know anyone under the age of 13 who has ever needed a social media account, and I find it hard to imagine anyone seriously arguing that they have the emotional maturity to use it without supervision.
Edit: The problem I have with this particular law is that it's Florida, and is blatantly a cover for trying to target certain minority demographics. I don't trust the motives farther than I can throw the container ship that destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge this morning.
Edited by Fighteer on Mar 26th 2024 at 3:28:19 PM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
A procrastination in of itself
I’d compare a child unsupervised on social media to a child in a big city unsupervised, there are lots of wonderful opatunities for them but also plenty of people wanting to do them harm or take advantage of them. Tumblr has vastly more people on it then Tokyo has people in it, the scale is insane with there actually being more people on many major social media sites than the population of the US.
Even if every child was given a magic teleport home button we wouldn’t let them wonder the likes of the entire USA without supervision.
Society is hopefully realising bit by bit that even when something is digital it can still hurt you.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Surrounded by weirdoes
I doubt a kid is to be trusted by themselves with anything more advanced than a flip phone, honestly.
Wake me up at your own risk.
Hrmm. I think that in this analogy, the tick in favour of social media is that it's not possible to murder/rape/accidentally kill someone over the Internet. The tick against is that you seldom need social media for anything, while physical presence is unavoidable.
That said, I must say that an adult can sue on the child's behalf to get money, according to the law is actually a very clever idea to enforce said law - you are essentially soliciting concerned citizens to help enforcing it, and I bet there are lots of concerned citizens who will help. And more importantly, lots of lawyers that will counsel the social media companies to comply with the laws lest they be swamped with lawsuits. People tend fo fall for the meme of the unenforceable law way too easily.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Oh, bother.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
TBH I wouldn't trust most adults with them either.
Aye, that's the other thing - how many adults/parents have a realistic understanding of the risks (and benefits) of being online? I don't have the impression that the answer to this question is categorically "most". "The blind leading the blind" is not a good idea.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Who Am I?
Appeal bait.
"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
A procrastination in of itself
Digitally conduct child sexual abuse very much does happen and the number of deaths via cyber bullying induced suicide very much does indicate you can kill someone via the internet. I’m not sure if we’ve had a specific case of a suicide induced by someone with murderous intent happen online, but online induced suicides and suicides induced by someone with murderous intent have bith been recorded.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
It's pretty well accepted that doxxing and public harassment campaigns can and have led to suicides, like Kimura Hana's suicide in response to being repeatedly slandered after her appearance on a reality TV show.
Movie and TV Goddess
Now, if only people will just stop the doxxing and the public shaming of people....
I love animation, TV, movies, YOU NAME IT!
Not as long as they believe themselves to be justified.
Movie and TV Goddess
This is just a random question but, has social media made things better for people? Like, are people able to communicate better with each other with all of this information they are getting or are people getting nastier with their opinions compared to years ago?
I love animation, TV, movies, YOU NAME IT!
Social Media's made my life better, anyways. Almost all of my friendships I owe to Social Media, I was virtually friendless without it.
"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"
Oh, bother.
I would say the bad outweighs the good right now. That is why we need to deal with the bad yesterday.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Same here. I would say social media (and in my case, the feature of anonymity as well) is great for introverts like me, it has likely also helped people with finding like minded social groups for them. Though it has undoubtedly contributed to radicalisation of people on a larger scale (though that was a thing before too, it has made it a lot visible), and not to mention it being used as an effective tool by authoritarian regimes for monitoring their populace and even for genocide as with the Rohingyas. All in all, I would say Social Media's legacy has been mixed with some benefitting from it while others harmed by it.
Edited by xyzt on Mar 27th 2024 at 11:00:58 PM
Shadow Bug
Social media has definitely gotten worse over the years.
that said, it has allowed me to gain a lot of friends I wouldn't otherwise, and even helped me find my first long-term relationship. Even with how much of a trainwreck it has become, I don't think I'd be the man I was today without it, since it helped me meet tons of people and become more knowledgeable about my identity as a queer guy.
"That we continue to persist at all is a testament to our faith in one another."
The stock market basically runs on hype, anyway.
Wake me up at your own risk.