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
.
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
There may be some international treaties in place that would influence the verdict.
Lost in Space
As a matter of law, the US is not required to enforce the judgment of an Australian court, but this is often done as a matter of respect for norms and such. The UN operates a number of institutions that are supposed to act as arbiters of disputes between nations, but again they have no enforcement power.
It will be interesting to see if US courts stick up for Musk's position or side with Australia.
Edited by Fighteer on May 1st 2024 at 10:11:46 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
It looks like Elon Musk is going to reinstate Nick Fuentes's account.
EDIT: Since people have been having problems with the Nitter link, here's the twitter link: [1]
Edited by HotelCalifornia on May 3rd 2024 at 10:15:09 AM
The Unknown
Whatever you linked set made my antivirus freak out.
So. Uh. Maybe provide a different source.
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
Redmess
I saw an op-ed proposing making May a completely social media free month (May because it rhymes with vrij, Dutch for free). This to combat social media addiction, naturally.
I don't think that would be remotely feasible. That would just cause social media companies to go bankrupt, wouldn't it?
Edited by Redmess on May 3rd 2024 at 6:19:05 PM
Optimism is a duty.
Lost in Space
Economics aside, it's simply not going to happen. People are deluding themselves (Film at 11).
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Shadow Bug
Even discounting affecting the business of social media platforms, that'd be impossible to enforce. For one thing, social media has become a way to share news quickly and get it seen by many people, and it allows people to stay in quick communication with each other. Love it or hate it, it has a place in modern culture, and trying to get rid of it would be like trying to get orange juice from a rock - you'll get nowhere and probably hurt yourself in the process.
"That we continue to persist at all is a testament to our faith in one another."
A procrastination in of itself
People attempting (and normally failing) to take a month off from drinking doesn’t bankrupt alcohol companies, I see no reason why a social media version of Dry January wouldn’t just bring similar (non)results.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
As a cultural thing or as a matter of law?
As a matter of law: It'd be basically unenforceable. In fact, in the US at least, I'd argue it'd be grossly unconstitutional. You might as well be saying "Newspaper-Free May". Not to mention it'd be an unpopular law.
As a cultural thing: I could see it taking off as a sort of "no-social media challenge" people do for clout perhaps...but even then it'd have little ability to make change.
"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"
Movie and TV Goddess
Also, the downside of shutting off social media for a month is that there are some people who make a living on social media, like how some people make money from You Tube and Twitch. If there was a month where social media was cut off, then that means that the people who were making a living on You Tube and Twitch would lose some of their income in the process.
I love animation, TV, movies, YOU NAME IT!
Redmess
Yeah,t here would be pretty drastic consequences beyond the positive impact that writer imagined.
Taking breaks from social media is probably not the worst idea, but doing it collectively does not seem very feasible, at least.
Optimism is a duty.
A procrastination in of itself
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Dry January tends to cause economic harm to bartenders and pub owners, but I’ve never seen widespread pushback on that.
Part of the reality of making a living in a market focused on harmful addiction is that, even if your own product is sold responsibly, when people try to move away from that addiction you can get caught in the crossfire.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Lost in Space
One might easily relate alcohol sales to video game monetization and gambling: the addicts are the ones whom the industry relies on to be their "whales", despite notionally protesting that they are attempting to be ethical.
I'm not sure that social media profits quite as directly from its whales, but it certainly does seek to drive engagement via addiction and the resulting feedback loops are far from healthy.
I just don't know how one would go about fixing the problem. A month-long abstinence doesn't seem like it would do the trick, but maybe that's because I'm addicted.
Edited by Fighteer on May 3rd 2024 at 2:53:39 PM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
A procrastination in of itself
It’s slightly more indirect, as the social media whales are the content generators what draw others in as well as the main consumers. For a social media company the profit from an addict isn’t just that they generate revenue by being on the site a lot, it’s also that they generate tons of site content a thus get others to be on the site more.
The same way alcoholics pushing drinking culture onto non-alcoholics is part of how the booze industry makes money.
A big first step is acknowledging it as a problem. Then we can treat it the same way we do other harmful addictions.
We have PS As about the dangers of drinking, smoking and gambling to much, we need similar for social media. We limit how much we allow the vulnerable (normally children by sometimes others) to have such things pushed to them and consume them, we also regulate the sale of such things even for able-minded adults, we can do the same for social media. Health services will support you in quitting alcohol, tobacco or gambling, we need the same for social media. Many places put sin taxes on alcohol, tobacco and gambling, often to fund health programs to help addicts quit.
Edited by Silasw on May 3rd 2024 at 8:30:28 PM
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Like reflections in the glass!
now that's a good idea.
A sin tax for social media to fund a UBI (to help people that rely on it for their jobs, including marketers and people who were unable to get things done through traditional channels) and programs designed to wean people of social media (likely invovling day programs for the purposes of getting them to touch grass)
it has less of a chance than "Dry January In Space for Social Media/the internet" but it would be a better method to combat addition overall.
Edited by MorningStar1337 on May 3rd 2024 at 4:55:05 AM
"Sin tax?" Sounds overly reaching put that way.
Figure of Hourai
I mean, that's the term. It's what happens when you stick an excise tax on something because it's bad for society (not something I'm really a fan of, given that they're therefore taxes that most affect the poor and especially the vulnerable given what they're actually placed on).
Not really sure how you apply something like that to social media, though. Kinda hard to do an excise tax on a continuous ongoing service that doesn't charge for use.
Avatar Source
If Discord is social media, then a social-media-free month is a “don’t chat with your friends in other countries for a month” month…so why would I do that?
Edited by Galadriel on May 4th 2024 at 9:48:25 AM
Yeah, I run weekly D&D campaigns with my friends who live very far away, shutting off discord for a month would suck.
"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"
Yea... people like to rail agianst social media without actualy thinking about any thing except the worst parts of twitter.
It's our generations "videogames/tv/radio/books are corrupting the kids"
Edited by Imca on May 5th 2024 at 2:15:18 AM
Movie and TV Goddess
So, out of all the social media platforms, which one do you think has the most toxic environment?
I love animation, TV, movies, YOU NAME IT!
Disasturbator
All of them!
New theme music also a box
Movie and TV Goddess
I would say Twitter (X) is the worst since there's no filter there and people argue and complain about everything there.
I love animation, TV, movies, YOU NAME IT!
As long as we're also including forums, this.
American courts may well do so. Ignoring the part where the US federal judiciary is currently halfway to anarchy, American free speech absolutism really is that strong. As for the fact that Musk does censor when requested by authoritarian regimes but not Australia, his lawyers will make an argument for that as well ("my decision what I choose to allow on my platform is my free speech").
So yeah, I'm predicting that it'll come to American courts and Musk is gonna say "bring it." I decline to predict what the courts will say, only what they might.