{"id":17098,"date":"2020-11-18T08:37:44","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T04:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/?p=17098"},"modified":"2020-11-18T13:37:34","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T09:37:34","slug":"twitter-and-facebooks-philosophie-displayed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/twitter-and-facebooks-philosophie-displayed\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter and Facebook\u2019s philosophie displayed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The latest tech hearing was a study in contrasts. Contrasts between lawmakers who made an effort to stay on topic in a hearing ostensibly about social media and the 2020 election<\/a> and those who\u2026 just talked about whatever was on their minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also contrasts between then and now. Social media companies previously treated any attempt at Section 230 reform<\/a> as radioactive; now, they\u2019ve come around to cooperating so they\u2019re not cut out of the conversation altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But most of all it was a study in contrasts for the two men on the virtual witness stand: Facebook\u2019s <\/strong><\/a> equivocating chief executive, who always manages to speak too much in the service of saying very little and Twitter\u2019s <\/strong><\/a> laconic business mystic who came off as measurably more poised to meet the moment, wizard beard and all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a signal that the hearing\u2019s stated purpose would not reflect the grab bag of gripes on display Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee\u2019s own chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, threw the plan out early and asked the two CEOs if they had seen any evidence that their platforms were addictive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zuckerberg<\/a> responded with characteristic defensiveness, arguing that the research in this area was not \u201cconclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe certainly do not want our products to be addictive,\u201d Zuckerberg<\/a> said, contradicting\u00a0behavioral scientists<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook defectors<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0common sense observations<\/a>\u00a0of its products. \u201cWe want people to use them because they are meaningful,\u201d he added, casting aspersions on \u201cthe memes and misinformation out there\u201d about what makes Facebook\u2019s business tick. The response fit neatly into a narrative a few lawmakers pushed that big tech operates out of big tobacco\u2019s playbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the same question, Dorsey was less disingenuous. \u201cI do think like anything else, these tools can be addictive and we should be aware of that and acknowledge it,\u201d Dorsey said. His statement perhaps stops short of acknowledging the degree to which social media has reshaped the course of modern human behavior, but ultimately it bodes better for Twitter\u2019s health as a platform and for its users\u2019 addled brains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two CEOs also sharply contrasted on questions about their algorithms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Sen. Amy Klobuchar asked if social platforms should provide more transparency around the algorithms they use to decide what users see, Dorsey proposed more transparency through user control. \u201cI think a better option is providing more choice to be able to turn off the algorithms or choose a different algorithm so that people can see how it effects ones\u2019 experience,\u201d Dorsey said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dorsey also suggested that Twitter could expand those options through something like a third-party \u201cmarketplace\u201d where users could select ranking algorithms that suited their needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zuckerberg<\/a>, for his part, didn\u2019t go near this idea with a 10-foot pole, instead lauding the existence of Facebook\u2019s third-party fact-checking program (never mind the too-restrained way Facebook presents those fact checks) and the company\u2019s community standards reports, which present aggregated numbers on the rule-breaking content it removes. Facebook\u2019s algorithm is a black box that users are locked inside and that\u2019s that. (Naturally, the box prints ad dollars.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, Twitter has committed to a kind of openness that\u2019s not perfect, but it\u2019s at least refreshing. The company treats its platform policy decisions as a kind of living document, tweeting updates about the most high-profile decisions in near real-time, admitting mistakes and emphasizing that it\u2019s learning and changing things as it goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One example of Twitter\u2019s experimental approach: The company universally disabled one-click retweets<\/a> before the U.S. election, hoping to make user behavior less reactive while slowing down viral election misinformation. The changes were part of Twitter\u2019s recent experiments with introducing more friction to the platform. Twitter also hid tweets and restricted sharing for some particularly egregious bits of misinformation \u2014 some of it coming from President Trump<\/a>. Facebook stuck to \u201clabels<\/a>,\u201d the current bare minimum content moderation gesture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dorsey\u2019s company is still plagued by rampant harassment, brain-melting conspiracies and, for now, a lame duck president actively seeking to destabilize American democracy, but it at least seems open to changes that could shift the dynamics of the platform in the interest of making it better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest tech hearing was a study in contrasts. Contrasts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":17100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5271,639,5270,640,2301],"contributor":[],"class_list":["post-17098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-tech-events","tag-algorithms","tag-facebook","tag-facebooks-business-tick","tag-twitter","tag-zuckerberg"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/dorsey-GettyImages-1229654336.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Techx Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/author\/techxadmin\/"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t