Nadine Dorries, Britain’s Big Tech Slayer | Hacker News Reader

Nadine Dorries, Britain’s Big Tech Slayer

politico.eu

15 pointsrobin_reala16 comments

Geez, I don't have a dog in this fight, but I hate this woman. The stupid war saved Boris Johnson and his gang of incompetent's necks, they were on their way to police custody (this part is hyperbolic, but he was questioned by the police "under caution" for breaking his own Covid social distancing rules).

For a snapshot of Nadine Dorries and her "competence": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMFWT8HzsPg

And their foreign secretary, who was actually talking to Russians before the war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRhlRM6rYck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_wkO4hk07o

That video of Liz Truss is so fucking stupid. There is literally nothing going on in her head. God forbid we buy french cheese from France.

IMPORT BAD, EXPORT GOOD.

Takeaway quote:

Dorries arrived at a meeting with software giant Microsoft and immediately asked when they were going to get rid of algorithms, according to an official given an account of the meeting.

maybe we do need a technocracy.

Where do you think people like Nadine Dorries get these ideas from? I've been reading techies denounce "algorithms" in social media platforms and search engines for months now.

I fear the lady doesn't even know what the actual definition of the word "algorithm" really is, and in her mind it's probably the label for some class of bad software...

Politicians should know how to use precise words, if she were competent she'd say "Social media algorithms", and she would realise showing up to a meeting with an IT company and saying "When are you going to get rid of algorithms?" is idiotic. But then again, it might be that the article is spinning it to make her look bad.

I think it's a bit pedantic, honestly. She's a politician, not an engineer, her job is to communicate policy and advocate a position, not to precisely employ technical jargon. It's at best a minor, embarrassing gaffe.

Well if you see her track record you'd see it's par for the course for her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMFWT8HzsPg

And is "algorithm" a technical jargon nowadays? Geez, I wonder what grade I learnt the definition of this word in school...

>And is "algorithm" a technical jargon nowadays?

I mean, we're in a Hacker News thread ridiculing her for not using it in a technically precise enough manner around IT professionals, so yes?

Somewhere along the lines of a maths education in primary school I hope people would learn the word "algorithm" and remember it for the rest of their lives... how are people in charge of government policy when they can't recall stuff they learnt in primary school?

I wrote hope, maybe I'm hoping for too much here...

In a survey by the Royal Statistical Society half of MP's questioned couldn't answer what the probability of getting two heads is if you flip a coin twice.

Wow, that’s like the US senator who asked when FB would get rid of “Finsta.”

Ngl.. If you are in that meeting from either side for whatever reason, how would you respond/proceed from that point onwards

She is the very definition of a know-nothing politician.

How is someone so clueless in a position of power?

I just… for fuck’s sake…

I quite like to see the obvious spin in the article and how it addresses this.

Paraphrasing: "it's not that she's clueless, she's empowering her employees and advisors (many of them women and minorities), by asking them whats going on"

The implication is that all politicians should know nothing! Indeed it's a responsibility to not know anything and be clueless in order to empower those with brains.

> promised the biggest platforms will have a legal duty to protect users from fraudulent paid-for advertisements

This is promising.

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