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Comment by dane | Hacker News Reader

This is one of the better articles I've read that clearly articulates the motivations of social media companies (and state variants) and the devastating impacts these apps are causing to individuals (anxiety and depression) and society through misinformation. I'm not yet convinced effective regulation can be enacted, but I respect one of the conclusions that we need to "encourage transparency and accountability in how content is disseminated and moderated on social media platforms".

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As someone who works for one of the large “social media” platforms, I see a tremendous amount of the content, both positive and enjoyable and informative, and the negative and sometimes dangerous. It’s difficult to find productive forums on this topic, but I’m definitely interested in hearing what others think beyond the emotionally-charged “BAN TIKTOK” or “YouTube is full of misinformation and must be censored” dialogue, that is, in many cases, politically motivated. Personally I think any form of broadcast and amplification requires guardrails, balanced to be protective of people as well as rights, yet many of the debates seem to land at extremes.

I think the main conversation to be had is about incentives.

As operators of app stores, Google and Apple have no incentive to remove shovelware, as they earn a healthy share of every buck made by their creators, at almost no cost.

Similarly, ad networks have no incentives to remove harmful ads, as long as nobody complains enough to cut into profits.

And above all, social media platforms have little to no incentive to remove emotionally manipulative content. It's effectively a symbiotic relationship between the content and "the algorithm".

How do we change the incentives without resorting to censorship? I think the government bodies have in part failed to address these things, because the product to be regulated is information. It's always a slippery slope towards censorship, which makes for a perfect target for lobby work.

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