Link: https://wagingnonviolence.org/cnv/podcast/how-disinformation-weakens-nonviolent-movements/

Oh, absolutely not. And this is kind of touching on the bigger topic of algorithmic bubbles and self-selection. And you are absolutely correct. Algorithms do shape what we see. They reward us for outrage and not necessarily for nuance or for trying to see new perspectives. It is true that platforms, be they Instagram, TikTok, or even Facebook, they reward or prioritize engagements of clicks and reactions, not accuracy, not real factual information. But oftentimes, it’s a lot more boring than the really explosive stuff. And this creates polarization.

Now on what is being done to tackle this, I’ll be honest with you, not much. Social media companies, at some point for a very short period, let’s say, mid 2020s, were willing to rein themselves in. We had codes of practice on misinformation. We had stronger moderation, we had human moderation—so actual people looking at content. And we had, let’s say, actual attempts at limiting the spread of false narratives and trying to balance out perspectives. This has essentially stopped being the case. Human moderation is almost non-existent because of the advent of AI. So we use AI to moderate everything, which is good and bad. And most media platforms have decided that we care more for free speech, we care more for expression. So moderation should be light touch. And obviously, you have, to some extent, political voices driving this. We saw that President Trump has pushed more for a light touch towards moderation. We saw this in the case of Elon Musk and X, now Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.

It is YOUR job if you love the Fediverse and/or the potential it represents to be LOUD about the above bolded statement being seriously, offensively wrong. We are building this space to tackle that specific problem among others and it should enrage you that the immense amount of our communities' blood, sweat, tears, money and most of all time that has been put into making the Fediverse actually work as a practical thing rather than just being a cool nerdy concept project is being ignored because people are being intellectually lazy about their speculation of alternatives when they haven't actually bothered to check what the existing alternatives are.

I am going to say it, most progressives are hypocritical as shit about social media, they understand why it is so toxic, they see the structural issues with centralized control over it, with distorting corporate forces dehumanizing the basic interactions on the platform in favor of endless monetization and/or spreading of hate speech and yet many still ignore the fact that the Fediverse actually exists right now as a working alternative that addresses most of those core issues at least imperfectly.