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https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys
Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.
I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two sided market," where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.
[...] Search Amazon for "cat beds" and the entire first screen is ads, including ads for products Amazon cloned from its own sellers, putting them out of business (third parties have to pay 45% in junk fees to Amazon, but Amazon doesn't charge itself these fees). All told, the first five screens of results for "cat bed" are 50% ads.
This is enshittification: surpluses are first directed to users; then, once they're locked in, surpluses go to suppliers; then once they're locked in, the surplus is handed to shareholders and the platform becomes a useless pile of shit. From mobile app stores to Steam, from Facebook to Twitter, this is the enshittification lifecycle.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday January 26 2023, @05:11PM (3 children)
Nobody was suppressing Elon's free speech. Nobody was suppressing Trump's free speech. Twitter (and other platforms) are not obligated to carry your message if it violates their policies. They were not trying to censor conservative views, they were stopping the spread of dangerous misinformation. If you want dangerous misinformation, there are plenty of platforms other than Twitter which are happy to provide you with that.
YouTube was taking down videos of the Tide Pod Challenge. Is that censoring free speech? I say it is not. It is enforcing their written policy -- that the poster agreed to.
Free Speech, in the constitution is only about the government not suppressing political views. Something that many other countries do, but the USA does not do. The government allows your free speech. Private platforms do not have to host it. And there are plenty of private platforms that will welcome dangerous misinformation if that is what you like.
But I will suggest:
Don't eat Tide Pods
Don't take horse dewormer to treat a novel Avian Flu virus when there is a real vaccine available.
Don't try to somehow put ultraviolet lights inside your body as a treatment for covid-19.
Don't stand near the edge of a cliff.
If you can't say something nice, then say it really loud.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 26 2023, @06:15PM
Oppression!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 26 2023, @10:04PM
Don't pull on Superman's cape.
And don't spit in the wind either.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 27 2023, @04:50AM
There are several exceptions. For example: when their policies are a case of false advertising, discriminating on the usual list (race, sex, political beliefs, religion, etc), and if they're acting as agents of a US-based government (subject to First Amendment).