HN

Need help?
<- Back
Meta and TikTok let harmful content rise to drove engagement, say whistleblowers

Meta and TikTok let harmful content rise to drove engagement, say whistleblowers

1vuio0pswjnm7

Comments (134)

  • bigfishrunning
    I feel like this is general knowledge for the past 5 or so years, but the real question is "What do we do about it?". Personally, I put real effort into not spending time being outraged online, but this is a societal ill that's bigger then I am...
  • nelsonfigueroa
    I can't say I'm surprised and I think most people wouldn't be surprised either. But it's always good to have evidence.
  • hmate9
    Is this unavoidable? I mean it does generate clicks and views and user engagement so if one platform is doing it, doesn't that automatically mean that the other has to do it? Otherwise they will continuously lose market share.
  • cdrnsf
    Of course they did. As long as they're legally allowed to do so and profit from doing so they will continue.
  • simpaticoder
    The feedback loop for this moral hazard is slow but implacable. You can treat the zeitgeist as a dumping ground for so long, until you get so big, that you can no longer treat it like an idealized infinite substance.
  • ghm2199
    If you like better content look for kagi's small web or better yet find a better algorithm that optimizes for your preferences rather than engagement.I have my instagram, x on a locked down browser in a container with a fake profile that an LLM drives and finds the posts for specific users and compiles a gist of all the important things in my locality(or what u care about) every evening, without me ever going near that FOMO driven dumpster fire of tiktok/insta/x.Best LLM RoI I made.
  • vinni2
  • Nevermark
    When I hear "Meta" and "Facebook" the top 10 things I think:1. "Surveillance"2. "Advertising"3. "Scams"4. "AI slop"5. "Manipulated experience"6. "Child harms"7. Misinformation campaigns.8. Disinformation campaigns.9. "Doom scroll regret"10. "Zuckavatarphilia"But I don't claim to have the "right" opinion and am curious how other people respond to the brands. If each of you could reply, and re-list those associations in the order you experience them, I will collate the results and post them everywhere I can think of. It would go a long ways to satisfying my curiosity, and the curiosity of reporters that like to repeat things they read on the internet.
  • zyxzevn
    The BBC has a lot of harmful content.. but that is what they get paid for by the government.
  • aenis
    I look at people who use fb or tiktok, or x, the same way I look at smokers or alcoholics. With sadness and pity. The fact that we let children use this is hard to accept. The fact that fellow hackers and engineers, some of the brightest minds, have contributed to this is extremely disappointing. Shame on you.
  • nmstoker
    * to drive
  • charcircuit
    British people complaining about free speech and trying to censor the internet. America needs to keep standing up to British censorship interests.
  • webdoodle
    Throw away your 'smartphone' and stop using anti-social media. It is killing society, and only making the Billionaires more powerful. They are evil and will do anything to stay in power.
  • KennyBlanken
    Given how TikTok "trends" seem to consist mostly of "get teenagers to do stuff that causes huge expenses for US society":* "eat tide pods" * "stick a fork in electrical sockets in your school" * "destroy your school's shit" aka "Devious Licks" - bathrooms, chromebooks (jamming stuff into the charging ports to start fires...) * "drink a shitload of Benadryl to see what happens" * "steal a kia/hyundai and drive 80mph, run from the cops, etc"...convince me that this is not a purposeful attack on US society by the CCP?
  • Forgeties79
    I remember The Social Dilemma’s entire premise was basically this headline minus TikTok, and that came out what? 7 or 8 years ago?Not saying “well duh” I just think at this point I have to ask “are we going to do anything about it?”We’ve known about the financial incentives to promote anger and outrage online for at least a decade now. So what are we going to do about it?
  • jongjong
    What? Conspiracy theories are not harmful!
  • luc_
    Drugs.
  • nomilk
    Why are social media platforms picked on?Did we forget Gresham's Law applies to content and has done so since humans could communicate?Bad or wrong ideas are the ones that get talked about. Do we discuss the 10 issues politicians get correct, or the 1 they screw up?Platform is irrelevant here; the exact same phenomena occurs/ed on radio and TV decades before it did on social media platforms, and in news papers centuries prior.