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Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

(techcrunch.com)
707 points patd | 4 comments | 27 May 20 12:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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tuna-piano ◴[27 May 20 13:39 UTC] No.23322986[source]▶
There's an unsolved conundrum I haven't heard mentioned yet.

After the 2016 election, there was a thought that too much false information is spreading on social media. This happens in every country and across every form of communication - but social media platforms seem particularly worrysome (and is particularly bad with Whatsapp forwards in some Asian countries).

So what should the social media companies do? Censor people? Disallow certain messages (like they do with terrorism related posts)?

They settled on just putting in fact check links with certain posts. Trust in the fact deciding institution will of course be difficult to settle. No one wants a ministry of truth (or the private alternative).

So the question remains - do you, or how do you lessen the spread of misinformation?

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dvtrn ◴[27 May 20 13:40 UTC] No.23323009[source]▶
Media literacy and criticism classes in middle school?
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1. mcculley ◴[27 May 20 13:48 UTC] No.23323130[source]▶
I have been wondering how one would teach enough evolutionary psychology and neuroscience to children to make them less susceptible to memetic engineering. Now that we have gone from human marketers to automated systems working to influence purchases and votes, traditional media criticism seems insufficient.
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2. dvtrn ◴[27 May 20 14:02 UTC] No.23323390[source]▶
That’s an interesting question, though I suppose my response would be media literacy and criticism doesn’t have to necessarily imply traditional media in a singular breadth. In suggesting media literacy it was encompassing a spectrum.

Still: good question!

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3. mcculley ◴[27 May 20 14:16 UTC] No.23323627[source]▶
I'm definitely not suggesting that "media criticism" is the wrong term. Just that people need a lot more background to understand what "media" actually is.
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4. dvtrn ◴[27 May 20 14:23 UTC] No.23323752{3}[source]▶
Maybe an approach to this could follow the model of algebra and calculus?

Students who take and show competency in pre-algebra qualify to move on to higher level maths building foundational knowledge for the more complex systems.

It wouldn’t necessarily have to be 1:1 in the model and structure of classes, but that’s my thinking. Media literacy shouldn’t be a one semester course, maybe not even a one year course, but instead a component of a radically different educational framework that informs our young students how to critique, analyze and reason their way through the digital frontier.

By no means would this kind of shift in education be easy, but in my mind ease is as much a threat to progress than hardship in some cases.