#1261 Profitable Extremism (How Social Media Propagates Hate) (Repost)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2021
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 4/2/2019
Today we take a look at the so-called "Algorithms of Oppression." Not that they're made to be that way on purpose but that it is a natural outcome of a profit-based system that incentivizes people to post the most click-baity content while the system learns the viewer's weaknesses to ruthlessly feed them whatever will keep them engaged.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: Social Media Propagates Hate - Brian Lehrer - Air Date 3-21-19
YouTube will keep playing until you stop it, and it pushes extremes regardless of ideology. It is ruthlessly optimized to keep humans engaged, and YouTube can't possibly police their own content.
Ch. 2: Algorithms of Oppression with Dr. Safiya Noble - Delete Your Account - Air Date 4-11-18
Dylan Roof was radicalized through Google - searching one thing gives you further items down the rabbit hole - not the opposing viewpoint. What's worse, is big tech has no accountability for their actions.
Ch. 3: The Algorithm with Adam Conover - Point of Inquiry - Air Date 1-10-19
We are all falling for the YouTube slot machine of instant gratification
Ch. 4: Fighting White Supremacy on Social Media - Brian Lehrer - Air Date 3-19-19
Are tech companies trying to crack down on hate speech? Those articles are super profitable for social media, and it creates a sensation, so they're not incentivized to change.
Ch. 5: Yuval Noah Harari on Hacking Humanity - Ideas from CBC Radio - Air Date 9-5-18
Yuval Harari joins to discuss the human animal and our irrelevance in the digital age. At least when we were being exploited we were still needed.
Ch. 6: Is the Press Finally Learning How to Cover White Supremacy? - On the Media - Air Date 3-22-19
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google are still light years away from developing an enforceable code of ethics for dealing with hate groups but Bob and Joan Donovan discuss why she believes that stymieing the spread of hate online is possible.
EDUCATE YOURSELF & SHARE
Facebook is finally banning white supremacy that goes by other names (TechCrunch)
Google’s algorithms are keeping us in a political bubble, study finds (MarketWatch)
How to Escape Your Political Bubble for a Clearer View (The New York Times, 2017)
Echo chambers are dangerous – we must try to break free of our online bubbles (The Guardian, 2017)
Curated by BOTL Communications Director Amanda Hoffman
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions):
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- Inessential - Bayou Birds
- Heather - Migration
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- Solemn Application - Wax Museum
- Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent
- Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This program is made possible by members and donors to the show, in supporting the work |
| 0:07.0 | we do only two bucks a month gets you an ad for a version of every episode, while full |
| 0:12.0 | membership gets you that plus members only bonus content with extra clips and commentary. |
| 0:18.0 | Sign up at patreon.com slash best of the left or visit the contribute tab at bestofaless.com. |
| 0:24.7 | Now welcome to this episode of the award winning best of the left podcast in which we shall |
| 0:29.4 | learn about the algorithms of oppression. |
| 0:33.0 | Not that there made to be that way on purpose, but that it's a natural outcome of a profit |
| 0:37.4 | based system that incentivizes people to post the most click baity content, while the |
| 0:42.8 | system itself learns the viewer's weaknesses to ruthlessly feed them whatever will keep |
| 0:47.8 | them engaged. |
| 0:49.0 | That clips today come from the Brian Lerichow, delete your account, point of inquiry, ideas |
| 0:55.2 | from the CBC and on the media. |
| 1:03.3 | Now a lot of people know with respect to YouTube that when we select a YouTube video it |
| 1:07.9 | often plays that video and then goes on to a next one that YouTube's algorithm chooses |
| 1:13.5 | not you. |
| 1:14.7 | It happened to me just this morning with a very harmless example before I read your article |
| 1:20.4 | that I chose a video by the jazz piano player Helen Song and after that it started playing |
| 1:26.2 | one by the jazz piano player Joey Alexander who I had an ask for and I didn't realize I was |
| 1:31.2 | listening to a different artist until I happened to glance at the screen, totally harmless. |
| 1:36.4 | But can you tell us about the experiment that you and some of your BuzzFeed colleagues |
| 1:40.9 | did with that function by searching terms like impeach the mother? |
| 1:46.1 | Yeah, absolutely. |
... |
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