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Why Facebook can't fix itself - The platform is overrun with hate speech and disinformation, but the company's strategy seems focused on managing perception of the problem instead of addressing it

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  1. han2k
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    I can't help but draw parallels between Facebook and our democracy in general. Today we see politicians only interested in reducing the complexities of the reality, making up fake enemies for...

    In retrospect, it seems that the company’s strategy has never been to manage the problem of dangerous content, but rather to manage the public’s perception of the problem.

    "Facebook right now is increasingly aligning with the rich and powerful, allowing them to play by different rules"

    "Why have we spent years pushing Facebook to adopt better policies if they’re just going to ignore those policies when they matter most?"

    I can't help but draw parallels between Facebook and our democracy in general. Today we see politicians only interested in reducing the complexities of the reality, making up fake enemies for people to hate, managing perceptions of change rather than actually tackling the hard problems. When was the last time people could actually use politics as a vehicle for change?

    This doesn't mean we should abandon democracy, but that we should take a hard look at what works and what doesn't work in our current systems. I believe part of the problem is our institutions were never built to function in such a messy, hyper-connected world. I imagine increasing the autonomy and transparency of local communities would be a great start, that way people can freely choose to join or leave communities as they wish.

    Edit: I believe we can also apply similar solutions to social media as well. I like that we have sites like Tildes.

    1 vote