Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ The Facebook whistleblower says its algorithms are dangerous. Here’s why.

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

While most opposition to the way Facebook runs its business focuses on the harmful content, simply blocking that content is not the most effective response. This to me is the most important part of Frances Haugen's testimony last week against the company. Here's the reasoning: ""I'm a strong advocate for non-content-based solutions, because those solutions will protect the most vulnerable people in the world," Haugen said. To the extent we need algorithms at all, these algorithms should be owned and run by individuals for their benefit, not by centralized publishing simply to make money.

(Because it only has $18.4 billion in its endowment, MIT can't afford to make Technology Review freely available, so you may be faced with a warning 'You have 2 articles left' or even a paywall. Use Firefox with UBlock Origin to refuse tracking cookies and other spamware and this resets each time you restart Firefox, and you can read the article.)

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Apr 25, 2024 10:18 a.m.

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