UCLA Associate Professor Safiya Noble and Techonomy Founder David Kirkpatrick join Emily Chang to discuss the congressional testimony from executives about keeping kids safe online. They discuss the impact of social media on teens and kids, the need for regulation of big tech, and Facebook’s potential name change.
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David curious what your what your thoughts are on gloomy
thought. Blumenthal’s commentary there. Well
it’s true that you know comparing those companies to Facebook
makes them generally look good. So he had to say that right now
given the extraordinary onslaught of criticism that Facebook is
receiving for good reason. So yeah I think generally these
companies for the most part are doing a better job. Facebook
doesn’t mean they couldn’t do better.
Sophia when it comes to kids do you see any of these companies
being better than the other or are they all at a low bar.
I think the bar is quite low for all of them. And we have
evidence of the entire industry being so unregulated so little
oversight over what happens in the kind of predatory
surveillance oriented
marketing project that these companies are that I think we need
to look at the longstanding research that we’ve had for more
than a decade in the ways in which YouTube has contributed
significantly to right wing radicalization of people in this
country and around the world. The role that Instagram has played
in
generating feelings of despair and depression among young women
and girls. I think that Facebook isn’t the only company in this
sector that has a tremendous amount of work to do. And I think
Congress and many different agencies need to have much more
profound kind of regulatory framework over these companies given
that their reason for existing is in fact to create
extremist feelings and sentiments among the public. And we see
unfortunately the consequences whether it’s the January 6th
white supremacist kind of insurrection or the anti dullard
anti-Muslim anti LGBTQ kinds of violence that are growing around
the world. All of that is happening on these platforms not just
in Facebook.
Should be building these products for children. David head of
Instagram at a mass area said well kids are on technology tech
platforms whether we like it or not somebody has to do it. What
do you make of that argument. And if you believe somebody has to
do it. Is it Instagram. Is it tick. Is it snap. Is it YouTube.
Well I mean none of the above. The fact is they’re doing it. I
do agree with the fear that these companies for the most part
have proceeded heedless. Lee not really trying through the
entire gestation of their services. And in every case really
although SNAP might be a little bit of an exception not to have
really thought about how the way they’re structured might affect
people’s emotions and affect people’s political and social
behavior. They really have focused on page views on
what platform how the platform would best work to throw
advertising.
I think what’s interesting now with all this extraordinary
attention on the revelations from Facebook even though the
revelations are all negative they are coming out of work that
Facebook did to try to understand how to get better and what was
going wrong even if they didn’t implement those changes. It does
raise the bar for those other companies because in general the
other companies aren’t doing nearly as much research even to
find out what they should do.
So if you focus on algorithms do you see the the algorithms
these companies use as being especially problematic not just for
adults but for children.
Well absolutely. We know that the algorithms are not just
computer code that’s in court you know encoded to generate the
most engagement which typically is correlated to the most
inflammatory racist sexist homophobic vitriol. Because that is
incredibly profitable. And we know that the algorithms are
certainly attuned so that they can maximize public engagement
and consumer engagement with different kinds of material. But we
also know that the human beings the people who moderate content
are also training the algorithms. We know that there is a
symbiotic relationship between what we engage with on these
platforms what moderators allow to stand or take down and how
the kind of machine learning algorithms work to accelerate what
they learn from that process. So I feel we’re anticipating that
Facebook might change its name later this week to emphasize this
idea this ambition to move into the metaverse. Are you. What do
you think about Facebook ambitions in the metaverse. Is that
intriguing or terrifying.
You know it’s it’s a terrible distraction and an opportunity for
them to renegotiate the terms. I mean what we should be
anticipating is Facebook trying to offload its problems and
consolidate its power under a new company. Obviously we have the
Department of Justice the Securities Exchange Commission the
Federal Trade Commission all of these agencies coming after and
investigating Facebook. And so we should be watching to see
whether they’re dumping stock. Their shareholders are dumping
stock where they’re dumping it from and how they’re Rican solid
dating under a new company. You know this strategy was used by
Google as well with Alphabet but I think Google still has the
problems that it has. So you know these
Shell businesses that are created to kind of obfuscate the
problems are. I think the public is sophisticated enough to
recognize what’s happening here.
Hot Sauce
October 27, 2021 at 4:42 pm
These people need a bullet to the back of the head. Or don’t even waste the bullet and hang em all for everyone else to see
Daniel Edward
October 27, 2021 at 4:49 pm
They should all be shut down
ECKOArt
October 27, 2021 at 5:58 pm
I love tech, but at this point I agree. It’s the only way to clean up the extremely large volume of flat out TRASH that is just out there in cyber space, creating realities like neverending spells to trap souls. The only way aside from a completely clean slate and some more enlightened beings. It should be filled with the best of human creation… not a semi permanent monument of the worst of humanity’s gutter mind, every trauma, and dark side playing out while being connected to the minds of small children whom have parents too damn busy being ‘successful’ to care about the babies they keep popping out. And it’s there all the time for them to turn to, unlike actual humans whom cannot attend to the ‘demons’ of another 24 hours a day. Children, even older children do not belong being exposed to that. Again, I guess it’s nature sorting… Parents have choices.
Jackson Williams
October 27, 2021 at 4:51 pm
😂
Ink tray
October 27, 2021 at 4:53 pm
Testify? Ha! They never answer any questions!! Always a BS AVOIDANCE OF THE YES OR NO ANSWER. If they were forced to answer with a simple yes or no, they would be exposed for the commies that they are
haynow beewv
October 27, 2021 at 4:56 pm
Virginia please take back your state. God bless you and your family’s
Unbreakable Newsome
October 27, 2021 at 4:59 pm
Let’s go Brandon
Unbreakable Newsome
October 27, 2021 at 5:00 pm
As a parent I am sick of all these mother fuckers acting like it is their job to worry about or protect children. As a parent my primary job is to protect and care for my child I do not need these censor freak controlling ass bastards to do it for me.
Vinnie Casqer
October 27, 2021 at 5:08 pm
Elite private pedophile networks are very safe. Wouldn’t want free speech and thought crimes threatening this safe harbour.
Vinnie Casqer
October 27, 2021 at 5:09 pm
Agenda 21 is done with the 4th amendment. Moving on to bulldoze the 1st – to keep us safe.
EDUCATORSBANE
October 27, 2021 at 5:10 pm
As an American, to hear you attribute their behavior to RIGHT wing groups, has me wondering how? You think Zuckerberg & Co. Are Right Wing? People think about this. You know how many hundreds of millions Zuckerberg donated to Democrats and their causes? And he’s pushing a Right Wing agenda?’??
I am neither Left, Nor Right, but .
I am an American. I know what censorship is. I see lots of it on these platforms. But folks, please understand,
This woman is advocating censorship to fight censorship, even if she isn’t aware of it,. This is bad for everyone…and it’s predicated with a BS fairytale designed to get us to accept this control.
Vinnie Casqer
October 27, 2021 at 5:11 pm
Meanwhile, YouTube allows the Ku Klux Klan to output news videos on movie trailers featuring black actors on a daily basis.
Luis Soto
October 27, 2021 at 5:12 pm
“ right wing radicalization” what about left wing radicalization ? This is such bs. Don’t cherry pick if you’re gonna talk about the actual issues we face with the internet.
geniuspharmacist
October 27, 2021 at 5:20 pm
Meanwhile, China produced space nukes.
Santiago Rodriguez Guillen
October 27, 2021 at 5:20 pm
Wrong. The negative shit for letting people believe that their paranoia and mental illness is good and healthy. This is on you people. Companies are just making company with your misery. The government is not designed to control everything socialists.
real chick13
October 27, 2021 at 5:27 pm
I believe that things shouldn’t be removed or censored to this degree but maybe require those posting to put a warning up before hand . That way the content can be viewed by those who enjoy the content. Its taking away the freedom of speech. If the censorship is to block insurrection then that’s pointless. People will always find ways to meet each other in secret be it bad guys or good it happens. Just because it’s views are posted on a video doesn’t mean they will stop if it’s taken down. They will just down load it and create thier own thing. Or set up fliers ,protest ect. Sigh. I wish the world could see things with a little more tolerance. Yes there’s a lot of bad things out there. You can’t just stick it in a box and hope it goes away.
TomSuntotheMax
October 27, 2021 at 5:28 pm
What would our ignorant, unsocial and scared youth do if they couldn’t rain venom on each other every five minutes? This is what happens when corporate America is allowed to do what ever they want. I fear the future when people who find it normal to be viscious, enraged and vidictive will control this country.
Lone Star Patriots
October 27, 2021 at 5:29 pm
F##k these leftist p.o.s companies. Let’s go Brandon FJB
Matthew Steinway
October 27, 2021 at 5:37 pm
Bs propaganda.
Too Many Marys
October 27, 2021 at 5:42 pm
Right-wing radicalization…on TIKTOK. Where you commit hate speech when you deny that “fungus” is a gender. How stupid do they think we are????
Friendlyjester Nil
October 27, 2021 at 6:12 pm
… let’s go Brandon 🙈
Peter Kavanagh
October 27, 2021 at 9:48 pm
Remove the background of pornography, sex industry, showing a hook to teens, all humans to this illness. Internet based coms is limited to less not more. and the future brain is a Brain that dose not use this medium but see’s reality for what it is . I struggle as all , but i see via an animal that is free , wild is a an example to us all of how to not be overfed therefore it’s sexual drive is normal. The human is oversexed primarily due to excess eating.
Also foods are and have been alive , and when we eat we should be more aware of the animal that died would like to have a better life than what it had prior to it’s death. the energy we ingest a potential will for me need to tbe turned to achieve better than the life that animal hard afore it died. Eating foods from farm factories is not a real leap in human evolution .
Ooops C
October 28, 2021 at 12:27 am
These problems were known day one but all of a sudden, all these “experts” & business influencers are coming out to talk about excessive use of AI deep learning in social context & influences (some very bad) on people including kids. It’s just like those financial bubbles when they all knew it would happen but screw it let’s do that anyway 🙄