Notices by Noel Walling (noelwalling@mastodon.gamedev.place)

@mmasnick @c_9 Old Twitter doesn’t exist. And you’re telling me this hasn’t been happening?

https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/4/22609020/facebook-bans-academic-researchers-ad-transparency-misinformation-nyu-ad-observatory-plug-in

https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/13/22623354/facebook-instagram-algorithm-watch-research-legal-threat

https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/23/23180357/meta-crowdtangle-shut-down-facebook-misinformation-viral-news-tracker

Just curious. I mean are you telling me the Verge misreported all of this?

@c_9 @mmasnick Right, but this is akin to the gun lobby actively preventing research on gun violence, and then claiming that guns don’t cause an increase in violence.

As a game developer who lived through the whole moral panic surrounding violence in video games, this is a different beast. The scale of social media makes it very difficult to ascertain whether it’s a net good or bad, or whether regulation can improve things if the big social media platforms won’t open their data to researchers.

@c_9 @mmasnick without any threat to their status quo, these companies have no incentive to change. Look at what happens when the threat of potential litigation (aka: consequences for bad behavior) occurs: https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/9/24030571/meta-facebook-instagram-child-safety-dsa-online-safety-act

The US government is too paralyzed by polarization to effectively solve problems like this for now, so the only alternative is for individuals to attempt to cause enough economic friction that it’s in their best interest to curb their baser instincts. 🤷🏼♂️

@c_9 @mmasnick Has it not been proven because every social media company has been hostile to data scientists intending to study them for that potential harm? Like so hostile that they acquire companies that produce data, then shutter them?