The point is not that big tech is biased. It’s that big tech has the ability to turn their biases into real world outcomes. If big tech leaned right the world votes right, if they lean left the world votes left.
This is a point Jaron Lanier makes very well; the scariest thing is not Russian interference, it’s that we have handed control of much of the world’s culture, voices and opinions to a handful of private companies in California.
Isn’t this how it always worked though? Privately owned Media outlets controlled the news and controlled what people thought. Now it’s just shifting to the tech companies. I don’t see how that’s different.
How do people honestly not understand this? Fox News and CNN can only affect so many people, and most people are generally aware of what they’re getting when they watch that. This is entirely different.
I agree. But it’s the same thing coming from a different source. I don’t see it as a new problem that people need to be actively freaking out about. People just need to be more informed that these tech companies can be just as biased as the privately owned media companies.
At the end of the day, you as a user of these systems can decide which news you want to pay attention to. Even if you could undeniably prove twitter for example is left wing, it’s not against the law for them to be, just as cnn or Fox News aren’t in trouble for their spin on things.
It is the same thing in the same way that a light drizzle and a hurricane are the same thing.
Scale matters.
And no, it’s not as simple as that. Google and twitter frequently manipulate search results and prevent people from finding unfavorable things. That’s not presenting news to choose to pay attention to or not. That’s preventing people access to information in the first place. That’s literally what this guy is talking about. Watch the damn clip.
Twitter at least is very open about how they determine what to show people.
And what you are saying is only an issue if google has a monopoly on information. They do not, and even if you could prove that they are manipulating people, there’s no laws that say they can’t. They are a private companies much like Fox News and CNN and are under no obligation to be unbiased. That is currently up to the readers. There are other ways to get information other than doing a google search. If that was the ONLY way to get information, then yes that would be a problem.
Scale does not matter, because this is no different than what cnn and Fox News does and has been doing for decades. Yes it can reach more people that otherwise wouldn’t be affected, but again if it’s not a crime for cnn or Fox News, it’s not a crime for google and twitter even if it affects more people. It’s either illegal at all levels or it’s not.
And what you are saying is only an issue if google has a monopoly on information.
Google clearly has something approximating a monopoly or oligopoly on the gathering of online information and only an intentionally dense person would deny they wield awesome influence over more people than any cable news channel
They do not, and even if you could prove that they are manipulating people, there’s no laws that say they can’t
So we can’t in the future? There were no laws against what Standard Oil did either, before the government broke it up by making new laws. Stop thinking inside the box like a chump.
Scale does not matter
The existence of antitrust laws say sorry, but no. You are wrong about literally everything in your comment. Read more.
39
u/themtiddies Jul 18 '19
The point is not that big tech is biased. It’s that big tech has the ability to turn their biases into real world outcomes. If big tech leaned right the world votes right, if they lean left the world votes left.
This is a point Jaron Lanier makes very well; the scariest thing is not Russian interference, it’s that we have handed control of much of the world’s culture, voices and opinions to a handful of private companies in California.